Eyes front: Gators center Kingsley Eguakun is relishing the challenge of his first season as a starter on the UF offensive line.
Eguakun Getting Centered
Friday, August 13, 2021 | Football, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For the better part of two years, the head-butting between offensive lineman Kingsley Eguakun and John Hevesy, his position coach, was constant during Florida football practices. The conversation was pretty much the same, also. Hevesy would critique a play and Eguakun would debate his coach's assessment.
"But I knocked my guy down," Eguakun would insist. Repeatedly.
"You don't get it," Hevesy countered. Over and over.
These kinds of back-and-forths are not debates. If a coach says the sky is pink, guess what color it is? But rolled into Eguakun's overall package of talent, athleticism and intelligence was an element of hard-headedness. He needed time to figure some things, to embrace the bigger picture of the five-man unit, and what it means to be the leader in the middle of it all. Eguakun, the 6-foot-4, 303-pound junior from Jacksonville, took that time, eventually made the best of that time, and because of it his time is now, as in the 2021 season.
"I'm prepared for the position I'm in," Eguakun said. "I've worked hard for this."
A week into training camp, Eguakun has a firm hold on the center spot and barring any unforeseen circumstances will be there Sept. 4 when the Gators open the season against Florida Atlantic at Spurrier/Florida Field. UF returns three starters up front in redshirt senior Jean Delance (who started all 12 games at right tackle), graduate Stewart Reese (11 of 12 at right guard) and redshirt junior Richard Gouraige (12 starts at left guard, but now lining up at left tackle). Junior Ethan White (one start as a true freshman in in 2019) is manning the left guard spot.
Kingsley Eguakun (65) in action last season in UF's 38-17 road victory at Vanderbilt. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Eguakun (pronounced "EGG-woo-kahn") played in every game last season, albeit with limited reps, and was a regular on special-teams protection, but will be the lone member of the offensive line with no starts for his career. No one seems concerned; least of all Eguakun. Better yet, Hevesy.
CHARTING THE GATORS
One week into training camp, here's the first-team UF offensive line.
* Played 37 games at Mississippi State (2017-19)
** Played in two games at Texas (2016)
"I mean, he just grew up," Hevesy said. "You saw he had the skill, the talent and the wits and knowledge to play. It was a matter of maturity. That position, to me, is a different position. You're the quarterback [of the line]. You can't get rattled. You can't get frustrated. You can't let emotions get the best of you. Those are things I harp on with him every day, and you just saw this change in the spring and this summer. Like I said, he just grew up."
Hevesy grasped the immense potential in Eguakun during the recruiting process. Eguakun transferred from a private school to Jacksonville Sandlewood for his senior prep season and was a heavy lean to Miami, but that changed once the Gators got heavily involved. Though Eguakun was listed as an offensive linemen, Hevesy saw him as a center all the way — "We've got guards that are 330 or 340." — with his size and ability to move, not to mention his honor roll credentials. Kingsley Eguakun
Freshman year was a tough one. Anyone who's been to Florida practices knows how demanding — and loud — Hevesy can be. There is no mistaking the moment a player does not execute his job.
"That year was hard on me, to be honest, but looking back on it now [the freshmen] needed that," said Eguakun, who despite some on-field struggles was so well-regarded off-the-field that he was selected by coaches to take part in the Gators Leadership Experience, a council of handpicked student-athletes in all sports who meet monthly to discuss and foster leadership. "Coach Hevesy has made us who we are football-wise. He's taught me so much since I've been here that I don't know that I would have gotten this anywhere else."
It took some time, though. Eguakun, as a rookie, was buried deep on the depth chart, but fifth-year senior Nick Buchanan offered words of advice and encouragement. Ditto fifth-year senior Brett Heggie last year. Their message was always the same: Listen to what Hevesy is saying, not how he's saying it.
"Those weren't the best of times with us and Coach Hevesy, but having Nick Bu and Heggie there to hear a different voice was a big help. Basically, the lesson was when we messed up, be accountable and don't make the same mistake again," said White, one of Eguakun's closest friends on the team. "Kingsley can be really tough on himself, but in a good way. If he messes up, it bother's him and he doesn't feel good about it. He's relentless like that."
Which beats being stubborn, like the first couple years. In time, Eguakun came around and began embracing the five-playing-as-one mentally required of an offensive linemen at this level. The unit is only as strong as its weakest link. If one fails, the unit fails. That's the baseline from which Hevesy operates and it's non-negotiable.
"If one of us sucks, we all suck," Hevesy said. "What you do reflects on everybody else."
It was last spring that Hevesy noticed a marked difference in Eguakun's day-to-day approach. He started breaking the huddle, getting over the ball and barking commands and calls to his left and right with a confidence that wasn't there in 2019 and '20. There was a newfound ownership and accountability. Eguakun is not perfect, but he doesn't have to be. It's barely a week into training camp.
"We still have our moments. Leopards don't change their stripes," Hevesy said. "It's just that he's doing a great job of leading everybody and being that guy."
Added Coach Dan Mullen, whose team will stage its first full-contact scrimmage of the preseason Sunday night: "He's a guy that really kind of jumped and embraced that role. He's a guy that, 'I'm not here getting reps, I'm not here preparing.' Really, to me, his approach since last spring [has been], 'I'm here to be the starting center.' I mean he's really approached it with that kind of attitude and mindset and it shows."
It's an attitude that needs to show, not just for Eguakun, but across the front. The Florida offense — which ranked No. 9 nationally last season (509.8 yards per game), including No. 1 in passing (378.6 ypg) — is undergoing a serious transition after losing quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Kyle Trask, plus a stable of talented receivers, including tight end Kyle Pitts and wing back Kadarius Toney, both first-round NFL draft picks.
Projected starting QB Emory Jones, a junior, and redshirt freshman Anthony Richardson won't be sitting in the pocket like Trask the last two seasons. They'll be threats to take off and run. And where such plays with Trask would have netted five or six yards, Jones and Richardson scrambles could be 20-yard gains. That threat, plus a backfield depth chart that includes returnees Dameon Pierce, Malik Davis and Nay'Quan Wright, plus a heralded pair of five-star transfers Lorenzo Lingard (Miami) and Demarkcus Bowman (Clemson), should spell a jump for a rushing attack that averaged 131.2 yards per game last season and ranked 96th nationally.
It also means a different approach from the o-line.
"These [QBs] can make plays with their legs, so we have to watch our hands and be careful of grabbing and holding," Hevesy said. "We have to finish blocks."
John Hevesy, now in his second stint with the Gators after winning two national titles alongside Urban Meyer in 2006 and '08, has been coaching collegiate offensive linemen for more a quarter-century, including the last 13 withDan Mullen (9 years at Mississippi State, 4 at Florida).
And Eguakun, through his hard work and a bit of an attitude adjustment, will have to be the on-field voice reinforcing as much. That role, and all the responsibility rolled into it, is everything he's ever wanted from football.
"I saw the spring as an opportunity to get better and prepare myself and really put me in position to not just be a starter this year, but be what the team needs me to be this season," said Eguakun, who is looking forward to running out with the first-team offense in (at long last) a packed stadium. "I'm excited, but I'm not going to let it get too big. I've been playing this sport since I was five years old. When that time comes, I'm going to soak it in and enjoy it, but at the end of the day we all have a job to do."
