Spurned Matt Colburn Signs with Wake Forest
Matt Colburn will be attending a Division 1 Program and playing football this fall. It just won’t be the Louisville Cardinals and it won’t be Coach Bobby Petrino. Instead he will be welcomed to Wake Forest University by Coach Dave Clawson.
More from Wake Forest Demon Deacons
- Webb Simpson wins RBC Heritage Open on Father’s Day
- Four North Carolina players selected in first round of MLB Draft
- Battle 4 NC: Ranking the Top 5 Football Teams in NC after Week 11
- Wake Forest Football: How to watch College Football Playoff Rankings Show
- Surratt, Dimukeje, Acceus Named ACC Players of the Week
Colburn was a running back who was Mr. Football in the state of South Carolina. He was rated a three star recruit by the various recruiting services, but he had been committed to Petrino and Louisville for eight months. During that eight months, Colburn essentially ended his recruitment. He was just waiting for Signning Day, when he could formalize what he thought was a foregone conclusion.
Then the business of college football got in the way. Petrino watched more of his defense leave for the NFL than he thought he would lose. He decided he needed more defensive backs and get them he needed more scholarships. So he made the decision to revoke Colburn’s scholarship offer for this year, replacing it with an offer to gray-shirt.
Live Feed
Busting Brackets
Gray-shirting is where an athlete waits until the start of the next calendar year so their scholarship would count against next year’s limit. However it seemed to be in poor taste to do it so late in the process with a guy who been committed for eight months.
Petrino defended his decision, saying it was necessary for him to properly build his roster. Which is probably how he really feels. No one has quite the ethical record of Petrino, and if he says ethics didn’t play any role, you should believe him. Which is why so much has probably been made of this. If
Colburn hadn’t gone public and if Petrino hadn’t been the guy, maybe there would be a bigger defense of gray-shirting. Replace Petrino with Saban and maybe this isn’t a conversation.
More importantly for Colburn, he becomes part of the offense building project at Wake Forest. If he works hard, he will have an opportunity to play right away given the lack of results from the running back position last year. He will also have the opportunity to show Petrino what exactly he missed out on when the Deacs play Louisville October 30. Happy Halloween!