"It blows my mind." Florida football DB Jaydon Hill reacts to being picked 5th in SEC East

Count Florida football defensive back Jaydon Hill as someone who feels disrespected by preseason predictions regarding the Gators.
Florida was picked fifth in the SEC East by both Athlon Magazine and the preseason poll at SEC Football Media Days, behind Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Kentucky.
"Yeah, it kind of like — it blows my mind a little bit, but then again, we've just got to win games," Hill said. "It just comes down to winning.
"We talk about it all the time, us players in the locker room. We see the doubt and all that, and every day that's kind of how we approach our work, we just come with a chip on our shoulder every day and we just plan to get better."
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Last season, Florida went 6-7 overall, 3-5 in the SEC and 1-3 against the four teams picked ahead of it in the SEC East, with the lone win coming against the Gamecocks. But Hill, who is moving from cornerback to the star position this season, is confident that more depth on the roster and a better understanding of the offense and defense in year two under head coach Billy Napier will yield better results.
"We're going to shock a lot of people this year as far as the standard is so low right now," Hill said. "Because the bar is so low. They can't know what we've got in the locker room. I really feel like we're going to shock a lot of people. We've got a lot of great players in the locker room and a lot of great coaches."
Florida running back Montrell Johnson Jr. intends to use the predictions as fuel heading into fall camp, which starts Monday in preparation for UF's season opener Aug. 31 at Utah.
"We had a bad season last year, and we use that as motivation," Johnson said. "We try to learn from our mistakes, and yeah, we feel like the world is against us, so we're going to try to keep it all in house and get better as we go ...
"The most important accolades come at the end of the season."

Players mentioned in this article

A.J. Hill

Montrell Johnson Jr.

A.J. Johnson

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