College Career
Caldwell accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach Ron Zook and coach Urban Meyer's Florida Gators football team from 2003 to 2007. In part because of his brother Reche's legacy as a Gator, and in part because of his friendship with Florida commitment and quarterback Chris Leak, Caldwell chose to play for the Gators.
As a true freshman seeing limited playing time, he had just nineteen receptions. During his sophomore season in 2004, Caldwell's production jumped to forty-three catches and three receiving touchdowns, as well as two rushes for sixty-six yards and one score. He received a medical redshirt for the 2005 season after fracturing his leg in an early-season Southeastern Conference (SEC) game against the Tennessee Volunteers. During his junior season in 2006, he emerged as the Gators' second leading wide receiver in catches (57), yards (577) and touchdowns (6), and also threw for a touchdown pass in the Gators 38–28 victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks in the 2006 SEC Championship Game. As a junior in 2006, he threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to help the Gators win their seventh SEC championship. Four weeks later, the Gators won their first BCS Championship Game and the second national championship in team history.
Just days after the 2007 BCS National Championship Game, Caldwell announced he would return to Florida for his senior season. As a senior team captain in 2007, Caldwell recorded a career-high 761 yards and seven touchdowns on fifty-six receptions, had twelve carries for fifty-eight rushing yards and a touchdown, and was the recipient of the Gators' Fergie Ferguson Award as the "senior football player who displays outstanding leadership, character and courage." Caldwell finished his senior season with 100-yard receiving games against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, Vanderbilt Commodores, South Carolina Gamecocks and Florida Atlantic Owls. His 185 receptions in his four-year college career remains the best career total in Gators history.
Caldwell graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in sociology in December 2007.
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