Texas State Recruit Recieves the Unusual Grey-shirt

By Adam Byerly
Sports Reporter

Braeden Kent is the new Texas State 2016 Quarterback commit out of Hays High School in Buda, Texas. He will be grey-shirted in the fall of 2016 and joining the team in January of 2017. Many people have heard of a redshirt but few have ever heard of a grey-shirt or even knew that it existed at all.

A redshirt is given to a player on a NCAA program to sit out a year to then gain a year of eligibility. We see this happen very often in college football. It can be given for several different reasons that may include injury, suspension or even a giving a player an extra year to develop.

But what exactly is a grey-shirt? Grey-shirt is when the player waits to enroll until the spring semester; giving the player six years of eligibility. A player can only play a sport for four seasons. Giving the extra redshirt season plus being grey-shirted at the start of a player’s college career gives the player six years in school.

In his National Signing Day press conference, Texas State Football Head Coach Everett Withers said that grey-shirting Kent is the best thing for both the player and the team.

Coach Withers discusses that he gave Kent the grey-shirt due to the number of guys he already has on a quarterback scholarship, the depth at the quarterback position and to give time for Kent to fully heal from his ACL/MCL injury. Coach Withers didn’t want Kent to have to burn his redshirt this year with Senior Tyler Jones already firmly holding the starting quarterback spot and Connor White and L.G. Williams competing for the backup position.

Featured image by Madison Tyson.