ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

Jerrell Powe's long and winding struggle to gain eligibility at Ole Miss was a saga worthy of a novel, and now Gerald Williams is coming to the end of a similar struggle at Tennessee.

One way or the other, Williams should know by the end of this week whether he'll be playing football at Tennessee. In the meantime, he endures through another excruciating wait.

From talking to several people close to the situation Tuesday, here's the situation facing Williams, a linebacker who first signed with the Vols in February 2005:

He's still waiting to have a math correspondence course he recently took certified and the grade posted. He's missed the last five days of practice, including Tuesday, while the whole certification process runs its course.

This is an SEC eligibility issue, not an NCAA issue. Williams is also good to go with the Tennessee admissions process. He's already been admitted. He would be eligible right now at other schools outside the SEC, but the SEC mandates that junior-college transfers pass an extra math and extra English class to be eligible.

Williams, after transferring to UT from City College of San Francisco, took the math correspondence course hoping to satisfy the SEC's requirement. Part of the holdup now is whether the type of correspondence course Williams took does indeed satisfy the SEC's requirement for the extra math class. The SEC's legislation on what type of courses are acceptable for junior-college transfers has changed some in the last year or so, which has only complicated the problem for Tennessee.

The last day students can drop and add classes at UT is Friday, so there has to be some resolution by then. If Williams is cleared by the SEC, he could add enough classes by Friday to become a full-time student and would be eligible to play this season.

This is an especially sensitive subject for Tennessee football officials because Williams, who turns 22 next month, has done everything they've asked of him and worked for more than three years toward getting back to Tennessee. He's gone to both prep school and junior college and has never wavered in his desire to play for the Vols. This is the second time he's been pulled off the practice field after beginning practice with the rest of the team. It also happened in August 2005 when he came to UT out of high school and was flagged by the NCAA Clearinghouse.

The initial problem with Williams was that he had some credit hours from University High in Miami, one of the so-called diploma mills that has since been shut down by the NCAA. He's replaced those credit hours over the last few years with legitimate classes.

If anybody deserves a ruling to go his way, it's Williams.

He's going to play somewhere this season, though. If the SEC refuses to certify him, he'll go play in a conference that doesn't have the extra math requirement.

Look for Oklahoma State of the Big 12 to be a strong player if that's the case. Trooper Taylor recruited Williams out of the South Florida area for the Vols and is now the co-offensive coordinator for the Cowboys.

Nobody at Tennessee wants that to happen, and neither does Williams.

He's waited this long, but you know these next few days will seem like an eternity.