Former Florida quarterback Will Grier, who starred with the Gators for six games in 2015 before a year-long suspension led to his transfer elsewhere, retired from football on Wednesday, he announced.
Grier included a photo from his time with Florida in his retirement post on Instagram.
Following a storied high school career at Davidson (N.C.) Day School during which he threw for an incredible 14,565 yards with 195 touchdowns and 27 interceptions while completing 70.2 percent of his passes, Grier signed with Florida as the No. 4 pro-style quarterback in the 2014 recruiting class, according to 247Sports.
Grier redshirted his freshman season at Florida in 2014 while Jeff Driskel and Treon Harris led the Gators' offense in a rotation at quarterback, and emerged as UF's starting signal-caller in Week 2 of the 2015 season, after competing with Harris for the role over the course of the offseason.
Over six games and five starts, Grier completed 65.8 percent of his passes for 1,204 yards with 10 touchdowns and three interceptions, while adding 116 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. Florida went 5-0 in games Grier started and 6-0 in contests Grier took the field.
Two days following his final win in orange and blue, however, Grier received a one-year suspension from the NCAA after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Grier claimed the drug, a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) called Ligandrol, was contained in an over-the-counter supplement, while admitting he did not check with Florida's medical staff before consuming it.
Former Gators head coach Jim McElwain called the situation "an honest mistake."
"I hope that people can learn from this, learn from my mistake," Grier said in an Oct. 2015 press conference. "I'm really sorry to everyone, just really sorry."
Florida went 4-4 over the remainder of the season, falling in the 2015 SEC Championship to Alabama, 29-15, and losing to Michigan in the Citrus Bowl, 41-7.
Grier transferred to West Virginia following the 2015 season and sat out the 2016 campaign due to the NCAA's transfer rules at the time. However, he was granted a waiver allowing him to play in the Mountaineers' 2017 season-opener, even though he had not technically completed his suspension as he voluntarily did not play in 2016 due to his transfer.
Grier re-emerged as one of the best quarterbacks in the country during his two seasons as West Virginia's starting passer, completing 65.7 percent of his passes for 7,354 yards with 71 touchdowns and 20 interceptions in 22 games. He scored another five touchdowns rushing.
After throwing for 3,864 yards with 37 touchdowns and eight interceptions as a redshirt senior in 2018, Grier finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting and received Second-team All-Big 12 recognition.
Selected No. 100 overall in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft by Carolina, Grier spent seven seasons in the NFL, although he appeared in just two games, going 28-of-52 passing for 228 yards with four interceptions during his rookie season with the Panthers. He also signed with the Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots and Los Angeles Chargers.