Former Ole Miss receiver Van Jefferson announced Monday that he is transferring to Florida.
Jefferson decided to transfer from Ole Miss after the school was given a two-year bowl ban, scholarship restrictions and show causes for every coach named in the investigation. NCAA rules will allow all players who are entering their senior season to transfer without having to sit out a year. Jefferson is entering his junior season, which means he technically would need to sit out a season, but has retained a lawyer to try to fight that. Mars represented Houston Nutt in a wrongful termination lawsuit against Ole Miss.
Jefferson, along with quarterback Shea Patterson and safety Deontay Patterson, retained Arkansas based attorney Thomas Mars to represent them. Ole Miss originally granted the players a release with stipulations. Players wishing to transfer would be given a release from their scholarship but could not transfer to another SEC school, nor could they go to a school that was on Ole Miss’ schedule in 2018 or 2019. The school has since lifted any and all restrictions on transferring. Jefferson will petition to be immediately eligible.
Jefferson was an Army All-American at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, Tennessee prior to enrolling at Ole Miss in 2015. As a freshman in 2016 Jefferson hauled in 49 passes for 543 yards and three touchdowns. He was named to the Freshman All-SEC team and ranked second among SEC freshmen with 4.1 catches a game. In 2017 he caught 42 passes for 456 yards and a touchdown while being limited to just 10 games with an elbow injury.
Currently Florida only has six scholarship receivers on their roster and seven if you include Kadarius Toney. Jefferson’s 91 career catches are more than Tyrie Cleveland (36), Josh Hammond (32) and Dre Massey (11) combined over the last two seasons.