For Bailey Stockton, being available for his teammates has meant finding ways to overcome one physical setback after another.
The Florida wide receiver has dealt with multiple injuries throughout the season, but he’s repeatedly fought his way back onto the field. His latest example came Saturday against Georgia, when Stockton played through a foot injury to record eight catches for 76 yards.
“There was not one chance in hell I thought he was going to play on Wednesday, or Thursday, to be quite honest with you,” Sumrall said postgame.
Stockton suffered a non-contact foot injury against Texas and later returned to the game to contribute as a run blocker. The injury continued to limit him throughout the bye week and into Georgia game week. He didn’t run at all until Friday morning, the day before Florida’s matchup with Georgia.
With sophomore wide receiver Vernell Brown III’s availability also in question, Stockton knew he needed to do everything he could to get back on the field. He approached Sumrall about testing his foot by running some routes.
“Friday morning – he comes to me and goes, ‘Coach, are you good if I run some routes?’ I’m like ‘Yeah, if you’re good with it, let’s go’. And so Will Griffin, we pulled Will off to the side, Bailey went and ran a few routes on air. After doing some build-up running to get ready to run some routes. And I said, what do you think? He said, ‘I’m ready to play, let’s go’.”
Stockton’s willingness to push through the injury and make himself available for his teammates left an impression on Sumrall.
“He’s tough, he’s tough as hell, man. We need to recruit more dudes like that. He did not run all week,” Sumrall said of Stockton. “On Friday, when he – so he saw VB’s injury and kind of re-flare up and was like, alright, I got to do whatever I got to do to find a way to go. I think he just understood the assignment, like, if I can go, I got to go now.”
This wasn’t the first time Stockton had played through adversity this season. Against Ole Miss in Week 4, he took a vicious hit to the head and neck area and remained on the ground for several minutes. The defender was ejected for targeting.
Sumrall later described the collision as a “car crash,” but Stockton returned in the second half and played the following week despite dealing with a back injury stemming from the hit.
“We got to recruit a lot of dudes like that, because tough guys in this game, they win,” Sumrall said of Stockton. “I love Bailey Stockton, love all our guys, but I’m very grateful for his determination to try to find a way to play.”
Toughness isn’t a trait that Stockton developed in college.
While playing high school football at Prince Avenue Christian in Bogart, Georgia, Stockton broke his collarbone in the quarterfinals of the Class A playoffs. Just two weeks after undergoing surgery, he played in the Class A Division I championship game against Swainsboro.
Stockton finished with nine catches for 145 yards and two touchdowns in the victory.
“It’s a 6-to-8 week injury,” Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said while sharing the story. “No doctors would sign off on him playing in the state championship, and I guess his dad had to sign a bunch of papers for him to play and he had two touchdown catches in that game against one of the best secondaries in the state.”
“So he’s always been a tough kid that loves to play the game, whether football, baseball, whatever it was, when he was growing up, and those are the kind of guys that you want to continue to build this program around.”
Florida’s wide receiver room is banged up, and Stockton is no exception. He showed up to the postgame press conference following the Georgia game wearing a boot on his right foot. He’s clearly not at 100%, but he’s shown time and time again that it takes a lot to keep him off the field.
Given everything he’s battled this season, it would be no surprise to see him find a way to play against Oklahoma this weekend.
Stockton has 35 receptions for 365 yards and two touchdowns this season, all career highs.
