Written by Ell | 17 July 2008

In a move that was (sadly) expected, Nick Saban announced today that Linebacker Zeke Knight will no longer be a member of Alabama's football team. If you've not been following Zeke's story, here it is in a nutshell:

• He came to Alabama as a part of the same wide receiver recruiting class as DJ Hall & Keith Brown.
• After catching only 5 passes as a Freshman, and given his size, he was moved to Tight End for his Sophomore season.
• His Junior season saw another position move, this time to Defensive End. Illness cut his season short after 4 games, and he was granted a medical redshirt.
• In February of 2007 it was determined that the illness was caused by a heart murmur, and he had surgery to correct that.
• Despite the surgery, he learned yet another new position, this time SAM linebacker, and spent the entirety of his 2nd Junior season as the starter at the position - ending the season with 64 tackles, 11 tackles for a loss, 3 sacks & 2 interceptions; was named Co-Defensive Player of the Week by the coaches 3 times.
• On January 29 of 2008 he collapsed during a workout and spent the night at Tuscaloosa's DCH Health Systems.
• Student privacy laws have prohibited the University from making an official announcement regarding exactly what is wrong with Zeke. The word from sources is that this is a blood clotting issue, caused by the heart problem.
• He missed all of spring practice, and was not re-instated to participate in work-outs during the summer session.
• Word broke yesterday that he was seeking to transfer to Faulkner State, but their medical staff would not clear him.
• Today Nick Saban announced that he is no longer medically qualified to play.

While this move is not unexpected, now that it is official, a cold light can be shined on Alabama's linebacker situation. This is a HUGE loss, both for the Alabama football team and for Zeke Knight. Zeke is an incredible athletic specimen who is utterly coachable and willing to do anything to help his team win. If 2008 had only equaled 2007 for Zeke, the NFL would have almost certainly come calling. He is set to graduate in August, and will remain on scholarship at Alabama to finish his degree. But his football career is sadly over. For Alabama, the thin linebacker corps just lost one of its leaders - both in talent and in leadership.  Chavis Williams is the likely starter, and this makes it very likely that Jerrell Harris will have to play as a freshman. As for the scholarship numbers situation: This takes Bama down to 61 returning players. In order to bring in 25 scholarship players, that number has to get to 60. As we reported in this article last week, there may not be 25 scholarship athletes coming in, as some of Bama's incoming class may take advantage of other options to allow them to play football without counting against the 85 limit.

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