Florida, Here They Come: Sims, Wright Find Home With Gators

At the University of Florida, where people like their football talent home-grown in the Florida sunshine, not even a dozen players come from beyond the state’s borders.

Gator football is an institution that inspires a 34-district, statewide booster organization, which is founded on hometown pride in local-boys-done-good and evidenced by Gator bumper stickers that crop up everywhere, from the Panhandle to the Everglades.

Which is why, for some, it is so unsettling to see Bob Sims and Charlie Wright, two California boys, in the core of the offensive line, doing the blocking for the pride of Pensacola, freshman running back Emmitt Smith, and the joy of a town named Day, quarterback Kerwin Bell.

Sims and Wright, the starting offensive guards for the 18th-ranked Gators (3-2), are two of only three Californians on the Florida team. The team has only five players from west of the Mississippi.

Sims and Wright went to Florida looking not only to play big-time football, but to play it in an environment in which--as Sims puts it--”football is king.”

“Everybody has a Gator sticker on their car, everybody has a Gator T-shirt,” said Sims, who had played at Los Amigos High School and Golden West College. “It’s like a state event here. People in California may enjoy UCLA and USC, but 72,000 of them don’t go to every game. In California, they can always go see the Lakers or other attractions.”

Wright, who played at San Clemente High and Saddleback College, agreed.

“It’s the only game in town,” he said.

Sims and Wright have been the focus of a little extra attention this week because their teammates realize they come from the same neck of the woods as Saturday’s opponent--Cal State Fullerton (2-3), which lost to seventh-ranked Louisiana State, 56-12, last month. Florida lost to the Tigers, 13-10, on Saturday.

“They don’t know what to think,” said Wright, who may miss the game Saturday at Florida Field in Gainesville because of a dislocated right shoulder, although he has practiced all week. “Today at lunch, somebody asked me if Fullerton was Division III. And they keep calling it Cal State. They think Cal State is one school.”

Wright, a 6-foot 5-inch, 265-pound junior, initially signed to play at California after high school but left after a redshirt year. “It wasn’t what I needed,” he said. He transferred to Saddleback, where he was a starter in 1985 on a team that went 11-0.

After that, he had one goal: He wanted to play at “any powerhouse.”

Southern Methodist and Texas were interested, but Wright eliminated them because of the NCAA sanctions against SMU and the firing of Fred Akers, Texas coach.

“Once I got the call from Florida, I knew I was going there,” Wright said.”

Three games into the 1986 season, he had his first start--against Alabama--and started the rest of the season.

Sims, a 6-5, 267-pound senior, said he wasn’t offered scholarships while in high school.

“I had no choice,” said Sims, who will serve as one of the Florida captains this week. “Then I played well enough at Golden West to have all these options (about 40 schools contacted him). I’ll be honest, at first I just wanted to take the recruiting trip to Florida. But when I got here, I decided to come and stay.”

Sims arrived at Florida in the spring of 1986 after he graduated from Golden West. During fall practice, he nailed down a starting position.

Sims and Wright ended up at Florida because the Gators needed help on the offensive line, so they sought a couple of California community college players who could be expected to contribute right away, as they have.

They have done it on a line that expected to spend the season pass-blocking for Bell, who began the year as one of the nation’s most prominent quarterbacks. Instead, after a disappointing start by Bell, they find themselves blocking for the running of Smith, who started the first game of his career in the third week of the season, against Alabama, and rushed for 224 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Smith’s average of 141.2 rushing yards per game is the third-highest among NCAA Division I-A players.

“He makes us look good,” Sims said. “So we like to make him look good.”