Will Muschamp will sit down with Dante Fowler Jr. and his family "at an appropriate time" regarding the junior’s option to enter the NFL Draft.
However, Muschamp may have given Fowler the answer to his dilemma about four months ago during the Southeastern Conference Media Days in July,
"My philosophy, if he’s going to be a first-round pick, he needs to pack his bag and go," Muschamp said. "If you’re not going to be a first-round pick, you can come back and improve yourself your senior year. If you can come back and improve yourself your senior year, if you’re willing to work to do the things you need to do to improve yourself, you need to come back."
Although the NFL Draft is more than five months away, several draft experts have already pinned the 6-foot-3, 270-pound Fowler as a first-round pick because of his instinctual ability to rush the quarterback.
And now that he won’t have his head coach return to Florida for 2015, Fowler took to Twitter to make a statement.
"I came with champ. I’m leaving with Him," Fowler posted on his account (@TheDanteFowler6).
When asked if he agreed with Mike Taylor’s sentiment about not wanting to play for any coach but Muschamp, Fowler responded, "Oh yeah, definitely."
Fowler also admitted the constant hot-seat talk regarding Muschamp served as an unwanted disturbance in Florida’s locker room.
With the attention that the new head coach will receive throughout the offseason and into the 2015 campaign, it would be surprising to see Fowler willingly step back into that media circus.
"There was just a lot of drama going on, you know, just through Champ there and things like that," Fowler said. "I feel like everybody wanting him to leave so bad that it kind of turned into a distraction."
Then when asked what scenario, if any, would entice him to return for a senior campaign, Fowler had to pause and ponder before delivering his answer.
"Just, if anything, probably just develop or if they was to say I was too young or something like that," he said.
Fowler, who would turn 21 before the start of the next NFL season, doesn’t have much left to develop on the field. The junior is tied for second on the Gators in total tackles and first in tackles for loss with eight.
And Fowler also leads the team with 15 quarterback hurries. No other Gator has more than seven.
If he were to enter the draft early and get selected in the first round, Fowler would become the fourth UF player drafted in the top-32 over the past three years.
Dominique Easley, who is a good friend and mentor to Fowler, was the last Gator to go in the first round when he was selected 29th overall by the New England Patriots.
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @JCzupryn
Dante Fowler hypes up the crowd during Florida's 23-20 overtime loss to South Carolina at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
