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Football: Whiteside officially to grayshirt
By Jonathan Okanes
Monday, August 2nd, 2010 at 10:02 pm in Football, Training camp.
Cal coach Jeff Tedford confirmed Monday that incoming linebacker Cecil Whiteside will indeed grayshirt, meaning he won’t enroll at Cal until January.
Tedford had said recently that grayshirting was the likely option for Whiteside, rated as the country’s No. 4 outside linebacker by rivals.com. The NCAA is still evaluating his academic standing.
But even if the NCAA were to rule Whiteside eligible today, he still couldn’t play this season for Cal. That’s because the school would not allow him to enroll since he missed the Summer Bridge program.
That means the Bears now will be missing half of the highly regarded linebacker quartet they expected to have in camp. Chris Martin, one of the country’s top recruits, announced last month he was transferring to Florida without ever playing for Cal.
A fifth linebacker in the class, Chris McCain, also will grayshirt. The class of linebackers was rated as the third-best nationally by rivals.com.
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August 2nd, 2010 at 10:09 pm
JO, any chance that if NCAA approves Whiteside’s eligibility, he would try to go to another school that would admit him? Additionally, is Whiteside now automatically released from his LOI?
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:32 pm
I’m glad the university and Tedford handled things this way. These kids need to hear that life isn’t always about them, although they’ve been told that for years.