Is Kyle Pitts the Greatest Tight End In Florida Gators History? The Numbers Say Yes.
Is Kyle Pitts the greatest tight end in Florida Gators history?
The numbers alone would seem to say so. The junior was named the winner of the Mackey Award on Thursday night, annually awarded to the nation’s best tight end, something he set out to do after being left off the finalist list following his sophomore (2019) season.
“Not winning it last year kinda put a chip on my shoulder,” Pitts admitted during the ESPN broadcast of the College Football Awards Show.
“That was something I took into the offseason. That was something I wrote in my room, in my locker as something I have to win this year."
He also became the first tight end in college football history to be nominated for the Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation’s best receiver (which was won by Alabama’s DeVonta Smith).
Pitts was the first tight end ever to be named a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, the first Gator to be named a finalist since Jabar Gaffney in 2001 and the fifth Gator overall to be named a finalist joining Gaffney (2001), Jacquez Green (1997), Reidel Anthony (1996) and Jack Jackson (1994).
Pitts also became the first unanimous first-team All-American since Vernon Hargreaves III in 2015. Both Pitts and Hargreaves were named AFCA, AP, FWAA, Sporting News and Walter Camp First Team All-Americans.
Pitts quickly became the best tight end and one of the top pass catchers in the country this season with 43 receptions, 770 yards and 12 touchdowns—and this despite missing three games with injury. He had no drops on any target.
Pitts’ 12 receiving touchdowns this season were the second-highest total by a tight end in Southeastern Conference history. Vanderbilt’s Allama Matthews (14 in 1982) holds the SEC record. His 770 yards this year ties Kirk Kirkpatrick (1990) for second on Florida’s single-season record list for receiving yards by a tight end.
He led the trio of himself, Trevon Grimes and Kadarius Toney that gave UF the only trio in the country with at least nine touchdowns and more than 500 yards a piece.
The junior—who has declared for the NFL Draft—is the first tight end in Gators history and the eighth FBS tight end in the last five years (including 2020) with three games of 100-plus receiving yards in the same season.
His receiving prowess is incredible and also an indication of how offenses are changing. Tight ends have always been an interesting tool for coaches, given their ability to both block and pass catch. But the latter has always been used more as a gimmick to keep defenses on their toes as opposed to a legitimate threat.
But Kyle Pitts…he was a legitimate threat. As mentioned, he never dropped a pass this season. His catches often came in double if not triple coverage. Teams knew what they had to do to stop him and still couldn’t.
“He’s kind of a unicorn,” remarked Head Coach Dan Mullen at the beginning of the season.
“So unless you have a unicorn on defense to match the unicorn on offense – you’ve got to have a guy that, there’s not a lot of them out there, they’re kind of very, very rare to ever see one – do you have a 6-foot-4, 240-pound linebacker than can run with him?”
Pitts commented on ESPN’s presentation of the awards show on Thursday that linebackers were his favorite position to match up against because he knew they would’t be able to guard him. But that’s the only answer most defenses had. Corners aren’t typically the size or trained to match up against a big bodied tight end. But linebackers couldn’t keep up with the speed and litheness Pitts displayed.
Despite his tremendous pass catching ability, after losing out on the Mackey last year, Pitts knew he needed to work on every aspect of his game if he wanted to be an all-around tight end.
On Thursday night, Larry Scott—Pitts former tight end coach at Florida and current head coach at Howard University—tweeted his recollection of those conversations.
“Remember all the long conversations about how bad you wanted this moment and the work it would take to get here. Congratulations you earned it. So proud of the player you’re becoming, but more importantly the man. The journey has just started. Stay process driven and let god lead.”
And back at the beginning of September, Tim Brewster—Pitts tight end coach with the Gators this past season—gave reporters a glimpse into the work his star pupil was putting in to become the best of the best.
“We’re very, very fortunate to have a guy like Kyle Pitts. I coached a bunch of really good tight ends, had the pleasure of helping development Antonio Gates. And the thing about Kyle Pitts that I absolutely love is this guy’s a tough guy. I mean, this guy’s a hard-nosed, physical, tough guy.
“He has embraced the mentality that I’m bringing to the room, truly trying to be a true three-down tight end, a guy that can block people on first and second down, a guy that can go make big-time, third-down catches. There’s nothing that this guy can’t do now. I’m going to tell you what: there’s talk about him being a big wide receiver, this and that. I’m going to tell you: this guy is a complete guy.”
Before the season kicked off against Ole Miss, Pitts warned opponents that he had evolved his game.
“I knew people questioned, so I want to make sure that starting Saturday there will be no questions about that…because I came from receiver, that that’s the first thing they think. But I came here as a tight end, and some things happened my freshman year where Coach Mullen didn’t want to redshirt me, so he gave me the chance to still touch the field a little bit and play. So, when I came back to tight end, people kind of thought I wasn’t really ready for that, but, I would say the past is the past and this year will be totally different.”
And as the season wore on, it became apparent his work had paid off, something Mullen noticed right away.
“He’s got tremendous athletic ability to go catch the ball, and as I think everybody saw, he’s really developed much better as a blocker this offseason. When you combine those things defensively, who do you put on him?”
Teams had no answer, leaving us with an even bigger question, one posed at the top.
Is Kyle Pitts the best tight end in Florida Gators history?
As UAA noted, Pitts is the second tight end in school history to win the Mackey Award, joining a Gators tight end who won the award in 2009. Ben Troupe (2003) and Jake McGee (2015) were named finalists in their respective years.
The Florida Gators athletic program infamously refers to a certain past player as “a former Gators tight end from 2007-2009.”
It’s almost become a joke, the complete unwillingness to say Aaron Hernandez’s name, but also understandable given the—you know—triple homicide. But this past season, the UAA has repeatedly had to refer to “a former Gators tight end” as another player—Pitts—continued to near, tie and then surpass Hernandez’s records.
So in a sense, perhaps that’s another accomplishment to add to what has become a long list in Pitts accolades; he usurped the name Florida won’t even mention, meaning they can now move on and only refer to Kyle Pitts when referencing Gator greats.
Someone one day will eventually come along and break Kyle Pitts’ records. They’re made to be broken. But that day is likely far off. And at least for this day, we can fairly confidently say—in more ways than one—that Kyle Pitts is the greatest tight end in Florida Gators history.
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