Late Night Shocker: Jaden Rashada flips commit from Miami to Florida
The Miami Hurricanes have had steady visits this fall from most of the players on their 2023 commitment list. Quarterback Jaden Rashada has been conspicuous with his absence.
Early Friday morning we found out why.
In a tweet, Rashada announced that he was flipping his commit from Miami to Florida. His decommitment now leaves Emory Williams as the lone quarterback commitment in the 2023 class.
“Over the past few months, I’ve been weighing my options heavily… I have dreamed of playing SEC since I was a little kid,” Rashada said in his note announcing the move. “After a lot of prayer, conversations with my family and those close to me, I have decided to change my commitment and play for the University of Florida.”
Rashada committed to Miami over Florida in June, but the Gators quietly kept recruiting the talented signal caller out of Pittsburg (Calif.) He is the No. 61 prospect in the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He ranks as the nation’s No. 7 quarterback and the No. 6 senior recruit in the state of California.
NIL was believed to be a big driver with Rashada and he had been close to initially picking Florida in the first go-around but reportedly was spooked by reports that Florida was not honoring some of its NIL commitments. His early Friday morning flip is a clear signal that he no longer has those concerns.
In fact, one of the first to congratulate him was LifeWallet CEO John Ruiz who had planned a NIL relationship with Rashada.
After Rashada committed to Miami, rumors began to spread of a massive NIL deal with LifeWallet, which is legal because Rashada is in California.
But his agent, California-based Michael Caspino with Forward Counsel in Newport Beach, Calif., said Rashada took a “considerably lesser NIL deal” by picking the Hurricanes.
Caspino has built a reputation as the NIL lawyer representing many top football and basketball prospects.
“Jaden left millions on the table,” Caspino told On3 at the time. “Millions. He did not pick the highest offer. He went there because he loves Miami, the coaches, and the opportunity.”
Caspino also ripped into the Gators collective at the time.
“Florida is the most dysfunctional collective in all of college football,” Caspino said. “I plan on steering my clients away from them. From my standpoint, I never ever want to deal with them again. If it weren’t for the collective that’s completely dysfunctional at Florida, he probably would have been there.”
Obviously something changed and the Gator collective made a comeback.
Rashada had taken his official visit to Florida back in June, and he’s now expected to take an unofficial visit to UF this weekend.
Rashada’s decommitment leaves Miami with one commitment in this class, Emory Williams. And the future at quarterback is unclear with Tyler Van Dyke currently injured and rumors swirling he may enter the transfer portal after the season. It’s also believed Jake Garcia will enter the portal after his struggles this year. If both do indeed leave, then as of now it would just be current freshman Jacurri Brown and Williams that would be scholarship QBs next year (with the assumption Peyton Matocha will not be back, either). So there is work that needs to be done on the QB front by Mario Cristobal & Co. either with some new recruiting names or in the portal.
Rashada is far from the first QB to decommit from a Miami program. The list includes Artur Sitkowski in 2018, N’Kosi Perry in 2017 (wound up recommitting and signing) and Todd Centeio that year as well, Dwayne Lawson in 2015, Alin Edouard in 2014 and Teddy Bridgewater in 2011.
