When Florida football edge rusher Jayden Woods changed his uniform number to 0 during the offseason, it took on added significance.The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Woods did it as a tribute to his father, Justin Woods, who had similar dreams of college stardom as an undersized running back at Kansas State two decades ago.Growing up in high school my dad would always say to stay even, not get too high, not get too low, Woods said. So, its really a mindset thing and a way to honor my dad, too.Justin Woods learned the importance of humility and responsibility early in life. He was just 18 when Jayden was born and attempted to balance football, schoolwork and parenting as a 5- 8, 166-pound running back at a Big 12 program. From Kansas State, the elder Woods played at Fort Scott Community College before finishing his career at Division II Pittsburg State as a defensive back."The beautiful thing about zero is it represents all numbers," Justin Woods said. "It will mirror all numbers if you add with it and subtract with it. Football is a team game, so it represents everybody. It represents leadership, teamwork, unity."Jusitn Woods is taking pride in watching his son, a budding star for the Florida Gators who earned freshman All-SEC honors by recording 3.5 sacks, 1 interception and 1 fumble recovery as a true freshman in 2025."How everything turned out, even it didn't turn out like this, I would still be proud of him," Justin Woods said. "He's my son. I'm always going to love him, I'm always going to be there for him."How did Jayden get so big? Justin is still trying to figure that one out. "His granpa on his mom's side is 6-1," Justin said. " My dad's side, my dad is 5-10 all his brothers are over 6-foot, I'd like to say he hit the genetic jackpot. We always knew throughout the early years he was always big, bigger than most kids."How Jayden Woods wound up playing for the Florida GatorsA top 50 national recruit out of Mills High in Shawnee, Kansas, Woods was originally committed to Penn State, based on Justin's connection with former PSU coach James Franklin. Franklin was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Kansas State from 2006 and 2007 and recruited Jusitn Woods to Manhattan, Kansas (a.k.a. the "Little Apple.")But after visiting Gainesville, Jayden Woods had a change of heart and chose to sign with the Gators."At the end of the day, I told him, it's your decision, you're gonna have to live with it," Justin Woods said. "But no matter what you choose or where you go, I'm going to support you either way."Woods also could have left Florida this past season with the coaching change from Billy Napier to Jon Sumrall. But Woods was sold on the attacking scheme presented to him by Sumrall and defensive coordinator Brad White. Sumrall and White took a private plane to Kansas to visit with Woods and his family and convince him to stay.Jayden Woods has a really, really high ceiling of how good he can become," Sumrall said. "I think he's talented physically. He's very, very mature. Works as hard as anybody I've ever been around in my life. Great teammate. High output, low ego."Now, Woods is ready to take on the role as Agent Zero of the UF defense. After establishing himself as one of the strongest players on the team as a true freshman, Woods kicked it up in the weight room under new strength coach Rusty Whitt this past offseason, increasing his power clean from 365 to 404 pounds. He's also squatting close to 600 pounds."Coach Whitt has said when you go into the weight room, go in like playing the teams you are going to play that season," Woods said "So I will go in thinking about the tackles Im going to face this year every day in the weight room.Woods is aware of the UF sack record (13 by Alex Brown in 1999). His goal is to break it this season."I feel like I showed flashes of myself last year," Woods said. "So my biggest thing is building off of that and not taking any steps backwards.Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville SunsFloridabeat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1.This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Why number switch to 0 is special for Florida football DE Jayden Woods