Darius Terrell was hoping to restart his college football career right away at North Texas this fall after leaving Texas.
The former DeSoto standout will have to wait a year instead.
Terrell transferred to UNT in the off-season and said he would appeal to the NCAA for a waiver that would grant him immediate eligibility. That appeal was based on the health of his grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s disease.
UNT announced late Monday that Terrell would sit out the season.
Terrell spent his redshirt season sitting out at Texas in 2010 and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining at UNT beginning in 2013.
Terrell would have provided another option at wide receiver for UNT, which returns its top three players at the position in Brelan Chancellor, Chris Bynes and former walk-on Ivan Delgado.
“I feel like we are still solid at receiver,” Chancellor said. “We have been getting better all summer.”
What UNT lacks heading into its season opener at top-ranked LSU on Sept. 1 is a proven batch of backups that can provide depth.
Mike Outlaw (17 catches, 207 yards), Breece Johnson (10 catches, 89 yards) and Willie Taylor (six catches, 38 yards) all completed their careers last season.
The three players listed as UNT’s top backups heading into fall practice — Derrick Teegarden, Chaz Sampson and Lynrick Pleasant — combined to catch one pass for 22 yards last season.
Teegarden posted that lone catch.
Sampson spent his first season at UNT as a redshirt, while Pleasant is a junior walk-on.
UNT signed three wide receivers in its 2012 recruiting class but only two are available after Roderick Lancaster suffered a knee injury playing catch over the summer. Lancaster will redshirt this season.
“He ran a 10.5 hundred meters,” UNT head coach Dan McCarney said of Lancaster during the Sun Belt Conference media day in July. “We will miss him.”
UNT finished with only 11 pass plays of 30 yards or more last season, and two of them were to running back Lance Dunbar.
The Mean Green did not have a player finish among the top 10 players in the Sun Belt last season in receptions or receiving yards.
Terrell is expected to provide UNT another option in the slot when he becomes eligible. At 6-foot-3, 220 pounds he is built like a hybrid tight end-wide receiver.
Terrell said this summer that he would spend the upcoming season trying to lose weight and improve his speed if he was not granted a waiver by the NCAA.
That turned out to be just what Terrell will spend the next few months doing.
BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .
UNT BACKUP WIDEOUTS
North Texas has three proven wide receivers in Brelan Chancellor, Chris Bynes and Ivan Delgado, but is short on proven backups. The following is a look at UNT’s second-string players:
Derrick Teegarden, 6-0, 198, So.
• Caught one pass for 22 yards last season.
Chaz Sampson, 6-5, 191, Fr. (RS)
• Highly regarded recruit from Mansfield who will make debut in fall.
Lynrick Plesant, 6-2, 200, Jr.
• Came to UNT as a walk-on, has a chance to earn role in fall camp.
