You could say there was a season long hesitation for Florida head coach Dan Mullen when naming Martez Ivey the permanent Team Captain of the 2018 Gators. Mullen spent a good part of last December and most of this 2018 year to learn about his team. One thing he learned in the end was how important Martez Ivey was to the squad. After Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl win over Michigan Ivey got the designation from Mullen who said Ivey more than deserved it.

According to Mullen, Ivey has been a team favorite to be captain early on. That let the head man know that he had the respect of his teammates. What Ivey did in the next 12 months was prove it.

“Martez is a guy that has done everything great since the day we got here,” Mullen said after the 41-15 win over Michigan. “He (was) highly recruited, has played a lot of football here. I met with him last January. He made the decision to come back.

It was big for Florida that Ivey did return. He has plenty of reasons to leave. He would have been drafted, there were a lot of questions about the program, he didn’t know the coaching staff at all, the team was coming off of a 4-7 season… there were a lot. He had to choose between moving on and taking a chance with a new staff.

“I said, ‘hey, whatever you do, be all in in what you're doing’,” Mullen said of a conversation with Ivey. “I know he loves being a Gator, loves being a Florida Gator. I think he’s bought in from day one. He's a guy that has done everything correct in the classroom, done everything right for the team, has worked his tail off and has earned (it).”

Mullen was caught off guard with Ivey and some words he had with the young man lately.

“When a guy looks at you and said ‘Coach, I love the program. I wish I could come back for one more year and be part of the program for the future’. That's who he is and he represents the Gator Standard. For me, as a senior, that's why we selected him to be the team captain for the year.”

He means a lot to his teammates and maybe more as a leader of the group than anything.

“We voted on it early in the year, but I wasn't comfortable at that point,” Mullen said. “We kind of have game captains each week. To be honest with you, when we voted at the beginning of the year, he was the highest vote-getter at the beginning of the year and lived up to that through the entire season. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of everybody in the program and what they did and how they bought in.”

Ivey will now be recognized as the first permanent Team Captain in the tenure of Mullen. He made his mark in more ways than one and now he has been recognized for it.