Florida Football: Who is the Gator’s Best?
As we continue to dream of SEC football, we’ll look at each team and tell you who their best player is. Florida football is up next, and we finally have a defensive player.
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Related Tennessee Football: Who is the Volunteer’s Best?
Each SEC football team has at least a few studs. Whether it be their middle linebacker, corner, wide receiver or quarterback, each fan base has those few guys they can point to and say “he’s that dude.” The question becomes, though, who is the best?
Florida football may have seen some hard times under former Will Muschamp, but he never had a problem selling the Florida football brand. He was able to recruit at an elite clip, though injuries and transfers weren’t uncommon. Second year coach McElwain is hoping he found a quarterback for the future, but his best player is still a Muschamp guy.
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Last year the Florida football hype centered around one young man: Vernon Hargreaves. The hype was understandable, as the 2015 Consensus All-American and #11 NFL Draft pick was an absolute stud. But as the season progressed last year, the eyes of many were drawn to another Gator: Jalen Tabor. Here’s why.
In 2015, Hargreaves started12 games and had 4 interceptions to go with 4 passes defended. He played his role and contributed elsewhere, also providing 33 total tackles. His freakish athleticism also showed up in those interceptions, as he had 152 return yards off of those 4 pics. So there’s understandable reason for the hype around former Florida football stud Hargreaves. What about Jalen Tabor?
In the same season, Tabor played in all 14 games and had 4 interceptions to go with 14 passes defended and 40 total tackles. Tabor showed that Florida football had a pair of athletic corners, especially when he also racked up yards from interceptions. While his 82 yards aren’t quite up to those of Hargreaves, Tabor did something Heargreaves didn’t while in a Florida football uniform last year. He returned two of those interceptions for touchdowns.
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So what we have is the second coming of Vernon Hargreaves, if not even better. Tabor was the “other” corner last year. The guy a lot teams thought they could throw against, especially if they used their best wide receiver. Tabor proved them wrong last year. Now he’s trying to build Florida football into DBU.