Devin Willock may not be here in body, but as Georgia grinds through its third week of spring practice, his spirit remains.
For Xavier Truss, that’s something he experiences and embraces every day.
Willock may physically be gone, but there’s not a day that goes by when the memory of Willock is not playing a vital role for the team, specifically his close friends on the offensive line.
“Yeah, I mean obviously you know that was something that was incredibly hard, not just for myself obviously, but on the entire line, and the entire team,” Truss said. “That’s a part of my life that I’ll always embrace, the relationship I have with all my teammates. It’s still just as much a pain in my heart, but I’m trying to look on the bright side. Devin had such great energy that he always brought into the facility, so I feel the best way to honor him is to have that same energy that he always brought, and he always played with.”
As one might suspect, Willock’s offensive linemates have honored his memory in different ways. One has been in the form of memorial tattoos.
Truss, who has no tattoos, smiled that he’s probably the last member of the line not to get a tattoo. But he plans to do so.
“A lot of them are really good. Amarius (Mims) has one and it’s an amazing portrait. It’s crazy. It made me shed a tear when I saw it,” Truss said. “But I plan on getting some; I have an idea of what I want to get. I just want to make sure I’m 100 percent sure what I want to get when I get it. But it would be awesome to immortalize him like that.”
Even if there were no tattoos, remembering Willock would not be difficult.
Every time the team turns on the film, he’s there. A portrait hanging above the door entering the offensive line bears his smiling face.
“When we’re watching last year’s film, he’s always on there; you always see that big body running around and everything,” Truss said. “I’m not sure who drew it, but there’s a hand-drawn portrait of Devin that sits right above the door, so you see it every time you walk in. His seat up front stays empty, so it always feels like he’s there with us, and you know he’s there.”
