Tebow has a fan in Temple coach

Free advice to Temple University. Put this quote on a billboard:

"He's got the best leadership qualities of any coach we have on the team. He can inspire, motivate, and drive people like not many people I've been around."

 - Tim Tebow on Steve Addazio

Tebow said those words about Temple's head coach after the pair had been part of two Florida Gators national championship teams, Tebow as quarterback and Addazio as an assistant coach. Now that it's Tim Tebow Week in America as Tebow's Denver Broncos visit the New England Patriots at 8 p.m. Saturday in the AFC divisional round, Addazio is the obvious local witness. If Tebow really liked Addazio, you're correct to assume Addazio loves Tebow. Neither of Florida's two national titles would have happened without Tebow, Addazio said, including the one when Tebow was a true freshman brought in mostly for his rushing skills on short-yardage plays.

"He made so many plays on critical third-and-1, fourth-and-1, third-and-2, on drives that propelled us to the national championship game," Addazio said of the 2006 season. Even in the national title game, Tebow threw for one score and ran for another against Ohio State.

It almost didn't happen.

"He almost went to Alabama," Addazio said, recalling that Tebow was a prized recruit, wanted by virtually every school in the Southeastern Conference even though he wasn't the prototype QB.

"I watched that sucker in high school start a championship game, put his team on his back. He played on a broken leg," Addazio said.

Temple's coach didn't mind telling several friends in the NFL that they blew it by not taking a chance on Tebow, fully realizing that Tebow, while the first college sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy, isn't the standard-issue NFL QB.

"I also see those guys who throw pretty spirals in seven-on-seven, and they can't win," Addazio said.

As for the other big Tebow issue, his Christian ways, Addazio said of the man born in the Philippines to Baptist missionaries: "I was around the guy for four years. He didn't throw his religion onto anybody. He never did."

Not that he ever got into trouble.

"No, no, no," Addazio said. "He's a pure guy."

All the coaches realized Tebow's fame could have taken him in any direction he chose.

"And all the time he'd rather come in the office and watch tape. Nobody worked harder," Addazio said. "He was a good dude. He really, truly was what he preached."