Gators LB Matt Rolin re-tears ACL, out for season

By Adam Silverstein
August 9, 2013

The Florida Gators’ summer of woes continue as, for the second time in as many days, a player has been lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Florida announced Friday that freshman linebacker Matt Rolin, who was expected to contribute as a reserve for the Gators this year, re-tore his previously injured ACL on Wednesday and will miss the entire 2013 campaign.

“Non-contact situation again,” head coach Will Muschamp said of Rolin’s knee injury. “Planted on his knee, same knee he had surgery on coming out of high school when he was in Virginia.

“[Rolin is] a guy that was making tremendous progress for us, was going to play for us this year, was going to be on special teams, was going to be a back-up Sam linebacker. Still got a tremendous future here at the University of Florida. He’s going to be a really good football player. He’s physical, he’s tough, he’s smart.”

Rolin initially suffered the injury as a high schooler in Nov. and had surgery performed on his ACL by South Carolina doctors. He committed to USC on May 25 and was a pledge at the time of his surgery but decided to flip to UF on Dec. 9.

Though he enrolled early at Florida, Rolin did not practice in the spring. He was supposed to be cleared early in fall camp but will now have to watch from the sidelines for the remainder of the year and prepare to get on the field in 2014.

The four-star prospect from Ashburn, VA, was expected to see a good amount of action as the Gators’ linebacking depth had been depleted via graduation and players declaring for the 2013 NFL Draft.

“Somethings in life just aren’t fair,” Rolin tweeted at approximately 2 p.m. on Thursday.

Four hours later he added: “Its depressing when you work harder than you ever have in your life to get back to playing the sport you love and you find out it’s [for] nothin.”

Florida redshirt senior wide receiver/kick returner Andre Debose was diagnosed with a torn ACL on Wednesday and will also miss the entire 2013 season.

4 Comments

  1. Michael Jones says:

    Man, what a heartbreak. Poor kid. Good luck, Matt! Hang in there, buddy, and we’ll see you out on the field next year!! GO GATORS!!!

  2. Joe says:

    Maybe it’s time to look at a different surface for the practice field, different shoes, cutting the grass lower, different drills or something. We’ve just can’t keep losing players to season ending knee injuries at the rate we are . I know it’s the Lacrosse field and I don’t remember many Lacrosse players tearing their ACL’s but to have 2 players go down in 2 days points to something other than just dumb luck.

  3. Danthefan says:

    Certainly has been a “summer of woes” injury-wise.

    We’ve got depth, so men will up it.

    Hope that Andre & Matt power through and are healthy for 2014.

    GO GATORS!!!

  4. Gatorfan says:

    Why does Fla keep having this problem? Year after year this happens. I have to think the trainers are not doing their jobs

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