When Percy Harvin walks on the field, defenses are scared.
When Tim Tebow walks on the field, defenses have to go back to the drawing board.
Simply put, no Gator does more to screw with opponents than Tim Tebow.
Sure, Mike McCall over to the left might say Harvin requires double coverage constantly, and Harvin can burn past cornerbacks without a problem.
But Harvin isn't special in that regard, Mike-Mike. The same can be said - and will be said - about players like Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey next season, and maybe even incoming wideout Andre Debose.
Only Tebow is a threat to run and pass at any given time. When the ball is snapped, defenses genuinely have no clue what Tebow will do, and he has the focus of at least eight of the 11 defenders on him immediately. That's four times the amount of Harvin's typical double coverage.
Take the now-famous jump pass as an example.
Tebow starts the play by doing his signature rocker step - a play action to himself - and that makes all the other team's linebackers think "run." Has there ever been a play action as effective as that one? As the defenders creep up, having to try to stop Tebow from plowing them over, he stops moving, leaps into the air, and finds a receiver in single or no coverage.
A play like that cannot be defended, and it's all because Tebow is the most unique player in football.
Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen spent the last three years dreaming up plays for Tebow that would utilize his steamroller abilities as a runner, his talents as a passer and his innate aptitude to read defenses. They came up with some great stuff and have two national championships to show for it.
Harvin could certainly do what he does without Tebow, but Tebow's presence in the backfield makes him that much more effective. When every player on the field has to worry about a 240-pound linebacker at quarterback running up the gut, they're not going to be able to give the 195-pound seeker missile the attention he deserves.
