He's back.
The rumbling and tumbling touchdown runs have returned. The schoolboy smile and blushed cheeks are fresh on his face. The arms flapping as he runs around the field are in full force.
And now there's something new: An edge where he knows his team can take down anybody. It's an edge that may give him and his team the school's third national championship. It's not, however, an edge that will make him the second college football player to win the Heisman Trophy in back-to-back seasons.
And you can put a lot of the blame for that on the calendar.
Heisman voters have to send in their votes by Dec. 5, one day before the Southeastern Conference Championship.
Tim Tebow may very well outplay Graham Harrell, Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford the rest of the season. He just can't use the momentum of potentially winning a conference championship - which only one of Harrell, McCoy or Bradford can potentially do - to show voters he's the most deserving player.
By the time this season is done, most will probably call Tebow the best player in the country. He has combined dominant stats with dominant knowledge. He understands how to win - just as much as he knows how to score touchdowns.
That just doesn't matter in the Heisman voting, at least not at the time when the votes are being cast. Last season, Tebow won because his numbers were ones that anybody would struggle to get playing NCAA 09 on its Junior Varsity level.
None of the Big 12's trio of playcallers is putting up those numbers. It doesn't matter. At this point, voters' minds are almost made up. If Harrell wins at Oklahoma on Saturday, he'll win it - and he probably should. If Harrell and Texas Tech loses, then McCoy will take it.
It's hard to say if Tebow will even vote for himself, as all Heisman winners are granted a vote. He's become so humble that he may want to just prove a point. Tebow will be sitting there and applauding Harrell or McCoy, without a second thought of what could be. He knows he was outplayed them in the beginning of the year - when most Heisman frontrunners are established. Tebow has 27 touchdowns. Harrell has 42. Tebow has 354 rushing yards. McCoy has 449. Tebow has a 167.1 quarterback rating. Bradford has 188.9.
It's that simple. Tebow is the best player on perhaps the team that's playing the best in America, but other players have outperformed him. Now that Tebow has started playing like he did last year, he's just performing at the expectations set for him. Very few expected Harrell to lead the Red Raiders to potentially an undefeated season and conference title game. That's just the way Heisman voting works.
Tebow is not going to sprint to the Heisman finish line this year. His team, on the other hand, is looking at another type of finish. And that's one they like a lot more.
