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At 6-6 and nearly 300 pounds, Gervon Dexter is one of the players you let get off the bus first. He looks the part off the field, and if you ask his teammates, he's starting to look the part on the field as well.
"He’s improved a lot. He’s being more consistent with just making plays every day and understanding where he’s going and why he's going there. I think he’s becoming more consistent, he’s been making a lot of plays this spring," running Malik Davis said.
What about when Davis gets handed the ball and sees big Dexter in the hole?
“Uhhhh, I’m getting away from him," Davis said with a laugh.
That's the kind of player the Gators want and need Dexter to be. There has been a lot of talk about Daquan Newkirk and Antonio Shelton because they're the new kids on the block. The influx of veterans was needed on the defensive line but not at the hindrance of progressing the younger players — specifically Dexter.
Dexter recorded an interception in his collegiate debut. He appeared in all 12 games, made two starts, accumulated 20 tackles, two for a loss, and half a sack. He played a lot but wasn't featured.
"This is only his fourth year playing football," defensive line coach David Turner said of Dexter. "He’s still relatively young to the game. We got some things just fundamentally he was so raw that we’re still working on but the flip side of that is there really aren’t a whole lot of bad habits. We just have to develop him."
That means Dexter is more of a blank canvas than most players when they get to Florida. That's a big deal with a position coach like Turner, who has more than thirty years of coaching experience. Turner has coached numerous professionals, including 2017 No. 1 overall pick Myles Garrett. He's worked with a lot of players and Dexter is one he's excited to help mold. While he's excited, Turner knows that being a former five-star commit comes with expectations of its own.
"Everybody wants him to be great now and I’ve talked to him a little bit about that. I said, ‘hey man, you can’t walk around here with the way everybody looks at him just from a physical standpoint and expect him to just wreck shop every Saturday," Turner said. "That’s really not what he can do yet because he’s still new to the game. Everything is new to him. Sometimes you have to block out the noise. You gotta listen to the people who are closest to you in terms of, hey this is what we gotta do as coaches. Listen and listen to me and hopefully, we can get him going in the right direction in terms of his development, which we have been able to do. He knows what he’s gotta work on. He’s a prideful kid. He doesn’t like to not play well. He’s just got to take it one day at a time and not worry about it."
With two guys like TJ Slaton and Kyree Campbell to learn from and two more this year in Shelton and Newkirk, Dexter has all the tools around him to harness his potential and it's got his head coach excited.
"Gervon I thought, Dexter took some good steps forward this spring," Mullen said.
Dexter had a chance to become a household name if he continues this course, growing, developing, and with the help of the veterans and coaches around him. With that support system and Dexter's natural talent it might not be that long before Dexter is "wrecking shop" on Saturdays.
