Brick In Foundation: Hargreaves Welcomes Expectations as Program Transitions to Future
Wednesday, December 31, 2014 | Football, Scott Carter
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Vernon Hargreaves III looks, talks and acts the part.
He certainly plays the part with authority. His credentials prove that.
In the past month the postseason accolades have piled up for Hargreaves, who was named a first-team All-SEC cornerback by SEC coaches and earned first-team All-American honors from The Sporting News.
Hargreaves' recent run of recognition earned him a coveted commemorative brick outside the Heavener Football Complex.
After two seasons at Florida, it's safe to say the 19-year-old Hargreaves is one of the primary bricks in the program's foundation as it navigates the transition from Will Muschamp to Jim McElwain.
In reality, Hargreaves is more than that. In what has been a difficult two-year stretch for the Gators, Hargreaves has excelled amidst the injuries and losses and changes. He is, perhaps more than any other player on the roster, the face of the team heading into next season.
Whether he was ready or not for that kind of spotlight, Hargreaves began to assume the role in his first game as a freshman when he intercepted a pass. He intercepted two more over the next three games, quickly moving into the starting lineup and grabbing the attention of opposing offensive coordinators.
“It's tough not getting the ball thrown at you,'' Hargreaves said this week. “At first I didn't really want to believe it, but I kind of see it now, that people are starting to go away from me. But that's not really a problem because I trust everybody else on my team. I've just got to keep playing and take advantage of my opportunities.”
Keep playing. Keep going. Hargreaves uses those terms a lot.
The irony is that he didn't want to during the summer before his freshman season at South Central High in Winterville, N.C. Hargreaves, all of about 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds at the time, envisioned himself as a future floor general on the basketball court.
His father, Vernon Hargreaves Jr., was in his third season as an assistant coach at East Carolina, Florida's opponent here on Saturday in the Birmingham Bowl. The younger Hargreaves didn't know anyone at his new school and his parents gently suggested he might want to participate in a 7-on-7 summer camp being held on East Carolina's campus to meet some friends.
No one told him he had to go. It was never that way when it came to football in the Hargreaves' household.
“I've got to give all the credit to both my parents. They raised me along the right lines. Growing up, it wasn't, 'you have to play football,' or 'you have to train,' or 'you have to go work out,' “ Hargreaves said. “My parents didn't bother me at all. The only thing they bothered me about was school.”
While he grew up around the game as the son of a college coach, Hargreaves' passion for football had faded by the time he entered his teens. That camp changed that.
“The coach put me at corner, I got few picks, and that was that,'' Hargreaves said. “I was a corner.”
He soon received his first scholarship offer -- from East Carolina.
“He came up to my waist. The only thing he needed to do was grow,'' East Carolina defensive coordinator Rick Smith, who was the Pirates' secondary coach then, told The Tampa Bay Times in 2012. “But he had everything else.”
The family moved from North Carolina to Tampa before the next season when Vernon Jr. left East Carolina to join Skip Holtz at USF. Meanwhile, Hargreaves continued to blossom as an up-and-coming prospect over the next three seasons at Tampa's Wharton High.
Recruiting analysts pegged him the jewel of Florida's 2013 signing class and Hargreaves hasn't disappointed.
He led the SEC during the regular season with 13 pass break-ups and added two more interceptions when teams opted to throw his way. Now listed at 5-foot-11, 194 pounds, Hargreaves plays perhaps as physical as any player in the country his size.
He will take on anyone for better or for worse. He suffered a head injury against LSU that cost him the second half when he went mano a mano with Tigers bulldozer Leonard Fournette, who checks in at 6-1 and around 230 pounds. Still, when he returned to the lineup, Hargreaves didn't back off, making a highlight-reel tackle (photo above) on South Carolina running back Brandon Wilds (6-2, 222) that epitomized another side of his ability.
Ask Hargreaves if he considers himself a physical player -- he finished eighth on the team with 45 tackles, third among defensive backs -- and he hesitates for a moment.
“I don't really like to put a name on my game,'' he said. “I just kind of play and whatever happens, that's how it goes. When the time is right I can get physical with anybody. It all depends on the game and the situation and what we need. If I need to come up and tackle, I'm going to come up and tackle. Tackling is definitely something I need to work on.”
Hargreaves has proven a natural as a football player. Taking on a leadership role like he has at Florida this season has not come as easy.
While he has been in the public spotlight since high school and has more than 25,000 Twitter followers, Hargreaves continues to develop his leadership style on a team that features arguably as deep and talented a secondary as any team in the country.
He said his main focus when he first joined the program was to learn every detail possible about Florida's defensive scheme. Hargreaves watches the game from a vantage point mature for his age.
“I watch some specific guys at my position like the Joe Hadens of the world,'' he said. “But I just like watching football in general, concepts and what is most likely going to happen. I like to know everything. It's a process [to become a leader]. I'm learning how to get into it.
“It's hard being a leader. You can't mess up. If someone else sees you slacking off, it's easy for them to slack off, especially the younger guys. I'm getting there.”
With so many changes currently in the program, Hargreaves understands others are looking to him for direction more than ever. He sees better days ahead, especially when he looks around at practice and sees the talent returning.
The Gators lose senior safety Jabari Gorman but veteran Marcus Maye and freshmen Jalen Tabor, Quincy Wilson and Duke Dawson return to anchor a defense that will be lead by new coordinator Geoff Collins.
“We are so talented on the back end,'' Hargreaves said. “The young guys who are under me, I think they could be better than me. That's not me being nice. That's just me seeing them practice every day, seeing their mentality and how good they want to be.”
As for Hargreaves, he plans to keep playing, keep going.
While his parents prepared him well for his high-profile role, he said that he and Vernon Jr. don't talk a lot of football. They never watch film together. Mostly, they talk about life and creating opportunities to succeed.
“He always says 'keep going, there's nowhere to stop,' “ Hargreaves said.
That is the mentality he will take into next season and hopes others follow. The awards of the past month are nice and they mean something, but in Hargreaves' master plan, there are more doors to open.
He wants to see where they lead.
“I guess I had a good season. I played well enough,'' he said. “I mean, obviously there is a lot I need to improve on. I love [the expectations]. I love all the 'you've got to be this' because it just makes me want to do more. Next year I want to be a consensus All-American. That's how it is with me. I just want to keep going and keep getting better.”
