Junior college transfer Dre Massey will miss the remainder of the season following a knee injury he sustained during Florida’s 24-7 win over UMass in the season opener.
Massey injured his knee during his 21-yard return of the opening kickoff. Despite the injury, Massey played the remainder of the first half.
“Dre did it on the very opening kickoff and played all the way through halftime on something that needs to be surgically repaired,” McElwain said. “That showed his toughness and his want to do what he can for this football team. The same thing with D-Mac. A lot of guys would have said ‘you know what, I think I’m good.’”
Massey, who spent the past two years at Holmes Community College, had his mother in attendance Saturday night. It was the first time she had been able to see her son play since his senior season of high school in Greenville, South Carolina.
“There’s obviously a disappointment anytime something like that happens,” Jim McElwain said on Monday. “And yet, the beautiful thing about teammates, family is they’re there to support, elevate, pick him up. That’s what we saw. He had a lot of family members here too for the first time. I know it was disappointing for him.”
Massey was projected to be a versatile player for the Gators on special teams as well as at receiver.
The Gators went into the game with only six wide receivers. C.J. Worton (ankle), Tyrie Cleveland (suspension) and Rick Wells (suspension) were all unavailable.
With Massey out for the rest of the season the Gators will need to find production elsewhere. That starts with getting the three aforementioned receivers back into the fold, as well as shifting roles among the group and even utilizing new personal groupings.
“The biggest thing, as I said earlier, it really depends on those three guys we mentioned coming back from injury and where that sits,” McElwain said. “I’ll know a little more on Wednesday, when I kind of see what we have and what parts we have. Obviously our use of multiple running backs, which we haven’t really done a ton of in the past, is something you’ll see more of.”
McElwain was disappointed with the Gators’ lack of explosive plays last Saturday. Losing Massey for the season won’t help in that department. Now Mac is tasked with finding someone who can help give the offense the spark Massey was going to.
Tough break for Dre. Hope he can get all fixed up and return strong next year. Tough pill to swallow. Some of Mac’s comments,about support from family and teammates hopefully will comfort him. Now, in the meantime, others need to step up bigtime. Go Gators.