Florida Gators Former Walk-On Gives Real Glimpse into Program on Reddit | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Haha well, it definitely took some getting used to. I will admit, when Jon Bostic made that big hit in the preseason, I bragged to all my friends that I, too, had been hit like that. Same with Elam and Sharrif Floyd and that whole gang. They're freakishly good, and my Dolphins got Jelani, Gillislee, and Sturgis. I'm excited to watch all of their careers.

But back to answering your question: I was a lineman in high school. I was about 150 lbs, playing both sides of the ball at Guard and NT. I loved every freaking minute of it. I never intended to continue my football career, but somehow the Gators decided to take me on. So now I had to figure out what position I was going to play (because it sure as hell wasn't going to be on the line). I figured fullback, because it involved blocking (which I had lots of experience with) and didn't require me to be super fast (which I'm not, unfortunately).

Good fullbacks, though, need to be able to not only take punishment from linebackers but dish it out, too. Our current fullbacks, Hunter Joyer and Gideon Ajagbe, are some of the strongest people I've ever met. Hunter still has some FL state HS state records in shotput I think. As for me, I did my absolute best for about a year on the scout team. I threw myself at our starting defense, desperately trying to block them. It generally didn't work so well. So after about a year, we got a new scout fullback who was a bit bigger than I was, and I started to play scout WR, RB, and generally whatever they needed.

I've rambled on and on, here, and I still feel like I haven't answered the question: It was tough. Lots of bruises. Tackling drills sucked the most, because the walk-ons were all used as living tackling dummies for the scholarship guys. That's just the part of the game, though. At the end of the day, I still had a locker with my name on it in the Swamp. That made it worth it.