Florida football: Five players Billy Napier says have stood out in spring practice
By Will Thomas
![Florida Gators outside linebacker Princely Umanmielen (33) grabs a dummy bag during the University of Florida Football 2023 Football Spring Practice Saturday morning, March 25, 2023 at Sanders Football Practice Field at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. [Doug Engle/Ocala Star Banner]2023Gai Ufsrpingpractice325](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F42f43adc13d44304f985831fd610a2801de48db2230059d837782e34f8e90a02.jpg "Florida Gators outside linebacker Princely Umanmielen (33) grabs a dummy bag during the University of Florida Football 2023 Football Spring Practice Saturday morning, March 25, 2023 at Sanders Football Practice Field at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. [Doug Engle/Ocala Star Banner]2023Gai Ufsrpingpractice325")
Florida football: Jason Marshall Jr.
One guy that I’ve already been really excited to see this season was Jason Marshall Jr., so hearing Napier bring him up was very encouraging.
Marshall was a 5-star recruit out of high school and part of the “Palmetto 5”, a group of five elite recruits from Miami Palmetto high school. Corey Collier was also a part of this group and came with Marshall to Gainesville.
After a promising freshman campaign, Marshall didn’t quite improve how Gator fans had hoped he would in his second season. Could that be because of a bad overall defense? Maybe.
But Marshall is just too talented to stay down for long. In Napier’s words, “[He’s] been lights out.”
I would suggest to stop throwing to Jason Marshall’s side pic.twitter.com/4eXSHKcIxn
— 𝙳𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚗 (@KeiserDonavon) October 9, 2021
Last season Marshall had 29 tackles, eight pass deflections, and one interception that came in Florida’s loss to Vanderbilt.
Those numbers on their own are ok, but like I said before he was expected to take a bigger leap than he did from his freshman season.
In Austin Armstrong’s defense that figures to be more aggressive than Patrick Toney’s, we could see Marshall take it to a new level. If QBs have less time to wait for their wideouts to get open, we’ll see Jason’s instincts and ball skills on full display.
After learning under Kaiir Elam, and being at DBU, this is the year that we’ll get to see Jason Marshall shine, and let the whole country know where the top defensive backs come to play ball.