It seemed almost inevitable since August. On Friday night, it became a reality. Brandon Wegher, who followed up a hope-producing freshman campaign by leaving the team two days into August camp and never being heard from again, has officially asked for, and been granted, his scholarship release.
No word yet on where he's headed; Twitter scuttlebutt indicates it's not within the Big Ten. Of course, this may or may not eliminate projected frontrunner Nebraska based on your interpretation of the representative organizations' fiscal years. There's also the problem of the Big Ten transfer rule that prohibits intra-conference transfers (the one that temporarily held up Ben Brust's transfer to Wisconsin this spring) and the fact that Wegher's lost year at Iowa doesn't count toward the transfer rule's required year of residency; Wegher would have to sit out a second year, which he would spend begging the conference to let him play football. No, Wegher won't transfer to Lincoln unless he has no intent of ever playing football again (which, if he does, then more power to him). My guess is that one of the Dakota schools is getting one hell of a halfback with which to beat Minnesota again.
We never really discussed the rumors surrounding Wegher this fall. We're sure now that we will never really know unless Wegher starts talking, and we're not exactly holding our breath in anticipation that he will. Suffice it to say that whatever it was that took BW3 off the field in August will keep him there for the foreseeable future. Here's to hoping he finds whatever the hell it is he's looking for.
And, yes, we're putting a precursor on the title and adding a tag for it, because if what we're hearing is any indication, this isn't going to be the only one of these this week.