I doubt that's what happened. But I DO assume that whatever money Ruiz paid upfront had to be returned to him. And I'm guessing that came from our collective (therefore Ruiz's comments that he couldn't discuss). And if that is true, it would sicken me as a donor, knowing that some of my money ended up in Ruiz's slimy hands. Everything about NIL sucks, IMO. The ACTUAL NIL, not the theoretical version (which I have no qualms about).
So many red flags with Rashada from day one. He commits to Miami immediately after saying how much he was in love with UF. We see emails from Ruiz about stealing him from us. Rumors start floating around about huge nil amounts. Then after getting involved with a high profile uf nil representative he flips to the gators. Then on signing day he is extremely late to send in his LOI. Then he doesn’t show up for classes. I would say it’s likely the kid is getting extremely bad advice but either way we don’t need this drama or headache.
Is it possible that Napier, the UAA, and the university prevented Rashada from enrolling once they found out that he had signed some agreement with Ruiz/Miami NLI? Apparently the third party with UF interests pulled his NIL offer on Dec 7. If you had offered a player a contract for $7 million and then they revealed to you that they had signed with someone else prior, you would be pretty pissed that you were on the hook for an additional $6 million. Perhaps this is the “UF doesn’t have the money to cover” situation Ruiz was referring to. The third party may have been willing to pay the 7, but not the 13. We are operating under the assumption that the third party with UF interests had all the facts when they made their offer. If the Rashada’s did not reveal what had transpired prior, that would be a pretty good reason to rescind an offer. Do not forget that Chris Doering has been pretty adamant about defending the third party saying they are not in the wrong in this fiasco. Onto Napier, the UAA, and the university. Rashada signs his LOI, but doesn’t tell them about all the things mentioned above. All of a sudden that comes to light and UF puts a full stop on this. We know that if Rashada enrolls we may be on the hook for that money somehow, or Ruiz then comes after Rashada suing for breach of contract. It is a situation you don’t wanna touch with a 10 foot pole. Still can’t bring the dirty laundry out in public as perception and future recruiting suffer greatly. So we release Rashada from LOI. Or we refuse to cover the $ Ruiz is owed, therefore prompting Rashada to ask for a release from his LOI. Same end result. Napier doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who would allow a situation like this into his program, even if it costs him the crown jewel of his recruiting class. It goes against the change in culture he is trying to institute. I’m not an attorney, but if I was on the UF legal team my advice to UF would be cut ties and don’t touch this. I have no inside info on the situation. But that is the conclusion I have arrived at. We’ve touched on the possibility that the Rashadas are greedy and money hungry. We haven’t touched on the possibiliy that they may have made a mistake by signing a contract with Ruiz/Miami NLI and then failed to disclose that to everyone else. To me that seems like an extremely plausible scenario.
Talk about bad QB luck. You have a first year starter who departs for the NFL, a backup who is released for child porn, and both new QB recruits don’t enroll, one for social media posts singing the N word and the other for inability to come to a NIL agreement. Other QBs on roster depart before season even starts to Syracuse and ASU. A top rated QB decommits last year for OU. We now have a starter “Ethel and Fred” Mertz, a backup that had a hand injury and only played in the Bowl game leading the O to 3 points and another backup that is going to play baseball as well taking off season time away from QB. We have Lagway two years away but long time to change mind and Evers, Rashada and Stokes don’t suggest sure thing. Note: This has been going on a long time. Mullen passed on Corral who then decommits and went to Ole Miss. corral is in a NFL roster. Muschamp has two QBs transfer to other programs to start that are still both playing in the NFL. Even Mac had Grier who went on to star at another college and initially make a NFL roster after draft. Even Franks transfers and makes a NFL team as a TE. Since Tebow, only Trask has graduated from UF and made a NFL roster
The process was ugly, but I'm glad the way it turned out. I think Lagway is a better prospect, much more of a Gator at heart and the future for UF. So, I'm not sure Rashada would have ever started for UF. It would have been nice to have both but I think banking Rashada's NIL money for next year was a blessing. Plus, not a fan Rashada's handlers.
