The linebacker play for the Florida Gators in 2013 was down a bit from previous years. With some of the Gators’ top linebacker targets looking to sign elsewhere in 2014, Florida is now scrambling to find a linebacker prospect for the Class of 2014.
One of those guys that is on the radar now is linebacker Jakob Johnson (6-4, 240 Jacksonville, FL, Ribault) who is looking for a Florida offer and visited Gainesville last weekend.
“It was a good visit and it was nice to see the Gators play,” Johnson said. “I have a lot of Gator fans in the family and unfortunately also some Seminole fans in the family so the family is split. That was only my third college game to ever go to in my life so it was nice.”
Before the game the Jacksonville standout was able to talk one-on-one with one of the Gators assistants about where he stood in the coaches minds.
“I talked to coach T-Rob, the DB coach,” Johnson said. “My coach knows him and some of the other coaches. Coach T-Rob told me that they are going to get in contact with me and talk about the interest in me and a maybe even an offer.”
Johnson committed to Tennessee just a few weeks but admits that an offer from Florida would catch his eye.
“I really like Tennessee,” Johnson said. “But Florida is one of the schools that I would take a look at though if they offered. Florida is really close to my family in Jacksonville so that would be a good thing to stay close to them and I know Nick Washington and Jeffery Holland.”
Johnson is originally from the United States but at an early age he moved to Germany which caused him to not be able to watch college football much but the the Gators were always on his mind.
“Growing up in Germany I dreamed of the Florida Gators,” Johnson said. “It was hard to watch games there because you had to get streams of the games and or watch on different sites but we did get to play NCAA football and I played with the Florida Gators.”
For Johnson he remembers the glory days of Florida football and he also sees a good Gators defense in 2013.
“Florida they beat all of these teams in 2008 and they are going to be back soon. I have no doubt about that in my mind,” Johnson said. “Their defense is really good. That’s why they stayed in a lot of games this year. They have a really good defense that feeds off of the atmosphere.”
Sound like a bright kid. He definitely has ILB size, but I’ve not heard of him before. What kind of player is he? What about his high school team?
He’s a guy that is hard hitting but really needs to work on his lateral movement.