The Florida Gators open the 2015 season under new head coach Jim McElwain, but former offensive lineman Roderick Johnson won’t help usher in the new era.

Johnson was diagnosed with congenital cervical spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal that inhibits enough fluid to gather around the spinal cord to properly protect it. Just one wrong hit can leave a player paralyzed.

It forced Cooper Manning, Peyton’s and Eli’s brother, to give up football before his college career began.

Johnson received a massive scare this spring when he collided with a fellow offensive lineman that left a numbness all over his body.

“That collision — because they were both coming so hard at each other — was one that just kind of froze Rod in mid-air, and then he fell to the ground,” offensive line coach Mike Summers told USA Today.

Johnson set out the rest of spring practice and through the spring game before he received the news of the diagnosis and that giving up football would be a reality.

“I was real upset,” Johnson told USA Today. “Before Coach Mac could even say what he wanted to say, I had started crying. I knew what time it was. I knew what time it was when I first walked up there and saw the head athletic trainer. This can’t be good. … They told me the news, the worst news I’ve ever heard in my life.”

So, what’s next for Johnson?

Although he won’t be directly impacting Saturday’s games, he’ll be indirectly impacting them from the sidelines as a player-coach this summer and fall.

“We felt like if he had a role to fill that could still involve him in football and keep him active and understanding what we do, that would be a way to transition from player to a guy who now could not play,” Summers said.

Johnson has talked about coaching high school after he graduates college and even staying at Florida as a graduate assistant while working towards a master’s degree.