Appeal could make Warren eligible immediately

The University of Tennessee plans to file two waivers on behalf of former Florida State freshman All-American tight end Brandon Warren, one of which could result in immediate eligibility for the 2008 season.

Warren, who begins classes at UT on Monday, needs the NCAA to approve a pair of hardship waivers - one to allow him to receive financial aid and another to regain his eligibility after leaving Florida State early in his second semester there last year.

An NCAA ruling on Warren's appeals is expected this summer. In the meantime, however, he is allowed to work out and practice with the team.

"I try to be optimistic, but I'm cautiously optimistic," said Warren's mother, Deirdre. "I don't want to think about it really."

At issue is Warren's failure to complete the NCAA's year-in-residency requirement.

Warren left Florida State in February 2007 shortly after completing his freshman season in order to be closer to his mother, who had a cancerous kidney removed in 2005 and has since suffered complications from the operation.

"When I would come in and out of state, I could tell," Warren told Blount Today last year in his only public comments since returning to Alcoa, where he earned Class 2A Mr. Football honors in 2005. "She'd be lying on the couch. She was losing weight. She looked sick. I could tell."

But by leaving FSU mid-semester, he did not maintain his status as full-time student for two semesters and also did not make sufficient progress toward his degree as required by the NCAA. Since leaving FSU, Warren has taken classes at Pellissippi State Technical Community College.

His mother's illness, as well as financial hardship, is the basis for both appeals.

Those factors already helped grant Warren's release from his National Letter of Intent.

A panel of commissioners from various conferences and NCAA representatives released Warren from his LOI in November, after Florida State denied his initial request and a three-person faculty committee at FSU denied his appeal.

UT men's basketball player Tyler Smith also won an NCAA appeal for immediate eligibility last summer after transferring from Iowa to be closer to his ailing father in McMinnville.

The circumstances of Smith's appeal, however, were different in that Iowa went through a coaching change and also released Smith from his scholarship.

Still, Smith's success gives Deirdre Warren hope for her son's appeal.

"It does," she said. "Even when (Iowa) released Tyler, it gave us a sense of hope. Restoring that year back, that was encouraging. I think we have a pretty good shot at it, but I don't want to put it out on a limb right now."

Drew Edwards covers University of Tennessee football. He may be reached at 865-342-6274.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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