Cristian Garcia paid off his cell phone bill and went to check what the balance was on his debit card. He knew that paying the bill would be cutting it close but when he opened up his account information to see -$0.46 he was surprised.
“I had been pretty close a couple times,” Garcia said Tuesday. “I mean I haven’t been negative but, yeah, I cut it close then.”
That’s the unfortunate reality of being a walk on football player trying to chase your dream playing for a major university. Football and school take up most of your time and it’s hard to fit in even a part time job between the daily requirements. Garcia has worked part time throughout his undergraduate time at Florida, most famously stopping a sexual assault while working at a bar that has since closed in Gainesville, 101 Cantina.
Garcia’s journey began in Miami, where he attended Belen Jesuit Prep. Without a Division I offer he went to Malone College in Canton, Ohio but soon transferred to Florida Tech after one semester. He then transferred to the University of Florida and began working in the football video department. Every day Garcia would set up video equipment in the video towers that rise above the field. He’d film the drills he wised he was going through, then head back down the tower to get the tape ready — for coaches who didn’t yet know who he was — to watch.
Before the 2015 season he decided to walk on to the team. Before the tryouts he had to go through a physical, something he had done countless times playing football throughout his life, but this one ended differently. Something came up in a sickle cell blood test and Garcia was told he wouldn’t be able to try out for the team. He recalled crying outside of the football offices before heading upstairs to beg for a chance to try out. He was allowed to and made the team.
That only began the hard work and stress.
Without a scholarship Garcia was paying his way through college. He had the same demands of a regular student coupled with the full-time job that is playing college football at Florida, minus the benefits that scholarship players get.
“You don’t get all the means, maybe some of the resources,” Garcia said. “When I walked on I couldn’t use the Hawkins Center when I first walked on but after a year I could. Then with the coaching sometimes you won’t get coached as much because they have to coach up the guys that they think are going to play. Definitely the differences are the resources you have, they set you up as a scholarship guy.”
He makes sure to say that he isn’t ungrateful for the opportunity. He understands that caches will give more attention to the players that they gave scholarships to and it’s just the way of life, the way things go. In his words he was just happy to have a jersey and a locker next to Vernon Hargreaves III.
Garcia played for years on the scout team. Playing scout team is an integral role despite not having any glory come along with it. You put on a jersey and mimic the opponent of the week. You get beat on by starters, killing yourself so that the team that plays on Saturday will be ready.
Garcia did it without complaint. Fans didn’t know who he was but he knew the work he was putting in and he knew he was part of the team. He had no assurances that he would be anything other than a scout team linebacker, but he knew he belonged and he had a vision of playing a bigger role.
“Maybe a couple of months into it when I started playing against these guys and saw what I could do I could envision this, with the politics of walk-ons and how walk-ons are viewed probably not,” said Garcia. “In my head I always had that vision because I’m confident in my abilities.”
That vision started to become a little clearer before the 2016 Citrus Bowl. With a rash of injuries and a number of players not playing in the game Garcia had an opportunity in practice. Partly out of necessity and partly because of the effort he showed in practice he was moved off of scout team and into a role on the defense.
Garcia graduated last spring but still had another year of eligibility left. He wanted to continue playing football, especially with a bigger role on the horizon, but he would need to go to graduate school. For a non-scholarship player that meant his tuition, room & board and other fees would bump up to an estimated $30,440 a year. That’s a lot of money for a kid to look at when his bank account is reading negative numbers.
The world has a funny way of working itself out. That same day Garcia paid his cellphone bill, over drafting on his debit card, he was put on scholarship and his scholarship money came through.
“I was freaking out,” Garcia said of the thought of having to pay for graduate school on his own. “I talked to the coaches and (getting a scholarship) was the ultimate relief. For me to be able to come and play this last year and have my school paid for.”
With that burden lifted off his shoulders he’s been able to focus on school and football. Garcia may have been on scholarship but he wasn’t a starter. Garcia knew he was behind Kylan Johnson, David Reese and Vosean Joseph but when Joseph started cramping during the Tennessee game Garcia had to play a bigger role.
Even when his shoulder popped out of socket.
“I actually separated my shoulder in the third quarter of the Tennessee game and I had to play through that because Vosean was cramping,” he said. “There’s pressure to not get hurt, pressure to be on my game at all times and it’s at an ultimate high.”
With Kylan Johnson hurt and depleted numbers on the line Garcia feels the pressure to stay healthy. He needed a shot to help manage pain in order to play against Kentucky. When Joseph was ejected for targeting that put Garcia back in for extended reps.
“The third quarter it wore off,” Garcia said of the shot he took before the game. “I was holding my shoulder the whole time. There’s a lot more pressure and I feel it day in and day out.”
The redshirt senior has more pressure on him than he’s ever felt on a football field but it’s what he wanted when he was standing in a film tower overlooking the Florida Gators’ practicing. It’s the dream he had when he was running around the field on the scout team, then watching the team play on Saturdays from his couch.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said. “I wouldn’t rather be running on the scout team. I’d rather have all this pressure.”
Florida’s Rudy, great story.