For a mama’s boy, Ahmad Black packs quite a punch. Don’t let that angelic looking baby face fool you. Come across the middle and you’re invading his territory. Try catching a pass in the middle of the field and he’d just as soon tear your head off as look at you.
Looks can be deceiving. Maybe he does have the look of a future governor or senator with that perpetual smile, easy demeanor and the way people are magnetically attracted to him. And maybe you would feel better about him as a safety for the Florida Gators if he was two inches taller, 20 pounds heavier and a tenth of a second faster in the 40.
Urban Meyer would feel better, but Meyer knows a football player when he sees one and he understands that if height, weight and 40-times were all it took you could pencil in the Gators for a national championship this year.
“You wish he was a little bigger, taller and a little faster but he will get himself in the right position,” said Meyer recently when asked if Ahmad Black has turned out to be a better safety than anyone might have predicted.
Circle that part about getting in the right position. That’s the key to playing safety at the highest levels. Probably 90 percent of playmaking at safety is all about positioning and you don’t have to be the fastest or the biggest to be in the right spot.
You just have to be smart and that’s where Black has the edge. That has always been his secret. He’s used to turning doubters into his biggest cheerleaders. He can do it because he plays smart and gets in the right position.
So go ahead. Voice your doubts. It’s only going to motivate him.
“Sometimes they underestimate me,” said Black, a 5-9, 190-pound sophomore safety from Lakeland who wears a tattoo that reads “Mama’s Boy” on his left bicep.
Black is one of the most easy going kids on the Florida football team off the field. On the field, he plays with a chip on his shoulder because he’s always had to prove himself.
He’s certainly had to prove himself at the University of Florida. An early enrollee in January of 2007, fresh off Lakeland’s third straight state championship and second consecutive mythical national championship. He was only 160 pounds soaking wet back then and a high school safety. You don’t play safety in the SEC at 160 so he was shifted immediately shifted to corner and that was an experiment that was pretty close to a disaster.
Florida plays its corners in man to man and Black never seemed comfortable out on the island. He played slow and always seemed unsure of himself. He was good on special teams but a liability in defensive coverage.
“Growing up I played a lot of safety and I didn’t play corner too much,” he said. “I played it my sophomore year [at Lakeland] but coming in here, the game speed was a little bit faster and coming from playing safety in high school … I am a better fit at safety.”
Black helped himself in the offseason by packing on the muscle. He’s 190 now and strong enough to handle it at safety. He made the switch from corner in the spring. When the Gators began practicing in March Black was on the bottom of the depth chart but from day one it was obvious he was back where he belonged. He didn’t look like he’s propelled by a jet pack like Chris Rainey or some of Florida’s other sprinters but nearly every day in practice Black was in the right place at the right time and when there was contact, he was the hitter and not the hittee.
By the time spring football ended, Black was the number three man on the safety depth chart behind Dorian Munroe and Major Wright. When August drills began, Black was the starter because Munroe blew out an ACL in a non-contact drill before fall camp even began.
With all-planetary high school stud Will “The Thrill” arriving on campus in August, a lot of folks under-estimated Black again. They penciled Hill in as an instant starter and star. That’s not to say he won’t be and it could be sooner and not later, but Ahmad Black won’t go down without a fight.
His play certainly has Urban Meyer’s attention. After a recent scrimmage Meyer sounded confident about Black working in tandem with Wright, who started at safety as a freshman.
“Last year I was very disappointed at this point but he [Black] had a great spring,” said Meyer. “The Dorian Munroe injury set us back quite a bit but Ahmad’s really done well [in his place]. Graded out a champion in our first scrimmage. He’s a natural football player.”
Meyer has since remarked that he likes the chemistry that has developed between Wright and Black, an essential for the last line of defense. Wright and Black are both big hitters but it is Wright that has the reputation for giving wide receivers out of body experiences much like the last Wright that played safety for the Gators — Lawrence “Somewhere Joey Kent Is Still Drooling” Wright.
Black hits a ton, too, but he lets Wright do most of the enforcing these days.
“Usually it’s Major causing all the collisions,” he said. “I’m just there to clean it up most of the time.”
Black’s greatest contribution in the secondary this year might be on the field although it will affect what happens on the field. Just as he was in Lakeland, when he was the maximum supreme leader on a team that went 45-0 his last three years, Black has become a true leader in the secondary. Last year, leadership in the secondary was a sore spot for a team that had its problems in pass defense.
He says leadership begins by “making everybody can go, keep a positive head and a positive attitude.” The rest is a matter of example.
He and Wright are charged with getting the defensive calls in from the sideline and making sure the rest of the team knows exactly what to do.
“The type of defense that we run, Major and I have to get our calls to the corners and call to the linebackers,” he said. “When we get the call in from Coach (Charlie) Strong we have to relay it around. We have to do a lot of talking out there. We have to do a lot of communicating. We know both positions, the free and the strong safety.”
Black and Wright have to function almost as one, something no one could have foreseen when they were in high school. Wright played at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale and that’s the team Lakeland beat three straight years for the state championship.
Championships one and two were blowouts. Championship number three ended inches from the Lakeland goal line when Black and John Brown turned away a St. Thomas wide receiver before he got the ball across the goal. Black says that Wright claims there is evidence the St. Thomas receiver got into the end zone.
“He said in their highlight tape they highlighted the ball at the goal line and the guy got in but the wide receiver was in front of the ref but when the ref got around the wide receiver we had pushed him back,” said Black. “I told Major shut up. That’s not true. I told him which one of my rings does he want to hold. I’ll let him hold any one he wants.”
It’s all in good fun. Wright and Black have become inseparable on and off the field. They have become best of friends and teammates that have each other’s back.
They also know that the Gators can’t have a return to last season’s hit or miss efforts on defense. The Gators are going to have to make stops this year.
“Everybody knows we can score but we can’t go out there playing defense like we did last year,” he said. “We have been progressing. We’re not the same team we were on defense last year.”
The Gators that take the field on defense Saturday are the big question mark for the national media. They are one of the reasons Georgia has that number one national ranking and the Gators are number five. Everybody knows Georgia has a fine defense. Nobody knows what to expect when it comes to Florida, which has everything to do with why the media underestimates Florida’s defense.
Ahmad Black, who knows a little something about being underestimated, just grins.
“We aren’t the same defense we were last year,” he said. “You’ll see.”