Florida tight end DeAndre Goolsby looks poised for breakout season

DeAndre Goolsby is on the cusp of something great. He has done all the right things to put himself in this position.

The junior at the University of Florida is on the preseason Mackey Award watch list, given annually to the nation’s best tight end.

He has the size (6-foot-4, 246 pounds) and speed that NFL teams covet and, should he deliver this season, will likely be a prospect in next year’s NFL Draft, which will come a couple months shy of the Derby High product’s 21st birthday.

But questions remain. About his maturity. About his sometimes mercurial nature. About last season’s 41-7 Citrus Bowl loss to Michigan.

He is, for the most part, willing to take those questions head on.

“I guess I’m still kind of young, but I feel like an older guy on the field at this point,” Goolsby said. “I do feel like my maturity level has changed over the last two years, and I think a lot of that has come from being around good players and seeing how they do things.

“I wouldn’t say my attitude has changed, because I still have the same goals and the same approach to football and getting better. I still want to go out and get it.”

Goolsby picked Florida over Ohio State, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas State, among others, and enrolled at Florida in January 2014 after leading Derby to its first Class 6A title since 1994.

He played his freshman year under Will Muschamp, who was fired after the Gators went 7-5, but has thrived in new coach Jim McElwain’s airborne offense.

Last season, Goolsby caught 17 passes for 277 yards and one touchdown in mostly a backup role to sixth-year senior Jake McGee. The Gators went 10-4 and won the SEC East.

“I love playing for (McElwain), I love that he’s a players coach and is always around, always involved,” Goolsby said. “He has such a great background with offense and the schemes he comes up with for tight ends.”

Goolsby put on six pounds of muscle since the end of last season thanks partially to a revamped diet, and has tried to make himself a factor as a blocker. McElwain praised Goolsby’s blocking in the spring.

“I just started reading some things about nutrition and got into meal prep and stuff like that,” Goolsby said. “Just kind of changed up my approach to what I ate and stayed dedicated to the weight room like I always have … lots of chicken, lots of pasta, lots of tuna and different kinds of fish.

“As far as blocking, I guess it does help when you go against one of the top defenses in the country every day in practice. We’ve got some pretty tough defensive ends, and even when you get past them to block to the next level (of the defense), there’s linebackers who are a lot to handle.”

But for all the progress Goolsby made last season, a lot of that goodwill seemed to go by the wayside after the Citrus Bowl. Goolsby took his fair share of heat after the 34-point loss for dropping two passes in place of an injured McGee. One was on a wide-open post pattern.

Florida lost three straight games to end the season — to Florida State, eventual national champion Alabama in the SEC championship game and to Michigan.

“I didn’t play the best I could (in the Citrus Bowl),” Goolsby said. “But I didn’t get down on myself. It helped that we started working again the next week. I don’t really let what people say get to me. I need to play to my potential, bottom line.”

One thing Goolsby has working in his favor is a strong support system in his family, who make the trip from Kansas to Gainesville for every home game. His father, Brian Goolsby, is a Dodge City native who played fullback for Kansas State on some of the Wildcats’ great teams of the late 1990s.

“We feel like we kind of live in the airport during football season,” Brian Goolsby said. “It’s kind of weird for me because he’s still so young, not even 21 yet, but I think his head is on straight as far as his goals and what he wants to achieve.

“The criticism is what comes with playing major college sports. You have to take the good with the bad and understand that when you play good, they’ll notice, and when you mess up, they’ll notice that, too. As his father, I’ve talked to him about not being focused and understanding you can’t just show up, which is something I don’t think he’s just learned on his own, but the whole team learned after (the Michigan game). If anything, I think it’s made him more motivated.”

That much is evident. Florida opens the season on Sept. 3 at home against Massachusetts.

“We’re definitely looking for an SEC championship again,” DeAndre Goolsby said. “We put a lot of pride in winning ballgames around here. As long as we do what’s right, we feel like we can win another title.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Florida tight end DeAndre Goolsby looks poised for breakout season."