When Asa Martin came in for one kick return and one carry in the Mississippi State game, his chance to redshirt the 2018 season was officially burned.

It was the fifth game Martin, a freshman, played in — though members of the Auburn coaching staff were unaware of that when Martin was sent into the game, according to Martin’s mother, Sharay Harris, in an interview with AL.com.

She said Auburn coaches talked to her and Martin’s father, Rakesk Martin, about redshirting their son, after the Mississippi State game — even though she’d made it known to Auburn’s offensive coordinator before that game that another appearance would use up his freshman eligibility.

The NCAA’s new redshirt policy allows student-athletes to compete in up to four football games in a given season without losing a year of eligibility. Once they’ve entered a fifth game, that year of eligibility has been used.

Auburn coaches seemingly thought the Mississippi State game was Martin’s fourth appearance, thus preserving his option to redshirt this season and preserve his eligibility. The fact was they were wrong.

“I had already reached out to the coaching staff to question about his redshirt before he played in the Mississippi State game, because I knew he had already played four games,” Harris said.

That person she spoke to was then-offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey. He allegedly told her that Martin would play in that Mississippi State game and be a factor on the offense going forward this season — and the topic of a redshirt was ended.

After Martin’s play was limited in that MSU game, Harris said she had another conversation with a member of Auburn’s coaching staff.

“After the Mississippi State game is when another assistant coach said that he wanted to redshirt Asa,” Harris said. “At this point, he had played five games."

"… I’m just blown away, because Asa and I and his dad already knew that Asa’s redshirt had already been burned in the Mississippi State game.”

Harris wouldn’t say which assistant coach spoke to her about that. She did say that an Auburn offensive assistant coach spoke to Rakesk Martin after the Tennessee game one week later, and Rakesk made that coach realize the redshirt was burned.

“We, his parents, made them see after they burned it that they had already burned it,” Harris said. “They still wasn’t like — they didn’t acknowledge the fact that they had burned it. It was like they didn’t know. Like what do you mean you don’t know?”

Auburn declined, through a team spokesman, to answer questions regarding this allegation about Martin’s redshirt. AL.com asked if the staff knew the redshirt was burned for the MSU game, and why they decided to burn his redshirt for such minimal playing time. AL.com also asked why the staff hadn’t communicated more clearly with Martin’s family.

Martin had 13 carries for 57 yards this season, as well as two catches for 36 yards. The Alabama Sports Writers Association’s 2017 Mr. Football was listed as the No. 9 running back in the 2018 high school class, playing for Austin High School in Decatur. As a senior, he was also the Alabama state Gatorade Player of the Year — while rushing for 33 touchdowns.

Martin was one of the jewels of the class, and a highly sought-after prospect. His used a year of eligibility to make no significant impact on the Auburn roster.

Auburn did acknowledge a significant participation error on their official website, and it’s an error that backs up Harris’ story.

Auburn, however, declined to answer a question about the role this error played in Martin spending a year of eligibility.

The website listed Martin as having played in Auburn’s games against Alabama State, LSU, Southern Mississippi and Mississippi State. It does not have him listed as playing in Auburn’s 34-3 win over Arkansas in Sept. 22. He did, however, play briefly in that game, meaning that he burned his redshirt when Auburn faced Mississippi State.

As of Thursday afternoon, the team’s online participation chart still didn’t correctly list Martin as having played in the Arkansas game. It’s unclear if the participation error on the website was something that the coaching staff believed to be true in the weeks that followed the game on Sept. 22.

“That still was a lie and we knew this before the Mississippi State game,” Harris said of the participation chart. “That’s how bad the redshirt situation was mishandled.”

Martin didn’t appear in another game after the Mississippi State game (Oct. 6) for six weeks, when he took a few carries during the tail end of a blowout against Liberty (Nov. 17).

It’s also unclear why Lindsey allegedly told Harris the plan was to use Martin throughout the season, and why that didn’t end up happening.

Harris’ story is also backed up by quotes that head coach Gus Malzahn and Lindsey made to the local media before the Mississippi State game. Malzahn said Martin “has a role for us.” Lindsey said, “we have some runs for Asa.”

Martin did not serve a real on-field role. He had just one meaningful rush attempt the rest of the season.

There are questions that Harris still wants to have answered. She said she has received responses to her correspondences with coaches, but nothing that answers her how this mistake happened.

“That made me realize that they didn’t have his best interest at heart,” Harris said. “That’s what it made me realize because there’s no way, again, at a D1 college that every stat, every play for play, every time you even take a snap that it’s not recorded.”

She said Martin, her son, has been “frustrated throughout this whole season” with how this has been handled. She’s concerned about other kids — especially ones without a strong support system — who could have this situation repeated with them.

“I don’t know if this could hurt Asa or help him,” Harris said. “But I feel some type of way because Asa has a support system. What about the kids that doesn’t have a support system? And you, like, to mislead these kids, I feel like it’s so wrong and somebody has to take a stand and speak up for them. I don’t wanna hurt my son in any type of way, but at the same time, it’s not OK to mislead these kids.”

Harris made it very clear that her complaint was not about a lack of playing time. As she points out, she was the one who asked for the redshirt. She didn’t care if he didn’t play another down all season, as long as there was a plan for her son.

She has not looked into complaining to anyone within the athletic administration, trying to prevent any further issues that her son would have to deal with. She also said the question now is not if he’ll transfer, but what happened, and how will it be fixed.

“That’s not the conversation,” Harris said about transferring. “The conversation is, I just wanna know the basic question about this whole redshirt situation, and how they’re going forward with not just Asa but with other players.”

This is why she decided to put her complaint on the record, for everyone to know about.

“Nobody is acknowledging it,” Harris said. “Nobody is taking the blame for it. And nobody is acting like it ever existed.”