Florida Gator

cornerbacks Marco Wilson and CJ Henderson have forged a close bond, despite their many differences.

GAINESVILLE — Three Gators football players waited patiently in front of a blue curtain during UF media day.

In the middle sat a soft-spoken artist. On the right, a humble recluse. And on the left, a boisterous ringleader.

Junior safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, the man on the left, gave his assessment of the two others. He left no room for interpretation.

“I’ve got the best two corners in the SEC,” Gardner-Johnson said, gesturing toward the others.

That’s how highly GardnerJohnson values cornerbacks Marco Wilson and CJ Henderson. The pair of sophomores figures to see the field often in Florida’s defensive scheme, due to both a lack of experienced depth behind them and a laundry list of accomplishments between them.

Henderson became the first UF freshman to record pick-sixes during back-to-back games when he burned Michigan and Tennessee

for scores last season. Wilson started every game in 2017 and led the team in pass breakups.

Résumés of that pedigree could reasonably lead to inflated egos or more trash talk. After all, the DBU moniker — Defensive Back University — that Florida claims is a driving force for the pair entering a new season with a new defense.

But Wilson and Henderson, the artist and the recluse, respectively, don’t feel the need to give themselves credit. After growing up and playing football in South Florida, they’ve already seen some of the best competition the country has to offer. They both said competing in the SEC for the first time was just the next step.

Now, both corners said they want to improve on their initial campaigns.

“I didn’t get very excited about my freshman performance,” Wilson said. “People might think it was good, but I know that I have a lot more.”

Wilson and Henderson never played against or with each other in South Florida. Henderson said the two had never met until they arrived on the UF campus. The pair became roommates and quickly discovered that for all they share in common, they’re starkly different.

Henderson said he grew up watching American cartoons, namely “Spongebob Squarepants.” After living with Wilson, Henderson learned his counterpart favors “Dragon Ball Z” and other Japanese anime.

Not only did Wilson favor it, Henderson said, but he would also sketch detailed pictures for fun, sometimes inspired by the show’s characters. Wilson even took two minutes to draw a dragon on notebook paper to prove it at UF Media Day.

“That’s not how I expected him to be off the field,” Henderson said.

The two also use their

leisure time in South Florida differently. Wilson said he usually likes to spend his time back home in Plantation either on the beach or at the driving range. That is, unless he’s talking football with his father, Chad, a former Miami Hurricanes cornerback who runs a defensive backs and linebackers camp in Miami Gardens.

“He’s a really smart guy,” Wilson said. “Even when I go back home now from college, I’m training with him. It really helps me.”

Henderson, however, said he prefers a more physical stay back in Miami. When he’s not bouncing around Sky Zone, an indoor trampoline park, he said he’s usually trying to improve his onfield game.

“When I go home, I’m mostly working out,” he said. “I’ll hang out at my old Pop Warner field and go work out there.”

For as much as the two differ in their own personalities, they each said their playing styles aren’t too far off from each other’s. Henderson does have an inch and a pound over Wilson, but physical play, they both said, is at the core of their ideologies.

Henderson said the coaching staff teaches them the same techniques and schemes, so he and Wilson

don’t stray far from that the instruction.

“I think we both complement each other,” Henderson said. “Whatever I do, he does it. And whatever he does, I do it.”

Wilson also said they like to relax by playing video games, particularly the battle-royal shooter “Fortnite.”

“It’s just a cool way to bond and also a good way to stay out of trouble,” Wilson said.

Even that common interest, however, includes a difference between the two. Wilson said he’s considering breaking into one of the dances featured in “Fortnite” in celebration after a big play this season. Henderson said it was out of the question for him.

The pair may not see the field together this season as much as they did in 2017. Henderson said defensive coordinator Todd Grantham wants to maintain a heavy rotation among corners to fit his 3-4 defense.

But Gardner-Johnson said Wilson and Henderson will help the Gators win.

“We’re going to put one on that wall out there in the stadium,” Gardner-Johnson said. “We’re going to put up one SEC championship and then we’re going to put up one national championship this year.”