Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Reese steps forward
Linebacker emerges as team leader in tough season
GAINESVILLE — UF middle linebacker David Reese did not plan to do it or even want to do it, but somebody had to do it.
Reese’s tough words for his teammates after some of them had quit during a dispiriting 45-16 loss Nov. 4 at Missouri were bold coming from a 19-year-old.
“I feel like this is something that had to be done,” Reese said this week. “I feel like this is something that guys before me had done at my position. So I feel like it was just time for me to step up. Just grow up quick.”
Leave it to the son of a football coach and a career counselor to give the flailing Gators some direction and assume a leadership role during a lost season.
Some teammates have suffered season-ending injuries, many have licked their wounds and most have avoided the media glare during a five-game losing streak UF (3-6) hopes to snap Saturday at home against UAB (7-3).
But Reese has started every game and leads the team with 71 tackles — 27 more than any Gator — while finding the energy to emerge as a team spokesperson.
“He just plays the game the right way,” senior linebacker Cristian Garcia said. “He plays with high effort. He gives his all. He never gets hurt, and even if he is hurt, he’s gonna play through it.
“That’s what really makes David a leader, it’s his heart and the way he performs.”
David Reese Sr., a high school principal and coach in the Detroit area, said it also helps his son thinks like a coach.
“He’s always looked at the dynamics as far as what’s happening with teams and putting himself in the mind of coaches,” David Reese Sr. said.
The younger Reese describes himself as quiet and unassuming. He was not involved in student government and did not look to stand out among his high school classmates.
With two games to go, the Gators’ 2017 season is long gone and a new head coach soon will be on the way.
Reese is not giving up and will not let his teammates, either.
“I feel like it’s very important, going through this time we just need someone to keep the guys together,” he said. “We have a pretty young team. As long as we stay together with the changes for better or worse we’ll be fine.”
Interim coach Randy Shannon said Reese will be fine whatever lies ahead for him.
“A guy that sees a future in himself,” Shannon said. “Not just being a football player, but as a person that’s got to be society-wise 10, 15 years from now. That’s how David thinks. That’s a guy that has some leadership qualities and skills.
“And he’s taking that role now with this football team and doing those things.”