CBS’ Gary Danielson has seen some famous jump passes in his day. When Auburn was nearing the end of its 94-yard opening drive against Alabama in a humongous Iron Bowl, Uncle Gary called for a jump pass. And a jump pass it was:
Gary Danielson predicts Auburn jump pass TD against Bama right before it happens
He pulled a Tony Romo!
Danielson said he saw a “Tim Tebow jump pass” by Kerryon Johnson from the wildcat, and that’s just what Auburn did.
The most famous jump pass TD of all time was also in a CBS game.
Senior quarterback Chris Leak was the starter during Urban Meyer’s Year 2, but the Gators had a unique weapon in true freshman quarterback Tim Tebow.
In 2006, Tebow was used mostly as a situational runner on short yardage and goal-line downs, but he did throw five touchdowns. His first career TD pass was on this jump pass to tight end Tate Casey, a throwback play from the 1990s.
“In practice, when we were running it with our defense,” Tebow told SB Nation via phone interview, “I just actually caught the ball, ran it to the line of scrimmage, jumped up, and all the linebackers went up, and Tate was open, so Coach was kind of like, ‘Well, that might actually work!’”
“We’d rather our tight end not fumble around and fall down and do six push-ups and then get up and try to catch it,” Meyer said, via the Associated Press after the game. “He’s supposed to block-release and catch the ball, and he didn’t. He kind of stumbled about. It’s supposed to be much easier than that.”
“They snap me the ball, and I see Tate get grabbed right off the line of scrimmage,” Tebow told SB Nation. “So I get to the line of scrimmage, and I jump and I try to buy a little time, and you can see me kind of double clutch it. Finally he gets off the jam, and I kind of give it a lot of air and throw it in the back of the end zone, and he’s able to make a good play.”
The play gave the Gators a 14-7 halftime lead, and Florida won, 23-10.
And it’s popped up in plenty of other SEC games, like when Tennessee did a version to Florida ...
... and when Vandy did a fake version to Tennessee.
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