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Times reporter Bob Condotta keeps the news coming about the Montlake Dawgs.

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October 7, 2008 8:42 AM

On redshirting

For my main story today, I wrote more in-depth about the decision Saturday night to play true freshmen Terrance Dailey and Cody Bruns.

Their use generated some controversy from those who wondered if it was worth it to begin playing them so late in a season that seems lost.

As you can read in the story, one person who didn't complain was Bruns' father, Bucky, who said his son was excited to play and that they knew all along that how this unfolded was a possibility.

All of this has caused some of you to ask questions about the rule, wondering if some of these freshmen who have seen action this season can't still redshirt.

First, here's a good review of the rule.

The general answer is no. Essentially, to redshirt once playing, a player must suffer an injury that will keep him out of the rest of the season, and he must suffer the injury in the first four games of the year (or in the first 30 percent, which is rounded up to four games in football).

The rule isn't designed to just let coaches play guys for a few plays, then decide they didn't want to and redshirt them and I've never seen that happen. It is designed, as mentioned, to allow players who get hurt early to redshirt the year, as is the case with Chris Polk. But for the rest of the players, this will almost certainly be a year of used eligibility.

There are always some exceptions, and it seems as if people often remember those exceptions and expect them to be applied in every case. But I've been covering UW since 1997 and I only remember one instance where a player played after the first 30 percent of a season and then received a medical redshirt ---Cody Pickett in 1999 (who played something like nine plays in the fifth game of the year and then suffered a back injury).

Players can redshirt at any time in their career but the rules for the season remain the same. We've seen that happen a lot where a player plays as a true freshmen then gets hurt later in his career and redshirts as a sophomore, junior or senior. So this doesn't mean these players can never redshirt, just not this year.

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