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GATORS COLUMN

His Heart Is Still In It

By JOEY JOHNSTON

Published: Aug 17, 2007

GAINESVILLE - John Brantley, Ocala born and bred, has fulfilled his destiny. He's a Gators quarterback. But for nearly two years, the locals reminded him (often) why he probably didn't have a football future at the University of Florida.

Your skills don't fit their offense.

Do you really want to run the - gasp - option?

And besides, the Gators have Tim Tebow.

Ah yes, Tim Tebow.

The quarterback who seems ready-made for Urban Meyer's spread offense. The legend-in-waiting who received dizzying national build-up, even before stepping onto campus. The too-good-to-be-true kid who already is one of the most popular athletes in UF history.

Last summer, Brantley fell in love with Texas.

He committed to the Longhorns.

"Even then, as good as it was, I'm still getting off the plane and thinking in the back of my mind, 'What am I doing?'" Brantley said.

Meyer bided his time. He knew Brantley's heart really belonged to the Gators. And he knew Brantley's drop-back passing skills would fit UF's offense (hadn't the Gators just won a national championship with Chris Leak?)

"I'm a little tired of this square-peg, round-hole nonsense that's out there," Meyer said. "What do we run the option, two times a game?"

He told Brantley.

Then he showed him.

Through the magic of videotape.

Following His Heart

For two years, Brantley heard the anti-Gator noise.

After wavering on his Texas commitment, it took just a few minutes to learn the truth.

Meyer and offensive coordinator Dan Mullen prepared selected highlights of Leak and Alex Smith, the quarterback they coached at Utah. As he watched, Brantley saw himself.

"That was very influential," Brantley said. "It showed, very clearly, that my strengths would translate into the Florida offense. You don't necessarily need a guy like Tim Tebow to make it work.

"After that, I just followed my heart."

Brantley's uncle Scot, the former All-America linebacker at UF, was thrilled. His father John, a former UF quarterback, immediately removed the Longhorns gear that never felt quite right.

Now comes the hard part.

Actually getting on the field.

It's not usually a problem for someone such as Brantley, the former Ocala Trinity Catholic quarterback who set a state record with 99 touchdowns and was named Gatorade National Player of the Year.

"Mack Brown [Texas coach] said he had never seen a better-developed high school passer than John Brantley," said Brantley's high school coach, former UF quarterback Kerwin Bell, who is now at Jacksonville University.

"Johnny is as natural a thrower as I've ever had," Meyer said.

Still, the roadblock remains.

Tim Tebow, a sophomore.

Who's No. 2?

Brantley would love to redshirt this year, theoretically giving him two non-Tebow seasons to run the Gators offense. Meyer isn't so certain. He wants a solid No. 2 quarterback, maybe a change-of-pace alternative to spell Tebow, but no one else has a mastery of the offense.

Not Brantley or fellow freshman Cameron Newton. Not junior-college transfer Bryan Waggener.

Mullen said he loves the competition.

"If you run into our quarterback meeting room right now and ask who's going to start the first game, you'd have four hands up," Mullen said. "There isn't anyone in that room who thinks Tim Tebow [automatically] is the starter."

Well, that might be a stretch.

Tebow will be the starter - on merit. He has experience and savvy, not to mention all those magazine covers.

"It's kind of hard not to think about Tim because he is [publicized] everywhere," Waggener said.

"The way I look at it, you're going to have competition wherever you go," said Brantley, aware that Texas has Colt McCoy, who last season tied a national freshman record with 29 touchdown passes. "If you didn't have competition, you wouldn't get better. With a program like this, we're always going to recruit great quarterbacks. You don't shy away from that.

"It wouldn't be right to run from it, if this is where I wanted to be. And it always was. This is where I'm supposed to be - with the Gators."

For now, Brantley's head is swimming, adjusting to college life, learning the offense. His transition has been made easier by a teammate, always willing to lend advice or demonstrate a drill.

"He has been great to me," Brantley said.

That teammate is Tim Tebow.