DB Dawson eager to close with win

GAINESVILLE — There was something different about Duke Dawson. His long, thick hair was replaced with a buzz cut. He was wearing black-rimmed reading glasses instead of a football helmet.

“I'm going into the real world now,” the senior cornerback said after practice on Monday, running his right hand over his new haircut. “I have to have a clean look.”

With one game left in the regular season, Dawson is focused on life after college. Many of his fellow seniors are, too. After all, this wasn’t how their final year at Florida was supposed to go — not with a 4-6 record just before their annual rivalry game against Florida State on Saturday, the likelihood of a bowl game shrinking by the week. Not after Jim McElwain, their head coach, parted ways with Florida in October. And not after likely guaranteeing Florida a losing record for just the second time in 38 years.

“In life, things happen,” Dawson said. “It’s something that you’ll need to be able to handle later in life, situations like this.”

Dawson — who returned for his senior year to be the team's veteran cornerback — said he hasn’t thought about how Saturday’s matchup against the Seminoles will likely be his last. Instead, he’s focused on enjoying his final few practices as a college athlete and putting more highlight plays on film to prove to NFL scouts he’s ready for pro football.

Interim UF coach Randy Shannon said he thinks Dawson has proven enough.

“He’s big time,” Shannon said.

Instead of declaring for the NFL Draft as a junior, Dawson returned to school, partly to improve his draft stock. Some analysts project him as a third- or fourthround draft pick. Shannon said the experience Dawson gained over the last year has been invaluable.

“When you're young, you always think you're the guy, you should be doing more,” Shannon said. “But he took that step over the last two years of understanding what it really takes.”

Dawson is Florida’s active leader in career pass breakups with 17, and has three interceptions this season, second-most on the team. He has also mentored a defensive back group composed mostly of underclassmen, helping Florida rank second in the SEC in interceptions (13). And while Dawson has played fairly well this year, he said he wishes his final season would have played out differently. For many of UF’s seniors, this year caught them by surprise.

“You put so much effort into this,” redshirt senior linebacker Cristian Garcia said. “For the season not to go the way you wanted, I really put it on me and on all the seniors.”

But nearing the end of a bitter season, searching for motivation with all hopes of a postseason game likely dashed, UF has found one thing left to play for: defeating Florida State for their seniors.

“There's not much to look forward to this season,” redshirt junior receiver Dre Massey said. “But we're looking forward to that."

UF hasn’t defeated FSU since 2012, two years before Dawson played his first season in a Gators uniform.

After a recent practice, Dawson was asked if a win over Florida State would change how he looks back on this season. He paused. It wouldn’t, he said, only because he has already learned other lessons this year that have been far more valuable than a win against Florida State could ever be.

“You have to bounce back from adversity, and that's something I see a lot of these guys doing,” Dawson said, gesturing to a few of his teammates.