A former UF football player was arrested for simple battery Sunday morning.
Steven R. Wilks, 23, punched Andrew O'Such in the UF Plaza parking lot at 2:05 a.m. after O'Such tried to break up a fight in which Wilks was involved.
O'Such was at Relish when he looked through the windows and saw Wilks pummel O'Such's roommate, Terrell Martin.
He said he doesn't know why Wilks hit Martin or why the two were even outside together. But the fight was one-sided.
O'Such said Wilks floored Martin with one punch. When Martin tried to get up, Wilks decked him again. Martin tried to get up again, and again Wilks punched him.
O'Such ran outside, hoping to stop Wilks.
"He was going crazy," O'Such said. "I tried to calm him down, but there was no getting through to him."
A large crowd gathered around the parking lot, and O'Such noticed former UF wide receiver Riley Cooper watching. Cooper, who now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, hosted an online quiz show with Wilks last spring.
When O'Such stepped between Wilks and Martin, Wilks punched him in the left eye. The area around the eye is swollen, bruised and cut, according to an arrest report.
O'Such works with kids at a local community center, and he said he wore sunglasses all day Monday so they wouldn't see the injury.
"It's all purple; it looks like [Ninja Turtle] Donatello without the mask," he said. "It's not a good look."
Wilks, who played fullback at UF from 2007-10, is listed at 6-foot-1, 235 pounds on the Gators' official website. O'Such said he is 5 feet 9 inches, 150 pounds.
"I had no idea who he was," O'Such said. "I thought he was just some random, pissed-off big dude."
After punching O'Such, Wilks walked away, but he was arrested next to the parking lot about 20 minutes later. He told police the fight started when an unknown man punched him.
Wilks graduated from UF in December. He did not return a message seeking comment Monday.
