Football: McCoy, Tebow among five Heisman finalists

NEW YORK - Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy are headed back to the Heisman Trophy presentation as finalists, along with running backs Mark Ingram and Toby Gerhart and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.

The five finalists were announced Monday. The Heisman Trophy will be awarded Saturday in Manhattan.

The last time as many as five players were invited to the ceremony was 2004, when USC quarterback Matt Leinart won the award.

Tebow is trying to become the second two-time Heisman winner. The Florida quarterback won the award for college football's top player in 2007 and finished third last season.

McCoy was the runner-up last season to Oklahoma's Sam Bradford and has led No. 2 Texas to the BCS national championship game this season.

Ingram has rushed for 1,542 yards and scored 15 touchdowns for No. 1 Alabama.

Stanford's Gerhart, meanwhile, has run for more yards (1,736) than any player in the nation.

And Nebraska's Suh had 4 1/2 sacks in an attention-grabbing performance against Texas in the Big 12 title game.

Tebow and McCoy entered this season as heavy favorites to contend for the Heisman Trophy again, but neither has played as well as last year and neither will go into Saturday's presentation as the clear favorite.

Still, just by being one of the five finalists, Tebow makes Heisman history and joins some elite company.

The first player to win the Heisman as a sophomore, Tebow now becomes the first player to be invited to the presentation ceremony three times since it began being televised in 1981.

He's also the first player - and sixth overall - to finish in the top five of the Heisman balloting three times since Herschel Walker did it in the early 1980s.

Tebow returned for his senior season to try and lead the Gators to a third national title in four seasons, but he won't reach that goal. After being No. 1 almost all season, Florida lost to Alabama 32-13 in the Southeastern Conference title game on Saturday and was knocked out of the national championship race.

The loss likely damaged Tebow's chances at a second Heisman, too. He has passed for 2,413 yards and rushed for 859 yards, but he hasn't been quite as productive as he was the past two seasons.

Like Tebow, McCoy also returned for his senior season to make a championship run. He has Texas a victory away from its first national title since 2005, but his numbers also have fallen off this season.

McCoy has passed for 3,512 yards with 27 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He also nearly threw away the Longhorns' national championship hopes on the second-to-last play of the Nebraska game, coming within a second of letting the clock run out before the Longhorns could attempt the winning field goal.