Gators Sophomore Quincy Wilson Has Never Been Afraid to Get Physical
Friday, August 21, 2015 | Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- As his freshman season progressed and Gators cornerback Quincy Wilson began to receive more and more playing time in a talented Florida secondary, it was obvious he belonged.
Wilson punctuated his late-season bloom with a diving, bobbling interception at Florida State, stretching his body out mid-air to pick off a pass from Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston to earn Wilson his own highlight on that night's “SportsCenter.”
“He really got his confidence up and really started making plays at the end,'' teammate Brian Poole said. “He is big. He is strong. He can run. There's not a wide receiver that is going to push him around.”
Or a catcher.
At 6-foot-1, 209 pounds, Wilson casts a formidable presence in a Gators secondary considered perhaps the nation's deepest and most talented. Wilson plays a physical brand of football that can rattle an opponent.
“He was bigger than me as a player when he was a freshman in high school,'' said Chad Wilson, Quincy's father and a former defensive back at Miami in the early 1990s.
When Quincy was growing up in South Florida, Chad was often his coach. One of Chad Wilson's earliest memories of his son's physical nature happened when Quincy played Little League.
Quincy was on first base when a teammate laced a hit into the outfield. Chad watched from the dugout and envisioned it all before it actually happened.
Quincy sprinted around second toward third as the outfielder reached the ball. He charged around third base as the throw reached the catcher at home plate.
“I started screaming, 'no,' because I knew what was going to happen,'' Chad said. “I started thinking, 'this is the first inning of the game, it is Little League ball, and if what I think happens happens, he is out of this game in the first inning.' He was pitching that day.”
Yep, it happened.
“The mother of all collisions,'' recalls Chad. “I don't even know if that kid finished the game, but I know Quincy didn't because he got thrown out.”
Quincy spent the rest of the game seated next to Chad being taught about the art of sliding.
Wilson enters his sophomore season primed for an opportunity to make some big hits for the Gators. He is competing with fellow sophomore Jalen Tabor to start at the cornerback position opposite All-American Vernon Hargreaves III.
Regardless of who starts, both will be regular members of the rotation.
Wilson enjoys the day-to-day competition in the secondary and is unfazed by the recognition Hargreaves receives compared to some of his teammates.
“Having guys like that just makes us better,'' he said. “If Vernon makes a play, then I want to make a play, Jalen wants to make a play, Poole wants to make play. We are all competing against each other in practice.”
Wilson played in every game last season and earned his first career start in Florida's upset victory against No. 9-ranked Georgia in Jacksonville.
He had one of his better weeks of practice and didn't disappoint on game day, recording four tackles and forcing a fumble in Florida's 37-20 victory.
Recruited heavily out of the University School in Fort Lauderdale, Wilson started again two weeks later in a loss to South Carolina.
Chad Wilson, an assistant coach at American Heritage High in Plantation, Fla., said it was only a matter of time before Quincy emerged as a difference maker on the college level.
“I had a strong work ethic when I was a player. I always thought I had to do extra to keep up,'' Chad said. “He adopted that mindset. It's a great thing for him because there is a lot of competition there.
“I knew that he could come in there and hang with those guys. It would just come down to him mentally. Could he adjust mentally to what was going on there?”
While there was chatter that maybe Wilson would be better served at safety due to his size and athletic ability, he made it clear to former head coach Will Muschamp and defensive backs coach Travaris Robinson that he was determined to play corner.
The coaching staff has changed, but Wilson's vision of himself has not.
“I'm not going to play no safety,'' he said. “Most receivers don't see guys my size and that physical. My size is a plus. I can play nickel, dime and corner.”
Wilson finished with 22 tackles, an interception, forced fumble and three pass breakups a season ago.
While the defense will feature various tweaks under first-year coordinator Geoff Collins, the scheme is similar to the one under Muschamp. The Gators want to play fast and physical and set the tone.
Wilson, Tabor, Hargreaves and Poole form a deep stable of corners, and safeties Keanu Neal, Marcus Maye, Duke Dawson are versatile enough to provide plenty of looks to confuse opposing offenses.
Wilson never doubted his place in the secondary, in large part to the knowledge of the game he picked up from Chad over the years. He spent much of the offseason working to improve his technique on details such as backpedalling and jamming receivers.
“My dad is probably always going to be the hardest on me,'' he said. “He was the one that actually put me to play corner because I was a quarterback all my life. So I always go back to him and try to get his opinion because he played cornerback. He's meant a lot.”
Instead of watching from the sidelines as he often did as Quincy grew up, Chad was in the stands at Doak Campbell Stadium in November when his son made the biggest play of his young career.
He wasn't sure what happened at first. His view was much different than that day when Quincy ran over that catcher.
“They sit you up there by the lights and the pigeons, so being in the stadium from where I was, I wasn't sure if he intercepted that ball or not,'' Chad said. “It seemed almost inconceivable from my angle. I didn't realize how great of an interception it was until I saw the replay.”
Another example of Quincy laying his body on the line to make a play.
“He has always been very physical, and it's been, for the most part, a very good thing,” said Chad.
