Tebow always played well in Columbia

Tim Tebow has fond memories of playing in Columbia.

While his current focus is playing baseball for the Columbia Fireflies, Tebow had one of his best college football performances at Williams-Brice Stadium.

The former Florida quarterback accounted for seven touchdowns in the 51-31 win over the Gamecocks in 2007. Tebow was 22-for-32 passing for 304 yards and ran for 120 yards. That game helped him win the Heisman Trophy.

“I had fun that game,” Tebow said Tuesday at Fireflies media day. “That was a very good South Carolina team and most of the years we played them they had a very good team.”

In two starts at Williams-Brice, Tebow threw for 519 yards and rushed for 222 with nine total TDs. He said Williams-Brice is one of the more underrated stadiums in the SEC and loved when ‘2001’ and ‘Sandstorm’ were played.

Tebow also had high praise for the job Will Muschamp did in his first season as USC coach. The Gamecocks went 6-7, including a berth in the Birmingham Bowl, and have a strong nucleus of young talent.

“I think he is getting better at being a head coach,” Tebow said. “He had some really good seasons at Florida and was able to learn from some highs and lows. He has a quarterback that has a chance to be special and he is getting recruits. And in the SEC, that’s not easy.”

Tebow said Jake Bentley could be one of the top QBs in the SEC. The freshman started the final six games for the Gamecocks and threw for 1,420 yards.

“He has really good movement in the pocket and he also has really good second-level throws, intermediate throws where he can throw over linebackers and under safeties,” Tebow said. “I think he does that very naturally. And that was a reason he was able to play big in big games, Tennessee being one of them.”

This story was originally published April 4, 2017 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Tebow always played well in Columbia."