Herschel Walker has resided atop the Southeastern Conference career rushing touchdowns chart for 27 years, but now he has company.
Walker racked up 49 rushing scores in his three football seasons at Georgia (1980-82) and has fended off challenges from tailbacks such as LSU's Kevin Faulk and Auburn's Carnell "Cadillac" Williams. Last Saturday, however, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow notched his 49th rushing touchdown in the 29-19 win at Mississippi State.
Tebow will try for 50 and beyond this week when he faces Georgia for a fourth and final time in Jacksonville.
"It has been an honor to even be mentioned with Herschel," Tebow said Monday. "It is very humbling, and I'm sure when I sit back and think about it, I'll realize how cool it is. To be able to break the record against Georgia would be extra special."
If recent history repeats, Tebow could pull away from Walker in a hurry. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound Jacksonville resident had three rushing touchdowns in Florida's 49-10 whipping last year and tallied two in Georgia's 42-30 upset win two years ago.
Tebow set the SEC's single-season record for rushing touchdowns with 23 in 2007, and he is 33 yards away from breaking the league's career rushing yardage mark by a quarterback. That standard is held by Matt Jones, who ran for 2,535 yards at Arkansas from 2001 to '04.
Walker remains in solid shape with his 16 other SEC records, including career rushing yards (5,259), single-season rushing yards (1,891 in 1981) and his astounding career rushing yards per game (159.4).
The two players often are lauded and occasionally debated as the best the SEC has produced. Georgia went 33-3 overall, 32-1 in regular-season games and 18-0 in conference play with Walker and won the 1980 national championship, while Florida is 42-6 with Tebow and is seeking its third national title in four years.
Tebow was Chris Leak's backup in 2006 but played all 14 games and accounted for 13 touchdowns, including eight on the ground.
"They're both pretty iconic guys," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "Herschel will be remembered forever at Georgia, and I'm sure that Tebow will be remembered forever at Florida. Their productivity and their ability to be involved in championship seasons is usually what will define your better players."
Each has a Heisman Trophy, with Tebow's 2007 award coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Walker winning it.
"I was a Herschel Walker fan," Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "I was nuts about him when I grew up. He was right at the point when I was in high school, and I was a huge Georgia Bulldogs fan because of Herschel Walker. I got to meet him at the Heisman ceremony and sat and talked to him. Everything I know about him is first class."
Said Richt: "The Dogs were it from '80 to '82. During my whole college career, Georgia was at the top of the national heap, and everybody just saw what an amazing creature he was."
Odds and ends
Georgia sophomore A.J. Green was named Monday among the 10 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, which is given annually to college's top receiver. Green is the only semifinalist from the SEC. ... Saturday's showdown will pit the SEC teams with the best overall records of the past decade. Since 1999, Florida has compiled a 103-33 record (.757) with Georgia right behind at 102-33 (.756). ... The Weather Channel is predicting sunshine and an 89-degree high temperature for Jacksonville on Saturday.
SCORING MACHINES
The SEC career leaders in rushing touchdowns:
1. Tim Tebow (Florida) 49
1. Herschel Walker (Georgia) 49
3. Kevin Faulk (LSU) 46
4. Carnell Williams (Auburn) 45
5. Dalton Hilliard (LSU) 44
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David, it is fair to give Tebow credit for an outstanding career and recognize his achievements, but it is misleading to not differentiate between what Tebow has done/is doing and the accomplishments of Herschel Walker. I am not talking about how Walker was virtually the entire offense and every team knew he would be carrying the ball as UGA's only threat, or that those UGA teams weren't nearly as talented as these UF teams. I am talking about apples to apples comparisons, or as close as you can get with different eras.
HW only played in 36 games, and three of those are not included in his record since bowl stats were not counted in those days. His TDs were for 33 games only. Tebow has already played in 48 games. This isn't to negate Tebow's talent, just to say an asterisk needs to be used here to seperate these two fine players. Also, we all know Vince Dooley didn't pile on points like Urban Meyer does so Herschel didn't play a lot of 4th quarters, and certainly not with an aggressive offense late in the game against weak teams. Not to mention most of TT's TD's come in goalline situations while HW's probably averaged 2-3 times the number of yards that Tebow's do.
Again, I am not trying to minimize what Tebow has done, he is a spectacular player and a great young man, but he isn't a Herschel Walker. HW never lost a conference game in three years in the SEC, and didn't accomplish that with great talent surrounding him. So no, as accomplished as Tim Tebow is, Herschel is still the best I ever saw play CFB. (And for the Auburn fan in you, Bo was the 2nd best. TT might be 3rd, I would have to think a lot more about that.) I can't even imagine how big Herschel would have been if ESPN covered his every game and dominated games the way he did then. We would be as sick of him as we all are of TT, and it isn't the player's fault.