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College Football

NFL Draft stirs up Florida fans over Jim McElwain, Will Grier

Andrew Olson

By Andrew Olson

Published:

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A Florida transfer quarterback is off to the Carolina Panthers. It’s a familiar story for Gator Nation. The Panthers selected Will Grier with the No. 100 overall pick this weekend. He’ll be the backup to Cam Newton, another highly successful quarterback who signed at UF but finished his college career elsewhere.

As you might expect, this reopened some old wounds for Gators fans. Fan site In All Kinds of Weather shared a video showing Grier and coach Jim McElwain at the press conference announcing the then-Florida quarterback’s suspension for a positive drug test followed by a clip of Grier saying he “loved Gainesville” and didn’t want to transfer, but was encouraged by McElwain to leave UF. The accompanying tweet directs the middle finger emoji at McElwain.

The video got the attention of former Florida safety Ahmad Black who called McElwain “wild” for his handling of the situation.

Over the years, Florida fans have wondered “what if?” (and who can blame them?) Newton and Grier had completed their careers with the Gators. In addition to Newton and Grier, quarterbacks Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett both transferred out of the program and went on to make NFL rosters.

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.

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