The Great Debate - Tebow v. Ward

VS

It's been all over the place lately. Thanks to Bobby Bowden's comments last week, there have been countless debates over which QB was better: Charlie Ward of Tim Tebow. I thought it was about time to add my two sense into the convo.

There was such an uproar within the Gator community when Bowden made his now infamous comment. I really don't see the big deal. He was backing a guy who won a national championship and a Heisman for the team that he coaches. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, I would be a little put off if Bowden had declared Tebow the greatest ever. I would have thought, "Maybe Bowden has lost it.

On the other hand, there has been a backlash against Gator Nation, and Tebow for that matter, for the response to Bowden's comments. Many people feel that not only should they scream that Ward was better, but that he was way better! If you listened to these people, you would have thought that Tebow lucked into the Heisman and his 2 natonal titles by playing weak competition and playing for a coach that conspires to get him the ball as much as possible.

Both sides are wrong. While it would be easy for me to exclaim from the highest mountaintop how great Tebow is. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to put forth my thoughts on both players candidacy for the best ever title. I'm not completely backing either one.

For what it's worth, I think Tommie Frazier is the greatest football player, let alone QB, to play at the college level. But that's for a different debate.

The Best Ever.

Let's take a look at both player's career stats.

Charlie Ward - 473-750 63% 5,747 yards 49 tds 22 ints 889 rushing yards 10 rushing tds

Tim Tebow - 448-681 66% 6,390 yards 67 tds 11 ints 2,077 rushing yards 43 rushing tds

It's pretty easy to find the flaw in using career stats as a barometer of these two player's greatness. Tebow has played more games than Ward. Charlie only started 1 1/2 years for the Noles, while Tebow is going on his third season. However, I don't see how you can hold that against Tebow. Shouldn't he get a little credit for startig for a national power for 3 seasons? Also, the fact that Ward literally DOUBLED Tebow's interceptions total in half the amount of time is startling. I do appreciate the fact, though, that Ward is only 600 passing yards away from Tebow's total in that short period of time.

For a better barometer, let's Take Tebow's best season (2007) and match it up with Ward's (1993)

Charlie Ward - 264-380 69% 3,032 yards 27 tds 4 ints

Tim Tebw - 234-350 67% 3,286 yards 32 tds 6 ints

The numbers here are closer, with a slight edge still in Tebow's favor. I purposely left out the rushing statistics because that would tilt the scales in Tebow's favor tremendously. The whole 20/20 statistic was an amazing feat. Now, I think Ward's season is a little more impressive than Tebow's because Ward won the national championship. Tebow, not so much...

Heismans are all fine and dandy, but I really don't like to use a biased award as a means of judging a player. I do like to use championships though. As we all know, Tebow leads in that category 2-1 and he's trying to make it 3-1. Now, for the sake of argument, and since I can already hear FSU fans bitching about Tebow not having anything to do with the 2006 title, I'll throw that one out. Let's just focus on 2008 for Tebow and again 1993 for Ward.

Most Seminole fans will have you believe that Ward faced the most difficult schedule ever concocted. How anyone could ever come out of that schedule alive, let alone win a national title is totally incomprehensible. Tebow on the other hand, faced a bunch of soft pansies that wouldn't know how to play football if Walter Camp was their head coach.

Heres the respective schedules:

1993 Florida St..........................................................2008 Florida Gators

1. Kansas W................................................................1. Hawaii W
2. Duke W...................................................................2. Miami W
3. Clemson W.............................................................3. Tennessee W
4. North Carolina W..................................................4. Ole Miss L
5. Georgia Tech W.....................................................5. Arkansas W
6. Miami W.................................................................6. LSU W
7. Virginia W...............................................................7. Kentucky W
8. Wake Forest W......................................................8. Georgia W
9. Maryland W...........................................................9. Vanderblt W
10. Notre Dame L.....................................................10. South Carolina W
11. North Carolina ST. W.........................................11. Citadel W
12. Florida W.............................................................12. Florida St. W
National Championship- Nebraska W...................SEC Championship v Alabama W
.....................................................................................National Championship v. Oklahoma W

Florida St. did have a tougher schedule in 1993 than Florida did in 2008. I'm not disputing that. However, I do think it's a little absurd to claim that their scheule was vastly superiors to Florida. Most FSU fans will point to the Notre Dame game as a major factor in why their schedule was tougher. That's all well and good, but FSU lost that game! Plus, Notre Dame would go on to lose the very next week against a not so great Boston College team. Florida player several teams that had top-raked defenses at the time of the meeting. LSU, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida St. and Alabama all had tremendous seasons defensively. That is, until they played the Gators. Plus, the Gators actually beat 2 number 1 teams, Alabama and Oklahoma. Something that FSU couldn't do.

Take these arguments for what its worth. I don't think it's blasphemous to claim Ward is better than Tebow, especially if you're the head freaking coach of Florida St. I do think it's wrong to discount what Tebow has already accomplished at Florida. Maybe he will be more appreciated by opposing fans once he's no longer playing.