UPDATE: Matt Campbell grants Jacob Park’s release to transfer from Iowa State
December 11, 2017
Updated Dec. 11 at 9:47 p.m.
Iowa State head football coach Matt Campbell told the Des Moines Register that he will grant redshirt junior quarterback Jacob Park’s release, so he has the ability to transfer out of Iowa State.
“We wish Jacob the absolute best, and he’s done a lot of great things,” Campbell told Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register on Monday night. “But if the situation is that he’s looking for a new start, then that’s the best situation for him.”
Updated Dec. 11 at 8:49 p.m.
Park told the Des Moines Register on Monday evening that he has asked for his release from Iowa State and plans to transfer upon graduation in the spring.
Park took a leave of absence starting on Oct. 6 due to personal health reasons, according to a statement from the Iowa State athletics department back on Oct. 6. According to Park in the Des Moines Register interview, he said that he failed a drug test because of his marijuana usage and that he would be facing a one-game suspension, which would have been the Oklahoma game on Oct. 7.
BREAKING: Quarterback Jacob Park tells me he’s asked Iowa State out of his scholarship so he can transfer. https://t.co/mxLCKoVI6k #Cyclones
— Tommy Birch (@TommyBirch) December 12, 2017
After that one game, Campbell said Park would take an indefinite leave from the team. That leave would be for the entire season.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m no longer on the team,” Park said to Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register on Monday night. “I haven’t been communicated to by anyone on the team. I haven’t talked to coach Campbell since the second week I was gone. [I’m] just kind of now taking my own steps to make sure my future’s OK.”
Park has one more class left to complete in the spring and will graduate from Iowa State, according to the interview with the Des Moines Register. After graduation, Park will look to transfer to another school to finish out his college career.
Park redshirted his one and only year at Georgia, before heading to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M where he didn’t play football. After one year, Park transferred to Iowa State and has played in the 2016 and 2017 season.
In the 2016 season, Park played in 10 games and started three of them, throwing for 1,791 passing yards and 12 touchdowns.
Park started the first four games of the 2017 season, having a 61.73 percent completion percentage. He threw for 1,181 passing yards and nine touchdowns.
“It’s rather unfortunate,” Park said to Tommy Birch from the Des Moines Register. “I didn’t think it was going to come to this when it was first happening. It’s sad that it came to this.”