It should have been a great college career for David Ash at Texas but a concussion and symptoms he simply couldn’t shake off prove to be too dangerous for the quarterback to continue and play with, announcing his retirement from college football.
Ash had a promising start to his career at Austin, which included a very good sophomore season and winning his second Bowl game with the team. Early in the 2013 season he suffered a concussion in the loss to BYU, something he never recovered from. He did play two weeks later against Kansas State, but that was the last time he was in action for the Longhorns, shut down for the rest of the season.
He started for Texas in the season opening win over North Texas but was once against sidelined after suffering from more post-concussions symptoms, effectively shut down on September 1, giving Tyrone Swoops the chance to become Texas’ starting quarterback.
Ash finishes his college career as a player but according to head coach Charlie Strong, he’ll stick around and work with the other quarterbacks on the program. Strong mentioned that he and the coaching staff couldn’t allow Ash to carry on playing and risking his health like that, but that the final decision was for Ash to make, deciding his health is more important than playing football for a year or two more.
Maybe there will be no long-term effect. Maybe by stepping away from the game and a chance of having a pro career, Ash just saved his own life, or at least gave himself a chance to have a normal one.
Texas, regardless of what happens at quarterback, are in trouble. They’ve started the season at 1-2 which includes home losses to BYU (a very painful one) and UCLA, coming back from behind in the fourth quarter despite playing with their backup quarterback.