Florida lost a key piece of its rotation in the secondary this week when redshirt junior C.J. McWilliams ruptured his Achilles, an injury that will keep him out the entire season..Coach Dan Mullen said McWilliams' injury was suffered in a non-contact situation, and it will create a hole in the team's depth at the slot cornerback position.
"He's going to be out for the year with a torn Achilles. He's going to be out for the year, and that's a tough one," Mullen told reporters on Tuesday. "That's what's so tough. Guys that work so hard, they put in all this work in the offseason and then suffer an injury."
McWilliams has seen limited action during his time at Florida, but he had worked his way into the rotation and was competing for starting reps at the team's Star position in the secondary despite being heavily targeted by offenses last season. The former three-star prospect out of Miami totaled 16 tackles in nine games of action with two starts a year ago after mostly contributing on special teams as a redshirt freshman in 2017.
The loss of McWilliams means that the Florida secondary, which is talented but lacking in depth and experience, will need some bigger contributions from the likes of Trey Dean, Amari Burney and John Huggins. Huggins is not practicing with the team because of an undisclosed issue.
