Three Questions About the Florida Gators Cornerbacks Entering 2022
Photo: Jason Marshall Jr. and Avery Helm; Credit: Alex Shepherd
With spring football squarely in the rearview mirror, and not much going on in the realm of college sports, AllGators has decided to take a stab at going over various position groups for the Florida Gators and the three pressing questions for each room.
Continuing on the defensive side of the ball, the next position we'll cover is Florida's cornerbacks.
Florida hired former LSU secondary coach Corey Raymond as its assistant head coach - defense and cornerbacks coach this offseason, taking on two roles on new head coach Billy Napier's inaugural coaching staff in Gainesville.
AllGators' three questions by position series
- Quarterback
- Running back
- Wide receiver
- Tight end
- Offensive line
- JACK edge rusher
- Defensive line
- Inside linebackers
How big will Jason Marshall Jr.'s sophomore jump be?
There's almost no question that rising sophomore cornerback Jason Marshall Jr. is set to make a major jump this year after putting on a stellar performance during his freshman season in 2021.
Though he wouldn't start every game, Marshall got plenty of reps throughout the year due to injuries to cornerbacks Jaydon Hill (preseason) and Kaiir Elam, and at times as the team looked to find another CB worthy of starting opposite of the would-be first-round pick.
While Avery Helm was used in that capacity plenty of times, Marshall stepped in and didn't really skip a beat, becoming one of the more promising corners in college football.
According to Pro Football Focus, just one CB finished with a better completion percentage against him, Western Michigan's Dorian Jackson at 34.5%. Marshall finished with 36.8%, the best among all cornerbacks from his class.
He also finished ahead of players such as Elam and Sauce Garnder, who were selected in the first round of this year's draft, with Gardner being the No. 4 overall pick to the New York Jets.
At 6-foot, 192 pounds, Marshall would appear in all 13 contests last year and started in six, truly being thrown into the fire, but he was up for the challenge as one of the top recruits in the 2021 recruiting class.
With the addition of Raymond to lead the group, it should be expected that Marshall soar even higher, perhaps becoming one of the better corners in the SEC, if not all of college football. The sky is the limit, and given what Marshall showed on the gridiron last year, it won't be a surprise to see.
Who will earn the start opposite Marshall?
One CB position is already locked down, Marshall as one of the team's starting corners.
The other position, however, is up to debate with Helm and Hill returning as the team's most experienced players within the group, and other players such as transfer CB Jalen Kimber and redshirt freshman CB Jordan Young are intriguing options, too.
With Helm sidelined for some of spring, Hill was the player that ultimately earned the majority of the first-team reps along with Marshall, making him the potential front-runner of the group heading into fall camp.
Hill was slated to be the starting CB last year opposite of Elam prior to his season-ending knee injury just before the start of the regular season. His experience the previous year, and rising potential made it obvious he was in for more repetitions as the team moved on from Marco Wilson and CJ Henderson in 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Hill would appear in all 12 games in 2020, making five starts. He finished the year with 14 tackles and seven pass breakups, second-most among Florida defenders.
Helm, on the other hand, is one of the most athletic players on the team's roster and got his chance to show it last year. The redshirt sophomore started nine games last season, appearing in 11 and finished with three pass breakups and 22 tackles.
Though the Gators might like Young in the STAR role he played near the end of spring, the team could look toward the transfer CB in Kimber, who played admirably during the program's spring game in April.
Kimber was one of our standout players from the competition with two pass breakups, an interception and six tackles on the day. Transferring from Georgia, Kimber comes with plenty of pedigree that shouldn't be ignored. His potential to play a big role, early, is high.
How much of an impact can Raymond make?
There's no question that the biggest addition to Florida's staff in the first year of the Billy Napier era was cornerbacks coach Corey Raymond. Raymond, 52, spent the past 10 seasons with the LSU Tigers as one of the top CB coaches in the nation, recruiting some of the brightest, while churning out NFL talent that is almost unheard of.
For that reason, LSU has routinely been known as one of the "DBU" teams within college football, of course rivaling Florida who earned that moniker for years in the 2000s and as of late with the resurgence of players such as Elam and Henderson, who both would be selected as first-round players in their respective drafts.
Now, with Raymond in the fold, Florida will look to ascend to new heights within its secondary, not only recruiting some of the best players for this upcoming class but also developing the players that are currently in the building. This will bode well for players like Marshall, Helm and Hill, who are young but polished in their own right, looking for a bit more direction.
"[Raymond's] experience is helping everybody in the corners room. And he is very specific with the details," Marshall said of his position coach in spring. "And that will help a lot of us, not [just] here, but in NFL, in the next level too."
If there's one coach that will absolutely get the most out of his players this year, it will be Raymond.
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