season. Which is why coaches say they are going to 'redshirt' a player. But if you get injured in practice, and can't return, your redshirt is gone too. It's a season of eligibility.

Every player has 5 years to play 4 (actually 10 semesters or 15 quarters) of eligibility. If a player goes without an injury and doesn't compete an entire season, they can be 'redshirted' for that year and use the remaining eligibility they didn't play before or after the redshirt.

If you get injured within a certain timeframe at the beginning of the season and suffer what is documented as a 'season ending injury' then at the end of your full eligibility in college (10 semesters or 15 quarters), you can apply for a medical hardship waiver.

These are the conditions:

1) must be 'season ending'
2) injury must happen in the first 1/2 of the season
3) player cannot play more than 30% or 4 games in the season
4) injury must occur either in Sr year of HS, or one of the four eligible and active seasons (if injured in practice in a redshirt year, doesn't count)
5) redshirt year already used

After all of that, and again after exhausting all eligibility (5 years to play 4), then a medical hardship waiver can be applied for to play a 'sixth' season (2 extra semesters 3 quarters).

So a sixth year basically assumes that a player was unable to play TWO seasons due to injury, one of the Reynold's boys had this issue. Getting healthy and then injured again and losing two full seasons.

Mo played last year, so he lost that season and still has a redshirt and 3 years of eligibility to compete.