5 Florida Gators named All-SEC

With the regular season over it’s now bowl and award season.

Despite a 6-5 season the Florida Gators did have five players earn individual awards when the Associated Press released their All-SEC teams on Monday afternoon.

Sophomore cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III was named to the First Team Defense for the second consecutive season, while teammates Antonio Morrison, Kyle Christy were placed on the second team. Junior Dante Fowler Jr. and senior Andre Debose (kick returner) were honorable mention selections.

Only a sophomore, Hargreaves finished his second season in Gainesville with 45 tackles (26 solo), two interceptions and a SEC-high 13 pass breakups. Hargreaves tied the Florida record for a freshman with 11 pass breakups a season ago (Janoris Jenkins 2008).

Christy had a bounce back senior season that saw him finish fourth in the SEC with a 44.45 yard-per-punt average. Christy had four punts travel more than 60 yards this year and 20-of-57 travel at least 50 yards. Christy’s career average of 43.8 yards-per-punt place him second all-time at the University of Florida.

Morrison finished with a team-high 98 tackles, placing him fifth in the SEC. Morrison finished with double digit tackles in six-of-11 games this season and was the driving force for the Gators’ second-ranked rushing defense in the league.

Andre Debose was unable to return a kick for a touchdown this season, which would have broken the all-time SEC record but the redshirt senior was spectacular returning punts and kicks this year. Despite most teams kicking away from him, Debose averaged 24.71 yards per kick return and 14.04 yards per punt return.

The biggest head scratcher was just a honorable mention for junior defensive lineman Dante Fowler. Fowler was downright unblockable for the Gators throughout the 2014 season. Fowler finished with just 5.5 sacks on the year but had to deal with double teams and every opponent game planning for him this past season. Fowler led the team with 12 tackles for a loss, while also notching 57 tackles, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

Fowler’s biggest impact came from hurrying the quarterback and creating opportunities for his teammates but most voters only look at numbers at the end of the season and don’t watch every game.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC

4 COMMENTS

  1. It’s just possible that the player chosen ahead of Fowler were better. It also doesn’t help if you’re on a mediocre team if you aren’t truly outstanding. Hargreaves and Bud Dupree are examples of guys that were outstanding on mediocre teams. An interesting note is a guy on Arkansas named Martrell Spaight was chosen first team over someone like Bernard McKinney of Miss State. He’s a guy that flew under my radar.
    The lack of a single player on offense being chosen shows that McElwain has his work cut out for him.

    • Are you a dick in your personal life too….Jesus you never quit. Fowler was outstanding this year and like I said the people who actually watch film and evaluate players (like coaches) will probably show him more respect when their list comes out later.

      Attention GC Staff, this is really getting old. I think it’s time to refund Snowflakes membership dues and send him on his way. I know he’s the smartest guy in the room, but his attacks on others intelligence, spreading his toxic negativity into the lives of others and just being an overall douche has worn thin on EVERYONE. Check the date when he started subscribing it probably paralllels when our team started to suck. We should close the Snowflake era along with Muschamps. I swear to god, every reader, writer, beat reporter and anyone associated with this site will feel soooo much better the following morning.