The Florida football team has playmakers throughout its roster, but will one player stand out from the rest this season? In the second edition of the alligatorSports roundtable, football writers Ethan Bauer, Ian Cohen, Jordan McPherson and Patrick Pinak predict who will be Florida’s Most Valuable Player in 2016.
BAUER: Dre Massey
Dre Massey might be an unfamiliar name right now, but by the end of the season, it could be as familiar as Antonio Callaway.
For the Gators to be contenders, they’ll need unknowns to step up, because while the established players have been good, they haven’t been good enough.
Massey, a junior college transfer who has played everything from quarterback to punter, will be a receiver at Florida and will also contribute in the return game.
Listed as 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds, he’s hardly the statuesque receiver people picture as a potential MVP. He’s no Calvin Johnson or Julio Jones.
But he makes plays.
As a high school quarterback in South Carolina, Massey threw for 2,798 yards and 28 touchdowns while adding 2,050 rushing yards and 34 touchdowns on the ground.
In junior college, he continued to put up points and chew up turf en route to MACJC All-State and First Team All-Region honors.
And at Florida, he expects more of the same.
But Southeastern Conference defenses will be unlike anything he’s faced before.
“We just go,” he said of his time in JUCO. “If you’re good, you’re good.”
That won’t fly when everyone is good. So why do I think he could finish 2016 as Florida’s best?
Well, guys like Texas A&M’s Christian Kirk have shown that undersized receivers who can return kicks, make people miss and spray dirt on slower defenders can carve out prominent places in the SEC.
And Callaway showed just last year that a guy can come in and ignite a team right away.
Because he's done just that at his two previous stops, Massey will start as an unknown and finish as UF's best.
COHEN: Eddy Pineiro
In the race for MVP, here’s why Eddy Pineiro has the disadvantage.
He isn’t the star quarterback. He isn’t the flashy receiver or the bulky defensive lineman or the shutdown corner.
He’ll probably only be on the field for a handful of plays per game, most of them serving an inconsequential role such as kickoff duty.
And yet, Pineiro may decide the outcome of more games than any other player on UF’s roster.
Florida’s kicker will be the MVP, and you only have to look back one season to see why.
Austin Hardin missed nine of his 14 field-goal attempts for UF last year.
He was booed off the field after shanks and after misses, even after PATs sailed through the uprights, and, at times, even when he stepped on the field for the kickoff.
Enter Pineiro.
The junior college transfer routinely kicks 60-yard field goals during practice and made a 56-yarder during UF’s Orange and Blue Debut in April.
So now that Florida has a competent place kicker — one that, at the very least, should be able to consistently knock down field goals within 30 yards — scoring three points will cease to be as painful of an experience as slowly pulling off a bandaid.
And extra points shouldn’t be an issue either.
“Yeah, I didn’t think people were going to scream out my name after an extra point,” Pineiro said, “so that was pretty interesting.”
Get used to it, Eddy.
McPHERSON: Jarrad Davis
Florida’s success this season will run through its defense.
And the defense runs through Jarrad Davis.
The senior linebacker is the group’s leader, both on and off the field. The team rallies around him.
And he can make just about every play he has to in order to ensure the defense comes out on top.
Davis, a 6-foot-2, 238-pound wrecking ball, is the Gators’ leading returning tackler from last season (98). He can stop the run (11 tackles for loss), blitz off the edge (seven quarterback hurries and 3.5 sacks) and drop back in coverage (four pass breakups, which led UF linebackers).
His nonstop motor and knack for finding the football makes the defensive line’s job easier, which makes the secondary’s job easier, which ultimately makes the defense as fierce as it is.
Plus, with the Gators riddled with inexperience at linebacker, Davis provides a mentor for Florida’s underclassmen at the position, ensuring that once he leaves, the group will pick up right where it left off.
Davis didn’t have to come back this year. His resume from the last two seasons would have been enough to get him drafted into the NFL.
But following the Gators’ beat down in the SEC Championship Game by Alabama last year, he wanted to come back and finish his UF career on a high note.
“I can’t say enough about him as far as what he brings to the Gators,” UF coach Jim McElwain told reporters last week.
Don’t worry, coach. You don’t have to say anything.
Jarrad Davis will let his play speak for itself.
PINAK: Jalen Tabor
Likely the next great first-round cornerback out of Florida, Jalen Tabor will undoubtedly be the Gators’ MVP this season.
The reason?
UF’s stifling defensive line will slow opponents’ run games, forcing them to throw the ball.
Cue Tabor.
And really, all Tabor has to do is put up similar numbers to his 2015 season. He picked off four passes last year and broke up another 14 en route to a first team All-SEC selection.
Vernon Hargreaves III, the 11th overall pick in this year’s NFL draft, notched the same amount of interceptions but broke up just four passes last season. With Hargreaves out of the picture, the limelight-loving Tabor should shine.
The only way Tabor might not be Florida’s MVP is if his outspoken and fiery personality gets in his way. The junior is suspended for UF’s season opener against Massachusetts after engaging in an in-practice scuffle with teammate C’yontai Lewis, which carried over on Twitter in a number of subtweets between the two. Tabor was also suspended for last year’s matchup with Tennessee.
Regardless, Tabor’s ability to shut down opposing wide receivers will have too great of an impact in the games he does play to not deem him the team’s MVP.
Who do you think will be Florida’s MVP? Vote above.
UF football players run out of the tunnel prior to Florida's 27-2 loss to Florida State on Nov. 28, 2015, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
