Finally focused, Freddie Swain plans to seize the opportunity
Freddie Swain doesn’t come off as a typical college football player. He doesn’t play video games. He doesn’t listen to Gucci Mane. And with “silence is my best friend” tattooed on his leg, it’s safe to say he’s not a big talker.
“I just like to go out there and handle my business and let my actions do the talking,” Swain said.
This offseason, his actions have been heard loud and clear. Florida coach Jim McElwain recently praised the way Swain handled recovery from shoulder surgery.
“He’s a tough guy,” McElwain said. “He played injured, obviously, for us to have to go in and clean it up, which we did. He really attacked his rehab and the guys down in the training room.
“He’s one of those guys who is kind of a model of what you do to get yourself back. He’s added some weight, which in turn has really helped him, even with his speed.”
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Swain appeared in all 13 games last season, which is hard to believe when hearing the sophomore describe his shoulder injury.
"I was really playing with one arm,” Swain said. “My labrum was torn up. It was real bad. I was really playing with one arm, but I ain’t gonna hold that against me."
The one-armed wideout managed eight catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns last year. Those aren’t the kind of numbers that generate much offseason hype, but Swain could turn some heads this season, starting with the Michigan game.
In the absence of suspended WR Antonio Callaway, Swain recently got reps with the first-team offense.
"It's good,” Swain said. “It makes you push even harder because you know you've got receivers like Josh [Hammond] and Tyrie [Cleveland] and Brandon [Powell] and Callaway. You have all of them kind of behind you and pushing you. It just makes you go 100 times harder."
Even with Callaway out, the Gators’ wide receiver depth chart is too deep for anyone to back into a starting spot by default. Swain has learned to change his approach off the field to improve on the field.
"I’m just focused in and locked in on what I have to do,” Swain said. “I left all the distractions alone and I just focused in on what's my goal. It's paying off."
In freshman camp, Swain lacked the patience to learn the intricacies of his routes. He wanted to just go out and show why he was as a four-star recruit at North Marion.
“I was just ready to go and I wasn't really focused,” Swain said of his freshman season. “I just wanted to play. I wasn't really learning about why I should run this route the correct way and why I should push this certain depth. I was just playing."
While he was adjusting to life at UF, the playbook wasn’t Swain’s biggest priority. Like many blue-chip freshmen before him, Swain learned the hard way that talent alone wasn’t going to get him on the field at Florida.
"For me, it was just my head wasn’t in the playbook,” Swain said. “I was trying to look at it on the road and come out here and try and execute it. That wasn’t working for me. I had to really sit down and walk through routes and whatnot. That’s the biggest thing that happened to me."
It took playing against other college athletes for Swain to realize it was time to make an adjustment.
“Probably about a couple of games in,” Swain said. “When I seen that I could compete with the best of the best and I was competing with them just basically off of talent and nothing behind it like knowing plays and knowing why I’m running that route. That’s when it clicked."
Now that’s healthy and studying his playbook, there shouldn’t be anything stopping from him a successful sophomore season.
“I’m just ready to compete,” Swain said of his expectations for this season. “Only time will tell.”
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