It might sound cliché to say that an incoming freshman football player wouldn’t be where he is today without his high school coaches, but that’s literally the case for tight end Gage Wilcox.
Wilcox started playing football when he was around 4 years old. Because he was always bigger than most of the kids his age, he was forced to play against kids three or four years older than him in youth leagues. The challenge of going against older, more physically mature kids overwhelmed him when he was about 11, and he quit the sport.
For the next four years or so, baseball was his sport of choice. As he prepared to begin his freshman year at Jefferson High School in Tampa, then-head football coach Jeremy Earle took notice of him and did a little recruiting.
“He was like, ‘Dude, you’re a big guy,’” Wilcox said. “He was like, ‘Come try out for football.’ He was like, ‘You’ll be on varsity. You might be able to play.’ So, I went out there, I played football, I got a starting position on varsity, and I’ve been balling since.”
But not without some more drama. Baseball and football overlap in the spring, which forced Wilcox to have to pick one sport and run with it.
“The coaches were kind of going at it,” Wilcox said. “So, in the spring, it was spring football, but, then again, that was baseball season. My football coach was like, ‘Man, I need you here for the spring. You’re missing opportunities,’ and the baseball coach was like, ‘No, he’s mine right now for the spring.’ So, they kind of made me pick. I kind of chose football, and I’m happy where I am now.”
How could he not be? Choosing football over baseball proved to be a life-changing decision for him.
He began his high school career as primarily a blocker but got more involved in the passing game as the years went by. He caught 31 passes for 350 yards and nine touchdowns over the last two seasons. He also played defensive end when needed and punted as a senior. He finished as the 12th best tight end recruit in the country, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.
“To watch him develop as a receiver, as a route-runner, to be able to manipulate his body and understand that ‘Hey, I’ve got a big body. It’s not just the jump ball that I can catch. I can use my body to catch a slant. I can use my body to go vertical. I can use my body to box out a defender on a hitch,’” said Joe Midulla, who was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach at Jefferson after Wilcox’s freshman season.
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Despite all of the recruiting rankings and college offers that quickly came his way, Wilcox remained a selfless teammate who always put the team’s goals ahead of his own. He’d do whatever the coaches asked him to.
“His last game here in our playoff game last year, on Monday, I had a conversation with him, and I said, ‘Hey, we’re short at defensive end. I’m going to need a dang defensive end.’ I go, ‘Are you ready to go both ways?’” Midulla said. “And he goes, ‘Absolutely.’ And he ended up having seven tackles at defensive end, and he hadn’t played a snap there all year long.”
Colleges immediately noticed his athleticism, diverse skillset and maturity. He received his first scholarship offer from UCF in the spring of his freshman year. The big boys soon followed. Georgia, Penn State, Miami, Michigan, Alabama, Florida State and Ole Miss were among those who offered him.
None of those schools ever stood a chance. Wilcox has been a Gator fan since his early childhood and had been to several games in the Swamp long before he came onto UF’s radar. He considers the day Florida offered him as his favorite football memory, and he knew right away that he wanted to be a Gator.
Midulla could tell that the UF offer meant a little bit more to him.
“I actually had him in my class, so we were outside, we were filling up the water coolers for spring practice when he got his Florida offer,” he said. “He put down the ice scoop, and he was like, ‘Dang, Coach, I just got offered by Florida.’ You could tell there was a little twinkle in his eye there. But there you go, you want to talk about the character of the kid, here you’ve got a kid that’s getting offers from every Division 1 school in the country, and what’s he doing three hours before practice? He’s helping me fill up water coolers.”
Larry Scott was the coach who initially recruited him to UF, but he left after the 2019 season to take the head coaching position at Howard. Tim Brewster replaced him as the Gators’ tight ends coach and quickly reassured Wilcox that Florida was still the place for him. Wilcox officially committed to the Gators a few weeks after Brewster’s arrival.
“It wasn’t that much of a transition,” Wilcox said. “They’re really both great coaches. They’re both honest with you. They’re going to keep it 100, and they just like a kid that works hard, and that’s why I feel like I can fill the shoes.
“Coach Brew kind of just told me, he was like, ‘If you want to play at a great school and you want to have fun and work hard at the same time, this is the school to do it at.’ I kind of told him, I was like, ‘Coach, I love Florida. I’ve always liked Florida,’ and he said, ‘Just be ready to work hard.’”
Wilcox signed in December and will enroll in June. In the meantime, Brewster has called him every couple of weeks while Dan Mullen has texted him about once a week. Their message is simple: work hard, hit the gym and be prepared to get to work once he gets on campus.
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Wilcox is excited about how he fits into Mullen’s offense. Mullen uses the tight end position better than perhaps any other coach in the country. The position isn’t just used as an extra blocker or as a check-down when all else fails; it is a high-volume pass-catching position. Kyle Pitts just rewrote the school record book and will likely become the highest-drafted tight end ever on Thursday.
“[Mullen] can put the tight end anywhere, from the slot to out wide to in-line to on the line,” Wilcox said. “He just likes a really athletic tight end, and I feel like that’s what I am.”
Mullen referred to Pitts as a “unicorn” on several occasions over the past year. He’s too big for defensive backs to cover and too fast for linebackers. Unless you have a unicorn of your own playing defense, there’s no way to consistently cover him.
Wilcox has the necessary traits to become Mullen’s next unicorn. At 6-foot-4 and around 215 pounds, he has the catch radius and the size to beat smaller defenders and the athleticism to beat bigger defenders. Despite only weighing slightly more than the typical wide receiver, he’s also a willing and skilled blocker. Once he gets into the weight room and tacks on 20 pounds or so, he’s going to give defensive coordinators headaches.
“I’d describe him as a bit of a throwback,” Midulla said. “In today’s age of football, you seem to either be able to be one of those skill guys that can run around and catch the ball or a guy that can block, and Gage is a little bit of both. I think he’s that old school tight end that can block. He’s going to be the best blocker on the line when he learns how to play college football.”
Added Mullen: “He’s a guy we had in camp when he was young. I loved his athleticism and change of direction, and then you could kind of see it. I always kind of look at guys and say, ‘I know what this guy is going to become.’ You watch his senior film and watch his dynamic ability on the field. He kind of kept growing into this body. And you know what? He’s a powerful blocker at the point of attack, he has great quickness in and out of breaks, you can get the ball in his hands and he can make you miss in the open field.”
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Wilcox said his goal at Florida is to break records just like Pitts did. Doing so right away won’t be easy, however. Veterans Keon Zipperer and Kemore Gamble seem to have established themselves as the top-2 tight ends, and early enrollee Nick Elksnis impressed his teammates and coaches this spring.
Wilcox isn’t shying away from the competition and hopes to soak in as much knowledge as he can from the established veterans.
“I’m just going to learn and take as much advice from them as I can and just kind of take what they teach me and use it to my advantage,” he said.
“If I see the field, even as a specialist, that’s huge. And just to get in reps and just to practice and play and learn a lot. I just want to become a better player as soon as I get there.”
Midulla has high expectations for what Wilcox will do over the next 3-5 years.
“I think going into his freshman year over there, just like any other freshman or any other player that takes a step to the next level, he’s going to learn how the next level operates and how it works,” he said. “But I think after that, I think he can contribute at Florida, he can be a force in the SEC, and, hopefully, one day he can walk across that stage and play professional football.”
All because Wilcox took a leap of faith four years ago.