Josh Belk from his video talking about his life in football

Monday afternoon, USC issued a statement related to this story, though in the statement USC did not directly identify this story:

Statement from South Carolina Athletics:



The University of South Carolina is committed to providing all of our student-athletes with high-quality, comprehensive health care from nationally recognized surgeons and athletic trainers. Additionally, as stated in the Gamecock Student-Athlete Promise, all athletically-related scholarships provided to incoming freshmen are four-year agreements and coaches cannot withdraw scholarships because of medical reasons. Due to federal HIPPA laws, the University cannot comment about medical treatments or issues with any specific student-athlete.

Former Clemson and USC DT Josh Belk of Lewisville had not spoken publicly about his college experience until releasing a YouTube video Saturday night in which he gave details of his life in football from high school junior varsity to a brief stay at a junior college this year. In the video, Belk claimed USC coach Will Muschamp threatened to pull his scholarship at the end of the spring semester when he couldn’t workout because of three broken bones in his back.

“I got to the point where it is like ain’t even no point in me staying here, my scholarship is going to be taken away,” Belk said in the video that was taped with him sitting in the back seat of a car. “At that point, I just came home. It was kind of dirty on that end. When you’re on scholarship, I feel like you should have an option to stay. At that point, I was like they just wanted me for football. It’s a business, so I understood that.”

Belk left USC in February and at that time Muschamp issued a statement saying, “After talking with Josh Belk, he has decided to give up the game. He is a fine young man and we wish him the best.”

Indeed, in the video Belk said he went home with no intention of playing football again. But a junior college in Mississippi contacted him and he went down there to try it again, but he said his back problems flared back up and he returned home.

Here’s the Josh Belk Video: