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Huskeronline has reported that one of Nebraska’s star 2018 recruits will not be eligible to play this fall.
Four-star running back recruit Maurice Washington does not have enough core coursework to qualify academically:
“He is back in school, in California,” a Nebraska football spokesperson said. “We have him working on a plan that gets him to graduation. Even if he graduates this summer, he is not going to graduate with enough core hours. The plan that we have him on currently is one that puts us in a position to make an application for a waiver for an academic redshirt.”
Washington will count against the 85-man roster in 2018 if he is granted an academic redshirt. According to the NCAA, an academic redshirted player can be part of the team, “receive athletics aid”, but not actually compete in their initial year.
In order to receive an academic redshirt, a student athlete must:
- Graduate high school
- Complete 16 core courses and...
- Meet the academic redshirt sliding scale (GPA and ACT/SAT sum score)
Speculation completely on my part, but it sounds like Washington’s bouncing around between high schools made it difficult for him to complete the core course work.
Washington spent his sophomore year of high school at King’s Academy in Sunnyvale, CA, where he scored 29 touchdowns and gained 1,800 yards. He then tried to transfer to Oak Grove in San Jose for his junior season. Since the move was deemed to be about football more than academics (states have these rules to avoid situations like this), he was ruled ineligible and forced to sit out his junior season. Last year, he transferred to Trinity Christian School in Cedar Hill, TX, where he rushed for 1,253 yards and 15 touchdowns. He added 582 receiving yards and nine touchdowns.
Obviously, Nebraska wants to keep him around. 247 has him listed as the 10th best running back in the 2018 class. Perhaps it will work out that he gets to Nebraska, gets himself eligible, works around enough to learn Scott Frost’s offense and explodes onto the scene in 2019.