Corey Raymond Offers Scouting Reports on Florida's Freshmen DBs
Photo: Ja'Keem Jackson; Credit: Zach Goodall
One of Florida's most impressive positional hauls in the 2023 recruiting class was in the secondary, as six defensive backs signed with the Gators in December and five joined the team for spring practices as midyear enrollees.
Shortly following his promotion to oversee the entire unit, Florida defensive backs coach Corey Raymond offered his thoughts on each spring addition to his group and his general vision for UF's secondary while he was assembling the batch of pledges.
"You wanted to get some guys that kind of fit the mold," Raymond described his approach to recruiting the class, done alongside former UF safeties coach and defensive coordinator Patrick Toney before his February departure to the NFL.
"I mean this is Florida, so the standard is set of great defensive backs that played here," Raymond continued. "You want to recruit guys that are going to be great defensive backs, and them understanding that I come here to get better. I come here because it means something to me, it means something to me to play in The Swamp."
The idea of playing in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium meant something to cornerbacks Ja'Keem Jackson, Dijon Johnson and Aaron Gates, STAR nickel corner Sharif Denson, and safeties Jordan Castell and Bryce Thornton, each player hoping to create their own legacy within a program that has had 27 defensive backs drafted since the turn of the century.
There is a strong possibility, according to Raymond, that Jackson could do so in particular.
“He’s coming along really good. He’s going to be real good. He has a chance to be special," Raymond said about Jackson. "We just got to keep him going, keep him understanding what we want, the details of playing the position."
A product of Kissimmee (Fla.) Osceola, Jackson moved to cornerback near the end of his junior season of high school and intercepted three passes in four games. He tallied another five picks as a full-time corner in 2022, adding 299 receiving yards and two touchdowns at his original wide receiver position.
In between those seasons, Jackson made his way to Gainesville for a recruiting camp where he put his athleticism on display in front of Raymond in a private workout. Now with the program, Jackson has shown, enough for Raymond to suggest he'll earn snaps as a true freshman despite his learning curve given his general inexperience at the position.
“He played receiver then he moved to DB but you saw the traits. You saw the traits that he had," Raymond said. "I thought that he was a really good player in high school once he started playing the position. Now you see how he’s growing.
"At the end of the day, it’s about your athleticism but there’s a lot of details in the position that you have to learn and it’s going to be changing every play. Things change and you have to be able to change quick, so you've got to be a critical thinker. That’s what he’s starting to learn, how to become a critical thinker.”
Raymond's promotion means, unlike the 2022 season, his responsibilities also include the safeties and the STARs — of course with help from defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong.
Denson has embraced what Raymond considers a difficult position to grasp at STAR. Of the six-man group of freshmen, Denson appears best suited for the spot and could take on a backup role behind Jaydon Hill and Jadarrius Perkins in 2023, depending on Hill's alignment as he is likely to shift between the nickel and outside cornerback.
"Sharif’s going to be a really good player," Raymond said. "It’s a hard spot, but he’s doing better. He’s going to be good. Like I tell him, you can’t rush it man. Just keep working."
While moving from boundary corner, the position Denson primarily manned in high school, into the nickel is no easy feat, Raymond commended the Jacksonville (Fla.) Bartram Trail alum for his ability to pick things up quickly.
“I think he’s sharp," Raymond suggested. "You tell him one thing one time and he gets it. And he has some savviness to him. He plays with a little grit. When he knows what he’s doing, he plays with some grit.”
On the backend, Castell and Thornton look to fill primary depth roles behind projected starters Kamari Wilson and Miguel Mitchell, after Florida's safety depth was depleted by 2022 starters Trey Dean III and Rashad Torrence II entering the NFL Draft and reserves Donovan McMillon, Corey Collier Jr. and Kamar Wilcoxson transferring elsewhere.
Raymond is confident in each player's skill set and hopes the remaining offseason practices will reveal if either, or both, will be able to take the field as freshmen.
“They’re all working hard," Raymond said about the freshmen safeties, asked about their immediate readiness to play. "It’s so hard to tell right now. We’ll know coming out of spring and probably by the first game what’s going on.”
What is the biggest learning curve for the quartet of Jackson, Denson, Castell and Thornton potentially putting themselves in a position to play as true freshmen?
"You gotta sit down and talk to them, show them film, show them progressions, show them why you did that," Raymond explained. "You were able to get away with that [in high school] because you were better. Now, you can’t do those things.
"You want them to kind of fail right now in practice because that’s how they get better. Because now you can show them things. ‘Aha, I told you that didn’t work.’ Why? Because you’re not going against the same guy. It’s the same level of guy you’re going against. So now, your progressions gotta be different, you gotta study more. Because most of the time, they ain’t study football. They just go out there and play. Now you gotta do all those things.”
Billy Napier and Aaron Gates during a UF recruiting camp in 2022.
Zach Goodall
Gates, meanwhile, is currently on the outside looking in while "working hard" in recovery from an ACL tear suffered during the early part of his senior season at Sharpsburg (Ga.) Trinity Christian School. He has been limited to rehabilitation work with director of player development Joe Danos in spring camp thus far.
It's an inverse position from where he was a year ago as a recruit, in a way. Then, Gates considered a potential flip to Michigan as he had committed to Florida's previous coaching staff and witnessed the effort Raymond had begun to put into flipping the Gators' secondary.
On the inside as a pledge, looking out at another school, Gates took two visits to Ann Arbor, Mich. during the year before Raymond and UF head coach Billy Napier officially won him over with an early signing period signature.
"We had to keep him, we had to keep him, and he’s a good player," Raymond recalled. "That’s the thing about him, we had to keep him, and we stayed with him even after the injury, because he was a guy.”
A two-way player in high school at receiver and defensive back, Raymond anticipates Gates playing outside cornerback for UF.
Johnson, who Raymond wasn't asked to comment on, is expected to enroll at UF over the summer. The Tampa (Fla.) Wharton prospect flipped his commitment to Florida from Ohio State in Sept. 2022 and, like the rest of the group, signed his national letter of intent during the early signing period.
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