The Mountain West is not known for their Heisman Trophy finalist in the leagues 13-year history. The closest came when Utah's Alex Smith was a finalist back in 2004, but now there is a chance to add your favorite Heisman Trophy winner to your team.
EA Sports has this cool feature of putting a Heisman Trophy winner on any team, and after some thought of going through the past winners I felt it would be a cool idea to see how Air Force would do with Tim Tebow as their quarterback from 2007.
I was thinking of going back to 1985 and having Air Force use the brute force of Bo Jackson to see if they could win a national title, since they were ranked No. 4 with two weeks left before they lost to BYU. However I am using WhatifSports.com to simulate the season and they do not go back to 1985.
So, we go back to 2007 and use Tim Tebow to orchestrate the Air Force run option offense to see if Air Force can improve off of their 9-4 record.
Here is how the Air Force team finished from that 2007 year.
| G | Date | Day | School | Opponent | Conf | Pts | Opp | W | L | Streak | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 1, 2007 | Sat | Air Force | South Carolina State | Non-Major | W | 34 | 3 | 1 | 0 | W 1 | ||
| 2 | Sep 8, 2007 | Sat | Air Force | @ | Utah | MWC | W | 20 | 12 | 2 | 0 | W 2 | |
| 3 | Sep 13, 2007 | Thu | Air Force | TCU | MWC | W | 20 | 17 | 3 | 0 | W 3 | ||
| 4 | Sep 22, 2007 | Sat | Air Force | @ | BYU | MWC | L | 6 | 31 | 3 | 1 | L 1 | |
| 5 | Sep 29, 2007 | Sat | Air Force | @ | Navy | Indy | L | 20 | 31 | 3 | 2 | L 2 | |
| 6 | Oct 7, 2007 | Sat | Air Force | UNLV | MWC | W | 31 | 14 | 4 | 2 | W 1 | ||
| 7 | Oct 13, 2007 | Sat | Air Force | @ | Colorado State | MWC | W | 45 | 21 | 5 | 2 | W 2 | |
| 8 | Oct 20, 2007 | Sat | Air Force | Wyoming | MWC | W | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | W 3 | ||
| 9 | Oct 25, 2007 | Thu | Air Force | @ | New Mexico | MWC | L | 31 | 34 | 6 | 3 | L 1 | |
| 10 | Nov 3, 2007 | Sat | Air Force | Army | Indy | W | 30 | 10 | 7 | 3 | W 1 | ||
| 11 | Nov 10, 2007 | Sat | Air Force | @ | Notre Dame | Indy | W | 41 | 24 | 8 | 3 | W 2 | |
| 12 | Nov 17, 2007 | Sat | Air Force | San Diego State | MWC | W | 55 | 23 | 9 | 3 | W 3 | ||
| 13 | Dec. 31, 2007 | Mon | Air Force | N | California | Pac-10 | L | 36 | 42 | 9 | 4 | L 1 | Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, TX) |
Now using, WhatIfSports.com here is how Air Force did week to week with Tebow on their team. A big thanks to The Hustle Belt who had the same idea but using Cam Newton's 2010 season for Ohio.
Their game against South Carolina State would still easily be a victory for Air Force with Tebow, plus there is no way to simulate against a FCS game on WhatifSports.
Now onto the action.
Week 2 - @ Utah: Air Force wins 23-17. Tebow had a pedestrian game with 39 yards rushing on 10 attempts and he went 2-for-5 with 24 passing yards. He also scored no touchdowns.
Week 3 - TCU: Air Force wins 33-9. Tebow was 0-for-1 passing and rushed for 34 yards on 13 carries with his first touchdown of the year.
Week 4 - @ BYU: BYU wins 41-27 this game was close until a 21-7 scoring outburst by BYU in the fourth quarter to win in a route. Tebow did have his best game of the year to date by rushing for 71 yards and throwing for 149 yards on 12-of-20 attempts including a pair of touchdowns.
Week 5 - @ Navy: Navy wins 20-13. Tebow had another ordinary game with 26 rushing yards on 11 attempts and 59 yards passing.
Week 6 - UNLV: Air Force wins 39-7. Tebow actually ran the ball 20 times but ended up with only 47 yards, and he had a solid passing game by completing 14-of-23 passes for 219 yards and an interception.
Week 7 - @ Colorado State: Air Force wins 45-7. Tebow had his best game of the year by rushing for 115 yards and scoring a touchdown. On the passing end of things he went 9-of-11 for 98 yards with another touchdown.
Week 8 - Wyoming: Air Force wins 47-30. Tebow had 37 yards on the ground, and had a season-high in passing yards with 318 and a touchdown.
Week 9 - @ New Mexico: Air Force wins 17-14. Tebow was held in check with 12 yards rushing and was 6-for-6 passing for only 67 yards.
Week 10 - Army: Air Force wins 38-24. The rushing yards picked up for Tebow against Army by rushing for 88 yards and passed for 81 yards and threw a touchdown pass.
Week 11 - @ Notre Dame: Air Force wins 46-16. A shocking development in that win Tebow rushed for 71 yards and threw for 80 yards and a score.
Week 12 - San Diego State: Air Force wins 27-20. 59 rushing yards and 83 passing yards are what Tebow put up in the final regular season game, and one more touchdown.
The record for Air Force improved in the regular season from 8-3 to 9-2, so adding a Heisman Trophy winner in Tim Tebow who is capable running and performing well in a run option offense. The stats however took a big hit with Tebow on this Air Force team. Part of that had to do with the Falcons having Chad Hall who was just amazing and the ball was given to him on as many plays as possible.
In his Heisman winner year in 2007, Tebow rushed for 895 yards, passed for 3,286 yards and scored 23 touchdowns. Here is what Tebow accumulated while with Air Force he rushed for 599 yards, passed for 1,138 yards and nine touchdowns. This all prior to the bowl game and one less game since the South Carolina State game is not able to be simulated, but even with those other games Tebow's stats would not match up.
The stats from Shaun Carney who was Air Force's quarterback in 2007 where actually more than Tebow. The rushing yards for Tebow were likely be higher once a bowl game and the FCS opponent was considered, and the passing yards could have been close since for 10 games for Tebow and 12 for Carney was 353 yards difference.
Essentially they were the two players, state-wise. This is shocking to me because Tebow can run and knock over linebackers and is a good runner. I assumed his rushing yards would have gone up and then see a decrease in his passing yards, but everything was much lower.
This post was sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 13. Check out the video for the game below.
EA SPORTS NCAA Football 13 TV: "Son" (via EASPORTS)