Gators CB Jaydon Hill Looks Back On 'Long Journey' of Returning to Play
Photo: Jaydon Hill; Credit: Alex Shepherd
641 days separated Jaydon Hill's two most recent appearances in a Florida Gators uniform.
Prior to this past Sunday's matchup with the Eastern Washington Eagles, Hill had last stepped onto the gridiron for UF on December 30, 2020, playing a role in the Gators' brutal Cotton Bowl defeat to the Oklahoma Sooners that saw former head coach Dan Mullen's tenure begin to spiral downhill.
"It’s been a long journey," Hill remarked on Wednesday.
He's right. Much changed in those 21 months.
On Florida's end, Mullen was dismissed from his position the next season, 11 games after the Cotton Bowl. Billy Napier was hired as the Gators' new head coach and placed an emphasis on player recovery and health, resulting in an expansive athletic training and physical therapy team as well as endless recovery resources within the program's new Heavener Football Training Center.
For Hill, he sat on the sidelines as Mullen's Gators struggled to 6-7, recovering from an ACL tear suffered in 2021's fall training camp. He was cleared to participate in spring camp earlier this year and quickly impressed the new coaching staff, specifically Napier.
"Jaydon has been very much a work in progress as he's kind of made his return to play. You know, he's done everything that he's been asked to do," Napier explained on Sept. 28. "Jaydon was one of the better players that we had on our team in spring practice in my opinion. I was very impressed with him as a player."
However, a summertime setback made Hill fear the worst.
At first, Hill thought he had torn an ACL again. He had every reason to believe it, freshly recovered from the same injury to his left knee and having dealt with the same wound to his right knee in high school. Fortunately for the Huntsville, Ala. native, that wasn't the case this time around.
"I had a little tweak in the summer and that’s what set me back to now," Hill shared, revealing that the tweak required minor surgery. "I’m just getting back in a groove.”
Hill did not partake in Florida's fall camp due to the latest knee hindrance, instead working daily with director of player athletic development Joe Danos and the Gators' training staff on gaining his strength back, as well as his confidence.
In the meantime, new Gators cornerbacks coach Corey Raymond — a "true guru," in Hill's opinion — had to identify suitors for Hill's projected starting role in his absence. Sophomores Jason Marshall Jr. and Avery Helm continued to fill in for Hill as the first-team tandem, while offseason transfer Jalen Kimber and true freshman Devin Moore were quickly thrust into action.
Kimber, in fact, has played through a broken hand to begin the season. He opted against surgery to preserve UF's cornerback depth with Hill out at the time, according to Napier, sacrificing a shorter recovery process from the injury.
"Those boys stepped up big time. You know, even now they're still playing great ball," Hill said. "I can't thank them boys enough for just keeping me up, keeping me going every day ... They push me every day to just keep getting better. You know, we push each other. We just hold each other to a high standard in that room."
Gators cornerback Jaydon Hill.
Alex Shepherd
It wasn't until Week 3 when Hill's status was first upgraded, from out for the first two weeks of the season to questionable against USF. While he warmed up with the team in full pads before kickoff, it wasn't time quite yet.
Hill was on the travel roster when Florida took on Tennessee in Week 4 and, almost 14 months removed from going down on the practice field, walked out with the starters against the Eagles in Week 5.
“Honestly, I remember taking the field. It felt unreal. I was just happy to be back out there," Hill recalled, before acknowledging he had some rust to shake off at the time.
"It’s funny because the third play of the game, it was a third down. I gave it up. It was me. That was my welcome back. I was like, ‘I gotta get right.’ That was my point right there. I was like, 'let me stop playing.' ”
Sure, Hill gave up a couple of completions against Eastern Washington, who would have expected otherwise considering his time away from the game? Still, the fourth-year redshirt sophomore collected four tackles in the contest and showed enough to remain on the first team entering UF's homecoming bout with Missouri.
Hill has proven in the past to be a productive member of Florida's secondary. He broke out as a redshirt freshman in 2020, starting five games and breaking up seven passes in 12 appearances. He was expected to take on a full-time starting role in 2021 before his injury.
The nature of his back-to-back wounds at one point made him wonder if he'd ever approach that status again.
"I used to question that all the time ... I felt so bad. I was like, ‘why?’ " Hill admitted. "Honestly, after a short time after I was like, 'I can do it.' I just really put my mind to it. 'I’ve been set back twice. It won’t be much to it.' That was the mindset I had throughout. That’s what kept me going.”
His demeanor and work ethic made the journey, as painstaking as it may have been, worthwhile. Not only did Hill regain his gig as a starting member of Florida's secondary, but he also learned how to handle adversity and find "positivity within," something for which he is thankful.
"A lot of hard work, long late nights, a lot of tears. It’s been a journey," Hill proclaimed. "The work I’ve put in has paid off and I can’t complain. I’m just blessed. I’m still out here. I’m still going.”
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