Kevin Higgins is the head football coach at The Citadel.

His 4-7 Southern Conference team will play at Florida on Saturday where the Bulldogs are expected to be crushed.

The coach also is the father of former Florida player Tim Higgins, and, because of that has some interesting thought about playing Meyer and the Gators.

Tim Higgins was a walk-on at Florida when Meyer took over the Gators job.

At 5-foot-7 and 162 pounds he was Florida’s answer to Rudy, a scout-team player who just wanted to be part of the program.

Meyer appreciated the dedication and desire. Tim was put on scholarship his senior year, which happened to be 2006, Florida’s national championship season. Nevertheless, he never played – at least not until the final home game against Western Carolina – Senior Day.

In the second half the former walk-on got into the game on the kickoff team.

But there would be more.  An effort by many of the senior’s teammates and friends had started early in the week for real playing time.

A letter had appeared mysteriously on Meyer’s desk urging him to give Higgins a chance. Flyers were passed out before the game urging fellow students to start chanting Higgins’ name. They held up “We Love Higgins” signs.

Late in the fourth quarter, Meyer made the call, sending Higgins into the game at running back where Tim Tebow promptly handed him the ball.

Higgins career stats: one carry, no yards, a priceless memory.

“Coach Meyer did not have to do that,’’ Coach Higgins said this week. “Here was a kid who was a walk-on who contributed on scout team play basically, but put him in the game and really made Tim’s career there.

“It did an awful lot for him as far as his experience as a Gator. Those are things behind the scenes that coaches do that make you a little bit different. The fact Coach Meyer, with everything else he had going at the time trying to win a national championship, would take the time to do that, I think says an awful lot about him as a person and his character and understanding of the game.’’

The senior Higgins may be a coach, but he’s also a father. The two look at things differently.

“You are a coach and then you are also a parent, which is a little bit different,’’ he said. “That was the first time for myself where now you are the parent of a kid and looking at it from a different perspective.

“Tim had a chance to earn a scholarship his senior year and be a part of that national championship team. Tim would share stores with me about the transition when Coach Meyer took over the program and it was incredible how quickly he was able to get to the heart of the matter there with players who were already there and chance the entire environment and get those guys believing in themselves. Tim has shared a lot of things with me in how he runs things there and I’ve been impressed.’’