Gene Frenette: Jaden Rashada flip-flopping with Gators shows NIL downside

The Jaden Rashada flip-flopping saga with Florida was almost like a time bomb waiting to go off.

When NIL (name, image, likeness) deals between school collectives and high-profile athletes began triggering reports of expected payoffs in the millions of dollars — especially to quarterbacks recruited or signed to Power-5 programs itching to be nationally relevant — you knew trouble was on the horizon.

Some high-profile recruit not named Arch Manning was bound to cry foul or second-guess his commitment to a school, exposing the flaws in a legal pay-for-play process that invited problems by not having any NCAA guardrails.

It appears Rashada, the No. 7 quarterback prospect in the country from Pittsburg, California, just happened to be among the first big ones to go rogue.

This week, the Rashada back-and-forth on where he ends up playing college football officially rose to “Twilight Zone” level.

Gene's previous 3 columns:

Set for the 2020s:For next decade, Trevor Lawrence must conquer elite AFC quarterbacks

Growing stability:Jaguars have best shot among Florida NFL teams to sustain winning

Claiming the thrown:Jaguars dance the night away, stealing AFC South title from Titans

He initially leaned a while back toward coming to Florida, then made a somewhat surprising commitment to Miami. After months of controversy involving some pointed public comments by the quarterback’s agent, everything appeared settled last month when Rashada finally signed with the Gators.

All that disintegrated into another soap opera chapter this week when a report by On3 Sports revealed Rashada had requested a release from his UF letter of intent, which Rashada’s father denied in an interview with 247Sports.

Edgar Thompson, a longtime Florida beat writer for the Orlando Sentinel, reported Wednesday the firestorm was triggered by Rashada’s alleged $13 million deal with Gator Collective collapsing, which threatened to fracture the relationship between UF and its top recruit in the 2023 class.

That number sounds patently absurd to give any athlete, but nobody at Florida has refuted the story, which may indicate the collective may have been trying to write checks it wasn’t prepared to cash. Who knows what goes on behind the scenes of some deals these coveted prospects are landing.

How all this gets resolved is anybody’s guess. As of Friday, Rashada still hadn't enrolled for classes on the last day for him to be eligible to participate in spring practice. Florida coach Billy Napier should now be questioning whether he wants Rashada leading his program, even if the Gators don’t have a quality option at quarterback between Jack Miller (he looked overmatched in the 30-3 bowl loss to Oregon State) and Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz.

But wasn’t this the downside all along of devising a system that placed no limits on what players might make off NIL? Did anyone not think that agreeing to pay 18-year-old kids millions of dollars before they even throw a football or dunk a basketball in college would be a recipe for disaster?

It’s not like Rashada is held in the same regard as Manning or Trevor Lawrence coming out of high school. He’s a 5-star prospect with supposedly great potential, which makes him no different than dozens of other blue-chip recruits who are nowhere near a sure thing.

Whether Florida messed up by promising the kid something it couldn’t deliver, or other unknown factors have put Rashada’s future with the Gators in question, it seems a level of trust of has been broken that might not be able to get repaired. Or considering how this bizarre story has unfolded, maybe everything somehow gets resolved and Rashada suits up in orange and blue.

What’s not in dispute is that for all the benefits of NIL allowing athletes to be legally paid, to get a piece of a billion-dollar industry everybody insisted was overdue, a negative, unintended consequence was bound to emerge.

Maybe some good will come out of this Rashada mess. Like coaches, athletic directors, boosters and college administrations showing some restraint when it comes to doling out NIL money, because the toothless NCAA sure isn’t putting any common-sense parameters on a system that’s already showing signs of cracking.

There’s one big problem about fixing it: the toothpaste is out of the tube.

COY voting wide open race 

As more praise gets heaped on Doug Pederson for leading an extraordinarily quick turnaround of the Jaguars’ franchise, momentum continues to build for his case as NFL Coach of the Year.

With the 9-8 Jaguars winning their last five games to capture the AFC South and get into the playoffs, the job Pederson did in leading a recovery from the Urban Meyer dumpster fire is getting a lot of attention.

Hall of Fame coach and NBC analyst Tony Dungy, one of 50 voters for the Associated Press award, told me he considered Kyle Shanahan (San Francisco 49ers), Dan Campbell (Detroit Lions) and Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers) before casting his vote for Pederson.

“Given the state of the [Jaguars] team at this point last year, I felt Doug deserved it,” Dungy said via text.

