For some highly rated high school football players, signing with UF is nothing more than a business decision.
Maybe the Gators have a recent history of pumping out players to the NFL at their position. Maybe their position coach has a strong track record of success. Perhaps the Gators offer a more immediate chance at playing time than the other schools recruiting them. Frankly, some recruits sign with UF because they are the only major program that expressed significant interest.
But being a Gator means much more to Anthony Richardson and Trent Whittemore. This isn’t just a stop along their path to the NFL.
This is their hometown, their university and their stadium. There’s a pride inside of them that’s hard to explain if you’re not from North Central Florida.
“It was incredible coming out of the tunnel [for the first time],” Whittemore said. “I’ve stood in the little recruit [seating] area for a couple years and then in the stands before that. So, it was crazy. Coming out of the tunnel, there’s 90,000 going wild, just an experience.
“It still gives me chills thinking about it.”
For Whittemore, that moment was the culmination of a lifetime of fandom. He grew up in Gainesville and was a huge Gators fan in every sport. He remembers watching star athletes like baseball’s Preston Tucker and basketball’s Corey Brewer.
He comes from a very athletic family. His dad, Mark Whittemore, played for Buchholz High School and UCF. After a brief stint in the NFL, he returned to Buchholz to start his coaching career, eventually becoming the head coach in 2012. He’s coached Trent his entire life.
Trent’s mother, the former Missy Aggertt, played volleyball for UF in the mid-1990s. The couple’s oldest son, Luke, plays wide receiver at Troy. Younger brother Creed is a junior at Buchholz with a UF scholarship offer in tow.
Playing for the Gators was always the dream for Trent, a redshirt sophomore receiver. He remembers the first game he attended in the Swamp. The Gators pounded Furman 54-32 in 2011 behind 329 passing yards by John Brantley. And now he gets to create new memories on that field every week.
Richardson, on the other hand, isn’t a Gainesville lifer. He grew up in Miami until he, his brother and his mom moved to Gainesville when he was 10. He started his career at Eastside High School as a wide receiver before blossoming later in his career as one of the nation’s top dual-threat quarterbacks.
He didn’t grow up as a fan of any particular team but as a football fan in general. Even so, representing his hometown is a big deal to him. The Gainesville area doesn’t produce as many Division 1 football players as other parts of the state, so he takes his platform as a role model very seriously.
“It’s a blessing,” Richardson said. “Not only because my family is super close, and they come to games and watch just from around the corner, but it’s a blessing because I’m being a role model to the young people in [this next] generation in Gainesville and letting them know that anything is possible and that they can go anywhere that they want to go.”
That feeling of playing for something bigger than himself drives him to become the best player he can be.
“Coach [Dan] Mullen and this staff and God have blessed me with the opportunity to be here, so why not try to excel and be the best I can be?” he said. “Because, like I say, you never know what can happen, so I just try to be the best I can be to my teammates, to this staff, to everybody around, even the community.”
His position coach, Garrick McGee, can tell how passionate Richardson is about donning the orange and blue. It makes him an easy player to coach.
“He has a strong commitment to this university,” McGee said. “His mom lives here; he grew up with the high school here. So, being a Florida Gator and the success of the Florida Gators is really important to him. He spends a lot of time in the meeting room. He calls a lot, ‘Hey Coach, can I come in and get 30 extra minutes of meeting?’ Or, ‘I have a question about this. Can I come in and meet one-on-one about this particular situation?’”
As two of the area’s premier athletes, Whittemore and Richardson became well acquainted with each other in high school.
“I think the first time we actually met was my sophomore year, his freshman year, playing Eastside,” Whittemore said. “He was at receiver, I believe, actually, that year, and it was kind of just like, ‘Who’s this kid?’ He looked like he should probably be in college, and he was a freshman in high school making crazy plays. So, that’s how we met, and then, obviously, following that, we played basketball and football against each other countless times throughout high school.”
Richardson has a less pleasant recollection of their first encounter.
“I don’t really like to talk about it,” he said. “I remember that year because that’s the year Trent and Buchholz beat us 51-0. It’s amazing just knowing that guy for that long.”
While going to college a few miles away from home has a ton of advantages, there are also some challenges that come with it.
Whittemore and Richardson are perhaps going to have more family members and friends attending the games than everybody else on the team. Whenever they play well, they’re going to have a bunch of people patting them on the back and telling them how great they are.
They don’t get the luxury of living in relative anonymity their first couple of years. Normally, a backup quarterback with one career touchdown pass in garbage time and a receiver with 10 career catches aren’t going to generate much buzz. Heck, they usually wouldn’t get a press conference the week prior to the season opener.
As two of the rare players from Gainesville to play for the Gators, they have been local celebrities since the moment they stepped foot on campus.
There’s some serious pressure that comes with that. You don’t want to let down an entire city, especially when it’s your city.
McGee knows what that feeling is like. The Tulsa native played not too far from home at Oklahoma in the 1990s.
“It means a lot,” McGee said. “Your family is always watching. All our friends are always watching. If you can push your team to a championship, you get to celebrate the championship in your hometown, so all your friends get to be a part of it. There’s also distractions that go along with that because you’re in your hometown. A lot of temptations that go along with that that we always have to keep our eyes on.”
Whittemore said that he felt a little weird when he first enrolled at UF, but he just had to remind himself that the game of football is still played the same way. He had to harness his emotions and channel that energy in a positive way.
“I would say when I first got here, it’s kind of like the realization of ‘I’m in the Florida team meeting room every day. I’m a Florida Gator,’” he said. “And it kind of takes a second to get used to that, but then you’ve just got to realize again, ‘Hey, I’m playing football just like I always have. I’m putting my pants on every day, strapping my helmet up and then just go out there and play.’
“It’s not rocket science out there; it’s just a game of football, and we just happen to be blessed to be able to do it in our hometown, which is a dream come true. So, I think it’s just that confidence that you have to have about you even though you are living out that dream.”
Who knows where their careers will go from here, but Whittemore and Richardson will always share this bond. Two kids from Gainesville playing under the lights in the Swamp.
Many have dreamed of it, but they are among the few who have lived it.