Better late than never; Grayson Howard is a Florida Gator. (Photo via South Carolina Gamecocks athletics)
Billy Napier doesn’t seem to be quite finished dishing out the L’s to Shane Beamer and South Carolina.
Another way to synopsize today’s news: the Florida linebacker room has never really recovered from the departure of Ventrell Miller, but now, after losing a starter in Scooby Williams to the portal, the Gators traded up and landed a home run in exchange.
South Carolina linebacker Grayson Howard (also known as Pup) has declared his intentions to transfer to Florida. Thus, the Gators have effectively gone back in time and retroactively snatched up one of their top prospects on the board from the class of 2023 (albeit with one less year of eligibility).
Initially, Grayson Howard was a four-star prospect from Andrew Jackson high school in Jacksonville. Though many thought he was a Florida lean– and he did show interest in the Gators throughout his recruiting process– he ultimately chose to head north to South Carolina, signing with Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks. But he never really materialized as a freshman in Columbia, and he played sparingly in nine games. For the season, Grayson Howard accumulated eighteen tackles, half of which were solo.
Still, his entry into the transfer portal struck some by surprise, perhaps due in part to the timing. Howard announced his intentions to transfer on the second day of 2024, well into the back half of the transfer portal window. Soon after, he declared that his next destination would be back home.
A physical, heady, and fundamentally-sound tackler, Grayson Howard comes to Florida along with a pair of true freshman linebackers, Myles Graham and Aaron Chiles. The Gators will also be getting Shemar James back from his injury, meaning that the Florida linebacker room should be better right off the bat in 2024 than it was to end 2023.
So, it’s better late than never. Welcome home, Pup.
