Florida will be without a high number of players on Saturday when they take on the Oregon State Beavers in the Las Vegas Bowl game. Leading the list is 6th-year linebacker Ventrell Miller, who will forgo the bowl game to walk at his graduation.
Miller is not only one of the best defensive players on the roster, but he’s the leader of this team.
The Gators will also be without starters Justin Shorter and O’Cyrus Torrence as they prepare for the NFL Draft.
This bowl game allows Billy Napier to see what Florida has on and off the field going into the offseason.
“It presents opportunities for young leadership to really emerge, you know, and I think that’s what we are seeing,” Napier said during Thursday’s press conference.
There are several names being thrown around as young leaders that have stepped up to fill the roles of veteran players, but none more than linebacker Derek Wingo.
“Derek Wingo addressed the team after practice today, he did a phenomenal job,” Napier said.
It’s not just Coach Napier that is noticing Wingo’s leadership and effect on the team, the locker room is too.
“I seen that he took the challenge by storm,” running back Montrell Johnson stated. “He’s being very vocal at practice and playing faster than I’ve ever seen him play. He’s locked in and ready to prove himself.”
Wingo’s had several messages to the team relating to bowl game week.
“You know, pretty much he piggy-backed on the Oklahoma game a few years ago,” cornerback Jaydon Hill said on Wingo’s message to the team. “We went down to Dallas and got our butt beat. He was a part of it. He was just preaching that we’re not going for that again. We all like, ‘yeah, we with you.’ That was a good thing.”
Wingo told the team that this week is a business trip.
“Basically, you know, it’s a bowl game, bowl week so we’re having fun. But when it’s time to play football, it’s straight business,” edge rusher Antuwan Powell-Ryland said on Wingo’s message to the team. “Because at the end of the day, we’re here to win the game. We’re gonna have fun because, you know, it’s the bowl week. But when it’s time to play football then all jokes aside, we’ve got to play.”
Wingo has shined in a leadership role leading up to the game and will get another chance to prove himself on the field against Oregon State as he tries to fill the shoes of Ventrell Miller.