As if deflating on-field results were not enough for Billy Napier, the Florida Gators and their third-year coach are now in a lawsuit for damages via Georgia quarterback and former program signee Jaden Rashada. Gators booster Hugh Hathcock and former football staffer Marcus Castro-Walker are also at the heart of the NIL deal gone bad, which was agreed upon to pay Rashada $13.85 million as Florida’s crown jewel of its 2023 signing class.
Rashada, who asked out of his LOI after the Early Signing Period and eventually wound up at Arizona State, now becomes “the face of the chaotic nature of early NIL“ that was full of big promises with little oversight, as reported by John Talty of CBS Sports.
The situation for Napier and the Gators appears untenable according to the lawsuit, which indicates several prominent figures within Florida football “orchestrated and executed a fraud” upon Rashada, a former four-star signal caller rated the sixth-best player at his position in his recruiting cycle. Rashada was supposed to be the player Napier built the early-portion of his tenure around, but now, he’s leading an unprecedented lawsuit as a sitting SEC quarterback playing for a rival with damages to collect.