HOOVER, Ala.-- Kingsley Eguakun enrolled in January and it did not take long for him to impress his fellow teammates.
During SEC Media Days, Jabari Zuniga quickly named Eguakun as one of the guys standing out this offseason.
"He has definitely been working out a lot harder," said the defender. "He has been in the indoor, doing extra drills."
"His hard work," said quarterback Feleipe Franks about what stands out about the first year player. "Our freshmen class coming in, in general, and he just came in and stepped in right in started to work hard straight away. [Director of Strength and Conditioning] Coach [Nick] Savage does a great job with him - chaning the mindset from the high school workouts to college workouts."
Eguakun's praise comes at the heels of Ethan White receiving glowing reviews for his work ethic this spring. This is great news for a position group who has a lot of questions coming into this season.
The offensive line saw four of its five starters graduate or leave for the NFL, which means the group is lacking in experience - especially when you go down the depth chart. However, if you ask the team, they are confident that the men in the trenches will be able to provide them the time to make plays.
"I feel like honestly those guys knew they were going to have to come in and work very hard and things like that, because there were a lot of key guys on the offensive line that went to the NFL," said running back Lamical Perine. "They have been coming out and playing great, getting chemistry together on our off times, and I feel like that will help them out throughout the season."
RELATED STORY: Position Battle: Offensive Line
“They do have a lot of promise, they work their tails off all summer," said Franks abut the line. "Everybody on the offensive line, we have guys that have experience as well on the offensive line, guys that just continuously working to get better on their footwork, keeping their good weight. [Offensive line] Coach [John] Hevesy does a great job with all that. And guys that are just hungry. We have spots that are open and guys are just hungry to keep on building that depth at that position. That’s one of the hardest working positions that we have on our team.”
"You just have to be ready for your opportunity because they are going to be thrown out there," added Perine. "That’s just how the game goes. I got thrown out there as a freshman so you gotta to be ready for that opportunity and they’re working hard for that.”
Eguakun and White have already shown their determination to put in the effort.
A good sign for the Gators and a good sign for the future of the line.
