Florida Football: Antonio Callaway's arrest is part of a troubling trend

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:16 p.m. ET

Fansided, Shannon Sickmon/FanSided via Saturday Blitz

The legal woes of the University of Florida continue. Another Florida football player was arrested last week for possession.

Another Florida football player was arrested last week. What the heck is going on at the University of Florida?! I am not a Steve Spurrier fan, by any means, but when he was at the helm of that program, he ran a tight ship.

In the '90s, the Miami Hurricanes were the team that everyone loved to hate—while the program boasted a number of talented players, it also was infamous for criminal activity. The Hurricanes were known for massive on and off-field brawls, criminal activities involving illegal grants and recruiting players with hefty arrest records. Now with Mark Richt leading the team, you can bet that Miami's troubled reputation will be redeemed.

This is not to say that other schools in the NCAA have impeccable reputations. Washington State actually has the most players with arrest records at 31. University of Florida is second in the country with a whopping 24 players getting arrested within the past few years. Considering the humdrum performance of the Gator football team in recent years, at least UF is No. 2 in the country at something.

Interestingly, under Urban Meyer's reign, the arrest record of Gator players shot up. If you added up Meyer's players with arrest records at both UF and Ohio State, the coach would be No. 1 on the list. To wit, Aaron Hernandez played under Urban Meyer. I am not saying that it's Meyer's fault, but there has to be a way to vet these folks a little better.

In addition, UF players had the most repeat offenders in the NCAA. According to an ESPN Outside the Lines investigation, University of Florida had 24 players with multiple arrests. There was a total of 119 criminal incidents with 80 different athletes involved. Cripes. Remind me not to hang out in Gainesville after dark.

To add to the school's notoriety, junior wide receiver Antonio Callaway was arrested last week on marijuana possession charges. Callaway is a gifted player and one of the Gators' star receivers. The troubling part is that Callaway was also suspended last spring for sexual battery accusations. And in case you've forgotten, UF also recruited James Robinson, a player that had been arrested in Ohio weeks before for possession.

Look, we all did stupid things in college. Alcohol and peer pressure lead to innumerable bad decisions. It just seems that the recruiters at UF are valuing size and speed over other factors. Callaway's arrest, the latest in a long string, just seems to prove that winning is more important to the school than character is.

I realize that the SEC is a pressure cooker but look at former UF quarterback Tim Tebow. He had talent, but he also had a sterling reputation. The two facets — talent and character — need not preclude one another. Perhaps it's time that the recruiters at Florida remember that.