Gators Legacy WR Gains 7th Year of Eligibility

A Florida Gators wide receiver has officially returned to the team after gaining a seventh year of eligibility.

A Florida Gators wide receiver has officially returned to the team after gaining a seventh year of eligibility. | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida Gators on Wednesday released its official roster for the 2026 football season, and on it included redshirt senior receiver Kahleil Jackson, a former walk-on who has not played since the 2024 season opener due to injury.

Originally thought to have exhausted his eligibility after a free COVID year in 2020, redshirting in 2021 and receiving a waiver after missing most of 2024 with an ACL injury, Jackson recently received another waiver from the NCAA for another year of eligibility, according to 247 Sports' Zach Goodall.

Jackson, the son of former UF receiver Willie Jackson Jr. and grandson of former UF receiver Willie Jackson Sr., first joined the Gators in 2020 as a walk-on quarterback from nearby Hawthorne High School. He then transitioned to receiver, emerging as a starter and deep threat during the 2023 season.

In 2023, Jackson set career-high marks in catches (21) and yards (251) with one touchdown.

Florida Gators wide receiver Kahleil Jackson has missed the last 24 games due to injury. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Expected to be a part of the rotation in 2024, Jackson only caught one pass for 13 yards before an ACL injury ended his season. He has not played since Aug. 31 of that year but participated in on-air drills during spring and fall camps.

Throughout his time as a Gator, Jackson has been consistently praised for his leadership and mindset, most of which stems from being a legacy player. In addition to his father, one of the program's best statistical receivers, and grandfather, the first Black player to appear in a game in program history, Jackson's uncle, Terry, played running back for the Gators, winning a national title in 1996.

"Yeah those are kids that we have on our team that have a true feel for the history and the tradition of this place,” former head coach Billy Napier said during fall camp in 2022. “That really understand that we are a part of families. I mean Kahleil Jackson. Think about how he grew up and all of those things that he observed. The stories that he’s been told and for him to wear 22 and to have Jackson on the back of (his jersey). We need more of that.”

Jackson returns to a revamped receiver room headlined by rising second-years and former five-stars Dallas Wilson and Vernell Brown III and high-profile senior transfer Eric Singleton Jr. The Gators retained redshirt sophomore TJ Abrams while adding four other transfers in Bailey Stockton (Georgia Tech), Micah Mays (Wake Forest), Jaylen Lloyd (Oklahoma State) and walk-on Ace Ciongoli (Indiana).

Florida also signed a trio of four-stars in its high school class in Davian Groce, Justin Williams and Marquez Daniel, who will join the transfers, Abrams and Jackson in a battle for spots in the rotation behind Wilson, Brown III and Singleton Jr.