Florida Football Freshman Profile: Dijon Johnson hopes to make splash

As Fall Camp has opened up for Florida football, there are a lot of new faces on campus hoping to make the leap from great high school players to productive members of the 2023 Florida Gators.

If you follow recruiting closely, these will be names you already know.

But if recruiting is not your thing, we here at Hail Florida Hail are going to do a series on the 22 players that enrolled out of the class of 2023.

Florida Football: Dijon Johnson

Out of Tampa, Dijon Johnson was a four-star prospect from all four major recruiting services, with ESPN ranking him inside the top 100 overall players.

Listed as a cornerback at 6’1″ and 195 pounds, Johnson was noted in high school for his combination of size and speed, clocking a laser-timed 40-yard dash in the 4.5-second range.

He was recruited not just for the fluidity of his movement, but his outright production on the field. 247 Sports credits him with six interceptions his junior year, while his MaxPreps profile only credits him with three (though it also credits him with 10 pass breakups).

Either way, he was an All-State member in Florida in 2021 and helped Wharton High, not traditionally known as one of the powers in Tampa, to the Regional Finals that season.

The Gators were able to flip Johnson after originally committing to Ohio State.

Odds of being redshirted: Medium to low

Most would assume that Jason Marshall and Jalen Kimber have the inside track to be Florida’s two starting cornerbacks. Jaydon Hill started nine games at cornerback last season, but Billy Napier is attempting to move him to the STAR position.

From there, Devin Moore is the only returning Gator that saw any real-time at cornerback last season.

So on paper, it leaves one sure opening in the cornerback rotation. The challenge for Johnson will be to either beat out Moore or to beat out fellow true freshman Ja’Keem Jackson.

Based on early reports from camp, he is making strides to break into the lineup. On day one of camp, he picked off two passes for a pick-six.

If new defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong believes in size and length and lets Johnson play close to the line of scrimmage vs the ten yards back that Patrick Toney insisted upon, we might just see Johnson on the field sooner rather than later.