Ohio State freshman early enrollee Jamel Dean will not suit up for the Buckeyes, head coach Urban Meyer confirmed Monday morning. Dean, a four-star defensive back prospect from Cocoa, Fla., was not cleared by Ohio State’s medical staff after enrolling in January.
“We were crushed when we found out he was DQ’d,” Meyer said. “I was shocked, to be honest with you.”
Dean suffered a torn ACL during his junior year of high school. He recovered in time to play during his senior season, but then re-injured his knee last December, prior to the Semper Fidelis All-American Game. When he arrived in Columbus in January, the Ohio State staff determined he would not be medically cleared to play once they had a chance to examine his knee.
Dean was given the option to take a medical hardship waiver and thus be able to stay on scholarship and graduate, but wouldn’t be able to play football for the Buckeyes. He also has an option to transfer elsewhere to try and get medically cleared.
Meyer said Ohio State was “absolutely forthright” in everything it did in the evaluation of Dean. Dean’s high school coach, John Wilkinson, however, told cleveland.com’s Doug Lesmerises last week he felt the Buckeyes handled the situation poorly.
“It’s ridiculous,” Wilkinson told cleveland.com. “It’s totally wrong to do this to an 18-year-old kid who should be in high school, who you talked into coming up there early. You can’t treat people that way.”
Meyer refuted that statement.
“I was just disappointed with the constant communication with the schools. I think it since has been cleared up, but Ohio State was absolutely forthright in everything they did,” he said. “I grade us an A-plus on how our support staff and assistant coaches handled that situation.”
Meyer also disputed the fact Dean was deemed ineligible to play for any reason other than a medical one.
“Something said something about (scholarship) numbers and I’m like, ‘I’m not sure where that — it was Jan. 12 or something when he was told by our doctors,’” Meyer said. “The one thing, every head coach, it’s made perfectly clear: The minute you question the doctor you’re probably unemployed.”
Meyer mentioned other Ohio State players such as Armani Reeves, Devan Bogard and Ron Tanner who were given medical hardship waivers and can remain on scholarship through graduation. That same option was given to Dean.
“The doctor comes in and says you’re DQ’d, you move on and we’ll do the best we can to make sure he can get a free education,” Meyer said. “We were supporting him and that’s what our guys did.”
