College football career over for Jake Olson, future remains up in the air

Central Michigan left guard Jake Olson's college football career is over after having season-ending surgery on a broken wrist last week.

Head coach Dan Enos confirmed the news earlier this week, saying Olson, already in his sixth season with the team, would remain with the team in a mentor role.

"I feel terrible for Jake," Enos said. "He's worked so hard to get back to where he was; it's very unfortunate. But he's an outstanding person, a great young man and he'll be around with us. But yeah, it's very sad."

Enos said Olson suffered a broken wrist in the third quarter of CMU's 24-21 win over New Hampshire on Sept. 7. He later returned in the game, and there was a thought he might be able to wrap it up and play last week at UNLV.

"It turned out he had some damage in there that they actually needed to fix immediately," Enos said. "So they went ahead and did the surgery. Obviously, his health takes precedence over a football game."

Injuries have plagued Olson's college career, forcing him to miss 32 games or the equivalent of nearly three full seasons. He was granted a medical redshirt in 2010 after suffering a season-ending leg injury in CMU's third game, missed three games in 2011 due to injury and was out for a majority of last season with a leg injury.

The NCAA granted him a sixth season of eligibility after he applied for a medical hardship waiver.

Considered one of the top offensive lineman in the Mid-American Conference, Phil Steele named him a first team All-MAC selection in his preseason magazine, Enos said during preseason camp that Olson had an opportunity to play professional football should he stay healthy this season.

Now, his future is up in the air.

"I don't know, we've got to wait and see," Enos said. "With his injury and everything, I don't know if that's in his future or not. I don't know if he's gotten that far with it yet."

Redshirt freshman Ramadan Ahmeti started at left tackle on Saturday in CMU's 31-21 loss at UNLV and is expected to see most of the playing time this season.

Enos admitted earlier this week that the coaching staff was concerned about UNLV's defense after watching tape of the Rebels against Arizona and Minnesota. While they gave up points, more than 50 in each game, six touchdowns came from turnovers or special teams mishaps.

"He played pretty well," Enos said of Ahmeti's play. "Coach (Bobby) Hauck is a defensive guy, his brother (defensive coordinator Tim Hauck) is a defensive guy, and I knew they were going to be better. Their defensive ends had us concerned. They were physical, explosive and I thought they did a very good job."

Olson was not made available for comment.

Contact Aaron McMann: aaron.mcmann@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @AaronMcMann.