I promise this will be the last time I write about Jaden Rashada until new news breaks. This newsletter is not even really about him, but I wanted to preemptively let you know that this should be it for a while.
The thing is, nothing about the Rashada stuff made sense to me. Well, most of it didn’t make sense. Him choosing to leave the fold of Miami when it was obvious that Mario Cristobal was meddling in the offense again and lowering the ceiling down there did make sense. I’ve noticed a tendency among former O-line coaches to want to play things conservatively and distrust the pass, but it’s more than just a tendency with Cristobal.
Anyway, that made sense. So did Rashada gravitating back towards Billy Napier and UF. Napier is a former quarterback himself, and he has an NFL-compatible offense. People can and do argue about how complete of a scheme it is, but at the least it’s a subset of what some pro teams do. What Napier runs and teaches is a stepping stone to a career in the League. Plus, Napier is just a very personable guy.
What never made sense was “Florida” making Rashada a big offer to complete the flip.
Napier did need a big-time quarterback, and Marcus Stokes even pre-social media video incident wasn’t that. But putting up outlandishly splashy NIL numbers is the opposite of what Napier’s been trying to accomplish.
I’m not going to sit here and sell a Pollyanna-ish story about how everyone who’s signed or transferred in at UF is purely in love with the game and the idea of playing for the orange and blue. Every program talks about NIL, Florida included, and I’m sure the massive Gator fan base is an attractive component to the NIL-at-UF story. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a player looking to set proper expectations.
But it’s my understanding from reporting that NIL is not Napier’s primary sales pitch with anyone. It’s more that a recruit can come and compete on the highest level for a passionate fan base while being developed by great coaches for the game of football and a great university for the game of life. Along the way there’s a chance to get some good money from NIL, but that’s the savory pan sauce that goes on top of the steak of personal and professional development.
“Here’s an offer you can’t refuse” is not really compatible with that vision. And, it turns out, it was an offer that the big-money booster who was supposed to be funding it could refuse. Easy come, easy go.
That’s why it’s important in the long run to make the development and academics the main things. UF is a terrific institution that won’t crumble overnight. Napier largely has a good group of assistants who’ve put players in the NFL before, and if any of them leave for better jobs, that’s a reason for why a quality coach would want to come as a replacement.
The general story is that some booster-types got mad at billionaire Miami supporter John Ruiz for putting up NIL money for players that Florida was after like Maryland transfer DT Darrell Jackson, Rashada, and Cormani McClain. They wanted to stick it to Ruiz, so they tried to use Rashada to do so. It worked for a little while, until it didn’t.
All three of those players are cautionary tales of one sort or another. You know Rashada well by now. McClain is right up there too, as his commitment only lasted until a flashier head coach came calling. And then Jackson, after one year down south, decided to transfer again and went to FSU.
The crumbling of Texas A&M’s blowout 2022 class reinforces the point. It hasn’t lost its biggest names yet at least, but by my count seven members of the class entered the portal this cycle. Two of the seven were 247 Sports Consensus top 25 players. I don’t know what, if any, NIL deals any of these dudes had. However I do know the (partially overblown) reputation of how that class came together.
I expect that Napier will have a high retention rate among his signees based on the way his two classes have come together. Whether the players in aggregate are good enough to get UF where it wants to go is still an open question, but I don’t expect a lot of ragequits over unmet expectations. It’s notable that not long after Rashada asked out of his LOI, elite 2024 QB commit DJ Lagway gave an interview where he sounded genuinely committed to UF still. His decision came about differently.
That’s why Rashada sticks out so much. It’s not just because of the media gawking or the real black eye the program took, but because no other player committed in this way. And it really is too bad that the NIL mess understandably soured the Rashadas on UF because it sounds from reporting that Jaden truly wanted to play for Florida and Napier specifically.
I hope that the people with the powerful checkbooks learned a valuable lesson about getting too far over their skis. The best thing they can do is ignore Ruiz and focus on taking care of the enrolled players. It’s less exciting, but it’s a far better fit for how Napier is building his program.