A Florida Gators 7th-year senior and the joy of spring football

GAINESVILLE — The value of spring football practice isn’t just seeing which newcomers look like early contributors or which veterans are playing their way into larger roles this fall. It’s the emergence of players you’ve never heard of who get a rare chance to shine.

Players like Florida Gators edge rusher Tyreik Norwood.

He’s a seventh-year senior from a 9,000-person town in Tennessee (Winchester). If he had a Rivals of 247Sports recruiting profile coming out of high school, we can’t find it. The next snap he plays for the Gators will be the first.

But he made one play this spring that, as coach Billy Napier said, made both sides go nuts. All because a door was left unlocked.

Norwood was checking out UF’s construction management program and visiting his girlfriend (a student at UF’s Levin College of Law) two years ago when he walked by the Bull Gator statue in front of the stadium. The Heavener Football Complex was right there, too. Norwood wanted to see the Gators’ trophy case, so he tried the front door.

It opened.

“Honestly it was God telling me, ‘Go take your chance,’ ” Norwood said.

Norwood had spent four seasons at Kentucky Wesleyan (27 games, 65 tackles) but didn’t feel as if his football career was quite over. Maybe that’s why, after bumping into then-assistant Corey Raymond in the office building, he semi-jokingly asked if the Gators needed a walk-on defensive end.

Raymond saw Norwood’s frame (243 pounds, just shy of 6-foot-3) and decided it was worth a conversation — especially as Napier has emphasized building up the scout team during his tenure.

“Since then, it’s been a whirlwind,” Norwood said. “It’s been life-changing.”

Soon after starting classes that fall, Norwood officially tried out for a walk-on spot with a few dozen other hopefuls. He earned a spot.

He was on…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/florida-gators-7th-senior-joy-090000016.html

Author : Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla.

Publish date : 2024-04-12 09:00:00

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