Once the future of Tennessee Football, Harrison Bailey just committed to his fourth FBS program as he gets set to enter his sixth season of college ball. Now, he is back in the SEC, as he has committed to the Florida Gators after two years with the Louisville Cardinals, according to ON3.
Bailey commits to Billy Napier’s program on the heels of winning the Sun Bowl MVP in his first start for Louisville. He led Jeff Brohm’s team to a 35-34 win over the Washington Huskies, completing 16 of 25 passes for 164 yards and three touchdowns.
Given his talent and recent production, Bailey’s commitment to Florida makes no sense.
You would think that Bailey would commit to a program where he would be the favorite to start. Heck, it would have made sense for him to just stay at Louisville, where he likely would have been in line to start next year after his bowl game and Tyler Shough’s departure.
However Florida should be fully committed to D.J. Lagaway after the way he finished the season. He played phenomal in leading them to four straight wins to finish 8-5 with impressive victories over the LSU Tigers, Ole Miss Rebels and Tulane Green Wave. As a result, Bailey seemed to transfer from where he was a starter to where he’d be a backup.
Florida is reportedly spending a lot of NIL cash to lure players in now, as they seem to finally have their house in order, so you could say Bailey followed the money but even that doesn’t make sense. If they are committed to Lagaway, why would they waste NIL money on landing another quarterback in the portal?
Sure, Florida may spend some money on a backup quarterback in case Lagaway gets hurt, but would it be enough money for a player to leave an almost guaranteed starting position at another school as he’s entering his final year of eligibility? That seems far from likely.
The most likely scenario is that Florida offered him enough money to leave a guaranteed starting position and made him a promise that he’d have a fair chance to compete for the starting job. That still doesn’t seem likely, but if somebody has a better reason, please let me know.
Once a five-star quarterback out of Georgia, where he was teammates with Ramel Keyton at Marietta High School, Bailey was the crown jewel of the Top 10 ranked 2020 Tennessee Football recruiting class. UT was coming off an 8-5 finish in which it won its final six games in Pruitt’s second season, and everybody was buying into the future.
What a time.
All of that collapsed afterward, as COVID hit, the Vols went 3-7 in the shortened 2020 season and a pay for play scandal resulted in Pruitt’s firing. Josh Heupel came in, went from Joe Milton III to Hendon Hooker, and Bailey transferred in 2021. From there, the Cobb County, Ga., native spent a year with the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels.
After that, Bailey transferred to Louisville and has spent the past two years there. Obviously, his college career hasn’t worked out the way he probably wanted it too, and this seems like another risk, but hey, maybe it will all work out. Him being back in the SEC is certainly intriguing, though.
One Response
QB is Lagway, not LagAway.