They may not act as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal, but several UF football players still fit the bill to form The Breakfast Club.
On Tuesday mornings at 7:30, you'll find Chris Rainey, Bryan Thomas, Wondy Pierre-Louis, A.J. Jones and others in Gator Corner Dining, half asleep as they scarf down all the food they can manage.
The Breakfast Club is a program that is designed to help athletes, especially freshmen, learn the ins and outs of healthy eating.
For defensive end Duke Lemmens, Tuesday morning is his only day to snooze and catch some extra Z's. Yet, the freshman drags himself out of bed so he can add weight to his 6-foot-5, 240-pound frame.
It's a necessary sacrifice if he wants to be able to compete against the league's offensive linemen, some who outweigh Lemmens by 90 pounds.
Every Tuesday, he fills his plate with pancakes, eggs and sausage. And while the feast may sound delicious, Lemmens doesn't view it quite the same way.
"When you're forced to (eat) and you've got to weigh in every day and you're trying to put on heavier clothes so you just get that extra half-pound, it takes the taste out of the food," Lemmens said.
Plus, there's the added pressure of eating in front of strength and conditioning director Mickey Marotti, who simply sits to watch every chew and every swallow.
"We just go and get our meal, and if there's something we should have that we don't, he goes and gets it and brings it to us," wide receiver David Nelson said. "We have to eat it. If you can't eat it, you still have to eat it."
The team's nutritionist, Cheryl Zonkowski, also supervises the players as they pick and choose from the several buffet lines in the dining hall.
At some points, she's more like a mother, encouraging wide receiver Paul Wilson to add some protein to his plateful of syrupy French toast and tater tots. Other times, her job title kicks in and she finds herself tutoring the team by asking questions like, "Mr. Pouncey, what on your plate counts as a carbohydrate?"
While most of the players are willing to go along with the routine, she still has her challenges.
Nease High graduate James Wilson strolled into the building Tuesday at 7:20 a.m. to make a quick appearance, so he could fill a takeout box of food.
"Where are you going?" Zonkowski asked Wilson.
"Sleep," he replied, before reluctantly agreeing to stay for a quick Breakfast 101 session at Zonkowski's request.
Sooner or later, Zonkowski knows the players will start to realize the benefits of their new eating habits.
"More of it is just buying into the fact that we do this for a reason," Zonkowski said. "It's not just another thing that you have to do. We want you to work hard, and this is the thing that is going to make you better than the next guy when it comes to the draft. This will make you leaner and quicker and faster."
