Florida freshmen Vernell Brown III and Jayden Woods both received Freshman All-SEC Honors, as announced by the conference Dec. 11.
Brown earned three different honors at three different positions: Wide receiver, all-purpose and return specialist. This marks the first time a Gator freshman collected three All-SEC honors and the fifth time an SEC player has done so. He became the first to do so since Kentucky's Barion Brown in 2022.
He played 10 games for the Gators this season, making six starts at wide receiver. He paced UF with 40 catches and 512 receiving yards on 58 targets. That earned him a 67.2 receiving grade from Pro Football Focus.
Brown also served as Florida's primary return specialist, adding 261 yards on 19 total returns. He earned an 68.3 PFF return rating, including a 84.7 grade on his 12 punt returns.
Overall, Brown racked up 773 all-purpose yards, good for fifth in the nation among true freshmen and second among true freshmen wide receivers.
Woods, meanwhile, appeared in all 12 of Florida's games during his debut season. He added 28 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 5 tackles for loss, an interception and two quarterback hurries. His sack total was tied for the Florida team lead.
Overall, Woods earned a 72.0 PFF grade, including a 73.3 pass rushing grade. He recorded 17 overall pressures, per the site.
Florida was one of nine SEC teams to have multiple selections.
Contact Max Bernstein at mbernstein@alligator.org. Follow him on X @maxbernstein23.
Max is in his sixth semester at The Alligator and now serves as The Alligator's Football Reporter and is a junior sports journalism student. He previously served as The Alligator's Sports Editor, and served as reporter for women's tennis, volleyball and lacrosse. He also has made multiple appearances on the Paul Finebaum Show. He wants to shoutout his cats, Scooter and Zoe, and niche former Florida Panthers players (shoutout Tomas Kopecky).
