Luther Maddy (92) hits William and Mary QB Steve Cluley as he releases a pass. [Mark Umansky]
Virginia Tech announced the medical hardship waiver for football student-athletes defensive tackle Luther Maddy, tight end Kalvin Cline, corner Brandon Facyson, safety Desmond Frye and OL Braxton Pfaff have been approved.
Tags:
Section:
Comments
Great news after some difficult stuff from yesterday. I'm thrilled that these guys get a chance to return to the field. Take the rehab at the right pace guys, and come back strong!
Booyah
Is it just me, or did this seem to take forever to get approved?
things taking an inordinate amount of time for the NCAA to process? psssh... never happens
Finally got some good news, good stuff for all involved...
Adam West Batman definitely gets a leg.
This is just too funny!
Nice, especially for Maddy. D line is going to be a beast.
"If im the slowest then we're pretty fast"
-Maddy
This is awesome. Would have been surprised if they weren't approved.
That'll bring immediate help to the team next year
Beautiful! We just added 3 proven starters to next years team. There are four star recruits that haven't brought what we KNOW these guys are bringing. Just excellent news, and more tools for the staff to deploy.
This is great stuff
How is Faycson? I think he is the key to us having a great defense. Him and Fuller at CB is just unfair.
His is pretty concerning. If he's running around by the end of the spring, I'll be ecstatic. If he's still in the boot, he may be staring down a Trey Edmunds type of season (although hopefully without the clavicle).
Pardon my ignorance: What does a medical hardship waiver entail?
There are two big benefits to receiving a medical hardship waiver:
1. The hardship year is basically a redshirt year, even if the player actually played part of the season. (Ordinarily, being on the field for a single snap burns a redshirt year.)
2. If there is a second medical hardship year, it is possible (not guaranteed) to get a SIXTH year to play your four years. (Ordinarily it's five years to play four.) David Wang was such a case, without the medical hardship waivers he would not have been eligible to play this past season (and we would have been even thinner at OL).
That's the BLUF, why we're happy about it. If you were asking about the process, it's a waiver request that the school submits to the NCAA on the athlete's behalf. There are eligibility criteria (maximum number of games played prior to the injury, how late in the season the injury occurred, and probably fifty others), but even after those it's still up the NCAA's discretion. If the athlete meets the criteria it's strongly likely, but not guaranteed, that the waiver will be approved.
Bingo. Maddy's was concerning because he played about a quarter of football more than the rule specifies as the maximum. Facyson's was worrisome because his injury may or may not have been "incapacitating" since he was still able to practice for most of the season. Happily, the NCAA decided they deserved to get this past year back, so party on.