Texas A&M football will be without another player next season, as junior running back Derek Farmer was not enrolled Tuesday for the beginning of spring classes.
Farmer will finish his eligibility at Stephen F. Austin University.
“He went through admissions today,” said SFA Sports Information Director Rob Meyers. “He is enrolled at SFA.”
Farmer will join a team that finished 7-4 in the Southland Conference in the 2003 season.
“We are excited to have someone of Derek’s abilities,” said SFA head coach Mike Santiago. “He has the potential to add more quality to an already good football team. By coming in this spring, it gives Derek a chance to go through spring practice with us, learn our system and compete.”
Farmer started all 12 games for the Aggies in the 2003 season, but his workload was significantly reduced due to the emergence of redshirt freshman running back Courtney Lewis.
With Lewis now the Aggie offense’s premiere back, Farmer said he felt he would have a better chance at playing time elsewhere.
“I decided it was a time for a change in my football career,” Farmer said. “Stephen F. Austin is a good football program with solid history. I’m looking forward to being able to come over here my senior year and help the team.”
Farmer could not transfer to another Division 1-A school because NCAArules state that players who transfer from one Division 1-A school to another must sit out a year, and lose that year of eligibility. With only one season of eligibility remaining, Farmer had to seek out a Division 1-AA school such as SFA.
Farmer rushed for 1,582 yards in his three-year career at A&M while scoring 11 touchdowns. In 2003, Farmer carried the ball only 82 times – 90 fewer than in 2002, for 340 yards. Lewis, meanwhile, became the first Aggie back to gain more than 1,000 yards in a season since 1998.Farmer is the second casualty the Aggies have suffered during the off-season due to transfers. Junior quarterback Dustin Long transferred to Sam Houston State in December.