A report from Gridiron Now says that the University of Florida feels “relatively good” about winning the appeal of Will Grier’s season long suspension.
This is certainly an article calculated to raise hope, but let’s keep two things in mind here. One, the report comes from what GN refers to as “insiders.” That isn’t exactly the most credible source in the world. And two, even if the report is correct that Florida does feel relatively good about their chances to win their appeal, and even if those relatively good feelings prove accurate and Florida does win the appeal, all it would do is reduce the length of the suspension. The Florida camp is not refuting any of the facts in the case, but rather merely attempting to soften the punishment. I’m told by several people I trust that there’s no way Grier sees the field again in 2015, other trustworthy news outlets and media members have reported as such. The hope is that if Florida wins the appeal, Grier would be reinstated at the beginning of the 2016 season.
The Florida camp has already filed the formal appeal in a telephone conference call, and now we play the waiting game. As written in the NCAA’s drug policy handbook, the NCAA is required to make a reasonable, good faith effort to announce their final ruling “as soon as possible,” which is defined as either within 48 hours following the conclusion of the conference call or prior to the team’s next scheduled date of competition. Translation: if the NCAA bigwigs possess half the good faith and fairness that they claim to have, we’ll get a ruling by Monday or Tuesday.
But for the foreseeable future, the offense is Treon Harris’s to run. His skill set is different than Grier’s, and I’d argue that it isn’t as natural a fit to run this offense as Grier’s, but it’s a good one nonetheless and certainly one that’s capable of winning games. So let’s get behind him and support him as much as he can, because it’s his team now.
