Tyrone Willingham confirmed during Thursday’s Pacific-10 Conference Media Day in Los Angeles that four players – including running back J.R. Hasty and wide receiver Chancellor Young – are academically ineligible and will not play for the Huskies this season.
Besides Hasty and Young, offensive tackle Nathan Flowers and wide receiver Charles Smith are also ineligible.
News of Hasty’s ineligibility leaked last week and Willingham confirmed that the redshirt freshman from Bellevue – Washington’s top recruit two years ago – will not play. Washington prepared for Hasty’s absence by moving senior Shelton Sampson from cornerback to running back, where he spent his first two seasons. Washington has two returning running backs in senior Kenny James and junior Louis Rankin, and it’s possible that incoming freshmen Matt Mosley and Leilyon Myers could also get carries.
Hasty came out of spring ball third on the depth chart but dazzled coaches as a true freshman on the scout teams last season and was expected to push for the starting job when fall practice begins in two weeks.
Young, who sat out last season after transferring from Duke, was expected to give Washington a big, physical and fast receiver and was seen as a possible replacement to big-play receiver Craig Chambers, a former Jackson High star who transferred to Montana after last season. Young, a former O’Dea High star and son of former Seahawk Charle Young, caught a 55-yard touchdown in the Spring Game.
Flowers, a sophomore, was in a battle with redshirt freshman Ben Ossai for the starting job at left tackle on a line that lost four starters. Flowers ended the spring behind Ossai but the competition was close.
Smith was not expected to contribute much after catching just one pass last season.
Willingham said that Hasty and Smith could become eligible in 2007 as they are both still in school. However Young and Flowers are not in school, which likely means that if they are to continue their football careers, it will be at another school.
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