Ouch! Gators lose Easley to ACL tear

Published on Wednesday, 9/25/13, at 12:25 p.m. Eastern.
Updated on Wednesday, 9/25/13, at 8:13 p.m. Eastern.

By Brian Edwards

Florida lost its only quarterback with experience last Saturday when junior Jeff Driskel went down with a broken tibia. But Tyler Murphy looked decent in leading UF to a 31-17 win over Tennessee, and this 2013 team is built on defense.

In fact, the Gators probably have the best defense in America. So the loss of Driskel, assuming Murphy stays healthy and looks like he did against the Volunteers, hasn’t completely destroyed the hopes of returning to Atlanta for the first time since 2009.

But lightning struck in Gainesville again yesterday when inspirational leader Dominique Easley suffered a non-contact knee injury. As twitter rumors of a season-ending ACL tear swirled this morning, Will Muschamp joined the SEC teleconference and called it a “tweak” that would keep him out of practice today.

Muschamp added, “We think he’ll be fine. We just need more information. We’re going through that process right now.”

But moments later, Easley sent out this tweet, “Gatornation thank you for all of 4 yrs of sticking with me but God has something else planned for have no worries #believe”

And this afternoon the horrible news was confirmed: Easley is done for the season with a torn ACL. If there’s any semblance of a bright side, it’s that UF is incredibly deep on the defensive line.

But Easley was enjoying a monster season through three games and was well on his way to garnering first-team All-American honors. He’ll be sorely missed.

Florida is a 13-point favorite Saturday at Kentucky. UF has beaten UK in 26 straight head-to-head meetings.