Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images(EUGENE, Ore.) — University of Oregon’s football strength and conditioning coach has been suspended after three student-athletes were hospitalized following offseason workouts that have been likened to basic military training.
The strength and conditioning program, led by coach Irele Oderinde, began last Tuesday after the team got back from their holiday break. By Thursday, “one student-athlete complained of muscle soreness and displayed other symptoms of potential exercise-related injury,” the university said. Two other players followed with similar symptoms.
All three have been hospitalized with a condition known as Rhabdomyolysis.
“I have visited with the three young men involved in the incidents in the past few days and I have been in constant contact with their families, offering my sincere apologies,” Oregon head football coach Willie Taggart said in a statement Tuesday, apologizing on behalf of the coaching staff and university.
“As the head football coach, I hold myself responsible for all of our football-related activities and the safety of our students must come first,” he continued. “I have addressed the issue with our strength and conditioning staff, and I fully support the actions taken today by the university.”
Those actions include Oderinde being suspended without pay for one month, and the head football strength and conditioning coach no longer reporting to the head football coach but rather to the director of performance and sports science.
“I want to thank our medical staff and doctors for caring for all of our young men, and I want to apologize to the university, our students, alumni and fans,” Taggart concluded.
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