Florida football: 5 great players who didn’t live up to the NFL hype

For about 20 years, Florida was the gold standard for quarterbacking in the SEC. It helped to have Steve Spurrier there, running the Fun ‘n Gun and setting bewildered SEC secondaries ablaze with innovative passing concepts. Though most of Florida’s star quarterbacks never really amounted to much in the NFL, one guy who may have been overrated in school was Shane Matthews.

See, Matthews was the first quarterback to benefit from Spurrier’s Fun ‘n Gun offense. Spurrier arrived back in Gainesville during Matthews’ sophomore season at Florida. He rattled off three straight All-SEC First-Team nods, taking home SEC Player of the Year in 1990 and 1991, including a conference championship in 1991. Matthews could really sling it, but the NFL wasn’t buying it.

He went undrafted out of Florida, though it was a different era of NFL football. Though he carved out a solid 14-year career in the league predominantly as a backup and primarily with the Chicago Bears, Matthews always had the feel of an overachiever who benefited tremendously from a great coach. His determination helped him stay in the league but never thrived in it.

Matthews retired as a member of the 2006 Miami Dolphins. Then in 2017, Matthews pled guilty for his role in a healthcare fraud scandal set up by his former Florida teammate Monty Grow. While he did serve some time, Matthews has gone into relative anonymity as a high school coach in the Gainesville area. Though a Florida legend, Matthews was clearly a product of the Fun ‘n Gun.