He wasn’t forced to leave because of the laptop incident. The victim decided not to prosecute so the charges were going to be dropped.
Mr. Newton left UF because he had several academic fraud charges pending that were NOT going to be dropped. In fact, it was apparently a near certainty that he would have been expelled from classes.
Rather than stay and face the humiliation of having to answer for his actions, he took the well worn path these days of getting out of town quickly after a press conference where you claim that you are leaving because the incumbent QB has chosen to stay for another year.
The fact that members of the gator nation still get this wrong proves that his “counselors” gave him solid advice.