Head coach Dan Mullen surprised walk-ons R.J. Raymond and Nick Villano after Monday's practice. (Photo: Kelly Streeter/UAA Communications)
Two Gators Walk-ons, Two Success Stories
Sunday, August 26, 2018 | Football, Scott Carter
At some point, Gators offensive lineman Nick Villano will make a FaceTime call to his parents, Francesca and Rick, before the couple retires for the evening. The earlier the better most nights.
"We get up early,'' Francesca Villano said as the couple was on its way to watch son Joseph's high school game on Saturday.
Of course, any lingering fogginess after Nick woke them up Monday night has long since been forgiven. They could have stayed up all night after Nick called to tell them Florida head coach Dan Mullen had awarded him a scholarship after practice.
Soon, a video of the moment went viral on social media.
"It brought a smile to our face," Rick Villano said. "It's just so great to see him succeed at this level and go over all the hurdles that he has since he started. It's just incredible."
NOW ON SCHOLARSHIP:
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Meanwhile, a few hours up Interstate 95 on Florida's east coast, former Gators kicker Bobby Raymond and his family were visiting with one another in their Atlantic Beach neighborhood in the Jacksonville area.
R.J. Raymond, a fifth-year senior who has played linebacker, defensive line, special teams, fullback and now tight end for the Gators, called his dad after Monday night's practice.
The emotion in his son's voice dripped from the phone.
"It wasn't but a few minutes after he called us on the phone that the video was posted on Instagram and we watched it so we could see exactly what happened with Coach Mullen,'' Bobby Raymond said. "That was really cool so see the way he celebrated the scholarships for those guys and did it in front of the whole team. In my opinion, being a former walk-on, that's the way it should be."
In what has become one of college football's favorite traditions in the social media age, Mullen awarded walk-ons Villano and Raymond scholarships in a surprise moment for both.
"I had no clue,'' Raymond said.
"It was a total surprise,'' Villano added.
While the moment resonated across Gator Nation and provided a shining example of what makes college football special amidst some turbulent headlines of late, Villano and Raymond earned the moment and subsequent attention. A closer look at their paths from walk-ons to scholarship players:
*****
Villano joined the Gators prior to the 2015 season after earning second-team Class 3A All-State honors as an offensive lineman at American Heritage High. He had options to play in college elsewhere, some smaller schools offering financial assistance and an opportunity to perhaps crack the lineup early in his career.
Florida offered neither.
Still, the 6-foot-3, 290-pound redshirt junior chased what some told him was an outlandish idea.
"We did make that decision together as a family,'' Francesca Villano said. "Nicolas has wanted to be a Gator since he was 8 years old. I actually have it in writing from him that he wanted to play football for the Florida Gators. I'm going to frame that."
Indeed, Villano's allegiances drifted to the Gators as a kid. Rick recalls his son wore No. 51 in high school, a number former Gators All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes wore during Nick's formative years. When it was time for Nick to go off to college, his parents backed his dream 100 percent despite the odds.
Fortunately, they had been successful in their careers and could afford Nick to be a walk-on at UF without it being a financial burden.
"I got a chance to come here as a walk-on and I thought I was good enough to come here,'' Villano said. "So I took up the offer and I said, 'It's going to come true. I'm going to get a scholarship one day if I just keep working every day.' It was a pretty tough decision, but I just thought it was best for me. I knew I wasn't going to see the field right away, but I thought if I could work every day I could reach that potential and that I had the potential to be a Division I player."
While Mullen surprised both players Monday night, Villano's role early in camp flashed signs he had impressed the new coaching staff. Villano has not appeared in a game for the Gators in his three seasons, but during preseason camp, he worked extensively with the second-team offensive line at center and guard and with the starters on the punt and field goal teams.
Several days after the announcement, Francesca Villano remains giddy about Nick's accomplishment. The Villano family plans to be at the Swamp on Saturday when the Gators host Charleston Southern in the season opener.
"As parents, you have to be on their side,'' Francesca said. "Dreams to do come true. This was truly a blessing from above."
A criminology major, Villano said he won't alter his outlook now that he is on scholarship. He still is working toward what he came here to do: play for the Gators.
"It means everything to me, but I don't think anything is going to change,'' he said. "That's one goal that is checked off my list. Now I've got to set a new one."
