Dooley’s Dozen: 12 best specialists in Florida football history

Here are the very best the Orange and Blue has had to offer on special teams over the course of history.

We hear all the time that football is about three things: offense, defense and special teams.

But as we watch SEC media days in Atlanta, did anyone else notice there are no special teamers invited among the 42 stars over four days?

Well, this is not unusual. I went back and looked at the last 10 SEC media days. There were four kickers and punters who made an appearance:

* Punter Drew Kaser of Texas A&M in 2014.

* Kicker Elliott Fry of South Carolina in 2015.

* Kicker Daniel Carlson of Auburn in 2017.

* Punter Braden Mann of Texas A&M in 2019.

Now, to be fair, there are players who have been invited and went on to make a mark on special teams, usually wide receivers who returned kicks in their spare time.

In many cases, there are coaches who right now have no real answer as to who will run back punts and kickoffs.

We all know how important special teams are and how mediocre they have been around Gainesville since Urban Meyer left. Which makes us long for the old days and pushed the Dooley’s Dozen to come up with the 12 best specialists in UF history.