Lake Buena Vista, Fla. ? If Thursday night was an indication, then Florida quarterback Tim Tebow will be bringing home the Heisman Trophy on Saturday.
Tebow won two of college football’s most prestigious individual awards not named after John William Heisman on Thursday during ESPN’s college football awards ceremony at Disney World’s Boardwalk Dance Hall. The sophomore won the Maxwell Award for the nation’s best all-around player and the Davey O’Brien Award for the nation’s best quarterback.
“I wasn’t trying to worry about winning,” said Tebow, who accepted both awards with a Gator-blue cast on his nonthrowing right hand. “Coming in I didn’t want to think about winning or losing, but I just wanted to remember the experience.”
Tebow, who beat out Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon and Arkansas running back Darren McFadden for the Maxwell, was also named to the Walter Camp All-American team. Among the All-Americans was Central Florida’s Kevin Smith, a Miami Southridge alum who is 180 yards shy of tying Barry Sanders’ (Oklahoma State, 1988) all-time, single-season rushing record. Smith and Central Florida play Mississippi State in the Liberty Bowl.
Despite his historic season, Smith, a 6-2, 220-pound junior, went relatively unnoticed by the national media until Thursday night. He wasn’t a finalist for the Doak Campbell Award, which was given to Arkansas’ Darren McFadden, and Smith was never mentioned as a contender for the Heisman Trophy.
“It’s all in how you see it,” said Smith, who played safety and not running back his senior season at Miami Southridge. “I’m not big into individual awards. My biggest award came last Saturday when we won the Conference USA championship. Any individual awards I win I’m thankful for, but individual awards are really not what I’m about.”
