The Florida Gators football program continues to find itself in the news for all the wrong reasons as of late. With 10 players now suspended for the season opener against Michigan, nearly the entire college football world has had something to say about it.
Florida will open up without its top playmaker, wide receiver Antonio Callaway, No. 1 running back Jordan Scarlett, offensive lineman Kadeem Telfort, wide receivers Rick Wells, linebackers James Houston and Ventrell Miller, and defensive linemen Richerd Desir-Jones, Nick Smith and Keivonnis Davis, all due to an ongoing investigation for misusing school funds.
Miller and wide receiver James Robinson were cited for drug possession recently as well, adding onto the preseason misconduct.
That’s one-tenth of the team out of commission for the first game of the season. Former LSU and NFL defensive end, and current SEC Nation cohost, Marcus Spears gave some insight on the situation.
Despite there only being two incidents at the root of the 10 suspensions, many have directed criticism towards head coach Jim McElwain, even going as far as to say he has lost control of his program. As someone who has seen similar situations unfold first-hand, Spears thinks that type of accusation is completely out of line.
“Players lose control over programs,” said Spears. “Look, some guys are just who they are. This is Antonio’s second or third run in, so that’s not a Mac problem. That’s not a coach on that coaching staff’s problem. That’s Antonio Callaway’s problem. They’re just doing what they have to do to have them pay the consequences for breaking team rules. That lack of institutional control B.S. sometimes to me is so overrated, because players really dictate the climate on football teams.”
“The fact that McElwain is suspending dudes, your best player, the fact that he’s coming out and being in the forefront about it, that’s control,” he continued. “We’re saying that the action is lack of control, but we’re not giving control to the consequences. The consequences is the control. What more can he do? He can’t put them over his knee and spank them. You don’t want to cut them, because most of these coaches care about these dudes. They want them to be better and have a chance to correct themselves.”
While the coaches obviously want the best for their players and to give them the opportunity to better themselves, several of the suspended players are second or third time offenders. The question then becomes, when is a line drawn? How many chances does a player get to make a change?
This not only affects the perception of the program, but also the players who are working hard and doing the right things every day.
“Let’s be clear, these are decisions now,” said Spears. “They’re not mistakes. I hate when people say that. The first time might’ve been a mistake. You might be young. These are decisions now. So, that part of it, as probably a leader of the team you’re like, ‘We can’t count on this dude.’ Bottom line. We don’t know if he’s gonna be available the rest of the year. Or we don’t know if he’s gonna be available next week or the week after that. As leadership, you have to prepare and you have to talk to the rest of your teammates like, ‘We don’t have this guy.’ Sometimes that makes a team stronger, sometimes that makes the guy that’s not available realize, ‘These dudes are moving on from me.’ The toughest pill to swallow is the scrutiny you get from your teammates. It ain’t the media. It ain’t the coaches. It’s them dudes in the locker room.”
For now, the biggest issue is how or if the suspensions will change the outcome of Game One. After suffering the huge blow ahead of one of the biggest season openers in program history, Florida could handle this one of two ways, depending on the leadership in the locker room and its ability to adapt.
Luckily, if that is even a word to use in this situation, the Gators have had several weeks to make adjustments, aside from the more recent suspensions of Scarlett, Wells and Robinson.
“It could motivate you or it could steal some of your thunder,” Spears said. “I had a chance to talk to Florida this offseason. I think the one thing about McElwain that I love is that everybody knows what’s going on. I think that’s a big deal, because then players can decide how they wanna feel about whatever the situation is. I think coming into this game, you’ve gotten out in front of it, you’ve talked about it, so they’ve had time to think about this with Callaway. Scarlett just hit, but they’ve had time to think about this. Mac has had time to prepare without his best offensive player.”
While the Gators are down 10 players, only two of them would have likely been major contributors in this game. Then again, they are the two best offensive players on the team.
Without Scarlett, Florida will rely on Lamical Perine, Mark Thompson and possibly two freshmen running backs in Malik Davis and Adarius Lemons to carry the load on the ground. Despite the public outrage over losing Scarlett, Spears does not think there will be much of a drop off.
“I think the running back position, I mean, we’ve seen guys get hurt and the next guy come run for 1,500 yards,” he said. “I think Perine will step in and do a good job at that spot.”
The most pressing matter is the loss of Callaway. He brings so much to the table, and some of it may simply be impossible for the Gators to replace right now.
“For me, it’s Antonio Callaway,” Spears said of Florida’s biggest loss. “I mean, not only the production, but how he can dictate defenses. You miss more of him being a guy that’s just out there that the defense has to pay attention to so other guys can free up.”
Florida is building one of the most talented young wide receiver corps in the SEC, but experience was its edge against a Michigan team returning only five starters. Every ounce of experience is valuable right now, and losing the guy who has led the team in nearly every receiving statistic the last two years makes things a lot harder.
Having a new, young starting quarterback doesn’t help either. Feleipe Franks is about to play in a college football game for the very first time. While he has had some time to prepare, he is going to look for stability in the key moments, and his biggest weapon won’t be on the field to provide that.
“What happens in the third quarter when you need a play?” Spears asked. “What happens on third down and seven in the fourth quarter and the game tied up, or you’re down seven and you need a play? And the fact that we all know in the media that it would’ve been Antonio Callaway, now the question is, who will that guy be? Will it be Brandon Powell? Will it be Tyrie Cleveland? Will it be Perine? Who will it be? Because you’ve got a young quarterback that’s trying to figure out in those moments, without his best player, who he’s gonna throw to.”
With so much going wrong for Florida over the last few weeks, Spears said his prediction is now leaning towards Michigan, but he believes the Gators could still bounce back and have a good season despite a Week One loss.
Florida looks to have something to say about that on Saturday, but will need some playmakers to step up to pull it off.