Thurman Determined O-Line Won't Trip Up
Thursday, August 6, 2015 | Football, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Believe it or not, there was actually a chance six months ago -- a darn likely one, in fact -- the Florida Gators' offensive line could have gone into training camp viewed with even more skepticism than the unit is now.
Thank goodness for Trip Thurman.
Thurman is the 6-foot-5, 313-pound fifth-year senior guard from Delaware whose 10 starts last season represent the only FBC starts of any of the 19 rostered offensive linemen who will take the field when the Gators open fall practice Thursday afternoon at the UF lacrosse facility. And Thurman almost didn't make to 2015.
Last season, Thurman showed his toughness in playing through a painful shoulder injury that, despite being repaired surgically earlier in his career, had become chronic. Thurman had no interest in a second surgery and after much deliberation with the UF health staff opted to try to rehab the shoulder back into playing shape. There were no guarantees the process would work. And doing so was going to be very, very hard. 
“It's not hard if you love it,” he said.
The results of Thurman's work had him sitting and smiling at Wednesday's UF Football Media Day, alongside some of his fellow linemen and talking about the preseason notion that their unit's deficiencies -- lack of experience, quality, depth; name it, the raps are out there -- will greatly impair the progress new Coach Jim McElwain is out to make in his first season.
“It irritates us, yeah, but we kind of take it in one ear and send it out the other,” Thurman said. “I think since I've been here, there's always been questions about our offensive line not being one of the best in [the Southeastern Conference] and I'm not saying we are or we're not. All I'm saying is that we're going to work as hard as we can to prove ourselves.”
The Gators said goodbye to Arizona Cardinals first-round draft pick D.J. Humphries and center Max Garcia, who is currently tearing it up in Denver Broncos camp. They had 22 starts between them. Also gone are Chaz Green, Trenton Brown and Tyler Moore. That's another 25 starts. Now, throw in Rod Johnson, who started three games as a redshirt freshman but was forced to quit football after suffering a neck injury in spring workouts. That's 50 of the 60 offensive line starts from the 2014 season.
Thurman accounts for the other 10.
“He's the grandpa of the group now,” sophomore guard Antonio Riles said.
Riles played in four games as a redshirt freshman last season. Offensive line coach Mike Summers, as the lone returning assistant from Will Muschamp's staff, also has two sophomores in 6-6, 355-pound tackle David Sharpe and center Cameron Dillard (10 games of experience between them), a trio of redshirt freshmen in Travaris Dorsey, Kavaris Harkless and Andrew Mike, and transfer tackle Mason Halter, a two-time All-Patriot League performer at Fordham. After that comes a half-dozen rookies from the 2015 signing class -- headlined by tackle Martez Ivey and center Tyler Jordan, a pair of high-profile prep All-Americans -- that have absolutely no clue what they're about to get into.
But they all will get a chance to join in the action with Thurman.
“We talk all the time about creating our own identity by what we put on the field,” UF offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier said Wednesday. “If the player comes in and is the best player at their position, they should play.”
McElwain seconded that: “The key is to put the five best out there, whoever those five best are who give you best opportunity to win the game. That's what we'll do.”
That means no one should rule out the notion that UF could eventually have a couple true freshmen in the starting lineup. No one should rule out anything.
Hence the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium-sized question marks hovering over the line.
“We don't talk a lot about it, but we've definitely heard about it,” Sharpe said. “And Coach Summers will bring it up enough to get our attention and maybe add some fuel to the fire.”
A little gas on a blaze can be a good thing. Especially if the embers are barely burning.
If Thurman has anything to do it with it -- and he's the unquestioned leader of this group -- things are about to get a little heated in the trenches. In August, no less.
“As the veteran guy, I feel I need to work that much harder to get these guys on the same page and to have an unbelievable season,” Thurman said. “There are a lot of doubts about the O-line, but I feel we have a chance to gel in fall camp and people will be surprised how we come out.”
