Gators offensive lineman Martez Ivey, once labeled as the top offensive tackle prospect in the country, will wait to hear his name called in the NFL Draft starting Thursday night. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/UAA Communications)
A New Frontier for Former Five-Stars Ivey and Jefferson
Wednesday, April 24, 2019 | Football, Scott Carter
Share:
By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – If there had been a seismograph inside the Florida football offices that day, it may have produced a Richter scale reading. On a National Signing Day with more uncertainties than usual for UF, this one continues to flicker in the memory.
For those in need of a reminder, Jim McElwain had only occupied the head coach's office for two months on Feb. 4, 2015. You could say the reception had been cold on the recruiting front.
On the morning in question, the Gators' class was ranked 42nd or lower by every major recruiting service. Rivals.com had it all the way down at No. 57 alongside neighbors such as Indiana and Rutgers.
Still, the mood inside the football office swirled somewhere between hopeful and optimistic considering that Florida's top two targets – five-star offensive lineman Martez Ivey and five-star defensive lineman Cece Jefferson – waited until later in the day to announce their college destinations on live television.
Both players were ranked among the top 10 recruits in the country according to the ESPN 300. Ivey ranked fifth overall and the No. 1 offensive tackle prospect. Jefferson checked in at No. 9 overall and the second-ranked defensive end.
If the Gators got both, they would win the day.
They won. The floor shook.
Soon after Ivey, a behemoth man-child out of Apopka High, made his decision known, Jefferson announced he would become a Gator. Jefferson then stayed committed as UF waited more than a day for his National Letter of Intent to arrive from somewhere near his rural Glen St. Mary home as the internet buzzed with rumors and innuendo.
Both players unpacked on campus a few months later to great fanfare and expectations. In their scouting reports on ESPN.com, recruiting analysts Gerry Hamilton and Craig Haubert wrote that Ivey most reminded them of former Alabama offensive lineman Cyrus Kouandjio, a second-round pick of the Bills in 2014. They compared Jefferson to ex-Gators defensive end Dante Fowler Jr., who in less than two months would be the third overall pick of the 2015 NFL Draft.
Four years later, Ivey and Jefferson will wait to hear their names called when the 2019 NFL Draft starts Thursday night in Nashville.
Both are living proof of how perception and reality often dance to different tunes. No one can claim Ivey or Jefferson as busts. Both had productive and successful careers with the Gators. They were constants during a stretch of continual change for the Gators, part of SEC East championship teams and a miserable 4-7 campaign.
Were they college stars? No. At least not in the sense of other notable five-star UF signees such as Chris Leak, Percy Harvin, Tim Tebow, Matt Elam and Vernon Hargreaves III.
Stalwarts is more apt.
Despite a rash of injuries that would have sidelined other players for extended periods, Ivey started 46 games over his four seasons and earned the respect of his teammates by being named a team captain his senior season. Knee and shoulder injuries delayed Ivey's development his first two seasons. He pushed himself in ways he never had.
"You had to be a grown man about it,'' Ivey said. "The last two years I've been clean, and I'm just a different player."
Jefferson played in 48 games – starting 26 prior to coming off the bench as a senior -- and totaled 34.5 tackles for loss over that span (10.5 sacks). He will be remembered as much for his infectious personality as his production on the field.
At UF's Pro Day last month, Jefferson struggled to gauge where he might land in the draft or whether he will be drafted at all. He showed up at the NFL Combine in February around 267 pounds, about 10 pounds heavier than his playing weight. He failed to impress in the athletic tests.
However, unlike teammate Jachai Polite, who struggled with the on-field portion of the combine and the interview process, Jefferson was confident he made a good impression.
Cece Jefferson performs a drill during UF's Pro Day last month. (Photo: Allison Curry/UAA Communications)
"If somebody is going to risk a draft pick, I want them to learn about the real me,'' he said. "No better way to do that than a face-to-face conversation in a private room."
As the draft's hype machine churned nonstop these past couple of months, Ivey and Jefferson have noticeably flown under the radar compared to their days as two of the state's most prominent recruits.
Gators offensive lineman Jawaan Taylor, a former three-star recruit, has drawn the most attention among the UF hopefuls. Taylor is projected to go high in the first round, real estate that once seemed reserved for Ivey.
Defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson's splendid junior season has him projected to go in either the second or third round, and Polite, whose breakout season in 2018 rendered Jefferson an afterthought on most Saturdays, appears likely to go in the first three rounds despite a less-than-stellar past few months. Running back Jordan Scarlett and linebacker Vosean Joseph are the other UF players considered good shots to get drafted in the later rounds. And don't rule out a team using a pick on hulking 6-foot-7 offensive lineman Fred Johnson.
Meanwhile, Ivey and Jefferson both plan to watch the draft unfold with family and friends. At 6-foot-5 and 315 pounds, with the athleticism to play inside or outside and a wingspan of 86 ¼ inches, Ivey figures to be selected somewhere between the third and seventh rounds. After years of being in the spotlight, Ivey's draft status is oddly somewhat of a mystery.
"This isn't going to stop me,'' he said. "It's the best out there, the best in the world. I'd like to keep that same ceiling."
Once again, they are dancing with perception vs. reality. They arrived at UF as stars. Five-stars. They enter the draft as underdogs. They can live with that.
Sometime over the next three days Ivey and Jefferson will find out their new reality. Nothing but a couple of new guys in search of their place.
"This is exactly how my dream went,'' Jefferson said.
