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Family is more than blood for T.J. Slaton

Family shows no color.

Those are the words written in ink on the inside of Tedarrell Slaton’s arm. The University of Florida sophomore defensive tackle had that tattooed on him to pay tribute to the family that took him in while he was in high school.

“I got that tattoo for them because of all the stuff they helped me get through,” Slaton said, “like get through school and get through college. It was a big praise to them.”

The relationship he formed with the Lamont family aided his career in football - it made it easier on his mom to get him to school and allow her son a better opportunity to succeed.

“My mom used to work in Pompano, so she used to have to drive 45 minutes from where we stayed, and my school was 20 minutes in the opposite direction,” he said. “So, I was just like, ‘Since we already know each other, you might as well just let me live with you because you stay two minutes from the school. We could walk to school.’ And then, you know, I asked my mom and she said yes. She said to see what his mom said, and she said yes. It just kind of clicked and that’s how it was. You know, they’ve always been family.”

Now, Slaton helps anchor the defensive line at UF that showed up big last week against Mississippi State. The Gator defense pilled up six sacks and held the Bulldogs offense to 202 total yards, and a mere 43 yards in the second half. Slaton and Co. held MSU quarterback Nick Fitzgerald to only 32 rushing yards and less than three yards a carry.

“That was all preparation,” Slaton said. “That was all one-on-one drills. We weren’t working moves earlier in the game because we felt like he (Fitzgerald) was going to run and his past games he had taken off for a lot of yards, a lot of scoring. We had to prepare for him. We weren’t really working our moves, so we just came and stood up our guy and kind of pushed the pocket. But then late in the game we saw that he wasn’t running as much so we started going to moves.”

One thing that that helped the Florida front four tremendously during the ball game was rotating bodies on the defensive front. This kept guys fresh for the fourth quarter and allowed the defense to make the necessary plays to preserve the lead.

“I was very fresh,” he said. “I didn’t play as much as I thought I would in the fourth, but that’s just game situation so you really can’t be upset about it.”

The task won’t be any easier for the Gators defense this Saturday against LSU. The Tigers come into the Swamp ranked fifth in the country.

“I feel like, to me, when we played them last year they were the best O-line we faced,” the South Florida native said. “LSU is good for recruiting big O-linemen and I feel like they are the best O-line we are going to play. I feel like that brings a challenge to me and my other D-linemen, so we have to really hit the weight room and really be physical with our own O-line to really embrace the challenge.”

The monumental status of this game is something that Slaton and the rest of the team are aware of. With the 2008 national championship being honored at halftime, along with this being the CBS SEC Game of the Week, all eyes will be on Gainesville Saturday.

“That just makes us want to play even harder than we want to,” Slaton said. “We really want to get this win, not just because they’re a top-5 team it’s because, like, we don’t want to lose at home. I don’t feel like any team wants to lose at home, so that’s just how I feel. I don’t want to lose in front of these great fans.”

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