Wow, this guy nails it! I still think it was Grier's dad's tweet :mrgreen: !
From the beginning, something just didn't feel right about the Will Grier saga. Even from the beginning. And now, with the quarterback planning to transfer from Florida, the story ends just after it started.
The transfer, no doubt, will be related to Grier's much-publicized 12-game suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. That suspension cost him half the 2015 season and will cost him at least six more games, wherever and whenever he lands. My guess is Grier will say he just needed a fresh start, that the attention the suspension drew, and the accompanying scrutiny, were just too much to overcome. That part I get.
Yet there is so much about his brief tenure I didn't get. Such as:
* Grier and Treon Harris came in together, but Grier had a head start, enrolling early. Still, somehow, in the fall of 2014, coach Will Muschamp and offensive coordinator Kurt Roper decided Harris was more ready than Grier to be the backup to Jeff Driskel. Part of that was that Grier had a minor back injury. Part was that he faced small-school opponents in high school while Harris was facing big-time high school talent. Still, after seeing what I have from both, how in the world was Harris ever ahead?
* This season, it was clear that Grier was much better, that Harris really struggled trying to run Jim McElwain's pro-style offense. Yet, throughout fall camp, we were often told how close the competition was; so much so that Harris actually started the opener.
* Grier became the starter after that and played more in the second game, but you got the feeling that McElwain almost begrudgingly made that decision. It just seemed like something bugged him about his quarterback.
* When Grier evolved into the full-time starter by the Kentucky game, you couldn't help but notice that McElwain was terse and matter of fact when discussing him in news conferences. He rarely called him by name and seemed to point out the mistakes more than give Grier credit individually. A common narrative developed that McElwain always had been like that with his quarterbacks, but it felt like there was more to it than that. And he was much more complimentary of Harris when he became the fulltime starter.
* Then Grier gets popped for performance-enhancing drugs. Who in college sports ever gets suspended for that? NFL players often get four-game suspensions for it. Major League Baseball Players get 50- and 100-game bans. But college guys? Almost never. Grier says it was from taking an over-the-counter supplement. I have no reason not to believe him, but it is one of the strangest suspensions I have seen in more than 35 years of covering this stuff.
* After the suspension, McElwain reportedly asked Grier to stay away from the team rather than practice with them. He could have been the best scout-team quarterback going, particularly when the Gators were set to face dropback passers in FSU's Sean Maguire and Alabama's Jake Coker. But the coach reportedly didn't want him around.
* Then, just a few days ago, McElwain announced Grier would rejoin the team January 5 and would be full go. During that announcement, McElwain sounded supportive; he also seemed sad for Grier because he had had to undergo such scrutiny and seemed appreciative of how Grier had handled it. He said knowing how hard it was on Grier made him "sick to my stomach." It was the first sign, at least to me, that the coach and quarterback were on the same page. It's almost as if there was a newfound respect.
* Then, suddenly, the saga ends with a transfer. Odd. Grier's quickest trip back to the playing field would be staying at Florida, in an offense he knows, with the competition coming from only the overmatched Harris, a transfer (Luke Del Rio) who has thrown all of 18 college passes and two true freshmen. Now, if he goes to another FBS school, he has to sit out the 2016 season, then serve the six-game suspension. Only if he goes down a level or to a junior college can he play without sitting out the full year.
Yes, I've seen plenty of cases like this, where a guy just needs a new start. Actually, that was the case with Jeff Driskel, who, in retrospect, would have been a terrific fit for McElwain's offense but had had enough ups and downs that he believed he needed a fresh start. Apparently, Grier feels the same way.
Clearly, there could be far more to the story. Maybe Grier was a bit entitled, causing his coach to sound a little more harsh when talking about him. And maybe Grier grew up a great deal through it all and caused his coach to truly appreciate how he matured and handled it. That is what I thought.
Until this.
