Former Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli will walk on at Mississippi after the visiting the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Miss., this weekend.
According to his recently launched website, jeremiahmasoli.net, Masoli said Ole Miss has accepted his application for graduate school, and Rebels head coach Houston Nutt has invited him to walk on to the football team.
“I am very excited about this opportunity and very thankful Ole Miss is giving me this chance,” Masoli said. “I want to thank Coach Nutt for believing in me.”
Masoli’s move is contingent upon transcript approval from the school, and the Rebels must apply for an eligibility waiver from the NCAA, but both are expected to be approved.
If the waiver is approved, Masoli will be eligible to play immediately, thanks to an NCAA rule allowing students to transfer to another Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly Division I-A, school without penalty if the student enrolls in a graduate program. Masoli earned his undergraduate degree from the University in July and will pursue a degree in parks and recreation management, according to his website.
Nutt initially was not interested in Masoli, but projected starting quarterback Raymond Cotton abruptly left the team last week, leaving the Rebels with only two scholarship quarterbacks.
“I felt like he needed us a whole lot more than we needed him,” Nutt told si.com. “He’ll be under the highest level of scrutiny.”
Masoli will battle sophomore Nathan Stanley and junior college transfer Randall Mackey for the starting job.
On Wednesday, Masoli was the subject of a Sports Illustrated profile detailing his side of his widely reported off-the-field incidents. In conjunction with the article, he also released the aforementioned website.
“I made a few very poor decisions in the past year, and I apologize to my family, friends and fans for them,” Masoli said through his website. “But I am not the person who has been portrayed in many media stories.”
“The Sports Illustrated story, I hope, will set the record straight. I am not a thief nor a thug. The people who know me best know the truth.”
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