A clearly embarrassed Mark Packer, the Knoxville sportscaster who steered Brandon Warren to FSU last season is speechless. Packer was overheard to say, “I thought Coach Bowden was Christian.”

Here is an update and link to the Brandon Warren transfer. Story Here.

Florida State tight end Brandon Warren has been denied his request for a release that would allow him to transfer to the University of Tennessee without having to pay his own way.

It is an unusual but not an unexpected move by coach Bobby Bowden and FSU. Since Warren left FSU on Feb. 9 there has been speculation in the media that he would not be granted a release to transfer to Tennessee, which is near his Alcoa, Tenn., home.

Below is an email that I received from someone “close and knowledgeable” to the whole situation.

His mother is actually in better health than she was when Brandon signed to attend FSU. This is according to statements she made to the press. Her health is not a mitigating factor here. It would be difficult to get a hardship for his mother’s health when he actually left to attend FSU when she was worse than when he went back home.

What it boils down to is that he is homesick. He was excited about the upcoming season just days before NSD. Once his friend signed with Tennessee, I think it all came down around his shoulders. I also believe that his friend was actively trying to get him to go to Tennessee with him, either with or without Coach Fulmers help.

One other factor here that nobody is really looking at. Even if Bobby granted his release, he still would not be cleared by the NCAA to be at Tennessee on scholarship, because by leaving in the middle of a semester, he failed to make adequate academic progress. They require an athlete to complete at least 6 hours a semester and 18 hours in the Fall and Spring semesters combined. Brandon failed to achieve that mark by leaving in the middle os the Spring semester.

Bobby has denied releases for players that are homesick in the past. One was Buster Davis. The difference was that Buster’s mom told the coach not to release him, that he needed to stay and get through being homesick. That worked out very well for Buster. Another case was a player asking Bobby to come to FSU, since he was homesick for Florida while playing for a school in Michigan. Bobby told that player he needed to stick it out where he had committed, and the player ended up doing well there. At that time it was early in Bobby’s career at FSU, and he could have really used the skill that player would have brought, but he denied the player’s request to transfer to FSU, knowing that it was best for the player to learn a life lesson regarding committment and standing by your word.

People are calling Bobby out on this, but nobody knows the entire story. If this was truly about the health of Brandon’s mother, Bobby would have granted the release. That is simply the kind of man he is. The fact that he denied it shows me that it is about being homesick, not a dire need for Brandon to be home. Bobby always makes decisions based on what is best for the player, even though at times the player thinks it is not what is best. How many parents here have heard from our children that they thought we were being unfair when telling them no? We knew it was best to say no to a request, but they did not understand until later that no was the best answer for them at the time.