Gators hope tweets didn’t offend

GAINESVILLE — As the 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 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

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 us,” linebacker

said. If so, Reese said to blame Hammond and receiver

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.”

Fred Johnson David Reese Massey, Next game: Chip Kelly-to-UF Josh Hammond

UF vs. FSU, Saturday, Noon, ESPN

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