Tracking the wild recruitment of 2023 5-star QB Jaden Rashada

The drama doesn’t seem to end with Jaden Rashada, the five-star quarterback that sits atop Florida’s 2023 recruiting class. On Wednesday, Jan. 11, conflicting reports surfaced regarding Rashada’s enrollment at the university.

Of course, this isn’t Rashada’s first time on top of the national recruiting news bulletins. He famously, or perhaps infamously, chose Miami over Florida in June when he initially committed and then shocked the country by flipping to the Orange and Blue a month out from the early signing period.

That flip solidified Florida’s standing as a top recruiting program in the 2023 cycle, and getting Rashada to ink his national letter of intent on Dec. 21 was a big win for the program. It was supposed to signal the effective end of the cycle and relieve the team of any major recruiting drama over the next few months.

With that in mind, and Rashada’s status as the future of the Florida Gators in limbo, let’s take a look back at the wild rollercoaster of a timeline of this recruitment.

June 7, 2022: Rashada makes official visit to Florida

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The infamous Lamborghini photo shoot took place the day Rashada visited Florida, but the five-star signal caller took favor to Florida during that trip and NIL was certainly a factor. His trip to the Swamp capped off a six-day, three-school official visit tour and put Florida on top of the pile ahead of his June 24 commitment.

June 16, 2022: Rashada pushes back commitment date

After Florida fans got comfortable with Rashada as the future of the program, rumblings or a Miami visit started up some drama. He’d end up pushing back his decision two days, which conveniently allowed Miami to get him on campus for a final official visit.

June 21, 2022: Rashada makes official visit to Miami

Just ahead of his June 26 commitment date, Rashada added Miami to his list of official visits, and the last word is often the most impactful for high school seniors. At the time, the Gators were viewed as the heavy favorites to land the Pittsburg quarterback, and Miami was a distant third favorite behind UF and Texas A&M. This official visit vaulted the Hurricanes to the top of the On3 recruiting prediction machine.

June 26, 2022: Rashada commits to Miami over Florida

They say where there’s smoke there’s fire, and the old adage rang true for Rashada in what many believed would be the most exciting part of his recruitment: the commitment. Miami had done the unthinkable and delivered a gut punch to its in-state rival by stealing the future of the school’s quarterback spot.

It was deflating (to put things lightly), and Gator Nation took a while to recover.

Nov. 11, 2022: Florida flips Rashada

Florida never really bowed out of the recruiting race after Miami earned an initial commitment from Rashada. Name, image and likeness is a big part of Rashada’s future at the college level and if there were one player Florida would go toe-to-toe with Miami it was him. Although nothing has been explicitly stated, it’s well accepted that Florida and Miami fought this one out with a checkbook behind the scenes.

The Gators made things work and flipped the quarterback they wanted from Miami, making the commitment that much sweeter.

Dec. 21, 2022: Rashada signs early with Gators

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Although it took a while, Rashada officially signed his letter of intent to close out a strong early signing period for the Gators. Napier’s press conference was delayed an hour to get the quarterback’s letter in and add him to the list of signees, relieving Gator Nation of any last-minute drama (like Miami with Cormani McClain)… or so we thought.

Jan. 10, 2023: Rashada doesn't enroll in classes or move in on time

Concerning news regarding Rashada broke the Tuesday after Florida’s early enrollees were expected to join the program. Jacob Rudner of 247Sports reported that the five-star signee had yet to enroll at the university nor had he moved in as the rest of the team’s early enrollees did earlier in the week.

The good news was Rashada was listed on the student directory, but that does not mean he was enrolled at the university. The expectation at the time of this report was that Rashada would “arrive on campus this week;” however, other sources could not confirm that with Rudner.

Jan. 11, 2023: On3 reports Rashada asking for release from NLI

On3’s Pete Nakos reported that Rashada spoke with Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin Wednesday and requested his release from his national letter of intent, stunning the college football world for a second (maybe third) time.

Nakos reported that a “slew of NIL missteps in recent weeks” was responsible for the dramatic move. That’s concerning for Florida’s reputation on the recruiting market, but the good news is that it might not be true.

Jan. 11, 2023: Rashada's father refutes release report

Hours after that initial report broke, Rashada’s father caught up with  Brandon Huffman of 247Sports to refute any sort of release being requested by his son. The Athletic’s G. Allan Taylor seconded that report.

Gators Online backtracked its parent site’s report that Rashada spoke to Stricklin Wednesday. The correction says the last time the two spoke directly was during Rashada’s visit for the South Carolina game after committing.

Rashada’s father elaborated on his son’s situation, saying that they were hopeful to get things done by the end of the week.

“We’re in constant talks with Florida in regards to his enrollment, but I’d like to think if he’s not enrolled by Friday there will be some challenges there to proceed as planned…”

“… We’re working through some things right now with Florida and hoping that they get resolved soon,” Harlen Rashada said. “Jaden has been excited about the next chapter of his academic and athletic career and is eagerly anticipating early enrollment in Gainesville.”

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Whenever the next exciting move in this story happens, Gators Wire will update this list

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Story originally appeared on Gators Wire