Hill out for season with torn ACL
GAINESVILLE — Florida’s secondary will be without starting cornerback Jaydon Hill as the Gators’ pass defense looks to bounce back from a dismal 2020 season.
Hill tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a noncontact situation in preseason camp and is out for the season, coach Dan Mullen said.
Hill was expected to start across the field from All-SEC cornerback Kaiir Elam after showing impressive strides last season while appearing in all 12 games and starting five.
“It’s really a tragedy with the amount of work that these guys put in, how hard they put in,” Mullen said.
Hill, unfortunately has been down this road before.
The 6-foot, 182-pound Hill sustained a torn ACL in his right knee during his senior year at Bob Jones High School in Huntsville, Alabama. Despite missing his final high school season, Hill still checked in as the nation’s 278th overall recruit in the 2019 class, hinting the Gators might have landed a steal.
Hill showed signs in 2020 he might be, finishing with 14 tackles along with seven pass breakups, which ranked second for the Gators.
“Jaydon’s a guy that’s been here and he’s done a really good job of working to improve every day,” defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said. “He’s worked hard to understand leverage, to understand concepts. He understands the importance of being physical and working the play… make plays with the ball in the air.
“He’s very coachable. He improves on the last thing that happened, which allows him to be the player he wants to be and helps the defense.”
Mullen said Hill’s reaction to the injury is “massive disappointment, being ready to be the guy.”
But the Gators’ head coach said he’s confident Hill will return ready to pick up where he left off.
“I think he understands how to come through it,” Mullen said. “If you get knocked off course, you know how to get there.”
Hill was eager for his chance to be a full-time starter. On the eve of the Aug. 6 opening of camp, he discussed how far he had come during his three years in Gainesville.
“When I got here, honestly, I couldn’t even draw up a play besides Cover 3. I knew one defense, Cover 3,” Hill said. “But my game has progressed tremendously, my mindset off the field, in meeting rooms. Now I can draw up offensive plays, defensive plays and match them.”
Hill said his rising football IQ
allowed him “to think faster and to play faster.”
Hill now will begin the long rehabilitation process as the Gators turn to other options to pair with Elam and a secondary with a lot to prove. A program that has annually has produced some of the nation’s top secondaries ranked 100th of 127 teams nationally in pass defense last season.
The Gators allowed an SEC-high 28 touchdown passes — four more than any team in the league — while yielding an average of 30.8 points, the most at UF since 1946.
Missouri transfer Jadarrius Perkins will be a prime candidate to move into a starting role. The
6-foot-1, 182-pound former junior college standout at Gulf Coast (Mississippi) Community College has length and speed, having been clocked at 4.42 seconds in the 40-yard dash, but still needs to learn the system given he joined the team this summer.
“Very good movement skills. Can run,” Grantham said on Aug. 6. “This is basically his first day with us. So we got to work hard to catch him up. Like his attitude, like his mindset on how he wants to help our team and he shows talent.
“If you can get guys who can run, that have length to them, that play with physicality, then you have a chance to be a pretty good corner.”
During the spring, teammates singled out first-year freshman Jason Marshall, a five-star recruit from Miami. Texas A&M transfer Elijah Blades announced last week he plans to transfer to Gainesville and join the team Friday. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Blades recorded 19 tackles and three pass breakups in 2019, the last season he played.
Avery Helm and Jordan Pouncey, a pair of redshirt freshmen, also will be in the mix. Helm, who hails from Missouri City, Texas, is an explosive athlete, while Pouncey, who hails from Winter Park, ranked among the top 10 nationally in the 2020 class at his position.
“There’ll be a bunch of guys,” Mullen said. “You’re still in training camp. There’s going to be a lot of opportunities for guys coming in. There’s going to be some of those young guys that might just get a little more opportunity than they were expecting at this point.”