Several people have asked me as we go through this updated list of the greatest Gator football players about the list we put together in 2006.
They want to know how a player could rise or drop from that previous list of 100. The truth is that I purposely did not look at our previous list — the one we did for the Gainesville Sun.
I wanted this list to be fresh.
That’s why I am not sure of the exact place Alex Brown was ranked. All I know is that when I went to the media day for the Super Bowl he was playing in he stopped in the middle of an interview and started giving me a hard time about how low he was.
I have rectified that oversight. And with that, we give you Nos. 11 through 20.
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I think it is important to note here that the NFL careers of all of these players is not to be considered. These are great Gators, not great Jaguars or Eagles or Bears.
Although in most cases, these guys were so good they had an impact at the next level.
Taylor certainly belongs in the NFL Hall of Fame and that would get him eligible for the Florida Ring of Honor.
Certainly, he put up the numbers in college, especially in 1997 when he carried the team. Taylor is fifth all-time in rushing at Florida and his 1,292 yards in ’97 are the fourth all-time.
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Sometimes lists like these get complicated because I have become friends with the players. Add in that Brantley missed almost his entire senior season after suffering a head injury and you may think this is a little elevated for him.
Naw. Brantley didn’t tackle people, he tackled through them.
Of all the players on this list, I think the player I would least like to tackle me was Brantley in his prime.
Even with all of that missed time, he is second in Florida history with 467 tackles and had 115 unassisted tackles in 1978.
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There is a long history of great Gator defenders coming off the corners to make lives miserable for quarterbacks. Johnson was one of those and one of the best.
From 1981-85 – on some of the best Florida teams the school produced – he was the sackmaster.
You know who is second in the program’s history in career sacks? Johnson with 27.
You know who is third in sacks in a season? Johnson with 12.
You know who is second in tackles for a loss? Johnson with 55.
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My favorite memory of Ratliff was in Fayetteville, Arkansas, when he ran back an interception for a touchdown (it was his third pick of the game) and threw the ball into the stands after he scored.
He thought that TD had clinched the game, but when Arkansas started coming back with Ratliff benched for the penalty, Ron Zook put him back in to stop the insanity.
Ratliff still has the most interceptions in UF history in a season with nine in 2003. He also led Florida in punt returns in 2002 and ’03.
Scott Halleran/Allsport.
I really don’t know what we were thinking 18 years ago, but I know we undervalued how great Brown was. He is Florida’s all-time sack leader for a career and a season with 33 and 13.
The 13 came in 1999 when he had five alone against Tennessee. He also forced nine fumbles at Florida, most of them caused by his long reach.
Have I made it up to you, Alex?
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I will say this, nobody got more out of his college career than Sexy Rexy.
I had an interview with him before the spring of his senior year and he looked like he could have played Blutarsky in Animal House. Beard, gut.
“It’s my winter look,” he said.
Grossman should have won the Heisman in 2001 and probably should have left school when Steve Spurrier did. He finished his career with more than 9,000 passing yards and 77 touchdown passes.
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As a student at Florida, I was in the ticket office one day when I saw this guy with calves that looked like thighs. He was a freshman and his name was Wes Chandler.
Just Google his touchdown catch when he faked out three Auburn defenders. Or the video of the Georgia game in 1977 when they used him at tailback just to get the ball in his hands.
I often think of what he could have done in a Spurrier offense, but he still has the career record for average yards per catch.
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One picture told the story of Lito and that was the look on the fac of Lou Holtz when Sheppard ran back a punt 57 yards for a touchdown on the last play of the first half.
But my favorite play was against Georgia when he dropped off his man to intercept Quincy Carter and then ran it back with multiple slick moves to the 3-yard line to get Florida back into the game.
Sheppard was a weapon in both the return game and in the secondary. Most teams chose not to go his way, but he still found a way to be named an All-American in 2000.
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What can you say about the Shaner? He was so far down the depth chart he didn’t even get in the first scrimmage of Spurrier’s first spring.
But he lit it up in the spring game in Jacksonville and went on to lead Florida to one SEC title that didn’t count and the one that finally broke down the wall in 1991.
Matthews started for three seasons and finished with the third most career yards ever for a Florida quarterback. His 74 touchdown passes included 28 during that championship season.
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When Emmitt Smith left early, there were people on Florida’s staff trying to tell us it wasn’t a problem because they had this underrated tailback who was going to light it up.
And they were right.
E-Rhett is Florida’s all-time leading rusher with 4,163 yards and scored 34 touchdowns.
He had 20 games of more than 100 yards rushing including four in a row in ’91. He also had 153 catches out of the backfield, which puts him fourth on the all-time list.
And that Georgia game in the mud when he carried the ball 41 times? Legendary.
Florida Gators Football’s All-Time 50 Top Players: Nos. 30-21
Florida Gators Football’s All-Time 50 Top Players: Nos. 40-31
Florida Gators Football’s All-Time 50 Top Players: Nos. 50-41
12 Florida football season records that will not be broken any time soon
12 historical wrongs that should be righted for Florida Gators athletics
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