The biggest storyline at Pitt now isn’t spring camp nor the BB loss – it is that the NCAA has granted James Conner another season of play when they approved his “Medical Redshirt” exemption for the 2015 season. What this means folks is not only do we have Conner for this season but also for the 2017 season.
No one has any idea how Conner will do this year with 1) his MCI injury which was sort of lost in the news of Conner’s cancer battle. Remember that ankle cost him the full year even before his diagnosis of Hodgkin’s-Lymphoma.
It may well have been that even without his other illness Conner may not have bounced back 100% from that MCI. Now however, I think it is pretty safe to assume that his 2017 season would see him as the post-medical issues James Conner who tore up the field in 2014 for 1769 yards at a 5.9 ypc clip with 26 (!!) TDs.
If he does well this season, and let’s hope so for both his and our program’s sake, he may well declare before the ’17 season – but who knows. Conner had already said he’d forgo the NFL draft, which he was eligible for just like Boyd, and return for 2016 even before he got hurt.
There are grand days ahead my friends and no wonder RB Chris James took off after the season ended. These NCAA decisions, at least this one, isn’t all that hard to figure out in advance… especially with the emotional and publicity potential involved with the NCAA on this call.
