Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — To hear George Gumbs Sr. talk about his junior namesake's current station in life is akin to a lottery winner, finally flush after years of devoted stops at the same corner store to buy exact numbers, marveling at his good fortune.

The elder Gumbs grew up on the South Side of Chicago and played a couple of years of football in high school, but the real world pulled him off the field and into other directions.

"I got caught up in the peer pressure,'' Gumbs said.

By the time George Jr. came along, more than a decade younger than the family's three older kids, George Sr. had carved out a career as a unionized sheet metal worker and spent much of his free time as a typical sports dad. He didn't care what George Jr. played, but he insisted his athletic son get involved in something to stay active. George Jr. tried baseball, spent a few months taking karate lessons, and used his bruising style on the neighborhood basketball courts.

Nothing stuck. He eventually pleaded with his father to let him play football, inspired by the passion he saw on TV from former NFL linebacker Ray Lewis.

George Sr. signed him up for Pop Warner and watched his son become the team's starting center.

"He was the only kid on the team that could hike the ball and come up and make a block,'' George Sr. said. Still, young George tired of the role quickly. He wanted to catch the ball, score touchdowns, make tackles and do everything people rave over after games.

George Sr., seeing his son's interest fading, used the build-him-up strategy to keep him engaged.

"I had to calm him down. It was boring for him,'' the elder Gumbs said. "I told him, 'Look, you're the only kid who can do this good, and everything starts with you. You are the first person that touches the ball. You are the most important person on the field."

The pep talks worked for a while, but dad dipped deeper into his playbook for more encouragement by taking George Jr. to a Simeon vs. Phillips high school game, one of the marquee matchups each season in the Chicago Public League. He wanted the tall, slender, athletic George Jr. to see what offensive linemen looked like when they got to high school and college.

They didn't look like him. The message hit home. He might be a center in Pop Warner, but if he continued to play, his future was elsewhere.

"Seeing that gave me some hope in the sport,'' Gumbs Jr. said this week. "It gave me a lot of light looking down the tunnel."

They didn't know it then, but the lesson George Sr. passed on to his son in elementary school has paid dividends more than once in the years since. A redshirt junior defensive lineman, Gumbs made Gators fans pay attention in last week's win over Samford with three tackles, including a sack.

Gumbs joined the Gators in January as a transfer from Northern Illinois, where he started his career as a walk-on receiver in 2021. He earned a scholarship the following season, moved to tight end, and had trouble cracking the lineup.

Gumbs was at a crossroads before his third season with the Huskies.

"I didn't do well,'' he said of playing offense. "They approached me and told me I probably wouldn't be able to start as a tight end there. I was like, 'I'm going to try to make things right.' I felt I was still developing and could be a good player."

The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Gumbs moved to defense and had a breakthrough season in 2023, finishing with 6.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. The road less traveled led to UF when Gumbs entered the transfer portal after the season.

Gumbs had never spoken to the Gators, and before Covid wrecked his senior season at Simeon High in 2020, the only Division I offers he received were from Western Michigan and Bowling Green. Those dried up during Covid, leaving him with only a preferred walk-on offer from Northern Illinois. Ready to challenge himself at a higher level, Gumbs committed to Cincinnati following a weekend visit with the Bearcats and had returned home to Chicago when Bird Sherrill, Florida's director of college personnel, reached out.

"I didn't believe they were serious,'' Gumbs said.

"He had one foot in Cincinnati,'' added George Sr.

Gumbs heard from Sherrill again while in Miami on a trip, and since he was already in Florida, he decided to stop in Gainesville to visit UF. He instantly felt at home, telling his dad that deep down, he had always wanted to attend college in Florida but never thought it would happen.

"I've always told him you are going to pass the eye test,'' George Sr. said. "You've just got to play like you look."

Gumbs has done that in his brief time with the Gators, playing edge rusher and earning praise from teammates and coaches for his physique and work ethic.

Following the victory over Samford, Gators head coach Billy Napier highlighted Gumbs' performance and his unusual path to The Swamp.

"You guys should do a story about George Gumbs,'' Napier said. "He's an impressive young man. He's got a great story. I think just the guy who stayed the course when maybe others would have hung it up."

Gumbs has earned the respect of fellow defensive lineman Tyreak Sapp for his humble attitude and lead-by-example approach to the game. And truth be told, the 6-foot-2, 272-pound Sapp is also a bit envious of Gumbs' impressive frame.

"I call him the Avenger because he is literally built like an Avenger,'' Sapp said. "If you see him take his shirt off, you would think he was probably in the penitentiary for about a few years. The kid just works that hard."

Gumbs has come off the bench at edge behind T.J. Searcy and Kamran James in the first two games, registering five tackles, three tackles-for-loss and the sack against Samford. He has done so with George Sr. in the stands at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Gumbs' parents, after decades on Chicago's South Side, uprooted and moved to Palm Bay over the summer. It's something they had wanted to do for a long time, so having George Jr. nearby made the decision that much easier. They are far from those Pop Warner days in Chicago, or the games at Simeon High, where George Jr. began to show promise as a receiver.

The closest atmosphere father and son had experienced before Florida's season opener against Miami was when Northern Illinois played at Michigan in 2021 and at Nebraska last season.

These days are different.

"There were plenty of times we drove to Northern just to watch him sit on the bench,'' George Sr. said. "I felt bad for him."

George Jr. kept chasing the dream, knowing if he ever got to Florida or any Division I school, he had something to offer immediately.

"I am like the definition of effort,'' he said. "I never shied away from competition in my life. I love it."

Gumbs and his dad know as the Gators prepare to face Texas A&M on Saturday, the competition will only get more challenging. There are few players from the South Side on SEC rosters. Simeon, where Gumbs played in high school, is known as a basketball powerhouse that produced top NBA draft picks Nick Anderson, Jabari Parker and Derrick Rose, among others.

The Samford game was an up. There will be downs. That's when father and son have their best talks.

"He pushed me,'' George Jr. said. "When I got to my dark areas in my career, he always pushed me and kept me going."

"I ain't going to say he listened all the time, but he listened to the most important stuff,'' George Sr. said. "When he committed [to Florida], I couldn't believe it. I can't believe they came and got you. I don't even know too many kids who went through that.

"I call it lucky. I didn't know until Florida was recruiting him that Florida was his favorite school. I didn't fully entertain it because I just wanted him to get into school. It's a dream come true for a kid to come up and dream about a school to play for in college and get to play there."

Call it luck. Call it fate. Call it an unlikely journey. Call it what you want.

Napier called it a great story. One he is eager to see continue.

"He only knows one way,'' Napier said. "He's been on a mission to prove himself from the very beginning. One of the beautiful things about football is that it's a lot of merit. If you work hard and you prove yourself over time, you'll get opportunities."