I like Rex as much as the next person, but I don't think he'll be able to get a medical redshirt at this point in the year. Besides, the local articles state that he is "ready to go" against Northwestern. I had my doubts when I read the first post and I'm still very skeptical of the information and all of it. It would be awesome if he was able to get one, but I don't think he will be able too.
Harrison Beck's shirt was gone because a) it occurred late in the season, and b) he didn't have an injury, and couldn't apply for a medical. We're talking about a medical redshirt for Rex, right?
We've gone the medical route with other players, such as Cameron Meredith.
We were talking about Medical Redshirt for Rex and kind of veered off to Redshirts (non medical) in general and the rules. I was under the assumption there was a playing time you could do, preseason, and you could still redshirt a freshman, but I could be mixing up medical/base redshirts.
For a regular college athlete: You have 5 years to play 4 years.
For "JUCO transfers" that did not take a redshirt, they have 3 years to play 2 years, depending on Academic status.
Some can be "JUCO Sophomores" on the team, which means they have 4 years to play 3 years, if they didn't use a Redshirt at their Junior College.
What this all means is you can redshirt [sit out a year] and not have it penalize you for time you have left to play. You can redshirt a player at any time, for any reason, is my understanding.
If a player is going to be a True Freshman, he can redshirt, if he is going into his Senior season and for some reason he needs/wants to redshirt, he can redshirt and play the following year as a 5th year Senior but may have already, or is on pace, to graduate.
A "Medical Redshirt" can be given if an athlete qualifies for it. I do not know the time table of games played.
Tommie Frazier I believe filed for one and was denied in 1994 which is why we saw him in the Orange Bowl that year. If he was given a Medical Redshirt in 1994 we would have not seen him in the 1995 Orange Bowl and he would've been a Redshirt Junior for 1995 and a Redshirt Senior for 1996.
Jared Crick played in too many games in 2011 to get one. But someone like Zaire Anderson will probably get one because he did not play in as many games. Someone like Case Keenum [QB, Houston] or Jason White [QB, Oklahoma] are examples of Medical Redshirts.
Now here's the thing about burning redshirts in Harrison Beck's case.
You can redshirt any payer for any reason on any given year. However, the minute they step on the field in game action, and play one snap, that is the essence of "burning a redshirt" meaning, they just lost their redshirt status and just "completed" a year of eligibility. That's what happened with Beck. When Zac Taylor went down, he came in for the 2005 Kansas State game, and finished it. But he lost his redshirt for that season.
Now what I'm not completely sure on, is if Beck could've Redshirted the 2006 season and become a "Redshirt Sophomore" in 2007, if he were still around. But since he was not around I'm not sure how that works. Or once he burned his Redshirt in 2005 he couldn't redshirt again unless it was an injury related reason. Although if I had to guess, I would say he would've been eligible for a Redshirt in 2006 if he wanted, thus becoming a Redshirt Sophomore in 2007 because he "played" as a True Freshman in 2005, still having the option to fully finish a "Redshirt year" later down the road.