GAINESVILLE, Fla.—Editor's Note: Part of a series on Florida's top 10 athletes of 2008-09.
With 10 minutes left in the BCS National Championship Game and his team down by 3 but slowly marching down the field, Oklahoma's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Bradford launched a pass down the field to receiver Juaquin Iglesias.
Iglesias reached for the ball, and even got his hands on it, but it was Ahmad Black who came away with the interception at Florida’s 24-yard line. The safety’s team-high seventh pick of the year brought any momentum the Sooners might have been gaining to a grinding halt and set up an 11-play, nearly seven-minute touchdown drive that put the game out of reach.
And to think, Black was supposedly not a sure thing before the season started, just another question mark on a defensive unit that allowed 25.5 points per game in 2007.
Black started all 14 games for the Gators en route to the team’s second national championship in three years, and the improved secondary helped cut opponents’ offensive production nearly in half. UF gave up just 12.9 points per game in 2008.
After playing cornerback during his true freshman season, Black had to fill the spot at strong safety left vacant by Tony Joiner. Dorian Munroe, who was projected to start at that position, missed the entire 2008 season with an ACL injury.
In the season opener against Hawaii, Black intercepted two passes and returned one for his first touchdown at UF. Not bad for the 5-foot-9 then-sophomore’s first career start.
Nationally, Black finished the year tied for most interceptions (seven) and interceptions returned for touchdowns (two) as well as ranking second for most interception return yards (191). He also came in fourth on the team in tackles with 59 and fourth in passes broken up (five) behind fellow starters Joe Haden, Janoris Jenkins and Major Wright.
Those four — Haden, Jenkins, Black and Wright — started every game for UF and helped turn the Gators defense from a possible weak link into one of the surest things in college football.
In the Capital One Bowl, the last game of the 2007 season, Michigan tore up the Gators' secondary for 373 passing yards and three touchdowns. In the 2008 season, no team put up more than 300 passing yards on UF all season. The most was Georgia’s 292 on Nov. 1, the same game Black picked off a pass by Matthew Stafford and returned it 64 yards.
For turning in an exceptional season and playing a part in turning UF’s defense around, Ahmad Black is the alligatorSports No. 9 UF Athlete of 2008-09.
By the numbers
Black earned one fourth-place vote, one fifth-place vote, one 10th-place and was left off the other three ballots.
