Career officially over for Florida Gators DL

A University of Florida spokesperson has confirmed that Florida Gators defensive lineman Nick Alajajian’s college career is over.

The senior missed the entire season after suffering a fractured knee early in fall camp. He likely would have been granted a medical hardship had he applied as he had not used a redshirt season.

Alajajian reportedly did not make the trip with the Gators to the Sugar Bowl, a 33-23 loss against Louisville in New Orleans last Wednesday.

It initially appeared Alajajian was trying to return based on a couple of his recent tweets.

On Sunday, the day before the team was scheduled to begin offseason workouts, Aljajian tweeted “ALMOST GRIND TIME!” from his @BigNick58 account.

Then on Jan. 4, he tweeted, “Like my dawg ‪@EOrange25 said 2013 a big year for us. ‪#2013comebackyear LETSSGETITTT”

On Dec. 31, he tweeted: “Cant wait to prove so many people wrong!!! ‪#Focused like i got two brainnnssss!!! ‪#BigManSwagg…”

The back on Dec. 13, he tweeted, “Jus gotta get right n bounce back n shock the world!!!”

While those tweets appeared to suggest Alajajian was planning to return, it apparently was not meant to be.

Alajajian switched from offensive line to defensive line in the offseason after making his only career start at left tackle in the 2011 Gator Bowl. He appeared in 32 career games, mostly on special teams and as a back-up offensive lineman.

He was a U.S. Army All American out of Naples, Fla. Rivals ranked him as the No. 4 offensive tackle in the country and Scout rated him a five-star prospect.

 

mikecapshaw
Mike Capshaw brings a wealth of experience to the Gator Country team. He’s been overseeing all editorial aspects of GatorCountry.com and Gator Country magazine by managing our team of staffers, interns and freelancers. He is now moving into a bigger role as a reporter by covering the football and basketball beats as well as providing coverage of all sports on campus. Mike’s 15 years in the business has included more than six years of covering SEC sports and recruiting at a daily newspaper in Arkansas. He has also helped launch a newspaper, magazines, websites and even a sports talk radio show. Because Mike puts family ahead of his career, he left the place where he was established when his wife received an opportunity to further her career at UF. He took a leap of faith that he could find a job in the Gainesville area and worked for a year at a newspaper group before joining the Gator Country family in November, 2011. Mike has won Florida Press Association awards for Best Sports Game Story and Best Sports Feature Story in the past two years as well as a company-wide award at his former newspaper group that includes some 60 publications, for Excellence in Sports Reporting. You can follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeCapshawGC.