OSU's Jamel Dean not medically cleared. High school coach: "You can't treat people this way."

Submitted by Pinky on

OSU freshman corner and early-enrollee Jamel Dean was not cleared to play by OSU's medical staff.  Accordingly, he will be transferring out of the program after just arriving on campus.  In another PR mess for Meyer, his high school coach claims he's being pushed out:

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2015/04/jamel_dean_ohio_state_ro…

LJ

April 8th, 2015 at 2:52 PM ^

I doubt it would be difficult to draft rules for special circumstances like coaching changes.  You could allow a coach to take extra players in year 1 of a transition and sacrifice some players in a later class.  Or one of many other possibilites.  There's no need to tie the number of new players on the team to the number currently on the team.

MI Expat NY

April 8th, 2015 at 3:39 PM ^

Great idea in theory.  But I think the thing that may prevent it from becoming a reality is Title IX.  Scholarship count for men's and women's sports is a factor in Title IX equality analysis.  Now, I would think that normal attrition would probably bring the total number of scholarships used down to 85 or lower for most schools, but would the schools be forced to calculate football scholarships closer to the total possible?  Hard to know.

LJ

April 8th, 2015 at 4:07 PM ^

Even if they did, the most players possible on the roster would be 100, if there was zero attrition and every player from the oldest class took a fifth year.  That's an extra 15 football scholarships, and 15 extra womens' spots to stay in Title IX compliance.  Is that really breaking the bank at many schools?  And in reality, I doubt teams would ever end up over 90 after unavoidable attrition.

Ghost of Fritz…

April 8th, 2015 at 4:20 PM ^

...work that way.  Nothing in the law requires exact numerical equality of male/female scholarships. 

Moreover, with a hard cap of 20 football scholarships per year, with true attrition (as opposed to the fake oversigning attrition), it would work out to about 85 total football scholarships on average anyway.

DonAZ

April 8th, 2015 at 6:54 PM ^

My understanding -- I could be mistaken -- is the law has been interpreted as meaning the male/female participation rate must mirror the male/female ratio of the student population. Hence some schools with a higher percentage female population dropping some male sports as a way to align the participation rate with the population. Alternative is to encourage greater female participation, but if the interest doesn't materialize then dropping male participation makes the math work.

Farnn

April 8th, 2015 at 2:21 PM ^

Only players this may affect are other players at his school who are mentioned in this article.  One is a top 20 2017 prospect already committed to them.

youn2948

April 8th, 2015 at 2:22 PM ^

Good job by Urban Meyer to protect a kid from further injury.

The fact that they have 3 players too many on the roster clearly has nothing to do with Jamal getting the option of a medical hardship or leaving the school.

This isn't an oversigning casualty but rather an opportunity for a free scholarship without having to take the toll of a physical sport.

Why could anyone be upset at Urban Meyer, he should be applauded for the treatment of this young man!

/s

 

StateStreetBlue

April 8th, 2015 at 2:25 PM ^

Wilkinson is the coach at Cocoa High School in Florida, a talent hotbed that includes Ohio State 2017 oral commitment Bruce Judson, a top-20 player in his class. Dean had a second opinion from noted sports surgeon Dr. James Andrews. Wilkinson said Andrews' opinion was that Dean needed continued rehab on his knee and should be ready to resume full activities this summer. I would assume this turns Bruce Judson off quite a bit. And sure looks like you're lying when arguably the best knee surgeon in the world says he should be good to go by summer.

IB6UB9

April 8th, 2015 at 2:31 PM ^

I am no URBZ apologist and agree that in other instances he has acted suspect.  However, from what I can gather about this instance from the article is that OSU and the medical staff has been concerned since he enrolled early after the kids second knee injury his last game in high school.  Seems all parties involved have been communicating for some time.  Not exactly Austin Hatch-esc of them but...

  • Wilkinson said he has been concerned about this scenario for months. He said Ohio State performed an MRI on Dean less than a week after he arrived, and talk of Dean's career with the Buckeyes ending began then.
  • Wilkinson said he has been going back and forth with Ohio State coaches and staff since January. "I knew it was going to get ugly," Wilkinson said

the fume

April 8th, 2015 at 2:39 PM ^

A medical redshirt seems relevant. Rehab and re-evaluate.

 

It just seems weird that a meniscus injury would defnitively end his sports playing days at such a young age.

Leaders And Best

April 8th, 2015 at 2:48 PM ^

There is no almost no way you can tell a young, highly-conditioned athlete that he will never play again due to an ACL or meniscus injury, especially a first time injury. Usually cases where you tell a young athlete he can never play again against his own wishes are reserved for athletes who have potentially fatal conditions like an arrhythmia or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy where he could potentially die. Not a knee injury.

Ghost of Fritz…

April 8th, 2015 at 4:28 PM ^

...The Fume here.  This one is an obvious oversigning cut. 

If OSU were only worried about his medical condition and safety, then they would have given him a one year medical redshirt to see if he really does have a career ending injury. 

Meyer did not go that route.  He removed him from the team, despite an opinion from a top sports surgeon saything that the guy would be ready to play by summer. 

This is simple.  Meyer had to get from 88 to 85 by summer.  Meyer bypassed the medical redshirt route.

Consequences?   Not for Meyer or OSU. 

 

Perkis-Size Me

April 8th, 2015 at 2:25 PM ^

This won't affect their recruiting one bit. Kids will still want to go there and play for national titles. Can't say I blame them.

