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EKU football continues to lose players following controversial post by former kicker

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Tomorrow will be one week since kicker Landon White left the Eastern Kentucky University football program and made strong allegations about the coaching staff in an Instagram post.

The school denied safety issues in a statement, but players are still leaving the program.

Today, senior linebacker Steven Crowder opted out of the upcoming season for unspecified reasons:



At this point, the Colonels have lost four starters from last season’s team.

All-OVC offensive lineman Graham Ashkettle announced that he was leaving the program on Instagram last Wednesday night due to COVID-19 concerns.

View this post on Instagram

After talking with my family and loved ones, I decided this morning and told coach Wells that I would be opting out of what would have been my final season at EKU, as I will be graduating in the spring. This is what’s best to both protect my family and my own future. I was not completely comfortable with the adherence to the covid-19 measures at EKU, and I expressed these to coach Wells when I met with him. Some concerns were more due to the lack of personal responsibility some people have. Wearing a mask is important, especially indoors, during this pandemic and some people did not think that it was. In addition, playing football at all during a pandemic has some inherent risks. You don’t know what’s going on in other programs, and playing football means to be face to face with those other players. Also, teammates could be asymptomatic and you still have to go head to head against them in practice maskless. I decided that it was not worth the risk for me. Despite this, I am very glad I made this decision to play at EKU. I developed quickly from a player who had never pass set in high school to being all-ovc in my 3rd year, much because of the weight training staff and excellent coaching that I received there. Also, the people I have met on my team have become my best friends and are the people that will be my life long friends. My only regret will be not being able to finish it out with them. I am very blessed to be able to play a sport that I love for as long as I have. However, some people don’t understand the all of sacrifice that goes in to being a college athlete. Being in season means having almost no time to yourself and your body hurting all of the time, while also having a full class load to study for. If I had one piece of advice for anyone considering college athletics, it would be to do it only if you love it. And I did. I am very excited to take the next step in life, which will be taking the MCAT in September to hopefully get in to medical school. Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout it all and I want to thank all of the coaches that have helped me along the way.

A post shared by Graham Ashkettle (@instagraham_73) on

Starting defensive lineman Tre Turner quit the team on Thursday with similar concerns.

Redshirt senior defensive lineman Dillon Denault reportedly left on Friday.

I spoke to a source close to the EKU athletic department today who said, “there will be more bad news coming soon.”

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