Cover skills?

Cover skills?

Hawaii cornerback Jaylon Edmond’s seven-year football journey has covered five locations and 12,087 miles. All of which led back to his comfort zone.

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“It’s crazy,” said Edmond, whose enrollment at UH reunited him with several former Bishop Gorman High School teammates. “I love it here. My boys are here.”

Edmond, who joined the Rainbow Warriors in January, excelled during spring training, the offseason conditioning program and player-run practices. After three weeks of training camp, Edmond is penciled as a starting cornerback in the Warriors’ 4-2-5 base defense.

“He’s got great speed, great quickness, and he’s very sticky in man-to-man coverage,” cornerbacks coach PJ Minaya said. “He’s good in press (coverage). His quickness in the off-coverage makes him good because he can react and move laterally on a dime. He’s an intelligent kid. Pound-for-pound, he’s pretty strong.”

At 5 feet 10 and 170 pounds, Edmond is capable of bench-pressing 295 pounds and cleaning 275 pounds.

“A little power, nothing crazy,” Edmond said.

He once was rated as the nation’s eighth-fastest freshman in the 100-meter dash, clocking 10.7 seconds. He estimates he can now run a sub-10.5.

“He’s got crazy speed,” said UH associate head coach Chris Brown, who was Bishop Gorman’s defensive coordinator and strength coach ahead of joining the Warriors in January 2022. “He doesn’t look like he’s the fastest guy, but when he gets on the field, he has a gear nobody else has.”

For all his speed, Edmond took the circuitous route to Manoa. Born in Georgia and reared in Long Beach, Calif., Edmond moved to Las Vegas to attend Bishop Gorman as a freshman in 2020. His step-brother Audric Harris and cousin Jamih Otis also made the move.

The Gaels employed Edmond as a receiver, cornerback and returner.

“I think he’s a deadly returner,” Brown said. “The kid is so fast and elusive.”

After three years at Bishop Gorman, Edmond decided to return to Long Beach for his senior year. “That didn’t really work out too well,” said Edmond, who then transferred to Western High School in Davie, Fla.

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“I learned a lot about myself over there,” he said. “I grew as a person. I met some really good people.”

He signed with Washington State, where he played in five games as a freshman in 2024. After the season, WSU head coach Jake Dickert, several assistant coaches and the strength staff accepted positions at Wake Forest. Edmond was one of four WSU freshmen who transferred to the Winston-Salem, N.C., campus.

“It was an interesting change,” said Edmond, who missed the 2025 season because of an injury. “I learned valuable lessons that are part of my story.”

Edmond decided to enter the portal again. UH’s invitation came almost immediately. Harris already had decided to transfer to UH from Washington. Among the Bishop Gorman alumni set for the Warriors’ active roster were Otis, nickelback Elijah Palmer, running backs Cam Barfield and DeVon Rice, quarterback Micah Alejado, kicker Hudson Borsari and linebacker Ben Hudson.

“In high school, it was a what-if thing if we played together in college,” Edmond said. “Coming here was, shoot, why not? It’s a blessing to come here and see all my boys from high school. It was like, ‘Dang, shoot, I was with all of you in high school.’”

Edmond said he has embraced the Warriors’ self-styled “Braddahhood” unity, as well as the Christian faith. He said he was baptized on April 12, his birthday, and then again two weeks ago.

“I always had issues sometimes,” Edmond said. “Pursuing God kept my life on track.”

Brown said: “He’s a guy who takes everything hard. Just his mindset. That’s who he is. He’s a tough kid. When it comes to problems, he’s a man, he tries to deal with it on his own. Now that he has his faith, he knows he doesn’t have to deal with it himself.”

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