Might make some HS coaches slightly more apprehensive of Meyer, but this will do nothing to dampen their recruiting.

Real Tackles Wear 77

April 8th, 2015 at 2:27 PM ^

Keep giving the press examples of exactly what your fanbase says you aren't, Urban. It's all going to come back to bite you in the ass....BTW, same thing will happen to one or more of the Cass kids soon, just you wait.

maize-blue

April 8th, 2015 at 2:29 PM ^

 "There's a couple guys that you're just not sure can continue playing. You have to just to be aware.

"But there's also the truth that you don't know for the next couple weeks, couple months, with these injuries what happens. So you have to prepare. 

"But you also can't do the unthinkable and that's be stuck with 87 scholarship players come June or July."

Leaders And Best

April 8th, 2015 at 2:30 PM ^

I find it disgusting that any physician would sign off on a medical hardship waiver unless either (a) the player was ready to quit football due to the injury or (b) the player had zero chance of every playing again due to the injury. It is really hard to prove option (b) especially with an ACL injury at such a young age, and most physicians would never do this to a young patient. The physician is supposed to have the patient's best interest at heart, and you would expect better from an academic medical center as well.

Leaders And Best

April 8th, 2015 at 5:41 PM ^

I don't recall all the specifics of the Shane Morris concussion incident, but from what I remember, Morris never underwent neurological testing for a concussion during the game. I don't know how the medical staff missed that on the field or the breakdown in communication that happened, but he was never evaluated by a physician. I would hope to believe (and have no evidence otherwise at this point) that if the medical staff evaluated Morris for a concussion and did not pass testing, he would never have seen the field after. I doubt a physician purposely avoided evaluating Morris. If the AD, coaching staff, or trainers hid the injury from the medical staff (physicians) that is a different story and harder to fault the medical staff there.

I feel concussions fall under the same category as arrhythmias: serious medical conditions that force physicians to recommend athletes suspend activity many times against their wishes. But I don't think this OSU case falls under this. In Morris' case, he shouldn't have been playing. The main difference here is this kid actually saw a university physician, and he told the patient that he is not physcially fit to play football ever again. And it sure doesn't look like the kid has a career ending medical condition.

mGrowOld

April 8th, 2015 at 2:34 PM ^

I have come to the conclusion that your average 3-5 star football player must have the brains of a wood tic coupled with the ego of Leonardo Dicaprio.  And they must be parented by parents of similar intelect and over-evaluation of self-worth.

If one of my kids was recruited by a coach known to oversign and cut (see Miles, Les,  Meyer, Urban or Saban, Nick) I would DEMAND a written guarentee my son gets a four year ride before I'd consider signing a LOI.  And if they wouldnt provide it he'd be attending one of the other hundreds of schools undoubtably interested in him because it those guys are offering scholly's, my kid is damn good.  

Why this is hard to understand is hard for me to understand.

ak47

April 8th, 2015 at 2:46 PM ^

Because those guys win championships and send more guys to the NFL than anyone else.  If your goal is to get to the NFL winning a starting spot on Alabama, LSU, or OSU now (previously Florida) is the best way to get there.  These guys aren't going to these schools for the education, they are going to get the best chance at the NFL and that is still true.

RationalBuckeye

April 8th, 2015 at 4:25 PM ^

1. Not an OSU grad
2. Like at 11W, I'm guessing a large proportion of the commentariat at mgoblog didn't go to the school for which they are rooting.
3. It was a joke, I tend to be on the side of agreement with most of the posters in this thread, and generally on this site.



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RationalBuckeye

April 8th, 2015 at 3:43 PM ^

If I had a kid in this position, I'd consider every option that he had. That being said, my child would never be an athlete first unless circumstances were extremely special, and I'm not sure if I'd allow a member of my family to subject themselves to the dangers of football unless circumstances were very different.

Like I said above (or below, I'm on the app), I don't like the looks of this, but something doesn't add up.

Caveat: I'm 22, hypotheticals about raising children are not easy to grasp for me.



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buckeyejonross

April 8th, 2015 at 4:08 PM ^

To be fair, I defended him before because there was nothing from anyone involved that players' decisions to leave the program weren't mutual. The only people that cried foul were a vocal minority on this blog. But this is hard to defend. This is exactly the proof I said didn't exist two months ago. If this is a shady effort to get to 85, then it's pretty gross. If this is a jilted high school coach unable to face reality, then it's equally gross. Either way, it doesn't look good and I'm not pumped about it.

That being said, this level of chicanery hasn't hurt Miles and Saban at LSU and Alabama, so I don't seeing it impacting Urban. College sports are gross sometimes.

buckeyejonross

April 8th, 2015 at 4:28 PM ^

College sports are also gross when millions of grown adults cheer for kids concussing themselves for free when 95% of them are only going to go pro at Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Or when 75% of football teams major in the same thing, and 75% of the players only got into their schools of choice because they can tackle. You don't see non-NFL bound players like Ray Small or Thomas Gordon putting their public ivy education to use as engineers or doctors or lawyers or business executives. They're probably back home doing nothing. Who knows? For every one kid from Detroit that got his shot at Michigan and turned it into a sucessful career off the field, there's probably five that didn't. And the success of that one is great, but no one remembers the five who couldn't.

I mean look, the whole thing is gross and we block a lot of it out because it's fun as hell to watch.

There's a million different things gross about college football. Oversigning is but one drop in the entire bucket.