Giant Gator ready to leave Philly

<p>The growth can be measured by the tangibles, the 310 pounds of man who will be leaving Philadelphia behind. The quick feet that helped him become a five-star recruit. The strength that allowed him to brush offensive linemen to the side as if they were flies on a sandwich.</p><p> Those you can measure. Those you can see. Those make it hard to believe he was so small when he was born you could hold him with one hand.</p><p> But the intangibles, to see that growth you have to know his story, how he has gone from premature baby to mature adult.</p><p> “I've made the best of it,” Sharrif Floyd said. “It helps you grow up fast.”</p><p> The defensive tackle from Philadelphia will sign a letter of intent to become a Florida Gator today. He already has plans to head south the day after he graduates from George Washington High School.</p><p> “I can't wait to get down there,” he said.</p><p> Floyd is one of those kids who had every reason not to make it out, every reason to get caught up in the mean streets of Philly. Instead, he is a 3.0 grade-point average student who has had recruiters salivating for two years.</p><p> “Whatever he gets, he deserves,” said Washington coach Ron Cohen. “He's worked his tail off for it.”</p><p> His story began when he was born three months premature. Floyd spent several months on a heart monitor before being released from the hospital. The world he entered was not a pretty one.</p><p> He would go to school wearing the same clothes day after day, sometimes with buttons missing. He didn't want to go to school because he was so embarrassed by the way he looked.</p><p> But he hung in there, stayed out of trouble and started getting big. Huge. As a ninth-grader, he was 6-foot-2 and 275 pounds.</p><p> “We don't see many that size,” Cohen said.</p><p> Football wasn't a way out, not then. Instead, it was a diversion from a father who seemed to want nothing to do with his son.</p><p> It turns out there was a reason.</p><p> When Floyd was 17, he was told his real father died before Floyd was born.</p><p> “Just recently, my aunt told me he actually died when I was three,” Floyd said. “It hurt to find out that wasn't my real father. It hurt because I just wanted to know why nobody told me the truth.”</p><p> Suddenly, it made sense. No wonder his father never seemed like a father, didn't want to play ball, wasn't there for him.</p><p> “I started packing my clothes,” he said. “A father does everything for his son. That wasn't happening.”</p><p> Disillusioned by the lie he had been living, Floyd moved in with his grandmother. He currently lives with his aunt in a basement apartment.</p><p> “He never felt sorry for himself,” Cohen said. “It was never, ‘Why me?' He hasn't led a sheltered life. A lot of people have filled the void of not having a father figure. He's handled everything extremely well.”</p><p> He may not have wondered, “Why me?” but there were times when he wondered, “Why?” As in why bother? All this work, all these weights going up and down. For what? To get stronger? Stronger for what?</p><p> “I started wondering if I should keep going,” Floyd said. “I didn't know why I was working so hard at it. I wasn't thinking about college. I just wanted to play football.”</p><p> With guidance from Cohen and other coaches at Washington, Floyd figured it out. His escape and his chance to get his mother out of Philadelphia would be to go to college. And by the time he was a junior, the college coaches started to show interest.</p><p> That was the first time he realized this might happen. That today might happen.</p><p> But where might it be? Ohio State made sense. So did Penn State. But a trip to Gainesville changed everything.</p><p> “I went down there and really enjoyed myself,” he said. “I couldn't wait to get back to tell everyone else all about it.”</p><p> Florida it was. He announced his decision at the Under Armour All-Star game, allowing his coach to put the winning hat on his prized pupil.</p><p> “That meant a lot to me,” Cohen said. “He's a special guy.”</p><p> Southern Cal called once Lane Kiffin bolted Tennessee. Other schools kept calling. But Floyd knew where he was going.</p><p> Somewhere.</p><p> After basically raising himself, moving from place to place and dealing with a difficult upbringing, Floyd is ready to start anew. He is part of one of the greatUF classes of all time, one bulging with top defensive linemen.</p><p> “It's going to be a different environment, so I have to get used to it,” he said. “We're going to do some big things in the SEC.”</p><p><i>Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or at dooleyp@gvillesun.com.</i></p>