HOOVER, Ala. - A few weeks ago, which of these would you have thought Tim Tebow had the best chance of becoming?
A) A two-time Heisman Trophy winner.
B) A three-time national champion.
C) A unanimous selection to the preseason All-Southeastern Conference first team, as voted by the coaches.
No matter how lofty your expectations for Tebow and the Gators this season, option C definitely looked the safest. Until the All-SEC team was announced earlier this month, that is.
Tebow came up a vote shy of being a unanimous pick, denying one of the game's best-ever players a distinction that Tennessee corner Eric Berry, Alabama receiver Julio Jones and LSU lineman Ciron Black earned.
I'm not going to waste time trying to justify why Tebow deserved a unanimous selection, because that's like gathering a bunch of evidence to prove to someone the sky is blue or grass is green.
It's not really a huge injustice either, but it does say something interesting about the coach who didn't vote for Tebow.
Four candidates were eliminated on Wednesday, as Arkansas' Bobby Petrino, Vanderbilt's Bobby Johnson, Mississippi State's Dan Mullen and Kentucky's Rich Brooks denied they were the one.
Petrino's response: "I'm not crazy."
The media contingent from Florida seems pretty determined to solve this whodunit, so the rest of the coaches will be asked the same thing.
"I don't know if y'all are going to find that culprit that didn't vote for him, but you can tell [Tebow] it wasn't me," Johnson said.
Really, the only reason why a coach wouldn't have voted for Tebow is to make a statement. Football is what these guys do, and they all know who the best quarterback in the conference is.
So here's a breakdown of the remaining suspects, excluding Urban Meyer (coaches couldn't vote for their own player):
Thursday
Nick Saban, Alabama - Maybe he's still upset about losing the SEC title. Or maybe he really likes Mississippi's Jevan Snead. But as much as people hate Saban, I don't see it. He's high-profile and has shown Tebow plenty of love in the past, and he doesn't really have anything to gain by doing it. And he's a good evaluator of talent. And I don't think he's stupid.
Mark Richt, Georgia - Richt and Tebow are cut from the same cloth, and regardless of his hate for the Gators or Meyer's timeout-calling, he isn't the type to take that out on Tebow.
Houston Nutt, Ole Miss - Nutt was the early favorite since he has the conference's second-best quarterback, but since he couldn't vote for Snead, it probably wasn't him. If it was, it means he voted for a third party and views Tebow as the conference's third-best quarterback. Nic Harris would be proud.
Friday
Gene Chizik, Auburn - Chizik played at UF, but he's a new guy, and he's fighting an uphill battle in trying to win over a fan base that just waved goodbye to Tommy Tuberville. For this reason, I'm taking Chizik as the dark horse to upset you-know-who. He'd be loved by Tigers fans for it, and he can deflect some criticism by saying he hasn't coached against Tebow.
Steve Spurrier, South Carolina - No way, right?
Les Miles, LSU - Miles recruited Tebow, and by all accounts, they got along well, so I don't think it was him. I'd put him and Saban on the same level of likelihood.
Lane Kiffin, Tennessee - It's almost like the SEC made the schedule with this in mind. Kiffin is going last, meaning that by the time he takes the podium, it's pretty likely that we'll already have 10 denials in hand. Kiffin told The Associated Press he voted for Tebow, but I don't want to count him out yet. I believe in his curmudgeonry. If everyone else says they voted for Tebow and Kiffin sticks to his story, it either means he voted for him and isn't as crazy as we thought, or it means he didn't, is lying and is calling an unnamed coach a liar. That is going to be fun. On the flip side, it helps his case that he denied it. If he voted for someone else, he'd most likely come out and say it, not keep it private.
Of course, this whole witch hunt is based on us assuming that these coaches won't do what most of them are very good at: lying in public.
So we may never get an answer, but if that happens, Kiffin is probably going to take the blame.
