Wolverine Wednesday: Bring Me Your Medical Redshirts

It's pretty clear when true freshman are not playing that means they are taking a redshirt year.   What is a little more "gray" is which kids got injured early in the season and might qualify for a medical redshirt.  

Your next question might be, what qualifies a student athlete for a medical redshirt?

The official name is a medical hardship waiver. The athlete must have been injured in the first 3 games or first 30% of the season (whichever is greater) and his/her injury must be serious enough to be out for the entire year.   For example if you haven't played all year but are injured in the last 3 games, you would not qualify for a medical redshirt.  

If you want more detail, MSU has a nice PDF on the difference between the two here:
https://www.msu.edu › ~msuncaa/Medical%20Hardship%20Waivers.pdf

The unique thing is that the Big Ten makes the ruling not the NCAA, as Devin Gardner is this years high profile 5th year example.

Brady Hoke says that Jabrill Peppers might be a candidate for a medical redshirt.   He would qualify as he was hurt in game one and saw only a few snaps after.    Of course, we don't know the extent or anything about his injury, besides it being some type of leg or foot injury. 

Desmond Morgan could also be a candidate if he is not able to play this year.  He was injured in the App. State game as well.  Desmond is a senior this year and never took a redshirt year. 

If Peppers ends up being as good as many of us expect, a 5th year is probably not that important.  It would be interesting to see if Desmond Morgan would want to come back after losing a year due to injury.