Riversides Waiters is still a year away: ; Marshall coach asked standout to not enroll until January

HUNTINGTON - College football terminology, especially inrecruiting, isn't easy to grasp for even high school coaches andplayers.

Riverside's Raheem Waiters wasn't so concerned with redshirts orgrayshirts or any other color of clothing on National Signing Day onWednesday.

Waiters was focused on the green cap - bearing a Marshall logo onthe front - that he fit snugly on his head after he signed aninstitutional letter-of-intent before a gathering of his teachers,coaches and Warriors classmates at a small ceremony in Riverside'sauditorium.

"I'm excited, but at the same time I'm kind of down because Iknow I'm not going to start playing football until next year,"Waiters said. "I'm the first person to sign a D-I footballscholarship from this school, so that's exciting."

Waiters' reference to not playing is because new Marshall CoachDoc Holliday has asked the standout prep receiver to grayshirt,which means he will not enroll at MU until January.

Waiters was the first verbal pledge to Mark Snyder's Class of2010, but he was not among the 25 student-athletes introduced aspart of Holliday's inaugural recruiting class at Marshall.

Once Waiters enrolls, he will instead be considered a part of theClass of 2011, which is why he didn't sign the standard nationalletter-of-intent Wednesday.

That letter is not binding, meaning Waiters is still arecruitable athlete and Holliday cannot comment on him.

According to Riverside Coach Ralph Hensley, Waiters still has ascholarship waiting for him at Marshall when he starts school onesemester later than planned.

"Doc has been good to us," Hensley said.

"He called me as soon as he got the job and said he was going tohonor the scholarship. He talked to me about the grayshirt option,so hopefully (Waiters) will make an impact when he gets down there."

Hensley said the idea behind the grayshirt and delaying Waiters'enrollment is to give the former Warriors star a chance torehabilitate his left knee, an injury he sustained during his seniorfootball season that required him to get reconstructive surgery.

Waiters can continue to strengthen the knee this summer and fall,then enroll at Marshall and participate in spring drills in 2011.

He will still have five years to exhaust his four years ofeligibility starting in August 2011.

"At first it seemed like it was going to be really hard to sitout, but it's going to give me time to get my leg better and getback to 100 percent."

During the ceremony, Riverside athletic director Jason Cantrellpresented Waiters with a framed collage of his accomplishmentsacross three sports. Cantrell and Hensley said it was important torecognize Waiters' achievements to set an example for other studentsand athletes at the school.

"I've been with him four years and I consider him like a son,"Hensley said. "I think once he gets to Marshall and they see him onthe field, and once they see him run, and once they see him catchthe ball, they might go, 'Maybe we got us a steal.'"

Waiters committed to Marshall in June before his senior season.

The 6-foot-2 receiver finished his career with 77 receptions for1,289 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Contact sportswriter Chuck McGill at chuck.mcgill@dailymail.comor 304-348-1712. His blog is at http://blogs.dailymail.com/marshall.