The [autotag]Jaden Rashada[/autotag] saga continues as the one-time Florida football commit has entered the NCAA transfer portal for the second time in his young collegiate career, leaving the Georgia Bulldogs after one season.
Gator fans likely recognize the name from the 2023 recruiting cycle, when the four-star recruit out of Pittsburg (California) initially committed to [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] and Co., only to back out of the agreement over a failed four-year, $13.85 million NIL deal. Instead, Rashada chose the Arizona State Sun Devils as his initial destination and filed a lawsuit against Napier and others.
“It was a pretty crazy point in my life,” he said at the time. “But, man, sometimes all you have is your faith, and you’ve just got to trust God and whatever he has planned for you.”
Rashada’s years at Arizona State, Georgia
In three games for the Sun Devils as a true freshman, Rashada completed 44 of 82 passes for 485 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions while facing intense scrutiny stretching from the drama of the previous offseason. Subsequently, he chose to enter the transfer portal and landed with the Bulldogs for the 2024 campaign.
This past fall in Athens, Rashada did not see any playing time, but the change of scenery appears to have helped… according to him, at least.
“I think I needed this place a lot right now in my life,” Rashada said ahead of this year’s Sugar Bowl. “I needed Georgia specifically.”
Now, he will once again seek greener pastures through college football’s de facto free agency system. But even after moving on to his third school, Rashada will still have some heavy baggage to tug along.
Ongoing lawsuit against Napier, et al
The litigation stems from an offer made by UF to lure Rashada away from the Miami Hurricanes with a $13.85 million NIL deal after UM promised him $9.5 million to sign with them — which would be a violation of NCAA bylaws if true.
It is alleged in Rashada’s lawsuit that Napier along with Florida booster/automotive technology businessman Hugh Hathcock and former director of player engagement Marcus Castro-Walker made “false and fraudulent promises” to coerce him to sign with the Gators during the 2023 recruiting cycle.
Napier’s attorney, Henry Coxe III of the Bedell Firm in Jacksonville, Florida, argued in a 29-page response that facts are “sorely lacking from the complaint.”
“Nothing alleged in the complaint supports the notion that Napier participated in any wrongdoing,” Coxe opens. “Nowhere does the complaint adequately allege, for example, that Napier knew about whatever occurred between Rashada, his ‘NIL agents’ and the Gator Collective, LLC.
“In fact, the complaint makes clear that Napier could not have defrauded Rashada, since the sole statement attributed to Napier is alleged to have been made after Rashada had already abandoned the Miami NIL deal.”
The case faced an ironic twist in November when Castro-Walker’s attorney filed a motion to withdraw citing nonpayment of fees in a separate filing on his behalf.
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