The Gators suffered their first major blow of training camp last weekend. Junior cornerback Jaydon Hill tore his left ACL during a non-contact portion of practice and will miss the entire 2021 season, coach Dan Mullen confirmed on Thursday.
Hill previously tore his right ACL as a senior at Bob Jones High School in Huntsville, Alabama.
Hill had progressed each year with the Gators and was expected to be a starter this season.
“I think massive disappointment, being ready for this opportunity to be the guy,” Mullen said. “But, you’re looking at a young guy who’s been through this once and came out at the positive end at the other side. So, I think he understands how to come through it, what he needs to do and how he can get through it and how he’ll improve.”
Hill recovered from his initial injury in time to play in 10 games as a freshman in 2019, mostly on special teams.
He played in all 12 games in 2020 and started five of them. He finished second on the team with seven pass breakups, including three each against South Carolina and Oklahoma.
He was one of the most consistent players on a bad defense, and he was hoping to make more big plays this season with opposing offenses leery to test Kaiir Elam on the other side of the field.
While this is certainly a crushing blow for Hill, Mullen has confidence that he’ll bounce back again.
“I think within knowing the program, knowing the defense, knowing his maturity, that’s a guy that’s going to be pretty comfortable, I think, saying, ‘Hey, I put myself in a position to be a starter. I had this little setback, but I’ve worked hard, nothing was ever handed to me. I had to work hard to be a starter,’” Mullen said. “And if you’ve done that, if you know the path of hard work and how to get into that role, when you get knocked off course, you know how to get back there.”
UF does have some solid options to replace Hill in the interim. Redshirt freshman Avery Helm is one of the best athletes on the roster and has received first-team reps during both the spring and the fall. Five-star freshman Jason Marshall has all of the physical tools you can ask for in a corner, and he should take on a larger role now.
Missouri transfer Jadarrius Perkins and redshirt freshman Ethan Pouncey could also be factors, as could Texas A&M transfer Elijah Blades, who is expected to arrive on campus soon.
“There’s going to be a lot of opportunities for guys coming in,” Mullen said. “We have Perkins transferred in; he’s going to have an opportunity. You have, obviously, Avery Helm, who’s, I think, going to be extremely talented. Might just have to accelerate his career to get him on the field.
“Ethan Pouncey coming off the [hip] surgery is really kind of getting back to the player we thought he could be. So, there’s going to be some of those young guys that might just get more opportunity than they were expecting at this point.”