BROCK BERLIN – QUARTERBACK
Quarterback Brock Berlin was the highest-rated recruit for a head coach known for his ability to get the most out of his passing talent. Unfortunately, his mentor, Steve Spurrier, only stuck around in Gainesville for a couple of years before bolting to the NFL to take over Washington D.C.’s team. Berlin also departed along the same timeline.
Despite the long pedigree of success behind center in Gainesville, the talented gunslinger out of Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana, was the most highly-touted quarterback in Florida recruiting history coming out of high school, earning a five-star rating from 247Sports while being ranked second overall in the nation and first at both his position and his home state. His nearly perfect overall score of 0.9998 is the second-best ever for the Orange and Blue.
His two years at Florida were mostly underwhelming, though the team won 10 games in both seasons. He only saw action in 12 games over the two years before he sought greener pastures with the Miami Hurricanes. He went undrafted in 2005 after his senior season but was signed to a free-agent contract by the Miami Dolphins, with whom he served as a backup quarterback during training camp before being shipped off to the Hamburg Sea Devils of the NFL Europe League.
Berlin came back to the United States in 2007 and signed with the Dallas Cowboys to be their third-string quarterback. He was released 13 days later. A week later, he signed with the then-St. Louis Rams and played there for two seasons. He started one of 16 games he appeared in before his NFL career sputtered out. After a stint on the Detroit Lions‘ practice squad in 2009, he finally called it quits.