The Florida Gators Need Marco Wilson In Order To Win, So How Do They Bring Him Back From "The Toss"?
Let’s preface this by saying, this column is not in defense of Marco Wilson throwing the shoe. There is no defending an inexcusable act. And no, Dan Mullen didn’t defend the throw. He defended his player.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s go over a quick recap.
On Saturday, the No. 7 (at the time No. 6) Florida Gators were facing the LSU Tigers. It was not the vaulted Top 10 matchup of years past. The Tigers limped in with juuuusst enough scholarship players after giving some walk-ons a promotion and with only two wins to their name at that point.
And the Gators got caught looking ahead to Alabama and the SEC Championship. With just over two minutes to play, it looked like Florida would have a chance for a late win. That was thanks to Marco Wilson making a crucial stop on 3rd and short, with the Tigers pinned in their own territory.
Then…well everybody knows the story at this point, do we really need to relive the pain again? Let’s just sum it up in one sentence and power through it quickly. Deep breath…ready—In the course of the tackle, the tight ends shoe came off and Wilson picked up said shoe, threw it downfield in celebration, received a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct, giving LSU a fresh set of downs and they drove just far enough downfield for their ace kicker Cade York to make a 57-yarder in fog so dense he couldn’t even see the uprights and instead relied purely on instinct. Oh and, Evan McPherson missed his 50-yarder on the other end to tie it as time expired.
Ok moving on.
Others have thrown a shoe in those same situations. A video resurfaced on Sunday that ESPN had shared in jest a year ago, when a BYU defensive lineman threw the shoe of Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Jarrett Guarantano. No flag was thrown.
When Eli Ricks intercepted Kyle Trask on Saturday night and ran the ball back for a Pick-6 touchdown, he turned and waited for Trask at the pylon, taunting him. After York made the 57-yarder, he Gator chomped around the field. In the past, both of those acts have drawn flags for taunting.
But as we said at the beginning, there really is no defending an inexcusable act. There is justifiable frustration that the penalties seemed to be given out at discretion as opposed to with uniformity. Yet none of that excuses the original penalty.
This was the mindset Mullen took on Sunday, as he explained to reporters that evening. And since this answer has been parsed and picked over throughout social media and on podcast the past couple of days, we’re going to post it in full here.
“I talked to him. We spent some time with him [Saturday] night after the game. Obviously I know he's disappointed. I mean, it's a shame. I went back to watch the play. He made the tackle. I mean, part of the football move, the kid's shoe was in his hand. He kind of threw it, jumped and celebrated with his teammates. It's pretty unfortunate in that situation. I don't think there was any intent to taunt. It wasn't like he was throwing it at their sidelines, doing any of that. It was a huge play, possibly a game-winning play. Threw a shoe, went to celebrate with his teammates. Unfortunately it was a penalty.
“I think that stuff, really an unfortunate situation and a mistake instead of somebody really trying to disrespect the game or taunt the opponent or anything of that nature. You know what I mean?
“Just really unfortunate it happened. But I know for him, I think he'll look at things and realize, ‘Hey, that's certainly not the reason that we lost the game.’ There's many, many factors that went into that. That's just an unfortunate one in that situation. It was a key moment in the game.”
However, as the emotions of Saturday night have settled down to a simmer and attention has turned fully to the SEC Championship on Saturday—and a legitimate chance at the playoff still in play after only dropping to No. 7 in the CFP polls—it’s time to disband the firing squad heading for Marco’s head.
“That was last week,” said tight end Kyle Pitts on Monday.
"Everyone has been supporting him…that doesn't define your whole career. [Teammates] just uplifting his spirits, despite what the media says and all the fans say. We know how Marco is as a person. To uplift him is what he needed.”
