Ah, I didn't know that he took a redshirt last season.

Ah, I didn't know that he took a redshirt last season.
by rockmcd (2019-08-15 14:00:50)
Edited on 2019-08-15 14:01:23

In reply to: I agree on the ring issue. posted by tdiddy07

That definitely justifies Bryant quitting the team. That's a really important detail that the writer should have explained. However, quitting the team doesn't mean that he had to immediately drop out of school (I assume that's what happened, correct me if I'm mistaken). He could have continued his graduate school classes through the end of the semester, and then transferred after the season ended. Had he stayed enrolled as a student through the end of the season, I think he'd be deserving of a ring and I suspect that he would have received one.

The answer to the caveat in your last question is that no, the 4-game redshirt rule is not retroactive. It's really surpising to me that Bryant didn't redshirt during either his freshman or sophomore year when DeShawn Watson was the starter. To me, that's where Dabo is open to significant criticism. There was no need to put Bryant in for mop-up duty in those blowouts. It was a disservice to Bryant and put his own team at a disadvantage.

Contrasting this to Brian Kelly's treatment of Brandon Wimbush, you may recall that he used Wimbush for mop-up duty during 2015 after Malik Zaire went down, but in 2016 Kelly intentionally kept Wimbush out of those games in order to preserve his 5th year option. Had BK treated Wimbush the same way that Dabo treated Bryant, then it's likely that Wimbush would have left the team after he lost the starting position and Jurkovec would have been the starter for the FSU game. BK's preservation of Wimbush's 5th year option during 2016 wound up being in the best interests of both Wimbush and the ND team, so I think he deserves credit for that.