It was a good news-bad news kind of day for Tom Savage.
The bad news is that the ex-Rutgers quarterback, who announced earlier this month that he was transferring, lost his appeal and was denied an unconditional release from his scholarship by the school. Savage had submitted a list of 25 schools he wanted to talk to, but head coach Greg Schiano only approved 17 of them.
Among the eight schools denied were Miami, Florida, Florida State and Michigan. Among the schools he was granted permission to talk to were Marshall, Western Michigan, North Illinois and Arizona.
The loss of the appeal, however, was somewhat mitigated by Schiano’s bountiful benevolence. In a statement released by the school, Schiano did a partial about-face and stated that he has given Savage permission to speak to both Miami and Florida about a possible transfer.
“I was informed recently that the appeals committee denied Tom’s request for permission to contact, but because of my relationship with Tom and because of everything that he’s meant to our football family, I’ve made the decision to allow him to contact both the University of Florida and Miami,” Schiano said. “After listening and better understand Tom’s reasoning, I understood them better and because of our relationship I felt it was the right thing to do.”
Savage has grandparents in South Florida, which apparently played a role in Schiano’s decision to allow the contact with the Florida schools.
The sophomore would be forced to sit out the 2011 season if he transfers to a Div. 1-A school, but would have two years of eligibility remaining beginning in 2012.