Getty Images
Kurt Hester and the trainers and coaches at D1 Sports Training have a big problem with Tim Tebow’s work ethic.
“He just goes full-out all the time,” Hester said over the weekend. “His mentality is, ‘I’m going to throw it 80 yards,’ and I’m like, ‘No, we’re going to throw it 5.’ That’s maybe his only negative, that you have to rein him in a little bit.”
Tebow’s schedule has been hectic over the past couple of weeks, with trips to the Super Bowl, National Prayer Breakfast and Daytona 500. But he continues to put in 8-10 hour days with the staff at D1 in Nashville and his own quarterback coaches as he prepares for this week’s NFL Combine, which begins Thursday in Indianapolis.
Thanks to the use of private planes, Tebow was able to return to Nashville the same night as his appearances at the Super Bowl and Daytona 500.
“Working around all the meetings and all the stuff that has nothing to do with football, that’s been kind of rough,” said Hester, D1’s corporate director of training. “But he won’t quit. If I told him to get here at 3 in the morning, he’d get here at 3 in the morning.”
Tebow said at a pre-Heisman ceremony in December that he planned on participating in the throwing drills at this week’s Combine, and likely wouldn’t lift weights for scouts so as not to tighten up for the throwing drills. However, ESPN reports this morning that Tebow has reversed course and will not throw for scouts this weekend.
“Right now he might not be happy about it, but now I think he’ll listen,” Hester said.
Tebow claims he has revised and improved his throwing mechanics, with the help of coaches Marc Trestman, Zeke Bratkowski, former NFL coach Sam Wyche and current Arizona State offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, and will unveil them for scouts at Florida’s Pro Day on March 17 in Gainesville.
“The changes I’m making have gone very well and it’s becoming more and more natural to me,” Tebow told ESPN. “It’s made me more confident, more accurate. And that’s not to say I haven’t had this type of coaching in the past. I just have had different coaching than this NFL style.”
Tebow said his decision has nothing to do with the public beating he took at the Senior Bowl, but his decision is in line with the advice dispensed by his biggest critic, ESPN’s Mel Kiper.
“Well I’m on the record saying he made a mistake going to the Senior Bowl,” Kiper said last week. “I would have not gone to the Senior Bowl, and I would not throw at the Combine. I would wait until an individual workout.”
Hester said Tebow generally puts in two hours in the weight room every day, two hours on the field doing speed work, two hours on quarterback-specific drills and two hours watching film and studying NFL terminology. Tebow is working out with several other NFL draft prospects, including Texas receiver Jordan Shipley and Miami tight end Jimmy Graham, as well as NFL receivers Jarrett Dillard (Jacksonville) and Derrick Mason (Baltimore).
The quarterback drills generally focus on his five-step drop, seven-step drop, and shortening his throwing motion so he doesn’t drip the ball below his waist when he throws.
Hester said he has been surprised by Tebow’s lack of ego, though having Tebow’s documentary crew filming his every step has its challenges.
“Once in awhile I look up and there’s a camera. It kind of startles me because it sneaks up on me a little bit,” Hester said. “But the good thing about the film crew is they have these super slow-motion cameras, and we can break everything down to these minute movements. We’ll say, ‘Can you film this?’ and they’re right on top of it. We download it right into a computer, so we’re looking at it two seconds later.”
Tebow may not say publicly that he wants to prove Kiper, Todd McShay and his other critics wrong, but Hester, a former coach at LSU and a distant cousin to current NFL running back Jacob Hester, will.
“He wants to prove, especially McShay, guys like that, that have nothing to do with draft status, prove them wrong,” Hester said. “He’s wanting to prove that he’s more of an NFL quarterback than people admit. It’s not like coaches listen to ESPN. They can say whatever they want, it has no bearing on his draft status. It will be nice to watch McShay kind of swallow his words.”
To further defend Tebow, Hester points to JaMarcus Russell, who had the physical tools to earn the No. 1 draft selection in 2007 but has not been a successful quarterback because of his work ethic and other off-field issues.
“He’ll probably never play in the NFL again. No competitive spirit whatsoever, no intellect for the game, no drive to make himself better,” Hester said. “And then you have someone (Tebow) who might not have the exact physical tools that you’re looking for, but you can correct them, and he’s smart enough to correct them, and he’ll work hard enough to correct them, and he’ll know an offense forwards and backwards.”
Hester said the notion of Tebow playing any position other than quarterback is ridiculous.
“From all the things I hear from the scouts, he’s not going to be a tight end, he’s not going to be in just a Wildcat offense,” Hester said. “He’s going to be a quarterback.”
