While listening to Antonio Valentino talk, you wouldn’t think of him as the kicking butts and taking names kind of person. He’s soft-spoken, articulate and goes above and beyond what is expected from him when answering the media’s questions.
But there’s a different side of him that Gators fans will learn about soon. He takes pride in being able to flip the switch on game days.
“I’m not the same human being Saturdays that I am Sunday through Friday,” Valentino said. “You can’t be. I turn into an unhinged human being, you could say. I just go out there, and I do what I’m blessed to do, and you can’t be the same type of guy. It’s nice to be articulate and be able to formulate how I feel and everything like that, but when it’s time to play, it’s time to play.”
Valentino’s ultra-competitiveness got him in trouble during the 2019 season at Penn State. He was suspended one game for spitting on a Michigan State player. The Nittany Lions lost that game to Minnesota, which doomed their conference title and playoff aspirations.
Valentino acknowledged that he crossed the line, and he still thinks about how he hurt his team sometimes.
“That wasn’t a very proud moment of mine,” he said. “I cost my team a possibility at the College Football Playoff. We were in the top-4 at that time. That’s something I had to sit with, something I had to live with. Obviously, not something I felt very good about, still kind of something that bothers me a little bit. I try not to dwell on the past. I’ve done a lot of growing since then.”
Indeed he has grown, both on and off the field, and the Gators will be the beneficiaries of it. Valentino – his legal last name is Shelton, but he prefers to go by his middle name for undisclosed personal reasons – transferred to UF in January and is the favorite to start at nose tackle this season.
When Valentino played at Penn State, he thought the hype the SEC received nationally was overblown. Could the level of play really be much better in the SEC than a conference that features a perennial national title contender in Ohio State and consistent top-25 programs such as Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin and Iowa?
He quickly learned that there’s a reason the SEC has so many highly ranked teams and churns out NFL draft picks like a conveyor belt.
“I really saw it when we put pads on in the spring, and it was just like, ‘Yo, these dudes [are] moving. Everybody’s an athlete,’” he said. “It’s just a superior athlete, I guess, that you can just find down here. No disrespect to the Big 10 or anything. It’s just one of those things where you just have to see it to understand it.
“All the SEC bias and everything they talk about in this conference is 100 percent accurate. It’s 110 percent accurate, and I haven’t even played in an SEC game yet. Just the structure of practice, the different level of football. Specifically speaking, in the defense, we can play multiple fronts and everything like that in one single series.”
Unlike fellow defensive tackle transfer Daquan Newkirk, Valentino had no prior connections to UF or the state of Florida, as he’s from Columbus, Ohio. He entered the transfer portal in late December.
A day or two later, he received a phone call from a Gainesville number. Valentino didn’t even know that Gainesville is where UF is located. He answered the call, and defensive line coach David Turner was on the other end. He enjoyed his conversation with Turner, did some research on the program and talked with Dan Mullen. He enrolled at UF shortly thereafter.
“The thing that I respected the most out of what they told me, it wasn’t, ‘Hey man, you’re going to come in here and be a star. You can do X, Y and Z.’ It was, ‘We have a need at your position. We like the way you play football. We think you can help us win some games. Come be a part of something great if that’s what you’re interested in.’
“I thought about it, and it was a very easy decision. I talked to Coach [Turner], and I just wanted to talk to Coach Mullen and see where his head was at with everything and get his perspective. I told him on the phone, ‘Coach, if you tell me I’ve got a spot, if you have a scholarship for me, I’m coming.’ He was like, ‘Well, we’ve got one for you,’ and I said, ‘All right, see you in a couple weeks then.’ It was a pretty simple process for me.”
Valentino brings much-needed experience and production to one of the youngest but most talented positions on the roster. He appeared in 40 games in five years at Penn State, with 22 starts. He tallied 12.5 tackles-for-loss and six sacks. His role gradually increased each year, culminating in 3.5 sacks, 4.5 tackles-for-loss and a forced fumble in 2020.
He should eat up multiple blocks and allow the Gators’ linebackers to roam free and make big plays. Or, if opponents don’t double-team him, he’s proven that he can get in the backfield and make plays himself.
Valentino thinks his game is similar to former Gator Tedarrell Slaton’s. Slaton was drafted in the fifth round by the Green Bay Packers. He’s watched some film of Slaton to get a better feel for what will be expected out of him in this defense.
“I think that TJ was very good in his techniques,” he said. “Where Coach [Turner] said TJ made the majority of his money from is causing disruption. Like, TJ wouldn’t make the play, but he would make the play. If they were zoning to his side, he would stick his foot in the ground and make the running back have to cut back to where the rest of the defense is.
“So, I think I can do things similar to that. It’s just getting 100 percent comfortable with the playbook and anticipating things before they happen and knowing when to react to things.”
Turner has confidence that Valentino will get up to speed quickly, and he said Valentino and Newkirk are valuable members of his unit.
“You’ve got some guys that’s played in big-time ballgames and big-time atmospheres, and they were vital for us and where we were in terms of some of the young guys,” Turner said. “Instead of being thrust into a starting role, [the young guys] still being able to be a backup and kind of learn by getting their feet wet and learn as they go. I’ve been very pleased with those two guys and what they bring to the table.”
The location may be different, the weather might be vastly improved and the uniform may be a different color, but Valentino plans to unleash his fury on the SEC.
It’s almost time for Valentino to become unhinged again.