Grady living the Florida Gators dream against Vanderbilt

Each day as the Florida Gators leave the locker room they gather in front of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and make sure the entire team is there before leaving.

Jim McElwain then leads his team on the short journey from the stadium, across Gale Lemerand drive and to the practice fields. Each day since he’s been on campus, redshirt senior Josh Grady has been right by McElwain’s side, step-for-step.

“I love coach Mac. I wouldn’t be here without him,” Grady said. I’m blessed that he was able to get me here. I love coach Mac, everything he’s doing with this program, I mean, it’s unbelievable. You walk around Gainesville everyone loves coach Mac and I’m on his tail.”

Grady grew up near Tampa and played high school football at Seffner Armwood with Alvin Bailey and Matt Jones. While his high school friends and teammates entertained offers from the University of Florida, Grady did not. He did, however, get an offer from McElwain and Colorado State.

Grady opted to go to Vanderbilt with the hope of playing quarterback. Grady didn’t see any game action as a freshman and was then moved to receiver in 2012. Grady was moved back to quarterback in 2013 but his season was cut short just three games in when he tore his ACL.

Despite not being able to play, Grady did make the trip to Gainesville for Florida’s 2013 homecoming game. The Gators were coming off of losses to LSU, Missouri and Georgia and looking forward to what appeared to be a nice game to get off of that schneid. That was until James Franklin’s Commodore team took it to Florida, earning their first win in Gainesville since 1945.

“As you can imagine, to us, beating Florida was our Super Bowl,” Grady recalled. “Even though I didn’t go to play in the game, when we were able to beat them that was like winning a National Championship for us.”

Grady returned to Vanderbilt where he was once again moved back to receiver for his senior season. The Florida kid longed for an opportunity to continue playing the game he loved and to win. Upon graduation began looking for a place he could do just that.

First he needed to get the seal of approval from the NCAA and from Vanderbilt’s compliance department to reach out to new schools. Once that was taken care of Grady turned his attention to not only a destination where he thought he could play for a contender, something he hadn’t been able to say the previous four years, but also to a graduate program he could use in life after football. With the hiring of Jim McElwain and the proximity of the University of Florida to his hometown, Florida quickly caught his eye.

“After I decided I wanted to transfer I contacted Coach Mac once I got free from compliance and the ball just started rolling,” Grady recalled.

McElwain had recruited Grady when he was at Armwood and Mac also brought on other familiar faces in Marquel Blackwell, who coached Grady in high school, as well as Kirk Callahan, the son of Grady’s former head coach Sean Callahan.

A smart kid, Grady knows that his future may not wind up getting paid to play football, so finding a Master’s program that he could really sink his teeth into and better himself and his career was important. Grady did his homework and quickly found out that Florida had one of the top sports management programs in the country. Check off one box for Florida, but Grady wanted to play for a winner. The Gators hadn’t been that in two years and they were moving on with a new coaching staff. With just one year to play, would Florida be able to compete at a championship level before Grady’s playing days were done?

“The very first time I talked to [Coach McElwain] he was like, ‘We’d love to have you down here where you belong and to be able to compete for a SEC Championship’,” Grady said. “I know a lot of people picked is fifth to start the year in the East but he always preaches restoring the order and that’s something that we’re definitely planning on doing coming Saturday.”

So Grady put his faith in the coach he had once passed up and six months later Grady is just 60 minutes of winning football away from playing in the SEC Championship game, something unrealistic at his previous location.

“I mean, it’s definitely something I’ve never thought of even when I was in high school getting recruited and commit to Vandy, that’s not really a picture you think could be painted,” he said.

Grady hasn’t made a huge impact on the field on Saturdays but he’s been a good teammate and an unselfish player. Due to former starting quarterback Will Grier’s suspension, Grady, who spent some time practicing at receiver this year, finds himself as the Florida Gators’ backup quarterback. He’s one play away from being handed the keys and holds himself to a high standard in practice.
“My main thing is I just prepare like I’m the starter every week,” he said of how he’s been approaching practice this season.”

Grady has enjoyed every minute of this season. With his playing days growing shorter each week he has taken on the mentality of his head coach and has been soaking it all in. This week though, is different to him. Every player, whether they will admit to it publicly or not, circles games on the schedule. Games where they want revenge, rivalry games or games close to home; there are a thousand different reasons a game can be more important to some. To Grady, this game has so much meaning. It’s a chance to play against his former team and teammates as well as an opportunity to do something he never thought he would be able to do when he signed to play football at Vanderbilt.

“For obvious reasons I would like to get a W,” Grady said. “That’s definitely something we’re planning on but again I’m just taking it one day at a time, but come Saturday I’ll definitely be juiced up and I’ll be come out and make sure the guys are going to get this W.”