Florida football: Jaden Rashada saga is all over the place

UPDATE 2:

Blake Alderman of 247 Sports is now also reporting that Jaden’s father told him Rashada made no decision to request a release.

For now, Gator fans can take a breathe. It seems like Rashada may still be a Gator after all.

UPDATE 1:

It’s now being reported that Jaden Rashada hasn’t officially requested a release yet. 247 Sports is saying that Rashada’s father is denying that Jaden requested a release, and Jaden himself sent a message to Hayes Fawcett, one of the people who first reported on his request, saying that it wasn’t true.

So for now, it seems as if the Gators dodged a bullet. That said, this type of fake news break may not be something that just goes away.

We’ll continue to update you here as news comes out.

First news break:

Florida football took a big hit today, and there really isn’t any spinning it.

5-star QB signee Jaden Rashada requested a release from his National Letter of Intent this afternoon.

Rashada lead the class of 2022 for the Gators and was ranked as the 6th best QB in the class. Unfortunately for UF, the curse of taking recruits from California struck again.

This is similar to the Chris Steele saga a few years ago. Steele, also from California, signed as a Gator but never played a snap before a dramatic exit through the transfer portal.

So how did this happen?

It’s being reported that “a slew of NIL missteps” caused Rashada to lose trust in the Gators. Without saying all the words I want to say, that just can’t happen.

The University of Florida is supposed to be the flagship university of the state, and one of the biggest brands in college football. And yet, the administrators in Gainesville seemingly don’t care that the Gators are being lapped by every other major program they compete with.

UF has been behind their rivals in the NIL game for a while. With the commitment of Rashada, it felt like Florida may finally be catching up and leveling the playing field.

But no. Scott Stricklin’s unwillingness, or inability, to commit to creating a strong NIL base around the football program reared its ugly head again.

This mess with Rashada is going to be a hard image for Florida to shake. How are top recruits supposed to commit to NIL deals that they don’t even know are real? What’s the recruiting pitch for Napier now when a guy says, “[Enter school name here] is offering me some serious money, what can you offer?”

The fallout from this is not going to be pretty. This may be the final straw that calls for some changes in the administration.

Florida needs to get its act together if they want to be nationally relevant again.

Keep up with Florida football at Hail Florida Hail.