Thanks to family issues back home, Tulane will be without one its most experienced members of its receiving corp for the 2013 season.
According to the Baton Rouge Advocate, Wilson Van Hooser has asked for a release from his Tulane scholarship and will transfer out of the football program. The reason for the transfer has nothing to do with problems with the coaching staff or off-field issues or anything of that sort. Rather, the senior wide receiver wants to move back home to be closer to his mom, who the paper writes has undergone seven back surgeries and several other procedures looking into her brain over the past several months and is currently bedridden.
“I needed to make a big-boy decision, because I’m graduating, my older brother is getting married and Fudge (brother and Tulane teammate Walker Van Hooser) is moving into a position he’s really excited about,” Van Hooser told the Advocate. “I need to step up for my family, and I need to be the one to be back in Montgomery (Ala.) to help out as much as I can.”
While Van Hooser is leaving the Green Wave, he wants to play his final season of college football. In a classy gesture, Van Hooser said that the Tulane coaching staff has reached out to their counterparts at Auburn and Troy in an attempt to help the player find a roster spot for the 2013 season.
That gesture wasn’t lost on Van Hooser.
“I was so impressed with the way the coaches handled it, and I hoped they would be okay with my decision,” the receiver said. “But I didn’t expect them to sympathize, and they did. These things aren’t easy.”
Van Hooser has played in 37 games the past three years, totaling 55 catches for 805 yards and nine touchdowns. His best year came during his redshirt sophomore season in 2011 with 36 receptions for 487 yards and four touchdowns. While he had just 11 catches in 2012, he averaged over 21 yards per reception and his five touchdown catches were tied for second on the team.