Elam, Gillislee earn weekly honors

Florida’s Matt Elam and Mike Gillislee have picked up Southeastern Conference weekly honors after their performances in the Gators’ 14-6 upset win against LSU at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday.

Gillislee was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week after rushing 34 times for 146 yards and both of the Gators’ touchdowns. He also was named the National Player of the Week by the Walter Camp Foundation. It was the most rushing yards by an individual player against LSU since 2010.

Elam was named the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week after leading the team with seven tackles, including one for a loss. He also made a touchdown-saving tackle and forced a fumble in the fourth quarter that proved to be the play of the game.

LSU’s Kevin Minter was selected as the other SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week. His 20 tackles in a losing effort were the most by an SEC player this season and his 17 solo stops set a school record.

No. 4 Florida (5-0 overall, 4-0 in SEC play) travels to Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday to play Vanderbilt. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

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.