#71 Michael Wayne Pearson of Seffner, Florida played offensive tackle for Steve Spurrier’s Florida Gators from 1998-2001. He was a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection, two-time bowl game starter (2001 Orange Bowl and 2000 Sugar Bowl), first-team All SEC in 2000 and 2001, Consensus All-American in 2001, and member of the 2000 SEC championship team. He also won the James W. Kynes Award as the lineman who “best exemplified mental and physical toughness and iron-man determination”. Pearson was a 2nd-round draft pick for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2002, where he played until he was injured in 2005. He played for the CFL Toronto Argonauts in 2007 before finally retiring from football. He was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a Gator Great in 2013.
