Pascagoula’s Shane Matthews once earned Southeastern Conference Player of the Year honors as a quarterback for the University of Florida.
Now, Matthews is returning to the Gator program in yet another capacity.
Matthews has joined the Florida football radio team as the full-time analyst, the University Athletic Association and Florida Gators Sports Properties announced recently.
Matthews provided color commentary on road games last season. Matthews and newly hired ‘Voice of the Gators’ Sean Kelly will be in their first season in the booth this fall, debuting on Sept. 3 when Florida hosts Utah in the season opener.
“It is a tremendous honor,” Matthews said. “I have big shoes to fill with Lee McGriff. He and Mick Hubert had great chemistry, but I’m excited for the new opportunity that I have with Sean Kelly and new era of Gators football.”
Matthews is replacing Lee McGriff, who was a staple in the Gators radio booth for 27 years and retired this past spring. Kelly replaces Hubert.
The former Gator standout quarterback threw for 74 touchdowns and over 9,000 passing yards in his collegiate career. He was the SEC Player of the Year in 1990 and 1991, finishing fifth in the Heisman during the 1991 season.
After signing with the Chicago Bears in 1993, Matthews went on to have a 13-year NFL career, playing for six different teams during that span.
Matthews first started to turn heads on the gridiron under the tutelage of his father, the late Bill Matthews, at Pascagoula High School in the mid-1980’s.
The father-son duo helped guide the Panthers to one of the greatest seasons ever in Mississippi prep football history in Shane’s senior season of 1987, as Pascagoula rolled to a perfect 14-0 mark and won the Class 5A state championship. That team set a school record for number of wins in a season in football that still stands today.
Matthews was named All-State, All-South, All-American and the Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year. He was selected to play in the first ever Alabama-Mississippi All Star Football Game.
Matthews was a three sport letterman at PHS, as he also played shortstop in baseball and forward in basketball.
He was inducted into the first-ever class of the Pascagoula High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015. He was inducted into the UF Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.
Matthews also hosts the “Pod Up With Matthews In The Morning” podcast Monday-Friday every week on YouTube and Facebook Live, and is on the “Inside the Huddle” radio show every Tuesday on ESPN 98.1 / 850 WRUF in Gainesville.
Pregame, halftime, and postgame show host and former Gators baseball player Jeff Cardozo and sideline reporter Tate Casey, who won the 2006 and 2008 BCS National Championships with Florida, will both return to their roles this season.
(Photo courtesy of The University of Florida Athletic Department)
