Ohio State freshman wide receiver Trevon Grimes is transferring to Florida.
The Gators' roster addition, which was first reported by David Furones of the Sun Sentinel, was announced by Florida coach Dan Mullen on Friday afternoon.
Welcome to the Florida Family @Trevongrimes8 #AllBite18 pic.twitter.com/fHVtQ6Nu8s
— Dan Mullen (@CoachDanMullen) December 22, 2017
Grimes released his own statement on Twitter, in which he said he "will forever cherish the Great moments I've had with all my Brothers and coaches at Ohio State and will always wish them nothing but the best."
#GodsPlan pic.twitter.com/PY73hRFlDj
— GrimeTime (@Trevongrimes8) December 22, 2017
Grimes appeared in two games for Ohio State this season, playing 32 snaps and catching three passes for 20 yards, before taking a personal leave of absence from the team due to a health issue in his family. Grimes spent the rest of the semester in Florida and did not return to the team, though Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said as recently as November that he anticipated Grimes would return to the team.
Instead, however, Grimes is headed to Gainesville, where he will be closer to his hometown of Fort Lauderdale than he was in Columbus. Grimes told Furones that the decision was made for that reason.
"I just felt like [Florida] fit for me," Grimes told Furones. "It’s close to home. Of course, being in my situation that I’m in right now, I have to be close to home."
While Grimes could have moved even closer to home by transferring to the University of Miami, Grimes told Furones that he thought the Gators – whose new head coach is an Urban Meyer protege – were the right fit.
"I’ve talked to [UF co-offensive coordinator Billy] Gonzales about the receiver situation, about how many receivers they have," Grimes said. "I feel like I fit in to that offense and that program very well."
A four-star recruit out of St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Grimes is the first member of Ohio State's 2017 recruiting class to leave the team. The Buckeyes still have two wide receivers from that recruiting class, Jaylen Harris and Ellijah Gardiner, while they signed three wide receivers to their class of 2018 on Wednesday: Kamryn Babb, Cameron Brown and L'Christian "Blue" Smith.
Unless Grimes receives a waiver from the NCAA, he will have to sit out next season due to NCAA transfer rules and will first be eligible to play for Florida in 2019.
