Florida Football Freshman Profile: Ja’Keem Jackson will see early action

As the season fast approaches for Florida football, we are continuing our series of the freshmen on campus and what the odds are they appear this season with the Gators. If you follow recruiting, these will be household names. But if not, these can be a good refresher to catch you up to speed.

We have previously looked at Dijon Johnson and Sharif Denson.

Today we take a look at the headliner for Florida’s 2023 recruiting class, Ja’Keem Jackson.

Florida Football: Acknowledge Him

Billy Napier has admitted that he underestimated how quickly early recruiting moved in the current climate, but one player he was able to snag was Ja’Keem Jackson, a highly regarded four-star cornerback out of Kissimmee. Three of the four major recruiting services ranked him as a top 100 player nationally, with On3 and 247 putting him in the top 50.

He was noted for his length and speed coming out of high school. Jackson converted from wide receiver to cornerback. He ran 10.90 seconds in the 100-meter dash during his junior year of high school and has been clocked at 4.5 seconds in the 40.

He’s not afraid to try and be physical and has very good instincts on how to find the ball once it is in the air.

You can view his senior year film from high school here.

Odds of redshirting: Low

Jackson is far too talented on paper not to get an initial look at the field. Depth at the corner position is still a work in progress for Florida football, and most prognosticators would slot Jackson as a backup behind Jason Marshall and Jalen Kimber.

He is going to need to continue to add size, as he is listed at 181 pounds, among the smallest of Florida’s corners.

But early reports out of Fall Camp have been positive, and Napier noted his progress earlier this week at his press conference.