One of the most impactful recruiting wins this offseason wasn\u2019t a high school or transfer portal commitment. It was holding on to one of their own.\n<\/p>\n
Gators edge Jayden Woods entered the transfer portal after a productive freshman campaign in which he tied the team-high with 3.5 sacks while recording one interception, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery. Woods also passed the analytics test, posting an impressive 20.3% win rate on true pass sets, which led the Gators by a wide margin.\n<\/p>\n
Woods earned 2025 Freshman All-SEC honors and ranked as the No. 11 player in the transfer portal.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a new staff, you know, there\u2019s a lot of things that come with that,\u201d Woods said on his decision to enter the portal. \u201cIt was just uncertainty that was the biggest thing that drove me to make that decision.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Given his three years of eligibility, elite athleticism and overall talent, replacing Woods would have been extremely difficult and costly. Florida\u2019s new staff under head coach Jon Sumrall didn\u2019t give up and eventually convinced Woods to return to Gainesville.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just making sure I\u2019m making the right decision for me and my family,\u201d Woods said. \u201cGoing through the process, laying everything out and truly making an educated decision.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
One key factor in Woods\u2019 decision to return was an in-home visit in his hometown of Shawnee, Kansas, which took place on Jan. 6, a day before he re-signed with the Gators.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing for me was how they interacted with me and my family,\u201d Woods said. \u201cWe barely talked about football when they were there, and that was the biggest thing for me. They really got to know my family, coach Sumrall said my grandpa\u2019s still sending him pictures of meals that he\u2019s cooked, so I know the relationship is good. So just knowing that it was genuine and it was relationship-driven, that was the biggest piece for me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
One of the first Gators to re-sign with Florida under Sumrall was legacy linebacker Myles Graham. His job? Recruit players to stay.\n<\/p>\n
With Woods\u2019 phone blowing up by the minute, Graham made sure to give him space while still offering support during the process.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was giving me my space, you know. I feel like I tried to be as genuine as possible. It wasn\u2019t a money decision; it wasn\u2019t anything like that. It was truly about making sure it was the best decision for me and my family,\u201d Woods said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMyles saw that and respected it. I could tell he was holding back a little bit, but he was good through that whole process. He\u2019s somebody I could ask questions like, \u2018What do you think about this person? This person?\u2019 Stuff like that. So he was a good piece for me when I was back home.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
While several programs pursued Woods, the University of Texas seemed like the school to beat, as he actually visited Austin during the process. The Longhorns\u2019 defensive coordinator is former Gators head coach Will Muschamp.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing about them is they never badmouthed Florida,\u201d Woods said on Texas. \u201cThat was a good thing that I noticed, they only had good things to say, it\u2019s a good program, so Will Muschamp as a person, he was a great person to meet, sit down with and go over football with, so great to meet him.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Representing Woods throughout the process was former Gators linebacker Derek Wingo.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe helped me a ton,\u201d Woods said on Wingo. \u201cHe stayed very unbiased, which I appreciate a ton. He was very like; he presented me the information and then just take it for what it is. he never tried to push or sway anything. Which, I loved that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Florida is underway with spring camp, and Woods and the rest of the team are getting their first taste of Sumrall\u2019s coaching style, which differs significantly from the previous staff.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome. The energy is definitely different for sure,\u201d Woods said. \u201cI\u2019m moreso used to calm coaches, like my high school coach is a little bit calmer, previous coach was a little calmer, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been used to. So seeing Sumrall with the energy, that was awesome.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The 6\u20193\u2033, 244-pound edge rusher will enter 2026 with perhaps the highest ceiling of anyone on Florida\u2019s defense. His natural athletic ability and work ethic could pave the way for a breakout sophomore campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most impactful recruiting wins this offseason wasn\u2019t a high school or transfer portal commitment. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-180550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}