He’s going to go.
Antonio Callaway has elected to forgo his senior season at Florida and will enter the 2018 NFL Draft.
Callaway has hired an agent, which is the point of no return. There’s no longer any ambiguity surrounding the possibility of him playing another down in a Gator uniform; he’s gone.
And that is unequivocally a good thing.
Callaway hauled in 678 yards as a freshman and 721 more as a sophomore a year ago. He also took a pair of punts and a kick back to the house, delivered a baby underhand TD pass in the Citrus Bowl against Michigan and scored a rushing TD on a jet sweep against Georgia a year ago to cover all five points of the star, one of the rarest feats possible in football.
But Callaway‘s time in Gainesville was even more noteworthy for the off field drama that came in the same body as the star playmaker. Multiple citations for marijuana plus a serious felony credit card theft charge that cost him the entire 2017 season combined to place an ugly black mark on his career. As a result of the credit card misadventure, Callaway entered a pre-trial intervention agreement that will see the charges dropped if he meets the requirements, which include full reimbursement and staying out of trouble for a period of time.
Callaway was also accused of sexual assault in the off-season leading up to the 2016 season. While the accusation was deemed not credible, Callaway thought it would be a good idea to use the fact that he was high as a defense for why he did not have sex with his accuser. (Disclaimer: it was not.)
Without him, Florida limped to a 4-7 finish.
I wish Callaway the best moving forward. I hope he grows up and learns to make better decisions. Though small, he’s got some of the pure explosiveness that NFL scouts yearn to see. But the continued off field issues just can’t be tolerated, and so it’s within the best interests of both parties involved for him to go.
