David Jones

GAINESVILLE – They are brothers on a mission.

One has the battle scars of two surgeries, feeling the pain of shattered expectations.

The other walks along the sidewalk in front of the Florida Gators football stadium and sees his father's name on the concrete among the other former first-team All-Americans that have played on the grass inside and has his own pressures to excel.

Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor have averaged just a little under five yards every time they've run with the football in their brief college careers. They are, along with senior Mack Brown, the heart and soul of the Florida running game. Jones and Taylor have been the focus of new offensive coordinator Kurt Roper's offense, which will be on display for the first time with the Gators at 7 p.m. against Idaho.

There's so much hope, so much expectation and dreams of greatness for his two star backs. In a normal situation, it could cause a lot of tension. Everybody wants to start.

Jones and Taylor want the ball. A lot. They are battling for it. But rather than consider themselves rivals they call each other a brother fighting for a common cause. And the two have set a goal for 2014. They want to get 1,000 yards rushing. Each.

There have only been 10 in the history of the program. Mike Gillislee was the last, in 2012. There have been just three go over that mark since 1997 — the year Kelvin's dad, Fred, had almost 1,300.

But neither wants to be No. 11 alone. They want it for each other.

“I feel like we work very well together. Matt, that’s like my brother, like my bigger brother. We just help each other out,” Taylor said. “We definitely cheer for each other, we like to see each other do great and we help each other out the best we can. If Matt misses a hole I’ll be like, ‘dang big bro, you could have cut back.’ ”

Jones laughs. He actually loves the critique.

“He does the same thing to me: ‘Lil bro, you should have cut back,’ ” Tayor recalls.

Are there enough carries for both to be happy?

“Yes sir,” Taylor said. “We’re just very excited to see each other get back out there on the field together and just have a great year together; cheer each other on and that’s what we’re going to do with all of our back, me, Mack Brown, all of us. We’re going to cheer each other on and we’re going to have a great year.”

If Florida has two backs go over 100 yards in the same game it would be rare air in Gainesville. Only once has Florida had multiple backs go over 100 yards in consecutive games — in 1996 vs. LSU and Auburn.

Fred Taylor and Eli Williams did it together that season — which was also Florida's first national title season in school history — ironically in a pass happy offense during the Steve Spurrier era.

The Gators had two backs go over 100 yards three times in the same season just once — in 2008, UF's second national championship during Urban Meyer's tenure.

The formula of piling up multiple 100-yard backs is tried and true. Do it and you have a very good team.

“We both know what we can do, what we’re capable of,” Jones said. “We know we’re competing, but both of us, we’re boys. Its football and only one guy can get on the field at one time. So its okay, you know.

“As soon as we see like a mistake (by the other) in our game, we’ll kind of correct it. “I’ll be like ‘bro you missed the backside cut’ or ‘bro you missed that blitz.’ It’s just like dang man we’ve got to finish the day with an excellent day — no mistakes, no nothing. And we kind of coach each other like that through the day. We just help each other. We’re competing, but we’re cool with competing. It ain’t nothing to us competing. Competing is nothing.”

Jones and Taylor have their own motivations.

Florida coaches said a light came on for Jones during his freshman season and it's brighter now. Taylor went through the same growing process, struggling at times with pass coverage that kept him off the field early.

Now they are older, wiser and healthier at the same time. Time to make history? The brothers take the field today hungry. Starving. It could get scary if both perform like they are capable.

“I mean, this year we could be a 1,000-yard, both of us could go for 1,000 yards,” Taylor said. “We just gotta keep working hard and I feel like me and Matt can do that, yes.”