Billy Napier updates health of Florida secondary entering season

With the 2024 regular season around the corner, Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier shared an update on the health of the team’s secondary.

The health of the secondary has been a concern entering the season for Florida, especially with players like Devin Moore, Ja’Keem Jackson, and Asa Turner either not participating in practice or wearing non-contact jerseys during practice.

“Devin has an abscess tonsil, okay,” Billy Napier said. “That’s all that’s wrong with him. We’ll get him going right. That may require a few things here or there, but he’s not physically injured.”

Moore has seen action in 12 games during his first two seasons with the Florida program, with an interception and three passes broken up. However, he did deal with an injury in 2023.

Jackson is now a sophomore after playing in 11 games last season. He’s another young player that Billy Napier is expecting to take a step forward in the Florida secondary. Also important is going to be Turner, a veteran in the secondary who just transferred into the program from Washington. He spent five seasons there, playing in 43 games with six career interceptions.

“Ja’Keem is day-to-day with a soft tissue lower-body injury,” Napier said. “Then Asa Turner’s full speed, you know. He’s got a shoulder’s a little banged, but no issue there. He’s 100 percent participation, he’s just in a black jersey.”

Will Harris is the new secondary coach at Florida. He previously coached the Los Angeles Chargers secondary in the NFL. Billy Napier brought him in with the job of fixing a unit that struggled mightily last year. Florida was 70th in passing defense, giving up 226.7 passing yards per game. The Gators were also 132nd out of 133 teams in interceptions with three forced interceptions on the season.

Billy Napier provides update on Montrell Johnson injury, timeline

Another key player Billy Napier and Florida are looking to get back from injury is running back Montrell Johnson, who is currently considered week-to-week with a knee injury.

“Montrell’s doing great, first of all. … He’s week to week. He’s already on his feet, he’s made significant progress. It will be one week at a time. We’re gonna go at his pace. But we do anticipate it being a very minor issue,” Napier said.

“When we get him back is to be determined. But I think he’s in a good place relative to maybe other situations like that that have been out there in the past.”

Florida opens its season with a key non-conference game against the Miami Hurricanes. Getting healthy in time for that and a difficult SEC schedule is going to be vital to taking a step forward as a program in 2024.