Marcus Stokes is nearing the redemption arc few Florida fans saw coming

If someone had told Gator fans back in 2022 that Marcus Stokes was going to be a D1 starting QB in 2026 and Jaden Rashada would not, there would have been a ton of trolling comments left calling that person an idiot who didn’t know ball.

The journey for neither QB has been smooth, but it looks like the “other” QB from Florida’s class of 2023 is ready to complete his redemption arc faster than Rashada completed his.

Former Gator commit Marcus Stokes on the verge of being the starter for Memphis

It went viral from the X account College Transfer Portal that Marcus Stokes was going to be named the starting QB for Memphis after beating out Air Norland for the job.

It should be noted that, as of this writing, there isn’t much else out there to confirm this as Memphis head coach Charles Huff is trying to delay naming a QB1 as long as he can before taking on UNLV this Saturday.

Brad Crawford of 247 did tweet out on Thursday that Stokes had won the job, only to take it down three hours later. Bud Elliott of CBS Sports didn't confirm the report, but he said it is in line with what he has predicted.

For Gator fans who don’t follow the ins and outs of recruiting, Stokes was a four-star prospect out of Ponte Vedra Beach from Nease High School, the home of Tim Tebow, who committed to Penn State in April of 2022. He flipped that commitment to Florida in July of 2022, even as the Gators were still pursuing Rashada despite his own commitment to Miami at the time.

Rashada would flip to Florida on November 10, 2022, giving Florida two QBs for the class of 2023. Ten days later, Stokes had to decommit from Florida after his offer was pulled. A video had circulated of Stokes rapping in his car, and in the course of repeating the lyrics word for word, he repeated some lyrics that contained the n-word.

As we know, Rashada never made it to campus either, after a very public NIL dispute.

Marcus Stokes kept grinding after losing Florida offer

It’s at this point we want to repeat what we have said about Stokes every time he comes up:

It’s fair if one wants to argue that the denotation of what Stokes said, even if it’s just repeating a lyric, carries a dark and ugly history to it. The reason why the word is still considered off-limits for people like Stokes is because of how the word was, and in some cases still is, used to dehumanize people of color.

It’s also obvious from the video that the connotation of how Stokes was using the word had zero malice or intent behind it. He wasn’t raging at someone, dehumanizing anyone, or trying to provoke a fight. He was 17 at the time of the video, simply rapping along in his car to a song countless others have done.

With pretty much every Power Four school already locked up at QB, combined with a down year his senior year of high school and the controversy from the video, Stokes wound up committing to the University of West Florida at the D2 level (though UWF is playing FCS this year).

Stokes didn’t take his new home as exile; he simply went to work and threw for over 3,000 yards in 2025 en route to being a Harlon Hill Finalist, given to the best D2 player in the country.

He transferred to Memphis this offseason, but many assumed that Air Norland, a highly rated four-star from the class of 2024, had the inside track. 

But if these reports wind up being true, Stokes will have completed his journey back from exile to be a starting QB in 2026. And if you're keeping score at home, Rashada is currently at Mississippi State, the 6th school he's committed to at some point and the 4th team he's physically been on in the last four years.

No one could have predicted any of that back in November of 2022.

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