South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Gators star tight end Pitts wins John Mackey Award
Junior is 2nd UF player to win award
GAINESVILLE — A season after Kyle Pitts was snubbed, the Florida Gators star earned the prestigious 2020 John Mackey Award.
The honor is presented to the nation’s best tight end.
Pitts was was left off last year’s list of semifinalists for the prestigious award named after NFL Hall of Famer John Mackey.
This season, Pitts left nothing to chance.
“Not winning it last year kind of put a chip on my shoulder,” Pitts said Thursday after earning the award. “That was something I took into the offseason. That was something I wrote in my room, in my locker. ... I kept that in the back of my mind in order to win this great achievement.”
Established in 2000, the award is chosen by a selection committee comprised of sportswriters, former players and and former Mackey Award winners. The two other finalists were Iowa State’s Charlier Kolar and Texas A&M’s Jalen Wydermeyer.
Pitts joined the late Aaron Hernandez (2009) as the only Gators to win the Mackey Award.
Pitts ran away with the
2020 award, beginning Week 1 with a four-touchdown day at Ole Miss. He finished the season with
12 scoring grabs, a school record at the position, on just 43 receptions.
Playing seven full games due to injuries, Pitts recorded 770 receiving yards, averaging 17.9 yards per catch, and closed his career with consecutive
100-yard games. During the SEC title game against Alabama, Pitts caught seven passes for 129 yards and a touchdown during a 52-46 loss to the top-ranked Crimson Tide.
Pitts was named firstteam All-America by the Associated Press, Walter Camp Football Foundation, Sporting News, the Football Writers Association of America and the American Football Coaches Association, making the 6-foot-6,
240-pounder a unanimous All-America selection. Linebacker Brandon Spikes (2008) and cornerbacks Joe Haden (2009) and Vernon Hargreaves III
(2015) are the only other Florida players to ever earn the distinction.
A 2019 All-SEC selection as a sophomore, Pitts totaled 97 catches for 1,419 yards and 17 scores the past two seasons.
Pitts declared for the NFL draft last month and is expected to be a top-10 selection in the spring.