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First to graduate college in his family, Zanders sets an example

Untitled designby:Nick de la Torre•08/08/22•

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Photo courtesy of UF Communications

Graduating from college is no small feat. Being the first person in your family to accomplish that makes it even more special.

That’s exactly what Florida Gators tight end Dante Zanders did last Friday.

“That’s a great accomplishment,” Zanders said. “(I’m) First person in my family to graduate so I just wanted to set the tone for my future kids and my little brothers and sisters and anybody else that’s below me.”

Zanders graduated with a degree in Education Sciences. The Education Sciences major promotes an understanding of education and learning systems, policy, and outcomes in traditional and non-traditional contexts. This degree prepares individuals for a variety of career paths and for graduate school.

Graduate school is something that Zanders will consider as he needs to be enrolled in classes or a certificate course in the fall.

Getting his undergraduate degree from Florida almost didn’t happen. Zanders recalled almost giving up football back in high school. He didn’t have many offers and didn’t see the point of continuing to work as hard as he was for something that didn’t seem as if it was going to pay a dividend. He even entered the transfer portal for about a month after the coaching change in the offseason.

It was Florida’s new head coach that kept Zanders at Florida, which allowed him one more semester, long enough to get his degree.

I went back to his office right before January and sat down and spoke with him for a little bit,” Zanders said. “Prior to me entering the portal I didn’t talk with any of the new coaching staff — it was just strictly the old coaching staff— so I wanted to sit down and talk to Coach Napier and see what his mindset was. And he told me if I put my faith in him he’d put his faith in me, so that’s what I did.”

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Zanders moves from offense to defense and back

Napier and Zanders may not have spoken during the first month but Napier was soon summoning Zanders to his office again.

It was spring camp and the Gators had two tight ends go down with injuries in the first week. Zanders enrolled at Florida in 2018 and played tight end for two years before moving to defense. Napier and the Gators needed help at tight end and Zanders was the obvious answer.

“He had seen it before prior to me moving to defensive end and he said during the Identity phase where we used to run around and do agility and practice with the coaches with that same body movements and how people move and everything,” Zanders said. “He said he could tell that I was a tight end just by the way I was running and my speed and the way I was able to bend corners and everything.”

Napier was extremely complimentary of Zanders in the spring. Calling the recent graduate the “story of the spring” and a “God send.”

Zanders has played sparingly. He had just 11 tackles after moving from tight end to defensive end but should be a fixture at tight end in 2022.

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