FanPost

Football News & Notes

As we are gearing up for all out Madness some news from the football front. Dohn reports that NCAA denied FB Pitre and UCLA's request for a 6th year eligibility (a request submitted due to health issues):

UCLA's fullback depth took a big, and unforeseen, hit when Michael Pitre's request for a sixth year of eligibility was denied by the NCAA.

Pitre and UCLA both believed he would get the sixth year. He did not play as a freshman because of a neck injury, then was limited to a handful of plays in one game last season because of a left knee injury.

"To be honest with you, I don't even know what the reason was (for the denial)," said Pitre, who already graduated with a history degree. "Even talking to (UCLA's) compliance people, they didn't understand it."

When healthy, Pitre was one of the top fullbacks in the West. He already hired an agent, and will begin preparing for the NFL draft.

"I'm thinking it's going to work out best because I was already done with school," Pitre said. "I was looking at the NFL draft before the season, and I was one of the top fullbacks before I got hurt.

"But it probably takes me from being a drafted player to a free agent, but in some situations that may be best. You get to pick where you go." Good luck to Michael. It's pretty interesting. NCAA has no problem allowing a university build one of its major program around 22-24 year old "freshmen" coming from questionable online diploma mills, yet it will not budge on this kind of situation in which an actual student athlete would like to stick around college little longer (Pitre was probably looking to stay on as a graduate student) because of legit health issues. Go figure.

Without Pitre look for Moline to move over to FB.

Anyway, the good news is that Marcus Everett and Gavin Ketchum had their red shirt years approved, which will allow CRN/Chow to work with some experienced receivers.

Speaking of CRN he continues to reach out and work with local schools. From What's Bruin: Coach Rick Neuheisel and the UCLA football staff will present a spring football clinic for high school coaches on Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12. The clinic will include presentations by some of the region's top high school coaches, dinner on Friday, a featured speaker and breakout sessions with UCLA's football staff, and an all-access look at the Bruin football practice on Saturday morning. This kind of session will only bolster our recruiting in the coming years.

GO BRUINS.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

Trending Discussions