Eugene Jarvis will get a sixth year, or the NCAA is going to burn!

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Tue Sep 15 10:41am EDT

Eugene Jarvis will get a sixth year, or the NCAA is going to burn!

He gets no attention at a place like Kent State, so a moment of respect, please, for Golden Flashes quarkback Eugene Jarvis, who'll miss the rest the season with a lacerated kidney. Jarvis has won the metaphorical "Toughman" award throughout his career for averaging more than 16 touches per game and accounting for almost 4,000 total yards in three years despite a) Being a hair over 5'5", and, as he just found out this weekend, b) Playing with only one kidney in the first place.

That minor defect hadn't been an issue until the other one was damaged Saturday against Boston College; after leaving the game at halftime, Jarvis called teammates in severe pain in the middle of the night, rushed to the hospital and discovered both the damage to his right kidney and the complete absence of the left on a CT scan early Sunday morning.

Jarvis apparently played with the injury for more than a quarter and would have continued playing, according to Kent coach Doug Martin, if he wasn't in such obvious pain at the half. That kind of suicidal perseverance from the smallest player in the country endears itself to a coach, which may be one of the reasons Martin was so adamant Jarvis would be granted a waiver for a sixth year of eligibility -- or else:

''[It's] a slam dunk that [Jarvis] should get a sixth year,'' said Martin, who brought a handful of photocopied stories to pass out to the media of other players across the country who were granted a sixth year of eligibility. But Martin pointed out two other KSU players [quarterback Giorgio Morgan and defensive player Abe Elam] who recently requested a sixth year from the NCAA and were denied.
''If [Jarvis] doesn't [get a sixth year], then somebody's not doing their job or the NCAA doesn't care about kids. ... If this kid doesn't get a sixth year, everybody in Kent should storm the NCAA, and we should burn the place down."

In a pinch, Martin could probably get at least a few other coaches and possibly even a Congressman or two to join the mob: "The First Annual Eugene Jarvis Memorial Bureaucracy Burn" has a nice ring to it, actually.