Houston QB D’Eriq King says he plans to return to Cougars in 2020
By Dave Holcomb
Published:
Houston quarterback D’Eriq King announced his plan to sit out the rest of this season to preserve his last year of eligibility Monday. After a few hours of social media speculation, King also announced his goal is to stay at Houston and use his final year in college to play for the Cougars.
Houston wide receiver Keith Corbin is planning to do the same thing — sit out the rest of 2019, use his available redshirt and then return to the Cougars football program for the 2020 season.
Update from our report earlier: Both #Houston QB D’Eriq King and wide receiver Keith Corbin plan to redshirt this season and return to the program in 2020, the players said in a statement Monday. https://t.co/QaHtJp3j1h
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) September 23, 2019
King played very well in Houston’s first four games, throwing for 663 yards and six touchdowns with two interceptions, but the Cougars own a 1-3 record. Before this season, Houston hadn’t started a year 1-3 since 2012.
King and Corbin are able to preserve a year of eligibility after playing four games because of the NCAA’s new redshirt rule, which came into effect last year. The new rule allows player to appear in up to four games and not have that count as a year of eligibility.
The best example of this from last year was former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant. He played four games for the Tigers, but then after learning he wouldn’t remain the team’s starter, Bryant left the team and then transferred to Missouri as a graduate student this past offseason.
King and Corbin both cited their reason for redshirting is to concentrate on earning their degrees. Should they graduate, they would also be eligible to transfer and play immediately as Bryant was a year ago. While both announced publicly Monday they will return to Houston in 2020, with the unusualness of this decision, it will only remain natural for fans and the media alike to question their true intentions.
Dave covers SEC football for Saturday Down South.
