Growing up in Florida, Josh Grady dreamed of playing football at one of the big three schools in the state. Playing at Seffner Armwood, Grady saw several of his teammates gain offers from those big instate schools but when it came time for him to pick a college, he was still waiting.
Grady transferred to Armwood as a junior and started two seasons at quarterback. As a senior he completed 182-of-256 pass attempts for 2,109 yards and 24 touchdowns.
Grady chose to play football at Vanderbilt. He hoped to play quarterback for the Commodores, the position he played in high school, and was told that much by the coaching staff. Grady bounced back and forth between quarterback and receiver in four seasons at Vandy.
He took a redshirt his first season on campus and was named to the SEC First Year Academic Honor Roll. He moved from quarterback to wide receiver in the spring and played in all 13 games as a sophomore in 2012. Grady moved back to quarterback in the spring before his redshirt sophomore season but saw his season end prematurely after just three games with an injury.
Grady was moved back to receiver after retraining from his injury but did not post any receiving stats that season. He never did get a real shot at playing quarterback, something he felt he was going to get when he committed as a high school senior.
“I don’t wanna kind of go into the details but not really,” Grady said when asked if he felt like he was given an opportunity to play quarterback at Vanderbilt. “That’s all in the past. If I would have got a fair shot I don’t think I’d be here to compete for a SEC Championship. I feel like I’m blessed right now.”
Grady knew that he wanted to continue playing football, and after he graduated started the process of finding a new school. As soon as Grady got the green light from Vanderbilt’s compliance department he reached out to Jim McElwain. There were a lot of familiar faces in Gainesville including Vernon Hargreaves, Jordan Sherit, Alvin Bailey and defensive backs coach Kirk Callahan.
Grady got the green light and worked his way into the third quarterback role at Florida, while also taking some practice reps at receiver. McElwain has installed a package for Grady at quarterback, which has yet to be seen, called the “Gator Tail” but Grady has thoroughly enjoyed his last season of college ball.
He’s right behind McElwain every day out on to the practice field and has soaked in every second of Florida’s 10-1 season to this point.
On Saturday he’ll get to go through senior day in his home state with his family in the stands. It’s a storybook ending for a kid from Tampa who has a bright future ahead of him.