This year’s COY race looks like a Kentucky Derby field in which there’s no clear favorite, but seven or eight horses capable of crossing the finish line first.

Pederson winning would be a Jaguars breakthrough. Since the award began in 1957, the Jaguars are one of six franchises (Houston, New York Jets, Kansas City, Tampa Bay and Las Vegas) to not have a Coach of the Year recipient.

When Tom Coughlin led the Jaguars to an NFL-best 14-2 record in 1999, he finished fourth in the voting behind Dick Vermeil, Jim Mora and division rival Jeff Fisher (Tennessee Titans). The best COY showing by a Jaguars’ coach is Doug Marrone (2017) and Jack Del Rio (2007), both finishing third.

This year’s winner will be announced at the NFL Honors program on Feb. 9.

Jaguars Playoff trivia 

Who are the only two players on the Jaguars’ 53-man roster to score a postseason touchdown? Hint: One of the TDs was scored by a player who has playoff experience at TIAA Bank Field. Answer at bottom.

Saban gets Bulldogged 

During an incredibly boring 65-7 rout for Georgia over TCU in the CFP national championship game, the best television moment came at halftime. That's when Alabama coach Nick Saban found himself squirming on the ESPN set listening to former Georgia linebacker David Pollack, seated right next to him, singing his alma mater’s praises.

“We love the Cinderella story and we love when this comes about, but this isn’t really the Cinderella ending,” Pollack said while looking at Saban during his commentary. “Georgia, obviously, we’ve seen from the past couple seasons now, really, they’ve taken hold of college football. Unbelievable job. This is a young football team.”

You could almost feel a subdued Saban wanting to jump out of his chair and go full MMA on Pollack. It was a gold TV moment and, boy, did that ever go viral on social media. You can bet it’ll be replayed hundreds of times next season if either Georgia or ‘Bama is in the national title game. Gee, you don't suppose Saban would use that clip as motivational fuel next season with his players?

Kentucky hoops going south 

There was a time when Kentucky coach John Calipari was like a basketball mafia king whose program many believed would dominate college hoops for as long as he stayed there.

Well, Big Blue is feeling just that right now. The Wildcats have slipped to 10-6 overall without any Quad 1 wins and are 1-3 in the SEC going into Saturday’s road game against No. 5 Tennessee.

Kentucky now being a borderline tournament team — after it went 9-16 two years ago and lost in the first round of the NCAAs to St. Peter’s last season — has everybody around Lexington losing their minds.

A team that features one of the country’s best players, Oscar Tshiebwe, and Cason Wallace is in a four-way tie for 10^th place in the SEC. There’s plenty of time for the ‘Cats to right the ship. But things have veered way off course and Calipari, whose future at Kentucky has become a real talking point, is struggling to find answers.

Trivia Answer 

Cornerback Darious Williams, during the first of his six playoff games for the Los Angeles Rams, had a 42-yard interception return for a TD against quarterback Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks in a 30-20 victory in 2020. Wide receiver Zay Jones caught a 14-yard TD for the Las Vegas Raiders last season in a 26-19 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Jones’ first playoff game came in 2017 for the Buffalo Bills when he had two catches for 20 yards in a 10-3 loss to the Jaguars at TIAA Bank Field.

Cowboys’ officiating crew returns 

The NFL does not allow first-year officials to work the postseason, which is probably a good thing for the Jaguars. They drew first-year referee Tra Blake and his officiating crew twice this season against the Washington Commanders and New York Giants, getting hit with a season-high 13 penalties, the only games in which the Jaguars reached double-digit flags.

The referee for Saturday’s Chargers matchup will be Shawn Smith, who also worked the Jaguars’ 40-34 overtime win over Dallas that saw Pederson’s team hit with just four flags for 37 yards. Two officials who worked on Smith’s crew that day, line judge Michael Dolce and replay official Mike Wimmer, will be in those roles for the Chargers game.

Pigskin forecast 

Jaguars over Los Angeles Chargers by 11 (gunslinger bullets); Cincinnati Bengals over Baltimore Ravens by 7 (LSU pass-catch connections); Dallas Cowboys over Tampa Bay Buccaneers by 4 (Tom Brady exit strategies); Buffalo Bills over Miami Dolphins by 13 (Damar Hamlin FaceTime messages); New York Giants over Minnesota Vikings by 1 (Saquon Barkley pile-push). Last week: 4 right, 1 Quay Walker athletic trainer shove.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Flip-flopping Gators QB Jaden Rashada shows downside of NIL paying big money