With each carry, Mike Gillislee runs farther away from the dangers of DeLand. His cousin Kentrell Gillislee, meanwhile, deals with the perils of their hometown every day.
While Mike leads the Southeastern Conference in rushing, Kentrell is working at Captain D’s Seafood Restaurant.
“I have a part-time job, but that’s not what it is around here,” Kentrell said. “I can’t stand the area. It gets hard. If you don’t get a scholarship to play football, you have to be an A+ student to get up out of here. Other than that, there’s people around here that sell dope and shoot. It’s not the right place for anybody.”
An accusation of lewd battery in 2009 ruined Kentrell’s shot at a Division I football scholarship. After receiving interest from Central Florida, Florida International and Illinois, he settled on a football scholarship to Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, but stayed for just one year.
The cousins, both 21 years old, played together at DeLand High. Football has always been part of their bond, back to the days when they would do barefoot imitations of Emmitt Smith in the middle of South Clara Avenue during their childhood.
Alfred Smith coached at DeLand from 2002-2012 and has seen the development of the cousins on and off the field. Smith remembered when he first saw Mike in the weight room. There was something different about him as a freshman.
Football was Mike’s big ticket, and he knew it from a young age, Smith said.
“That kid wanted to get strong,” Smith said. “He would come into the weight room and he’d bust his butt. He wouldn’t be going in there laughing and playing with the other kids. He was repping out, waiting and recovering, and went right back to work.”
Smith served as offensive coordinator when Mike and Kentrell ran in the same backfield for the Bulldogs. Now he’s the head coach at Crescent City High.
“When kids come out of that area (DeLand) and do good for themselves, that whole city supports them,” Smith said. “They know what type of area that is.”
Last year, Kentrell’s 16-year-old cousin, Calvin Nealy Jr., died from the bullet of another teenager’s gun. Nealy was the second young adult from DeLand shot between March 20 and April 2 of 2011.
Through it all, Mike found his way to Gainesville, where he’s running with more than just the Gators in mind.
“He’s trying to do this not only for himself, but for his whole city,” Smith said. “He’s got a lot of friends he left behind still doing wrong whose only hope is him.”
On the football field, Gillislee heads into the fourth game of his senior season at Florida with the Gators’ hopes for 2012 largely on his shoulders.
To this point, he hasn’t disappointed.
Through three games, Gillislee has rushed for 346 yards and scored four touchdowns. His yardage total is the highest for any Florida rusher through a season’s first three games since Ciatrick Fason gained 396 yards in 2004. Fason was Florida’s last 1,000 yard rusher.
Gillislee’s success has been a long time coming for the senior who arrived at Florida as the lone running back in Urban Meyer’s 2009 recruiting class.
During the last three seasons, Gillislee took a back seat to speedsters Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps.
Injuries also kept Gillislee on the sidelines last season. He suffered a sprained ankle against LSU on Oct. 8, which limited the physical runner’s carries the rest of the way.
Prior to this season’s opener against Bowling Green, when he ran the football 24 times, Gillislee hadn’t received more than 11 carries in a game.
Although he led the Gators with a 5.9 yards per carry average in 2011, he finished with 56 attempts — well behind Demps’ 98 and Rainey’s 171.
He was also used mostly in garbage time, with only two of his 56 attempts coming in the second half with either team down one score or less.
Although the Gators experienced trouble running between the tackles last season, Gillislee did not see as much playing time as his high school coordinator felt he should have.
“I used to give him the ball 30 times a game,” Smith said. “Heck yeah, I wanted him to have more playing time, because I knew what he had in him.”
Florida finished eighth in the SEC in rushing last season. Against No. 1 LSU, Gillislee led the Gators with 56 yards. He had the talent, but his downhill running style didn’t fit Charlie Weis’ offense.
“Last year we had those two little fast guys that were kind of the same player, so that minimized his touches,” Weis said.
A struggling Florida offensive line didn’t help Gillislee, either.
“We didn’t block as well as we’re blocking right now,” Gators coach Will Muschamp said. “Not taking anything away from Mike, because he’s running really well, but we’re a little differently equipped in the running game than we were a year ago.”
Smith made sure his former player stayed focused, even with the public clamoring for Gillislee to get in the game.
