Florida Football: Connecting the dots with Jaden Rashada is laborious

If you don’t have and/or gave up on Twitter, you missed yesterday out on one of the wilder hours of Florida football news in a long time. On3 reported that incoming QB Jaden Rashada was requested his release from his letter of intent just a month after signing it. This felt believable since it was well known that Rashada wasn’t on campus yet despite opting to be an early enrollee.

As Gator Twitter ramped up its wrath at Rashada, Scott Stricklin, Gator Collective, and anyone else they could think of, it came out about 45 minutes later from Rashada’s father that Jaden had, in fact, not requested his release.

There is way too much smoke however around this situation to believe that Rashada isn’t with Florida football yet due to a minor hiccup but figuring out the reason behind the delay can drive anyone insane.

Florida Football: Connect 4 (or 13 million)

After Twitter calmed down from its fever pitch, Orlando Sentinel’s Edgar Thompson entered the chat with a report that while Rashada hadn’t bailed yet, there were issues with a NIL agreement worth $13 million that helped convince Rashada to flip from Maimi to Florida football.

Combine this report with the direct quote that Rashada’s father Harlen Rashada gave 247 Sports:

"We’re having a conversation with Florida tomorrow. We’re in constant talks with Florida regarding his enrollment, but I’d like to think if he’s not enrolled by Friday there will be some challenges there to proceed as planned"

If this was a minor issue, such as a delayed transcript, everyone involved would come out and say as much and all this would be squashed. But too many people involved in reporting on Florida football have indicated that the NIL is at the heart of the issue.

Harlen Rashada’s quote has a very passive aggressive tone to it indicating that there are some issues behind the scenes that both parties don’t see eye-to-eye on.

Florida Football: Jumping the gun

So how does On3 screw up so badly and jump the gun on reporting the requested release and why did Hayes Fawcett sit on a DM for 45 minutes from Jaden himself debunking the report?

Because everyone involved is trying to use the media for leverage.

Rashada’s camp wants to be able to paint Florida football and the Gator Collective as weak. It is in their best interest to paint a picture that there was a deal on the table and Florida backed out.

Florida wants to be able to paint Rashada as greedy and someone that is asking for too much.

That doesn’t mean there is automatically ill will between the two parties. This is a high leverage business negotiation that just happens to be out in the public.

The problem is that in negotiating in public, neither side is coming out ahead. During the hour timeframe that we all thought Rashada had asked for his release, opinion on who to blame was split. One camp put the blame squarely on Scott Stricklin while the other put it squarely on Jaden.

If I had to speculate and guess, someone from within the Florida staff leaked to On3 that Rashada wanted out as a way to indicate that Florida is willing to walk away from the deal. In response, the Rashada camp leaked to Thompson the $13 million number as a way to indicate this way the deal on the table and Florida is pulling a bait and switch.

Keep in mind, it was heavily rumored when Rashada committed to Miami that he was leaving money on the table that Florida had offered.

In time the truth will come out. Until then, all we can do is sit back and hit that refresh button.