It’s common practice for the school to release an athlete from their LOI if requested. We released both a basketball and football player just last year. We also took at least one (other than Liv) that was released from another school.
Most kids post their camp photos even though they haven't committed. Here is a 2026 kid I'll lay money we will offer her on September 1. Both Tim and Francesca are following her and when Francesca gets in the mix it indicates to me a very high interest. Her name is Reese Mosolino. She is a 6'1" right handed pitcher from Crystal Lake, IL who plays for Indiana Magic Gold Bennet/Goddard 16U. She posted a stream of her camp photos. x.com
The only way it could have happened is if Ole Miss agreed to release her from the NLI or if she made an appeal to the National NLI Board, which I don't think happened.
She didn’t have to appeal. Nobody is denying these requests. The LOI is a meaningless piece of paper these days. Nobody is tied down until they’re attending classes anymore. Even then they aren’t tied down for long, they just have to go through a different process to move on.
Here's what I think happened with Olivia. I do not know one single word of this as fact other than Olivia was a die-hard Gator fan her entire life. I don't know if we recruited her at all from high school but I highly doubt we offered her or she would have been on the first train to Gainesville. In the summer of 2023 everyone knew we were in a world of hurt in the pitching department. Technically, in July when she jumped, we had no pitchers on staff as Keagan and Ava had not yet enrolled. Plus, at the time both Keagan and Ava were nursing injuries. Somehow, Olivia had a feeling or belief that if she could get out of her NLI with Ole Miss that she would be welcome to come to UF. And the rest is history.
My guess is there was some folks talking behind the scenes before she asked to be released. She knew where she was headed, and knew she had a spot before submitting the request.
Here's another 2026 I have added to my list. Both Tim and Francesca are watching. Kelsey Donaldson is a two-way left handed pitcher and hitter out of Pecular, MO. She has camped with us. She plays for Top Gun-Sciarra. x.com
I'm not sure how twitter works but I'll take a guess. It makes no sense that in some circumstances Francesca also jumps in with Tim and follows a kid. I have never seen Thomas or Dobbins do it. I know Thomas' account is private and without double checking I think her account is also. Makes no sense that Tim and Francesca would be showing interest in a pitcher but not the pitching coach. If it is a private account, I'm guessing she probably gives access to the pitchers she is interested in and they know it but the public doesn't.
Yep, you can be about a personally involved as you want in this stuff nowadays. Maybe she’s just not sure how to structure the contract. There’s a template on the football board for a 13 million dollar deal if anyone just needs some help with how to word it.
My best guess is we are going to find out that Napier nixed the whole deal once he found out about it. The whole thing was a boondoggle from start to finish. Supposedly the idiots running the previous collective cobbled together something on a piece of paper for 13 million in order to top Miami's 9 million. Apparently, what they wrote doesn't even qualify as a legal contract because it included that either party could back out without cause. He is not suing for breach of contract because, as per Contract 101, there wasn't one. I think at that point Napier found out about it and told them no way in any universe should we be paying that kind of money for this kid, who ended up sitting on the bench at Arizona State before transferring to UGA to sit on that bench. I don't remember the exact legal strategy he is using in this suit. Something like fraudulent inducement or something like that. He sued Napier and the former idiots at the previous collective. I'll bet Napier comes out of this with no problems. And, fortunately, that was the end of the previous collective and Florida Victorious was created with people that at least have a tiny idea what they are doing.
The alleged contract is posted if you’d like to read it. It’s written about like I had envisioned. The posted contract is only signed by the Rashada side though, so you don’t really know if that document is the original, if it’s a counter, or if it’s just simply doctored. I also believe it’s likely that Napier scuttled the deal after catching wind of the ridiculous numbers being bandied about. Unfortunately he wasn’t allowed to be involved in those deals at all at the time this happened, and he may very well be liable if he did get in the middle and have it nixed. He’s suing Castro (one of the leaders of the old collective), Hathcock (who is still involved in the new collective), and Billy. Suing the GC would be pointless as that entity has no holdings. I think it will be settled out of court. Neither side wants to go through discovery. And the UF side doesn’t want this PR nightmare dragging out any longer than absolutely necessary.
Other than the stain on UF created by these incompetent idiots, I don't care and have only tangentially paid any attention to any of it. But, according to legal experts, there was no valid contract ever. What was written on a napkin doesn't mean the necessary parameters of a contract, meaning legal consideration for all parties and meeting the four corners of any contract. The four key elements are: offer; acceptance; consideration; and intention to create legal relations. In essence, with a scribbled piece of paper that can simply be ignored without cause by either party can't possibly meet the basic definitions of an enforceable contract. Which is why this kid isn't suing for breach of contract. This kid, and his family directing everything he does, probably figured out that sitting on the bench at a poor Arizona State, and likely at UGA, is not the way forward for making a ton of money playing football so they need to find another way. From what I know about this, Napier should be praised for being the only responsible adult in this whole sordid ordeal. He wasn't involved in making the alleged offer to this kid and his family and he didn't tortiously interfere in a nonexistent legal contract.
He’s not suing for breach of contract because then he would be suing the GC. The GC doesn’t have any money. I don’t know if there was ever an executed contract. If there wasn’t, then I’m not sure why he would have been sent a notice that the GC side was terminating the contract, which is one of the claims. I don’t disagree that it was a good move to kill the deal if those numbers are even remotely close, but that doesn’t change the fact that one of the guys possibly involved in killing the deal may have had no legal right to be in the middle of the deal. Not just no legal right, but legally excluded.
