Former Tennessee Vols quarterback Harrison Bailey landed with the the Florida Gators this past winter after spending the previous two seasons at Louisville.

Bailey, who played at Tennessee from 2020 to 2021, also spent one season (2022) at UNLV.

I don’t normally pay close attention to uniform numbers for backup quarterbacks on random SEC teams. But this week, while texting with some fellow AtoZ Sports employees, it came to my attention that Bailey is wearing No. 15 at Florida. You know, the number made famous in Gainesville by Tim Tebow.

None of us in that text chain are Florida fans, but we were still flabbergasted that Bailey, a journeyman quarterback who is on his fourth school, is wearing the number of one of the greatest competitors in the history of college sports.

Full disclosure: Everyone in that text chain is a Tennessee fan. We all have unfortunate memories of Tebow having his way with the Volunteers in the late 2000s. I mean no disrespect at all toward Bailey, but he’s no Tebow (Tebow, to be fair, is one of one).

How in the world is Bailey wearing No. 15 for the Gators? That would be like Keller Chryst wearing No. 16 for the Vols when he joined the Tennessee program for the 2018 season (which would never happen because the Vols retired Peyton Manning’s famous No. 16 in 2005).

Why isn’t Tim Tebow’s number retired at Florida?

Bailey, of course, is far from the first Florida player to wear No. 15 in the post-Tebow era. Quarterback Anthony Richardson recently wore the number for the Gators. And plenty of others have been issued the number as well, including former Florida defensive back Loucheiz Purifoy, who played for the Gators just a couple of years after Tebow departed Gainesville (if you’re saying “Who?”, you’re not alone).

Apparently, Florida just doesn’t retire numbers. It’s not their thing. They’ll put a statue of you up if you’re great, but the number isn’t getting retired (Florida actually had two numbers retired at one point, but Steve Spurrier unretired them — one of them was his No. 11 from his playing days at Florida — way back in the early 1990s).

Tebow won two national championships, a Heisman Trophy, and he was a three-time All-SEC first team selection, among a litany of other honors. If anyone in the sport deserves to have his jersey retired, it’s Tebow.

But if it’s Florida’s thing to just not retire jersey numbers, then I get it. That’s the way they do things. Fair enough.

However, it’s still a bit jarring to see Bailey on the field (or on the sidelines) rocking the jersey that was rocking the rest of the SEC for a few seasons back in the pre-Tik Tok era of college football.

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Zach Ragan