Texas A&M transfer Robert Congel not eligible for 2018

Throughout the summer, Arizona Wildcats coach Kevin Sumlin seemed hopeful that the NCAA would allow Texas A&M transfer Robert Congel to be eligible this season. That’s no longer the case.

“That book has been closed,” Sumlin said of Congel during Tuesday’s Pac-12 teleconference.

Congel, a 6-foot-3, 315-pound offensive lineman, transferred in July after appearing in five games during his freshman season at Texas A&M. He was a walk-on with the Aggies, making it possible he could have become eligible this season rather than sit out a year per NCAA transfer rules.

Oregon State recently learned that Brandon Kipper, an offensive lineman transfer from Hawaii, had become eligible for this season despite playing 11 games in 2017.

Congel was one of two former Sumlin player at A&M to join Arizona in the offseason, the other being redshirt freshman linebacker Santino Marchiol. Marchiol was dismissed from the team in late August, days after a video surfaced in which he used an apparent racist term to describe some former Aggie teammates.