Clint Trickett to quit football, West Virginia Mountaineers quarterback Clint Trickett will retire from playing football and pursue a coaching career after the senior said he suffered five concussions over the past 14 months -- including two that he hid from trainers.
The school announced Friday that Trickett will not play in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl against Texas A&M after failing to get cleared from a concussion he suffered Nov. 20 against Kansas State.
"I would love to be out there and finish the season with my guys my last game," Trickett said. "It's unfortunate how it ended, but I had a great senior year."
With the extra time off before the bowl game, the Mountaineers had been hopeful that Trickett would be able to return, but he failed numerous attempts at passing the concussion protocol test.
"It was tough to hear it," Trickett said about the results of the tests, which were conducted by UPMC, which invented the impact concussion test. "The more and more I think about it, I'm like, well, what I'm getting into I probably need to have a couple brain cells left, so it is for the best."
After disclosing Friday all the concussions he'd sustained over the past 14 months, Trickett admitted he hadn't told the team's medical staff about some of them at the time they happened.
"In fairness to our training staff, they didn't know. I didn't tell them, so that was on me," Trickett said. "If they would have known, they probably would have been more cautious about it, but I was trying to push through it."
Trickett hopes to follow in his father's footsteps in the coaching ranks. Rick Trickett is the offensive line coach at Florida State, where Clint Trickett played before transferring to West Virginia.
"[It's] the family business, which is something I've been excited for, and I really am ready to move on," he said.
"I know he's going to be a hell of a coach one day," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said.
Trickett finished his final season completing 67 percent of his passes for 3,285 yards and 18 touchdowns.
Sophomore Skyler Howard, who relieved Trickett in the K-State game and started for him the following weekend at Iowa State, will get the nod again for the Mountaineers in the bowl game. In three games, Howard has thrown for 483 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions.
