KNOXVILLE - Tennessee freshman offensive lineman Melvin McBride is giving up football for medical reasons.
Volunteers coach Jeremy Pruitt said Wednesday that a "personal medical condition" was discovered during McBride's physical after the player arrived on campus. Pruitt didn't specify the nature of McBride's health problem.
"Melvin is a great young man, and my heart breaks for him and his family," Pruitt said in a released statement.
Pruitt said McBride will remain on scholarship.
McBride tweeted earlier Wednesday that "health problems" were causing him to stop playing. McBride said football had changed his life and blessed him "in ways I could never imagine."
McBride added that "now God has a new journey for me."
He was regarded as a consensus three-star recruit when he signed with Tennessee in December out of Whitehaven High School in Memphis.
McBride becomes the latest in a series of Tennessee offensive linemen to say they're leaving the team for medical reasons since the end of last season. The others are Tanner Antonutti, Devante Brooks, Eric Crosby and Chance Hall, who was the only member of that group who played at all for the Vols last season.