Eastern Michigan head coach Chris Creighton joined Matt Shepard on his show and broke the news: Pat O'Connor will not be playing this season. When Shepard asked Creighton about O'Connor's leadership, he responded by saying that his leadership will have to be more vocal on the sidelines than anything, needing the season away off the field to recover from.

From the sounds of it, it seems like O'Connor will return next season and be medically redshirted this year.

O'Connor led the MAC with 7.5 sacks last season.