By Bob Redman
While summer is a lighter load in terms of work for a lot of people in all walks of life, that isn’t really true for college football players. A lot of college football coaches will tell you that games in the fall are won in the offseason as individuals and groups on the team prepare for the time ahead. Despite the continued work in the weight room and physical training along with all the school work that can be really consuming, groups of Florida football players are spending Friday afternoons coaching up youngsters in the Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County.
The man that runs the show for the youth organization, Jason Wells, spoke with us last month about the clinics that the Florida football players are taking part in.
“The Boys and Girls Club is actually hosting six clinics this summer for all of the University of Florida players to get a chance to come down and actually host clinics with their position group and our middle school and high school players in the area,” Wells said about the late Friday morning conversion of youth and grown college aged football players. “They’re going to be running the clinic. They’re going to be doing the actual drills with our boys. So our boys are going to get to move the needle with a lot of football IQ coming from our college athlete.”
“We’re doing every single position group that’s why we have six clinics. We have specialists and kickers, long snappers, DBs, wide receivers, quarterbacks, tight ends. Everybody has an opportunity.”
The first clinic was all about offensive skills and the clinicians included Florida QB Jalen Kitna, RB Cornelius Barnes, WR Trent Whittemore, WR Caleb Douglas, WR Taylor Spierto, TE Jonathan Odom, TE Hayden Hansen, and TE Nick Elksnis. Last Friday, the list of Gator players included OL Richie Leonard, OL Jake Slaughter, OL Riley Simonds, OL Jordan Herman, OL Jalen Farmer, OLB Antwaun Powell, DE Princely Umanmielen, DT Jamari Lyons, DT Keenan Landry, and DT Jalen Lee.
The clinics are a joint venture with the Boys and Girls Club and the Gator Collective, an organization that has been put together to help Florida athletes utilize their name, image, and likeness opportunities to their fullest extent.
“All 100 guys get an opportunity to come bless some other kids, to come talk some football, to come play some football, and to come make a little money. I think that’s how the NIL should be run,” Wells said.
But the players are getting more out of it than the ability to earn some extra money. They can see right before their eyes when they share their wisdom with the little guys and they are able to apply it in the short work session.
“I just like coaching them, it’s kind of fun,” Florida outside linebacker Antwaun Powell said after Friday’s session. “Having to teach them and then when they get it it’s kind of exciting because they did something you taught them. “
“It does (bring back memories). Being one of those guys that was in the position where they are now where they don’t really know anything about football. So being able to teach them and get it a little bit at least is good, I like it.”
Powell looks to have a bigger role in 2022 as a pass rusher for the Florida defense. He remembers when he was as young as the kids he was coaching up Friday and he realizes that he should have probably gotten more into learning his sport back then.
“I was thinking about going back to video games (at that age),” he said. “When I got toward high school and my freshman year, that’s when I locked in and said I like this sport and want to keep doing this sport.”
Jordan Herald is a massive 6-foot-8 offensive tackle out of junior college that signed with Florida recently and has enrolled in classes this summer at UF. He was on hand Friday and getting down in the trenches with that particular group of kids at the clinic. He enjoyed his time with the interactions.
“It’s just a way of giving back and being able to teach them things that I’ve learned playing football and just in life in general,” Herald said. “It brings joy to me to just watch kids and see how they develop- and teaching tem the game of football that we all love.
In fact there was time for a big question and answer session after the football part was done on Friday. The groups met in the shade and were throwing questions at the players who were quick to chime in about all kinds of things pertaining to them playing college football and being student athletes. These big guys can really make an impression on the little ones.
“Just knowledge and wisdom and things that I messed up on in my past life and just try to tell them to take the right path,” Herald said about what he wanted to share. “Also just giving them some good tips. Just spitting wisdom and making sure they’re on the right track and teach them the game of football.”
Herald had a different path to Florida football than most. With his height he had ambitions of being a basketball player. Inevitably his overall size dictated that football was his future. He was glad that he was able to have a few experiences like this one when he was smaller.
“I had a few opportunities, but it was more with basketball because I was more of a basketball player when I was younger,” he said. “So I definitely had some opportunities when I was younger and wanted to do something like this.”