Quote:
Originally Posted by Bucknut319
Is Gwaltney off the team?
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Yes:
June 06, 2006
Dave Hickman
Gwaltney wants to come back
MORGANTOWN ?€” Just when you thought you?€™d heard the last of Jason Gwaltney, well, you haven?€™t heard the last of Jason Gwaltney.
Turns out he?€™s alive and well and living in limbo.
That?€™s right, limbo, which apparently is a town a lot closer to Morgantown than his native Long Island.
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Gwaltney, the erstwhile golden child of West Virginia football ?€” the Mountaineers?€™ most highly acclaimed recruit since Robert Alexander ?€” wants to come back.
And Rich Rodriguez seems inclined to take him back.
?€œI?€™ve not talked to him directly,?€™?€™ Rodriguez said Monday. ?€œBut he has expressed an interest in coming back.?€™?€™
Rodriguez tries to downplay the whole thing, saying, ?€œIt isn?€™t even on my radar right now, to be honest.?€™?€™ And, truth be told, from Rodriguez?€™s point of view maybe it isn?€™t that big a deal. I mean, let?€™s face it, we?€™re talking about ?€” at the height of his freshman season last fall ?€” West Virginia?€™s third-string tailback and second-string fullback.
But ain?€™t it interesting?
For those who have forgotten, Gwaltney was the can?€™t-miss kid last fall, a 6-foot-1, 230-pound tailback who was rated as one of the Top 25 recruits in the entire country, not just one of the Top 25 tailbacks.
The Reader?€™s Digest version of his time in Morgantown, though, goes something like this:
Arrived for summer workouts closer to 260 than 230.
Despite that, Gwaltney said and did all the right things, trimming as much weight as he could (but not all he needed to) and buying into the program. ?€œI just want to contribute,?€™?€™ he said, taking back his earlier predictions of a 1,500-yard freshman season. (The guy was actually listed on some preseason Heisman Trophy watch lists.)
Worked his way into playing time right away, but essentially as a third-down power back. Then in a game at Rutgers in early October he injured a knee. He would never practice or play again. - advertisement -
The injury wasn?€™t the problem, though. Gwaltney also had academic issues and then simply stopped coming around to the Puskar Center for rehab. ?€œI?€™d like to tell you what his status is, but I haven?€™t seen him for weeks,?€™?€™ Rodriguez said in early December.
Then in mid-December his status was cleared up. Gwaltney left school and transferred to a junior college back home in New York.
That should have been the end of that, but now Gwaltney apparently wants another chance. The trouble is, his grades in one semester in junior college, it is believed, were scarcely better than in one semester at WVU, so eligibility is an issue.
?€œIf he does come back, he won?€™t play this year,?€™?€™ Rodriguez said. ?€œWhether he does in the future, that remains to be seen.?€™?€™
To put it another way, if Gwa
