Masoli says he’ll pursue NFL, put UM graduate work on hold

Kyle Veazey

Posted on January 23, 2011 in Football. View Comments

Tags: houston nutt, jeremiah masoli.

OXFORD — If you follow me on Twitter, you learned a couple of hours ago that former Ole Miss quarterback Jeremiah Masoli says he’s putting his time at Ole Miss on hold to try to play in the NFL. Masoli wrote that on his own website sometime in the past few days; (Eugene, Ore.) Register-Guard columnist George Schroeder found it and tweeted about it.

Here’s an excerpt from Masoli’s website:

I also wanted to update everyone on my plans for this spring. My advisors want me to devote all of my time to training and preparing for the NFL.

For that reason, I have postponed my studies at Ole Miss. I intend to return to school at a later date to earn my master’s degree.

I’m spending some time working with a noted quarterback coach, and look forward to the opportunity to test my skills for NFL scouts. Meanwhile, it’s good to be home in the Bay Area and close to my family.

This surprises precisely no one, I’m sure. It’s hard to fault a talented football player for wanting to play in the NFL.

But for Ole Miss, Masoli’s future — and whether he ultimately earns a master’s degree in park and recreation management from the school — will always be a point of interest. Remember the great lengths to which he and UM went last summer to obtain a graduate student waiver, and the image hit Ole Miss and coach Houston Nutt took in certain corners. In Masoli’s statement to the NCAA, obtained in September by The Clarion-Ledger, he said he hoped to pursue a career in parks once his athletic and academic career had ended.

Hopefully soon, we can wrap up all the ramifications of Masoli’s future into an all-encompassing print story in The C-L. Efforts to reach Masoli through UM and the public relations firm he used out of San Francisco last summer have been unsuccessful in recent weeks.