It has been rumored for some time that Willie Lowe was no longer part of the Iowa Football program after being absent from last Wednesday's practice that was open (at least for a little while) to the media. News finally broke last night as ESPN's Joe Shad reported that Lowe has indeed requested to be released from his scholarship in order to transfer.
Lowe was one of the Rhabdo13 and has still not fully recovered. Lowe told ESPN, "I would like to be able to sit out a year, regain my strength, feel fine and play again. But I don't know. I am still down 20 pounds and I am having headaches every few days." This comes just a week after Shaun Prater spoke publicly about his bout with rhabdo and how he has moved on. According to Marc Morehouse on twitter, "Not all the rhadbo players were practicing last week. Different guys at different stages."
We were told by Coach Ferentz at the beginning of spring practice that all 13 players had been cleared medically to play and that they'd be eased back into practice over the course of a week or so. It sounds like, while they may have been cleared, that at least some of the guys are still not fully healthy. In fact, Lowe said, "Only a few players are back to full speed that I know of. Some said this wasn't a big deal. But this was a big deal to me."
This story doesn't seem to be as over as I thought it was a week ago.