Fans chimed in on Twitter with “#freegilly” hashtags and messages pleading for him to touch the football, which still make appearances during Gators game days in 2012.
“I kept in touch with him, because I knew it was tough on him,” Smith said. “He knew he could do it and he knew a lot of people knew he could do it. It seemed like he just wasn’t getting the chance. The only thing I was doing was telling him to be patient.”
High school teammates took notice of how the former four-star recruit handled the lack of playing time.
“He had to wait his turn,” former DeLand center Tim Sandersfield said. “A lot of people would’ve transferred, but Mike had his mind on the goal and took whatever it took to get there.”
With touches rare, Gillislee worked on the special teams units during his first three years at Florida.
“He’s a guy that never complains,” Muschamp said. “He was on our kickoff return team and our punt block team last year. He never complained. I wish he would talk to some of our freshmen. We’re trying to get them to understand that. He’s a very unselfish player and works extremely hard. You come to our practices, and he puts in the work every day. He’s a great example for our younger players.”
One embattled player in particular has benefited from knowing Gillislee since their days playing pickup at Chisholm Community Center in DeLand.
De’Ante “Pop” Saunders is in his second year as Florida’s starting safety, but his impact hasn’t always been positive.
Saunders missed Florida’s game against Alabama last October due to a violation of team rules.
He agreed to deferred prosecution following an arrest in May on misdemeanor marijuana possession charges.
He also missed the first two games this season for undisclosed reasons.
Saunders may have gotten in some trouble at Florida, but Gillislee helped the safety land with the Gators in the first place.
“He was one of those hot heads,” Kentrell said of Saunders. “He looked up to Mike, because [Saunders] was a sophomore playing on varsity. He always asked us questions and we tried to stick with him, because we knew everyone around the city does drugs. We just told him to keep on the right path, because he had the talent, too.”
Smith added: “Whenever Pop was into some crap, we’d be like ‘Hey Mike, you have to go talk to him.’ He’d get right on it. He was like a big brother to Pop.”
Gillislee looked out for his teammates. When Sandersfield, who was named the captain of the offensive line in 2008, broke his leg before the season, Gillislee showed his center some love by visiting him.
“I felt pretty bad,” Sandersfield said. “I remember Mike coming over the house sitting there playing Xbox with me. Not even talking about football. Just hanging out with me.”
His selfless attitude extended beyond one-on-one situations.
“I know Mike was from a low-income area, but he always took care of his teammates,” Sandersfield said. “I remember going out to dinner and him covering me. He always had that heart about him.”
Gillislee didn’t have much. Kentrell can attest to that. The cousins would help their grandfather mow lawns just to make an extra buck.
Sandersfield recalls sitting on the sidelines in the midst of DeLand’s 0-10 season, Gillislee’s junior year, when the running back’s work ethic was evident.
“I didn’t get to play one game and I told Mike on the bench, ‘Look man, I never thought it’d be like this,’” Sandersfield said. “He looked at me and said, ‘I can’t believe it either, but I know one day it’ll be different.”
Gillislee’s life on the football field has changed for the better. DeLand went 5-6 his senior season and after three years of sitting on the bench, Gillislee leads the SEC in rushing.
“I’m glad he’s there (at Florida),” Smith said. “I’m glad he’s playing big-time football, because he deserves it. He came up from a rough area and he was never one of those kids who stayed out on the streets. He seemed like he always wanted to do something with it.”
Contact Adam Pincus at apincus@alligator.org.
Senior running back Mike Gillislee (23) runs in a touchdown against Bowling Green at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Sept. 1. Gillislee, a native of DeLand, Fla., worked up the Florida depth chart his first three years to now lead the Southeastern Conference in rushing as the Gators' premier running back.
Sophomore running back Mack Brown (33) and senior running back Mike Gillislee (23) celebrate defeating Texas A&M at Kyle Field on Sept. 8. Coach Will Muschamp wished Gillislee mentored more of Florida's younger players, because of his unwavering work ethic.
The No. 14 Florida Gators (3-0, 2-0 SEC) take on the Kentucky Wildcats (1-2) at 12:21 p.m. on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Florida holds a 25-game winning streak against Kentucky, which dates back to 1986.