*****
R.J. Raymond comes from what you call a Gators family. His father, Bobby, walked onto the team as a kicker in the early 1980s and when the Gators claimed their first Southeastern Conference title in 1984 (a title later stripped due to NCAA violations), Bobby Raymond kicked six field goals in a 25-17 win at Kentucky that clinched program's first championship after 51 years in the conference.
R.J. is a fifth-generation Gator who starred at football and lacrosse at Fletcher High prior to UF. For a while, it appeared R.J. might snap the family's Florida legacy.
"As he went through his senior year of high school, we thought he was going to have more opportunities with lacrosse,'' Bobby said. "He was a phenomenal lacrosse player and just really dominated in that game. We did a lot of traveling, but generally in lacrosse, it seemed like they were recruiting kids in ninth and 10th grade and the big programs that were offering scholarships, he didn't really hear anything from them."
Exploring his options, Raymond was invited to join the Gators as a walk-on in 2014 by former UF head coach Will Muschamp, who spent part of his childhood in Gainesville and remembered Bobby Raymond well from his days as an All-SEC kicker.
R.J. was sold on the idea immediately.
"I bleed orange and blue through and through. Once I got the opportunity, it was easy to make that decision. But it did take some thought. I had to sit down and talk with my dad and talk with other people and really figure out what I was getting myself into and what I should expect, knowing you are a walk-on,'' said R.J. "When I first got here, my true freshman year, going out to that practice, I was like, 'what is going on?' Everybody is flying around and it's crazy. Now, the game has slowed down a lot. I've always felt like I had the athletic ability to do it, I just had to get used to the speed of the game in college."
Raymond was named the scout team's most valuable offensive player in 2014, but after Muschamp was dismissed after the season, Raymond had to work to impress new head coach Jim McElwain and his staff. He did not play in a game in 2015 but appeared in nine games the following season.
Then, in the spring of 2017, Raymond was awarded a scholarship, which was not publicized by McElwain at the time. Neither was the fact that by the start of the 2017 season, Raymond was no longer on scholarship. McElwain opted to not renew Raymond's scholarship for recruiting purposes, which caused a lot of uncertainly about his role in the program.
Despite having another year of eligibility remaining, Raymond opted to participate in Senior Day festivities at the end of last season after playing in all 11 games.
"He felt like with another coaching staff coming in and him still being a walk-on, he knew he had to impress a whole 'nother set of coaches,'' Bobby said. "He felt like, 'I'm starting at the bottom of the barrel again.' "
The situation prompted some heart to heart family discussions about his future. To pay for school as a walk-on, R.J. said his parents had helped foot the bill and he had relied on minor student loans. As for the football part of the equation, Bobby relied on the same material he told his son when he first decided to walk-on at Florida.
"I just tried to give him advice in my own personal experience and told him when he did walk on, don't set your expectations too high. It's a great honor to play for the University of Florida and to be a part of that program and earning a scholarship is an incredible accomplishment, but even if you don't, and you're part of that team and you contribute to that team, it's important,'' he said. "I just didn't want him to get disappointed, and it's easy to do as a walk-on. He had the right attitude."
When the Gators hired Mullen to replace McElwain, R.J. closely monitored what the new head coach said in the media about his approach. He also studied up on Mullen's background to get an idea of his philosophy toward walk-ons.
Prior to spring camp, Mullen met with every player on the roster to gauge their thoughts on the program.
R.J. left the meeting knowing he was coming back as a redshirt season. He is scheduled to graduate in December with a degree in sports management.
"This year I'm hoping to have my best one yet,'' he said. "That was my goal, to get a scholarship."
Despite his success as a player, Bobby Raymond was never a scholarship player at Florida. His parents had planned financially for his college education, so when it became apparent prior to his sophomore season that he could be the starting kicker, Bobby and his father met with head coach Charley Pell.
They told Pell that in order to help the team, Bobby would remain a walk-on and for Pell to provide a scholarship to another deserving player.
Bobby Raymond used a different tactic with his own son.
"He's an incredibly hard worker. He has had the same mindset that a lot of us walk-ons have, 'I'm here to work. I'm here for the same goal that all the scholarship players are here for. I'm here to play football and I'm going to take this football thing as far as I can go and I'm also here to get a degree,' '' Bobby said. "For him, earning that scholarship is validation for all that work and his worthiness for being there. For him, it was a goal, a measuring point. It means a lot to him psychology that he deserved that."
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