Jake McGee granted sixth year

Jim McElwain and the Florida Gators are out on the recruiting trail trying to finish the 2015 recruiting cycle out strong but on Tuesday they may have gotten their biggest win of the offseason.

Senior tight end and Virginia transfer Jake McGee was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA, allowing him to play next season for the Gators.

“That is huge,” Max Garcia said of McGee getting another year in Gainesville. “It’s a huge testament to the NCAA, just saying that we care that he wants to pursue another year in college. There’s not a lot of people that want to do that. He could have easily said that he wanted to go to the draft but he wanted to stay.”

McGee transferred to Florida after graduating from Virginia but suffered a broken leg in the very first game of the season. McGee had hoped to spend one year in Gainesville as a graduate student before moving on to the NFL but he played just nine snaps before his season-ending injury. Former offensive coordinator Kurt Roper had planned to use McGee a lot in the offense and the senior tight end had earned the respect and admiration of his peers after just a few practices.

“You should have seen him in camp, unbelievable, he was catching everything,” Garcia said. “I was like who is this guy? I was so excited to see him play last season but unfortunately he had the injury.”

McGee’s status with the NCAA was unclear due to the fact that he used a redshirt during his freshman season at Virginia. Past Florida players like Andre Debose and Matt Patchan received this type of special waiver from the NCAA but it was well documented that injuries had forced them to miss time. It was not readily apparent that an injury had been the cause of McGee’s redshirt during his freshman season.

McGee is the biggest tight end that Florida will have on the roster next season and he instantly adds a dynamic element to the offense that Florida has lacked since Jordan Reed departed early from school to head to the NFL.

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

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