Fa’najae Gotay, a former standout at North Fort Myers, will extend his college football career to a seventh season. Auburn University announced they had signed Gotay through the transfer portal on Thursday afternoon after he had spent six seasons at Maryland. The linebacker totaled 133 tackles, three sacks, and two interceptions in his Terrapins career.
Gotay is coming off his most productive season after appearing in all 13 of Maryland’s games in 2023 and logging 44 total tackles, 4.5 tackles for a loss, and 2.5 sacks. Gotay also capped off his season with a team-leading performance against Auburn in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl, where he led the Terrapins with six tackles.
Who is Fa’naje Gotay?
Gotay was a premier linebacker at North Fort Myers, where he graduated from in 2018. As a senior, he was named the Football Defensive Player of the Year at the High School Sports Awards and was a two-time All-Area Defensive first-teamer.
Gotay led a Red Knights defense that allowed just seven points per game in his senior campaign and tallied 60 tackles (including six for a loss) while reeling in three interceptions.
How did Gotay play at Maryland?
Gotay saw action in four games as a true freshman before being redshirted with no breakout games of note. In his second year, Gotay posted 15 total tackles in his first career start against Michigan State – which was the most by any Terrapin in a single game all year long.
He saw the field in four of the Terps’ five games in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, where he was tied for third on the team in total tackles (23) before the season was called off. Gotay went down with a season-ending injury in the season-opener against West Virginia in his fourth year.
As a redshirt senior in 2022, Gotay was eighth in the team in tackles (37 total, 25 solo) while making four starts. In 2023, Gotay again finished eighth in tackles (44 total, 28 solo) after appearing in all 13 games and making two starts.
How is Gotay still able to play?
The NCAA states that a student-athlete must complete four years of playing their sport in a five-year window, but there are ways of pausing those five years as allowed by the NCAA.
The first (and most common) is redshirting, where a player sits out for a season as long as they play four or less contests, and that year will not be counted against their five-year window. Gotay took advantage of this as a true freshman.
Another way of pausing the window is through a Hardship Waiver, whereby a student-athlete is prevented from playing due to circumstances out of their control. The NCAA historically grants this waiver to players injured early in a season, which Gotay was in 2021.
The third is through the NCAA’s COVID-19 Eligibility Extension. After the pandemic in 2020, most student-athletes saw their season canceled halfway through the year or called off entirely. For this reason, the NCAA allowed all student-athletes affected by these cancellations to extend their eligibility by one year.
And so, seven years after being named Defensive Player of the Year at the High School Sports Awards, Gotay will suit up for the Tigers for one last season.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Maryland’s Fa’najae Gotay to suit up for Auburn in seventh year of college football
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