Florida's 48 for 2014, No. 24: Who? MATT JONES!

Matt Jones was never healthy in 2013.

He missed Florida's opener (and fall practice) while recovering from the viral infection that left him hospitalized and underweight. He returned for the Miami game, but looked slow, tentative, and generally like a husk of the player everyone — not just the people that "read a lot into late carries against Florida State in 2012" who seem to me to live only in commenters' minds, but I digress — thought had the potential to be Florida's bellcow entering last fall.

Jones was average against Tennessee, then trampled Kentucky, then was average again against Arkansas, and then suffered a season-ending torn meniscus against LSU that got some people talking about whether Jones would ever be the same again.

News flash from fall practices: Jones looks more or less like the bruising, physical runner that rampaged through FSU's secondary on that night in Tallahassee. And his hands look to be the best of Florida's deep running back corps, which likely presages a season spent catching passes out of the backfield.

He won't be Florida's starting running back, I don't think, not with Kelvin Taylor having edges on him in vision, elusiveness, and quickness, but Jones will be a load and a force again — or, maybe, for the first time — this fall.

And I CANNOT WAIT for his first big play.

You may hear my "WHO? MATT JONES!" from your seat at home.