Tebow's NFL doubters need to think again after Sugar Bowl symphony

NEW ORLEANS -- Sorry Tim Tebow haters. Another Tebow gushing love-fest is upon you.

'I'm looking forward to the next chapter,' Tim Tebow says. (US Presswire)

The question is did the NFL scouts watching love it?

One of the best college football players of all-time made his most convincing sales pitch to general managers that he belongs in the NFL. Tebow broke just about every Sugar Bowl and BCS record imaginable, going 31-for-35 passing for 482 yards with three passing touchdowns and one rushing score.

Tebow was asked earlier this week what it was like to be a comic book hero. He said it's tough to live up to the image of people following his every move and thought. It's going to get worse as the college legend that is Tim Tebow only strengthened Friday night. He can only blame himself.

"If there's one better than him, I'd like to shake his hand," Florida coach Urban Meyer said.

Now the Boy Wonder's next challenge is to sway one NFL team's opinion that he can do the same thing in the pros. Tebow didn't want to answer whether this outstanding performance would alter the stigma attached to Tebow in that he won't make it in the NFL. Then Meyer chimed in.

"I'll help you answer that," Meyer said. "Thirty one of 35, 482 yards, three touchdowns. That's one of the most efficient quarterbacks to play the game. A part of two national championships. He's a winner. And unless the job description changes at some other level of football, he's a winner and he'll win at the next level too."

Tebow did shed some light on his pending NFL career later on in the postgame news conference.

"I'm looking forward to the next chapter," Tebow said. "I've got things to improve on. I'm going to go out there and work extremely hard. I'm going to give my best and I just hope I get the opportunity to go do that."

Going 20 for 23 for 320 yards and three touchdowns is typically the kind of gaudy statistics Saints quarterback Drew Brees unleashes in the Louisiana Superdome. It was Tebow dropping bombs on Cincinnati. And those were just his first-half numbers.

It was Tebow's best passing performance of his career. There isn't even a close second, and it only took him about 33 minutes and change to do it. Tebow made a Cincinnati team literally one second away from a berth in the BCS National Championship Game look pitiful.

Hawaii Sugar Bowl of 2007 pitiful.

Tebow went 7 for 7 on the opening drive for 61 yards, including an 8-yard touchdown pass and a 17-yard rush to set up his scoring toss two plays later. He completed his next five passes to break a Sugar Bowl record set more than 40 years ago. Tebow's 80-yard touchdown to Riley Cooper in the second quarter was the longest scoring throw of his career.

Chants of "Tebow, Tebow!" fell from the rafters just before the Gators took the field for the second half. You had to wonder if Tebow was even going to play in the second half considering the Gators led 30-3 at halftime.

He did.

And all he did was set a career high in passing yards on his third throw of the third quarter. A few passes later he eclipsed a career high in completions and surpassed the 400-yard mark -- a career first. It's the first time Tebow had thrown for more than 300 yards since Sept. 27, 2008, against Ole Miss.

Meyer said the plan wasn't to showcase Tebow's passing ability. He said it was more about what the Cincinnati defense presented during the first two series. Whether it was the plan or it wasn't, it sure worked to epic proportions.

"I did feel good after just in warmups and throwing around," Tebow said. "But it wasn't too much different than most of the time."

Yes, it was.

"I walked up to him about five minutes ago and asked what got into him?" Gators wide receiver David Nelson said on the field after the game.

Tebow's Sugar Bowl performance probably won't shoot him up the draft board JaMarcus Russell-style, but the game tape won't lie when scouting departments hit the play button. Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike was considered by many pundits as a better quarterback prospect than Tebow going into Thursday night's Sugar Bowl. They might want to take another look.

Hey, if former SEC quarterbacks Tebow played against like John Parker Wilson, Erik Ainge and Matt Flynn can find a spot on an NFL roster, so can Tebow. I'm buying in on that notion.

Can Tebow start in the NFL?

I'm pretty sure places like St. Louis, Oakland and San Francisco will take a much closer peek at Tebow and the surgical procedure Tebow performed on Cincinnati will certainly help state his case.