Where is all this hate for Matt Jones coming from?
Did you guys miss Matt Jones' game against FSU in 2012? 8 carries for 81 yards and a TD. Going into that game, FSU's D was very highly ranked (top 3 in the nation I think). He runs a little too straight up and down for me, but that didn't hurt Alabama's Eddie Lacey or Derrick Henry (that's why I didn't draft Lacey in my fantasy league last year, figured him for a bust because of that style, he's proved me wrong so far).
Look, I like Kelvin Taylor a lot and I get that he was the lone bright spot in an otherwise dismal 2013 but it's not like we started a relative stiff like Mack Brown. Matt Jones looked like a deer in the headlights early in 2012 but by the end of the season he showed that he can play.
Don't let your love for Kelvin Taylor or your hate for Will Muschamp metastasize into irrational disdain for a young student athlete busting his ass to help our team succeed. The kid deserves your respect. He has earned it. Some of you are talking about him like he's a Cane or a Dawg. He's a Gator dammit.
I remember a Gator backfield including Neal Anderson, Lorenzo Hampton, and John L. WIlliams. I'm sure if there was a GCMB back then somebody would be screaming that John L. Williams' first step was too slow and Hampton should have gotten all the carries and the coaches are idiots.
Can we please support Kelvin Taylor AND Matt Jones? Can we wait to see how they perform on the field behind THIS offensive line and in THIS offensive system before destroying them on their own team's message board? Look, if Jones plays like a stiff, then by all means you can vent your frustrations (like we did with Emmanuel Moody, like we did with John Brantley, like we did with Mack Brown). But for the love of all that is Orange & Blue, at least wait until he's had a chance to prove himself on the field.
https://www.news-press.com/story/sp...ors-running-backs-want-make-history/14830133/
GAINESVILLE – They are brothers on a mission.
One has the battle scars of two surgeries, feeling the pain of shattered expectations.
The other walks along the sidewalk in front of the Florida Gators football stadium and sees his father's name on the concrete among the other former first-team All-Americans that have played on the grass inside and has his own pressures to excel.
Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor have averaged just a little under five yards every time they've run with the football in their brief college careers. They are, along with senior Mack Brown, the heart and soul of the Florida running game. Jones and Taylor have been the focus of new offensive coordinator Kurt Roper's offense, which will be on display for the first time with the Gators at 7 p.m. against Idaho.
There's so much hope, so much expectation and dreams of greatness for his two star backs. In a normal situation, it could cause a lot of tension. Everybody wants to start.
Jones and Taylor want the ball. A lot. They are battling for it. But rather than consider themselves rivals they call each other a brother fighting for a common cause. And the two have set a goal for 2014. They want to get 1,000 yards rushing. Each.
Alex.