Added receiver Tre Grimes, “You know, everybody does some silly stuff in their lifetime. I feel like nobody deserves to be bashed or put down. As teammates, it’s our job to lift him up and help him regardless of if he made a silly mistake or not. Everybody makes a mistake. At the end of the day, we don’t look at that loss because of the silly mistake he made. As a team, we all embrace that loss together offensively and defensively, special teams too. We don’t just pin that loss on him. That’s on the receivers, that’s on everybody. If it was up to us, we could have made more plays as receivers, as running backs we could have made more plays. It’s not just specifically just on him. As teammates, it’s our job to lift him up and to let him know it’s not just on him, it’s on everybody.”
There’s something to the argument that Wilson should be punished more than just a stern talking to; he drew flags on two drives Saturday night that gave the Tigers a fresh set of downs on an otherwise third down stop. Both times they scored. And his play has been off compared to his stellar freshman year and solid 2019 season.
Mullen and staff are big on seniority and we have to ask if perhaps players know they won’t get benched no matter what happens on the field. But their plan has also worked in the past. One of the primary reasons Feleipe Franks flourished in their tutelage was he no longer feared getting benched any time he made a wrong read, as had been the case with Jim McElwain. Instead Franks was able to settle in, get comfortable and play knowing he’d have an opportunity to make up for any mistake.
If that’s going to be the case for Wilson—and just go ahead and prepare yourself, he’ll start on Saturday—then the philosophy used for Franks and others must be the same. Use this week to point out what went wrong and work on rebuilding his confidence to bounce back in a big way.
This is the strategy Defense Coordinator Todd Grantham is using this week as he works on not only returning his star corner to his former state, but also prepare for the SEC’s second best total offense (537.8 yards per game; for reference, the Gators are third in the league, eighth in the nation with 513.5 yards per game).
“You always try to use everything that happens—good, bad or indifferent—as a learning experience for your players so as they move forward, both in the field of play and society, they can be productive. You never want one play to define you, but what happens is, as you go through the game things can get magnified because you're getting close to the end. One play does not define a player, it doesn't define a person, it doesn't define a game. And there's a lot of plays that can change the outcome of a game, so that doesn't happen.
“But what happens is, as you move forward in a situation like that, it casts an image that certainly he's not proud of and he was disappointed in, but knowing the competitor he is and the kind of fire he has and his willingness to be a good player for us, it's basically, 'Come back and let's get back to work. I mean, move on.' That's the thing you've got to understand is we all have the ability to make choices, and when you make those choices, that's it. And we've just got to continue to move on and get ready to play the next play.
"He's helped us get to where we are right now, and we've got to have him play his best game to date. That's really the focus of our team and our defense, is continuing to move forward to play your best game come Saturday. And whatever's happened's happened, but you've got to take everything that you've experienced up until now to allow you to play your best game."
For years, Marco Wilson was known by his big smile, his variable bouncy attitude that manifested itself in backflips on the field, and a quick quip that exuded confidence. That’s not the case right now. As his dad Chad Wilson has explained on Twitter, he’s sick. As he should be, I can hear people saying, and yes, self reflection is needed right now. And there’s little chance of this act ever being extracted from Wilson’s name and in our memory of him.
That shoe toss will likely be remembered for years to come, if for no other reason than LSU won’t let it die. Head Coach Ed Orgeron has made a joking reference to the toss several times, the official LSU Football twitter account has posted pictures of the cleat and the Tigers are holding on the the greatest trophy of their otherwise dismal season.
And the Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at President George W. Bush (the 12 year anniversary of which occurred on Monday, ironically) tweeting his response to the throw certainly put the act on a worldwide stage.
Then of course there is the vitriol of the Gator fanbase which we all must admit can be gruesome even during the best of times.
But with Alabama and their trio of Heisman worthy offensive players waiting in Atlanta, it’s likely too late to insert someone brand new in the lineup. As Grantham mentioned, Wilson has helped this team get to where they are right now, with his 98 career tackles, 17 pass breakups and three interceptions in 35 games. The only thing they can focus on now is getting him ready for Saturday. That means bringing along the Marco Wilson who had long had the passion to make the big hit, but now possesses the maturity to react appropriately. They’ll need him to win.
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