There was no chain slung around his neck. There was no ferocious glare on his face. There was no energy, no passion.
Dominique Easley was the last player to emerge from Florida’s locker room Saturday against Furman. He didn’t run to the sideline. He hardly jogged.
After the game, after the Gators pulled out just their sixth win of the season, Easley looked lethargic. While his teammates rushed to the corner of the north end zone to celebrate the victory by singing the alma mater with the band, Easley slouched behind.
Florida, our Alma Mater ... Thy glorious name we praise …
He hung back, behind reporters, behind team personnel, behind families.
All thy loyal sons and daughters … A joyous song shall raise …
One of those families asked to take a picture with Easley. He took a break from pretending to care about the celebration, draped his long, tired arms over the shoulders of two kids beaming at a chance to meet their hero.
‘Neath the Orange and Blue victorious our love shall never fail…
Easley forced a smile. Click.
Against Furman, Easley and the rest of the underachieving Gators played with the same apathetic attitude. They walked onto the field with a sense of entitlement. They believed they were great, they believed that their natural abilities and the cursive script on their helmets was all they needed.
But they were flat-out wrong. And that’s why they are where they are: at 6-5 and the lowest point in Florida football in the last 25 years.
There’s no other name so glorious…
“We’ve got some young guys that think you’re going to roll your hat out there and win games and that’s not the way it works,” Will Muschamp said Monday.
While part of the blame lies with Muschamp, he does not suit up on Saturdays — although I’m sure he wishes he could. At the end of the day, it’s players, not plays or coaching. And the players on this team don’t get it.
They saw Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin light up the scoreboard, winning games and national championships like it was easy. They saw their own names on websites like Scout.com, touting their talents and anointing them as stars before they even played a down of real, big-time football.
But when they saw that they couldn’t stack up, that their mettle would be tested down after down, game after game, they backed into a corner.
And they don’t have anywhere to turn. After a while, players start to tune out their coaches’ motivational speeches. They need leaders, and this team is experiencing a shortage in that regard.
With a miniscule, nine-member senior class, leadership this season has been inconsistent, and that’s unacceptable. Younger players like Easley, who are in the spotlight deservedly or not, are not pulling their weight.
“Leaders don’t have bad days,” Muschamp said. “One might be a little tougher than the other one, but leaders don’t have bad days. They step up every day and they bring it every day. In a younger guy, that’s harder to understand.”
Against Furman, Easley and a vast majority of the team had a bad day. But if they want to live up to the reputation of the name on their helmets, those days must come to an end.
All hail, Florida, hail.
Contact Matt Watts at mwatts@alligator.org.
