Headed into his final season at Vanderbilt, Jamie Graham would’ve provided new head coach James Franklin a very experienced piece of his secondary puzzle.
Instead, the defensive back will finish his collegiate career elsewhere.
Graham told The Tennessean that he has decided to transfer from the Commodores and use his final season of eligibility at another institution of higher learning. He already has a pair of schools he’s focusing on, where he will both play football and attend grad school.
“I’m going to try to get into grad school somewhere else,” Graham said. “I’ve talked to UAB and they want me to play wide receiver. If I want to play cornerback, I can go to Southern. Southern said if the NFL thing doesn’t work out, I can come back and be a GA (graduate assistant). I’ve got to decide in the next two or three weeks where I want to go.
“I’m just trying to do what works for me. (UAB and Southern) told me I just need to apply (for graduate school), take the test and they will handle the rest. They said it looks good for them to have someone coming in from Vanderbilt.”
Graham added that as recently as a month ago he was leaning toward staying at Vanderbilt, but intimated that a university official pressured him into making a decision sooner rather than later. He said part of the uncertainty in whether to stay or go involved getting admitted into a Vandy grad program.
“I didn’t get any help from [Vanderbilt] getting into grad school,” Graham told the paper.
Last season, Graham started two games before a knee injury suffered against South Carolina Oct. 23 knocked him out for the remainder of the year. All told, Graham started 15 games during his time with the Commodores.
Graham would be eligible to play immediately if he went to either UAB or Southern.