From the first time Jonathan Greenard stepped onto the field sporting the orange and blue it was clear he was going to be special.

The grad transfer from Louisville only played eleven games with Florida, but his name is one that won’t be forgotten by Gator Nation.

“This is a dream school coming up,” he said. “To get the opportunity to play with these boys and actually fit in, it also makes you up your game a little bit when you see these guys at every position. The best of the best, and we're the best conference in the country, as well, so to play day in and day out like this, it was a no-brainer to come down here and it has been great ever since.”

He’s known for his ability to get to the quarterback and he did that nine and a half times this season, setting a personal record for himself. But that’s not good enough for this hungry linebacker.

“I still want to get double-digit sacks,” he said.

He racked up 50 total tackles this season, 26 solo, and was a defining part of Florida’s impressive pass rush this season.

He came to Florida with an ankle injury he knew could be a problem. He was a risk for Dan Mullen, but he was a risk worth taking.

On Monday night, Greenard had to push through some pain. He was seen limping off the field a few times in the win over Virginia, but he always came back on the field.

“The ankle injury, it's always going to be there,” said Greenard. “But when you've got teammates like this, they're behind your back. It's a hard decision for me not to play. That's not even in my character, so I'm going to give all I got.”

“I went through a 2-10 season last year,” he added. “Him giving me an opportunity coming off an injury, not knowing what to expect from me with this injury.”

Before Florida, he had never won a bowl game, never seen an eleven-win season, never had a chance to play in the Orange Bowl. But UF gave him that, and he gave his all in return.

“I knew from day one when I got here what this team could possibly do,” he said. “This is my first win and it felt great to go out with these boys. It's everything. I thank Coach Mullen, Coach Grantham, everybody for bringing me in.”

He was a huge part of Mullen’s turnaround of the program and recognizes this team isn’t done yet.

“I'm looking at what they've got coming back, they can do more,” he said. “I'm excited. I mean, this is only just the beginning of it, honestly. We keep building, we got 11 wins, which is really difficult. A couple plays this year and we would've been right where we wanted. Next year, they are just going to capitalize off of that, understand where we were this past year, and National Championship in my eyes, so we've got that in our eyes now.”