During the beginning weeks of the off-season, Inside the Gators will take an in-depth look at how last season went for Florida's 2019 signees who redshirted with our Redshirt Report series. Today, we focus on how this past season went for defensive lineman Jaelin Humphries.
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Whereas some of his classmates enrolled at UF during the Spring or Summer A terms, freshman defensive tackle Jaelin Humphries didn’t arrive until the Summer B term in late June. He then missed a large chunk of fall camp while dealing with a nagging meniscus injury that he suffered at a camp prior to his senior year at Mountain View High School in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
Given his circumstances, it was no surprise that he only played against Vanderbilt and redshirted.
“Anytime you come in with an injury, that’s definitely not going to improve your chances of seeing the field now,” said Brandon Gill, his position coach at Mountain View. “Hopefully, Jaelin’s doing the right thing and doing everything on his end and taking care of his knee and taking care of his grades.”
Gill follows Humphries’ career at Florida closely, and he last spoke with Humphries when he attended one of their games last season. He said Humphries has always been a respectful, team-first type of player, so he believes Humphries handled his lack of playing time well.
“If [Florida’s coaches] would’ve said, ‘Hey Jaelin, we need you to redshirt this year. We need you to take care of school. We need you to get bigger,’ any kind of role that they would’ve asked, he was definitely on board for,” Gill said. “I will say he’s always been a real receptive and a team player to different things like that.”
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Humphries used his redshirt year to get better at the smaller details of the position, such as pad level, footwork and getting off the ball quickly, Gill said. As a two-way player in high school, he wasn’t able to hone in on the intricacies of the position like he can at UF. Given the high level of competition in the SEC, being technically and fundamentally sound can be the difference between success and failure.
He also improved his physique in the weight room, Gill said. He weighed 303 pounds as a recruit and was listed at 320 pounds on the Gators’ official roster. Gill is excited to see what Humphries looks like when he sees him this summer now that he has a chance to go through the full offseason program and spring practice.
Finding playing time next season won’t be much easier for Humphries. Four of the Gators’ top-6 tackles return, and they’re set to welcome in four highly regarded freshmen. Still, Gill believes Humphries has enormous potential and plays with the relentless effort that will endear himself to his coaches and fans.
He described him as a “very emotional player,” which is intended as a compliment. Humphries isn’t afraid to get in his teammates’ faces and push them to be better. He cares a lot about winning and will do everything he can to make that happen.
“His ceiling on that is absolutely through the roof,” he said. “When he was in high school, he was running down tunnel screens. There’s not a lot of inside defensive linemen that can run down a tunnel screen with a wide receiver catching the ball on the run. I’ve seen that kid make some just crazy plays you just can’t really explain. There’s no drill that teaches a kid how to do that. That’s just kind of Jaelin’s God-given ability.
“If he does everything right and works hard, stays diligent, I could definitely see Jaelin playing on Sundays.”