Rick Perry (Getty)

At the Fox News presidential primary debate tonight, Texas Governor Rick Perry revealed he wants to take a page from the playbook of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and turn his campaign into an underdog success story.

"There are a lot of people out there--I understand it, you know, there are a lot of folks that said Tim Tebow wasn't going to be a very good NFL quarterback," Governor Perry said. "Let me tell you, I hope I am the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses."

In spite of his struggles with a traditional passing game, Mr. Tebow has become the center of the football universe thanks to his frequent public displays of religion and a win streak peppered with overtime victories that has turned around the Broncos' season.

Governor Perry's football metaphor came after he was asked to assure voters who doubt whether he could effectively debate President Barack Obama after his string of disastrous debate performances.

"I want to share something with you that, as each one of these debates, I'm kind of getting to where I like these debates," Governor Perry said. "As a matter of fact, I hope Obama and I debate a lot, and I'll get there early and we will get it on."

Governor Perry also reminded his doubters that Mr. Tebow's story proves seemingly impossible things can happen and tried to point out similarities between himself and the star athlete.

"There are a lot of people out there--I understand it, you know, there are a lot of folks that said Tim Tebow wasn't going to be a very good NFL quarterback. There are people that stood up and said, 'Well, he doesn't have the right throwing mechanisms,' or 'He doesn't, you know, he's not playing the game right.' He won two national [college] championships and that looked pretty good, we were the national champions of job creation back in Texas," Governor Perry said. "Am I ready for the next level? Let me tell you, I hope I am the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses."

Governor Perry isn't the only one in his family who's turning to Mr. Tebow for inspiration. Last weekend, Governor Perry's son, Griffin, took to Twitter to fantasize about Mr. Tebow running alongside his father.