Montrell Johnson suffers knee injury during fall camp
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gators‘ running back Montrell Johnson sustained a knee injury during fall camp that will keep him off the field for several weeks, Gators Online has learned. Johnson had a minor knee injury and a routine arthroscopic procedure to clean up his knee. He’s believed to be week-to-week and it’s not believed to be a major injury that would keep him out for an extended period of time.
Johnson has led the in rushing and averaged 5.4 yards per carry in each of the last two years, totaling 817 yards and five touchdowns in 2023 after 841 yards and 10 TDs in 2022. He also rushed for 838 yards and 12 scores as a freshman an Louisiana. Johnson was more involved in the passing game in 2023, catching 30 passes for 236 yards and a touchdown. He had three 100-yard rushing performances as well.
Johnson was set to be the Gators’ lead running back this season after the departure of Trevor Etienne.
Johnson spoke about an increased share of carries for him this fall while at SEC Media Days in Dallas last week. That won’t bother him at all based on how he thinks he’ll handle it. In fact, he’s completely expecting it from himself.
“I expect to get the ball more coming into the future this next season,” Johnson said. “I’m not too worried about it because I feel like I can hold the load on my own and just going out there and making sure I play mistake-free football.”
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In Johnson’s absence, the Gators will turn to sophomore running back Treyaun Webb, who played in 11 games as a freshman in 2023. Webb tallied 163 rushing yards on 26 attempts with two rushing touchdowns and had four catches for 18 yards. After Webb is junior college transfer Ja’Kobi Jackson, who joined Florida in the spring of 2023 but did not see any game action last season. Florida also added a pair of talented freshmen in Jadan Baugh and KD Daniels.
Baugh put together a great spring game in his introduction to Florida fans. He carried the ball 12 times for 77 yards and drew the attention of ESPN analyst, Cole Cubelic.
“This No. 13, Jadan Baugh, whoa,” Cubelic said on his podcast in May. “This is the part that probably takes me most off guard because … when I just watched it, I thought he looked good and I was like, ‘Man, that jump cut was incredible.’ Or like, ‘Look at that. Wow, this kid got some power or his kid can get North and South in a hurry.’ I didn’t realize he was 237 pounds doing the things that he was doing.
“He looked explosive, he looked agile, had great body control, change of direction seemed to be easy for him. I don’t know why more people aren’t talking about No. 13 Jadan Baugh for Florida coming out of that spring game. Because what I saw wowed the hell out of me now and I think a lot of other people should probably feel the same way.”
