Rick Wells’ college career is a classic story of perseverance, loyalty and, eventually, triumph.
The wide receiver from Jacksonville was one of Jim McElwain’s first commits at Florida, but his career couldn’t have gotten off to much worse of a start.
He didn’t play at all in either 2016 or 2017. He was involved in a couple of off-the-field incidents, one of which got him suspended for the entire 2017 season.
It would’ve been very easy for Wells to have transferred after McElwain was fired following the 2017 season. His career was going absolutely nowhere, and new coach Dan Mullen brought in a pair of transfers in Van Jefferson and Trevon Grimes to infuse talent into the receiving corps. He would’ve been justified for opting to start fresh somewhere else.
With as popular as the transfer portal is these days, it’s fair to say that at least 80-90 percent of players in his situation would’ve bolted for greener pastures.
Instead, Wells chose to stick around.
While he turned himself around off of the field and got to work with a new receivers coach in Billy Gonzales, his on-field results were more of the same. He combined to catch just nine passes for 114 yards over the 2018-20 seasons.
Once again, he faced a crossroads after the 2020 season. He graduated in May, so he could’ve transferred to a school with a more favorable depth chart and played a starring role there. Heck, he could’ve turned down the extra year of eligibility offered by the NCAA and moved on to the next stage of his life.
But Wells is wired a little differently. Loyalty is important to him, so he couldn’t go down without a fight. He’s been the consummate teammate and student over the past five years.
“Everything I’ve been through, transferring never came through my mind,” Wells said. “I grew up on loyalty. They’ve been loyal to me, so I’m loyal to Gator Nation. So, why not stick with them? Transferring was never an idea of mine.
“The journey has been a lot of ups and downs and just seeing so many guys do it the right way, seeing so many guys do it the wrong way. Just picking up on things, trying to put it into my life and trying to be the best person I can be. It’s been a long road, but I feel like it’s been a great one. A lot of learned lessons to better myself as a person and a player.”
All of his hard work, patience, loyalty and selflessness were finally rewarded last Saturday against Florida Atlantic. He caught a screen pass from Emory Jones in the first quarter and sprinted into the end zone from nine yards out for his first career touchdown. Wells ended up leading the Gators with five catches for 36 yards in the game.
Wells isn’t a star player, and he likely won’t be drafted. And that’s OK. Stories like Wells’ are what make college football such an incredible spectacle to watch. Scoring one touchdown against an outmanned opponent means almost nothing to an NFL receiver. It meant everything to Wells and to those who have supported him along the way.
“When I threw it and he scored, he came back and told me ‘Thank you,’” Jones said. “And I said, ‘You know I’ve got you.’ I know what he’s been through in his time here. He’s been through a lot off the field, stuff that not a lot of people know about. I was just excited to give him an opportunity to go score.”
His touchdown was a moment that many people never saw coming, including Mullen at one point. When Mullen took over the program, he initially had concerns about whether Wells had what it takes mentally to succeed at this level.
“Early on, I had questions [about] whether he would make it, and then I said, ‘Hey, eventually, you’ve got to buy into the program,’” Mullen said.
Wells said he did some soul-searching after Mullen challenged him and recognized that he needed to make some changes to his personal life and his approach to football.
“I saw a change that I had to make in myself just to try to get where I want to be, not just with football but just being who I want to be and the impact that I have on people,” he said. “That was the change that I was really looking for. Just the impact that I have on people and the way that they see me was the biggest thing for me.
“Buying into the program to me is just trying to do everything right, trying to be the best person you can be, give great effort, bring great energy, think positive all the time. That’s my take on that. Just be the best version of yourself.”
Mullen’s doubts were quickly erased.
“He bought all into the program, and I saw a change in him, and then, all of a sudden, he got stuck kind of behind some guys even though he bought in,” Mullen said. “But it never deterred him, and he kept battling and kept working, kept his head down, kept grinding, and now he’s reaping the reward of all that hard work.
“The deal is that guys grow and gain that experience. You see a lot of guys that transfer out, and, wherever they go, they grow and they learn and they eventually end up having good careers. So, I think it’s more about your development and your overall development from the beginning to the end of your career.”
It’s easy to make jokes about the childish things Wells did during his first two years on campus and overlook him because he hasn’t contributed much in games.
That’s part of his story and always will be, but it doesn’t define him. Instead, Wells’ career is defined by the way he learned from those missteps, persevered and eventually experienced at least one moment of glory.
Wells’ name is in the record book as a touchdown scorer for the Gators, and nobody can ever take that away from him.