Gators hope tweets didn’t offend

GAINESVILLE — As the Chip Kelly-to-UF buzz reached a fever pitch Sunday evening, players were not sure what to think — just like pretty much everyone else.

To share in the confusion, the Gators took to social media.

Having dinner with about 10 teammates, offensive lineman Fred Johnson started it off by tweeting a “thinking emoji” — a face with a finger and thumb resting on the chin, eyebrow cocked to indicate deep thought.

“We don’t know what’s going on,” receiver Josh Hammond said. “The rumors are out there, but nobody really knows. So we just all tweet out the emoji, thought it’d be pretty funny for us to just come together and kind of bother Twitter a little bit. “We’re like let’s tweet it and see what happens.” What began as a joke soon became a movement. Once Johnson, Hammond and the others gathered tweeted the emoji, more than a dozen teammates elsewhere joined in to take over Twitter and whip up even more speculation.

“I hope Gator country's not too mad at David Reese said.

If so, Reese said to blame Hammond and receiver Dre Massey, who were the ringleaders.

“I mean, we see everything on social media,” Massey said. “We're just waiting to see what's going to happen like y'all are.”

Next game: UF vs. FSU, Saturday, Noon, ESPN

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