One of the main figures in Georgia quarterback Jaden Rashada’s claim against Florida football and head coach Billy Napier is former director of player engagement and NIL, Marcus Castro-Walker. Castro-Walker was let go by Florida in early 2024.
Castro-Walker, who held his role at Florida beginning in 2021, was one of the key point people for the Gators’ NIL efforts. That means he was also a main figure in the recruitment and signing-gone-awry of Rashada.
Pressed for what happened with Castro-Walker at Florida — a matter now taking on even more import in light of Rashada’s recent legal filing — during the SEC spring meetings this week, Napier demurred.
“I’m not going to answer specific questions,” Napier said.
Florida is one of a handful of programs that has fallen under NCAA scrutiny in recent months over its NIL efforts.
Florida State has already been disciplined by the NCAA for infractions related to NIL, while Tennessee is now also under investigation like Florida, resulting in the lawsuit against the NCAA.
For the Gators, the scrutiny centers around the recruitment of Rashada. Rashada was famously offered a $13 million deal by the Gator Collective, Florida’s chief NIL group at the time, though the money promised never materialized. Rashada would eventually ask out of his NLI with Florida, heading to Arizona State instead.
Florida was left with the overhang of an NCAA investigation.
Napier discussed how the lawsuit might impact recruiting
However, despite the lawsuit and Napier’s comments on the exact situation, he’s used to any type of narrative.
“A lot of this narrative has been out there for a long time,” Napier said at the SEC meetings. “I think we got that question two years ago, or a year and a half ago … So, look, we’re gonna keep moving forward. I mean, this process has been ongoing. I think, ultimately, the NCAA process. So you know, we can’t say much more than that.
“I think ultimately, we have to treat all parts of our organization, recruits, families, we have to treat them just like we treat the media. So the big thing is … I mean, just real thankful for the university support. And we’ve got confidence in our legal team.”
As far as his response to negative headlines surrounding the program, Napier brushed it off a bit. He was confident in his program, staff, players and people within the Gators’ circle.
“I mean, ultimately, we’ve got a staff and an organization that’s worked really hard,” Napier said. “And we’ve added 35 players to our team, 20 high school players, 15 transfer players, and we wouldn’t have been able to do that if we didn’t have a healthy culture. If we didn’t have really good systems, and we didn’t have a good product to sell. So again, I think it’s all part of what we’ve been working for two and a half years here to improve, consistently, all parts of what we do.
“And I think our ability to add quality players to our team is a reflection of that. There’s a difference between outside narrative and what people experience when they come to our campus. They interact with our people, they observe our processes, and I think that’s been proven throughout the recruiting process.”
The Gators head coach was named a defendant in the lawsuit filed on May 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida that claims Rashada was repeatedly lied to for him to flip his commitment from Miami to Florida. Among the allegations, the suit states Napier promised Rashada $1 million if the quarterback signed his National Letter of Intent on early National Signing Day in 2022.
On3’s Thomas Goldkamp and Nick Kosko contributed to this report.
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