Jalen Kimber playing ‘more physical’ with no cast, added weight

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In Florida’s scrimmage Thursday, the secondary was without junior cornerback Jason Marshall Jr. and sophomore Devin Moore, who’s in contention for the starting job opposite Marshall. Moore’s competition, redshirt junior Jalen Kimber, performed well in their absence.

Kimber served as CB1 for the Gators during their first scrimmage and had a couple of pass breakups in coverage.

“Jalen’s been steady,” UF coach Billy Napier said. “Jalen’s done a good job keeping the ball in front of him. He’s more physical. I think he did a good job this offseason.”

Kimber had more pass breakups in the scrimmage than he did during his first season with the Gators, finishing 2022 with just one PBU. Of course, there was a contributing factor.

Kimber broke his left hand prior to the opener. Rather than undergoing surgery, he played with a large cast for the first few games and a smaller cast during the second half of the year.

It was harder for Kimber to break up or intercept passes, play press coverage and make tackles.

“It’s like taking one hand and putting it behind your back,” he said. “That thing was big, and it was hard to use.”

Kimber managed to come up with his first career interception — a pick-six against USF — while wearing his large cast. It marked Florida’s first INT return for a touchdown since 2018.

Kimber received the game ball from Napier.

“It was big thing for me,” Kimber said of the pick-six. “But I felt I had a lot of things to improve on, especially just being limited and having one hand for the whole season.

“Personally, just growing as a player, just learning more, trying to dissect things more and just being more in tune with the game really for me is a big thing.”

Although Kimber still played in all 13 games last season, he spent more time watching tape due to his injury and used that as a tool to improve his game.

Kimber even had extra meetings with graduate assistants to ask questions about game plans and what the defense wanted to accomplish in certain situations.

“A lot of film study,” he said.

Kimber not only became more in tune with the game, but himself. Being mindful of his thoughts while he was injured helped guide his road to recovery.

“Me personally, especially coming off a shoulder injury and having back-to-back injuries, I really learned how to be in tune with myself,” Kimber said. “Making sure I have positive thoughts because negative thoughts can really take over your mind, especially having back-to-back injuries. Trying to have a positive mindset was really the main thing for me.”

Kimber kept his casts

Another point of emphasis for Kimber was gaining weight. He played as low as 175 pounds last year and wanted to bulk up this offseason.

Napier credited Kimber for his dedication in the weight room.

“If you go back to his history, coming in with the shoulder there that kind of set him back the first offseason. This was just really his first complete offseason,” Napier said. “He gained significant lean mass. So, we’re very pleased with Kimber.”

Napier noted at the start of fall camp that Kimber gained eight pounds of muscle since April. He’s now playing at 185 pounds this fall.

“I gained an extra about 10 extra pounds, so it’s a really big thing for me,” Kimber said. “It was really important for me because I’ve always been kind of a smaller guy. I just knew this senior year this had to be an important offseason for me, especially like just attacking the weight room and making sure everything was checked off for me personally in my boxes.”

Kimber has added more weight, improved both his mindset and film study habits, and, most importantly, fully recovered from his broken hand. He was relieved to finally ditch the cast.

“It felt great, honestly. I could finally use my hand again,” said Kimber, who estimated that he spent “some months” wearing one. “I’m not going to lie. It was a long time. I forget how long it was. But it was longer than expected.”

What happened to the cast?

“I still got it, I got two of them. I’m going to keep it forever,” Kimber said. “I feel 100 times better, for sure. … I feel like I made a big leap this summer and I’m just ready to go out there and show what I can do with two hands.”