TAMPA — Nobody knew what to expect from the 5-foot-9, 177-pound Ahmad Black when he arrived in Gainesville in 2007.
Four seasons later, everybody expects the world of Black.
The strong safety delivered on Saturday as he was named the Outback Bowl MVP after intercepting two passes in his last game as a Gator.
“Ahmad Black was not Ahmad Black when we got him four years ago,” coach Urban Meyer said. “He’s turned into a grown man who will pay taxes some day and have a family some day.
“He’s going to be a great father and a great husband because he’s a grown man now.”
But Black’s spectacular performance was almost derailed by one of his teammates.
The senior was forced to leave Saturday’s game in the second quarter after he dove for a pass across the middle and was hit by Gators linebacker Brandon Hicks in the process.
“I broke my helmet, so it came off,” Black said. “They were yelling at me, ‘Keep your helmet strapped up,’ and I was like, ‘No, it’s broke.’ I busted my mouth and my nose, but I was all right.”
Black returned to the game shortly after and didn’t show any effects from the hit.
He led the Gators with six tackles and jumped in front of a pass late in the fourth quarter for his second pick of the game, returning it 80 yards for a touchdown to seal the victory for Florida.
The crucial interception was his team-leading fifth of the season and the 13th in his four-year career at Florida.
“It was like a relief,” Black said. “They were driving down the field, and I’m thinking, ‘We need a play. We need a stop.’
“That was similar to the national championship game. They were running it down our throat and getting first downs, and we just had to get a stop.”
Black led the Gators with 108 tackles this season. This marked the first year the safety has recorded more than 100 tackles in his UF career.
Now, as a potential 2011 NFL Draft pick, Black must face the same questions and critics he did when he was being recruited out of Lakeland High.
Black is ranked as the eigth-best safety in the 2011 NFL Draft by ESPN.com.
The website points to Black’s height, weight and speed as a drawback for selecting him. But it highlights his intangibles as giving him a future in the NFL — something not lost on the teammates who played alongside Black for the last four seasons at Florida.
“He has been talked about throughout his career, he has been talked about as being the smaller guy, the little guy, not weighing enough, not this tall, you know what I mean?” Hicks said. “But if somebody were to open up his chest and see how big his heart was, you’ll put him out there on any team.”