I’m still pissed we offered 7 million to a high school qb, that may or may not work out in college. Hate this NIL era.
That may have been in reaction to the $6 million Miami offered. One of those “hate to do it but I guess we have to” scenarios. Then when it was revealed the third party would be on the hook for another 6 all hell broke loose.
I think this is as close to the whole truth as we will get. I think there have been negotiations on going to get a release from Life Wallet that never would happen. UF did absolutely the right thing and not disparaging a recruits parents is the best course of action.
Very amusing 6 mil for 7 mil scenario someone made up. It would be so refreshing if someone around here actually cited a source that wasn't just repeating someone else's rumors. But you know why that has not happened?? Because nobody can. The folks who know have not said a word. Maybe they will some day but to date it has not happened. Instead there is just alot of bull being spread around. Still funny though. I just hope nobody on here seriously thinks any of it is accurate.
This scenario, which floated on reddit, also sounds more plausible than an outright 13 million (he is not 5 mil better than Tenn's recruit). It again makes Heitner/Ruiz the villains. Who lets their client sign an NIL with no out for non enrollment when another similar offer is out there keeping the kid on the hook?
There is zero chance of 6, 7, 13 mill. Ruiz the slimeball even confirmed that. These kind of things perpetuate the fake news, yet people still latch on to it as gospel somehow. Does this give UF a black eye, to our rival fans sure, but I bet the recruits out there have a much better grasp of the true dollar amounts. The fact that someone backed out somewhere may be a small issue depending on who it was, but I suspect it will not be as bad an omen as most seem to think.
Wonder what Colorado's deal with CM looks like. They obviously aren't afraid of getting sued by Ruiz.
A 3rd party entity aligned with UF will likely be the only one that ever had to pay Ruiz U off though. I’m sure he very much appreciates everyone here that contributed $$$ that went to him. Let this sink in a bit, in order to flip & sign a player, first you had to payoff the slimiest NIL (wink-wink) sugar daddy in the business. This is like the mafia now, mind boggling absurdity!
Facts: 1. Ruiz hates UF (no big deal I hate FSU). 2. Ruiz has publicly said Miami has the best NLI program in country and is ahead of everyone else. 3. Ruiz has publicly stated that the third parties with UF interests cannot pay the money they are “promising.” 4. We have only heard/read about the NLI deals of two Miami recruits in the 2023 cycle, Rashada and Cormani, who were also big UF targets that our staff really wanted. We haven’t seen anything written about NLI deals for their other 5-stars. Hmmmmmmm. So it seems that Ruiz’s MO is to rush to get an NLI contract in place with the recruits that UF-Miami are head to head and everyone knows UF really wants. And of course those contracts have clauses that place the recruit/future third parties making offers/future colleges where they sign on the hook for certain financial amounts. Ruiz is an attorney after all. He has bragged openly about having the best and most advanced NIL program. It seems the problem stems from recruits signing NIL deals before they sign their National Letters of Intent. And what better way to accomplish this than to flash money to impressionable young men. This is of course when the NCAA should step in and prohibit signing NIL deals before a recruit is actually enrolled and on campus. But we all know multiple lawsuits and years of litigation will eventually defeat this. Anyone else agree with this?
But if Ruiz paid up front $$ to JR or his peeps, why wouldn’t they refund the cash for a breach of the agreement? Why would UF folks’ $$ be part of a refund? Funny - when I typed in “peeps” my phone autocorrected to “perps”…might not be far from the truth.
Because I doubt they stuck it in a checking account somewhere. I'm sure it was already spent! And if the scenario above happened, isn't that an NCAA violation for him or his family to have received ANYTHING prior to enrollment.
Along the same lines why are they signing NLI agreements before signing letters of intent? It seems Ruiz is exploiting that.
I hope it's a transitory issue that fades away in a relatively short time too. But it's hard to deny that the BS factor in this whole mess is off the charts. I'm definitely ready to move on.
I’d love to see UF sue the living shit out of these “news” sites for libel. Unfortunately there’s no winning a battle with the crooked dishonest monster called media. You may win a battle but get destroyed in the end because they operate with no conscience and no boundaries. They freaking run the country
