The best programs in college football have all gone through stretches of consecutive years where they've struggled significantly. The Steve Kragthorpe era at Louisville was more destructive than any of these.

In 2006, Louisville was a bourgeoning national power coming off an Orange Bowl victory and a second No. 6 national ranking in three seasons. It returned 17 starters from that team, including a top Heisman Trophy candidate in quarterback Brian Brohm.

There's no need to delve into the rest.

This post is supposed to be about which Heisman Trophy winner we wished had played for Louisville, and because of the scenario laid out above, my choice is Tim Tebow.

The benefits of having Tebow as an alum are relatively self-explanatory, but the selection is based more on what he could have done on the field for the Cardinals from 2006-09. Perhaps he could have played the same partner-in-crime role with Brohm as he did with Chris Leak, and perhaps that could have been the addition necessary for the Cards to wi the national title. I also don't think there's any question he would have improved the quality of play from '07-'09, which would make U of L's current national status (and level of attraction during this period of conference realignment significantly improved.

Hate him or love him, I think we can all agree that Louisville football would have been/would currently be much better had Tim Tebow donned the red and black.

This post was sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 13. Check out the video for the game below.

EA SPORTS NCAA Football 13 TV: "Son" (via EASPORTS)