Will Grier, one of Florida's greatest what ifs, retires from football

When the name Will Grier comes up among Florida Gator fans, it brings out a lot of emotions and a lot of frustration about what might've been. 

Grier, who looked like the quarterback that the Gators had been searching for before things came crashing down, retired from the NFL on Wednesday. He was a journeyman in the league after being selected in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers. He started two games as a rookie and never took another snap in the league, but managed to collect a check for another six years, mostly playing on practice squads.

The story of Grier with the Gators is both a tragedy and a comedy, but mostly a tragedy because, for the first half of the 2015 season, he was the guy that Florida needed in the post-Tim Tebow era. With Grier at the helm, Jim McElwain looked like he was going to stick around in Gainesville for a while. Then it all came crashing down. A failed drug test and a year-long suspension turned hope into despair as a 6-0 start almost immediately turned into a season that could be best described as a missed opportunity.

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Will Grier could have been a Gators legend

Grier actually started the 2015 season backing up Treon Harris (remember him), but the redshirt freshman played half of the opener against New Mexico State and became the guy after that. The offense was hit or miss for a few weeks, but then the Tennessee game happened.

The magical pass to Antonio Callaway to shock the Vols got the Gators back into the top 25 ahead of a meeting against No. 3 Ole Miss at the Swamp. That would be Grier's finest performance. Four touchdown passes in the first half and a 38-10 whipping of Hugh Freeze's team of NIL mercenaries (that Ole Miss team was the blueprint for Texas Tech). 

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Two weeks later, the Gators were 6-0 and ranked No. 8 heading into Death Valley for a showdown against No. 6 LSU, but Grier was holding a tearful press conference. He wasn't injured, but he wasn't going to play for a while after testing positive for the drug Ligandrol. Grier said he didn't know it was banned, but he also didn't check with the Florida athletic trainers or medical staff. There were a lot of rumors that Grier's father was the big culprit behind his training and nutrition, but that's only a footnote in this story.

The Gators were good enough to make the SEC championship with Harris under center, but they lost to Alabama and the week prior they were on the wrong side of an embarrassing 27-2 loss to Florida State. The 41-7 loss to Michigan in the Citrus Bowl almost seemed like kicking a dog while he's down. 

Grier left the program after the season and transferred to West Virginia. He played exceptionally well as a Mountaineer, throwing for over 7,000 yards and 71 touchdowns with just 20 interceptions in two seasons. That just served to twist the knife further for Gator fans, who had a solid year in 2016 that ended with blowout losses to FSU and Alabama, again. One can only imagine if Florida had Grier for those games. Would the Gators have gotten the best of Saban's Tide to win the SEC? Would they have beaten those tough 'Noles under Jimbo Fisher? What about the CFP? And would McElwain's star have continued to rise?

As far as most Gator fans are concerned, Grier is a name best left in the past. There's been more than enough highs and lows since then to forget about the disappointments that Grier caused. But for six games in 2015, Gators football looked like a championship program again and Grier was a big reason for that. 

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