Jaydon Hood’s path to Michigan, outlook for 2022

Linebacker Jaydon Hood comes to Ann Arbor from sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he played three years of football at Cardinal Newman High School before transferring to St. Thomas Aquinas for his senior season. Wolverine teammates Ja’den McBurrows and Anthony Solomon also attended St. Thomas.

Football is in Hood’s blood as his grandfather, E.J. Junior, played for Alabama and spent 13 years playing in the NFL.

Hood was a multi-sport athlete in high school as he was also a very successful wrestler and also ran track.

Both Cardinal Newman and St. Thomas Aquinas had very successful seasons during Hood’s three years as a starting linebacker. During his sophomore and junior years, Hood helped lead Cardinal Newman to the 3A state playoffs, and then was a big part of St. Thomas Aquinas’ 7-1 season during his senior year.

Junior year was a monster one for Hood as he put up some video game numbers. Hood had 115 tackles, 25 for loss, seven sacks, five forced fumbles and two interceptions. He also scored twice on defense. Hood was named the Cardinal Newman Defensive Player of the Year that season.

247 Sports gave Hood a four-star rating and named him the 247th ranked player in the nation, 14th ranked inside linebacker and 35th ranked player in Florida.

As a 4-star player from the south, Hood got attention from some big SEC and ACC schools down there. Hood received offers from Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Florida State and Miami. He also received another Big Ten offer from Penn State. None of those schools clicked for Hood, however, and he chose to come play for the Michigan Wolverines.

Hood didn’t see a lot of action during his freshman year in 2021, but he did appear in the Northern Illinois game and recorded his first career tackle.

2022 will probably look a lot different for Hood. If fall camp goes well, Hood could be finding himself in a second string linebacker position where he could see the field every game. Nikhai Hill-Green, Junior Colson and Michael Barrett will likely have the three starting, but Hood is right there behind them, likely battling with Barrett for the strongside position.

Hood showed in high school he’s a great athlete and can put up serious numbers, and he has a chance to make a name for himself this season.