Ohio State football early-enrollee Jamel Dean is leaving the program after not being cleared to practice by the medical staff, according to reports.
Dean, a defensive back from Cocoa, Fla., was “presented an opportunity for a medical hardship so he could remain on academic scholarship at Ohio State, but he opted for a release from his scholarship in an attempt to get cleared medically elsewhere,” according to Eleven Warriors, who first reported Dean’s departure.
Dean’s high school coach John Wilkinson told Northeast Ohio Media Group that he is not pleased with how his former player is being treated at OSU.
“It’s ridiculous,” Wilkinson told Northeast Ohio Media Group on Wednesday. “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.”
The freshman defensive back enrolled early at OSU in January and is listed at 6-foot-2, 200 pounds on the Buckeyes’ spring roster.
Dean was rated as the No. 128 high school prospect in the class of 2015 by ESPN.com and was a four-star recruit.
