I've talked to a couple people now about this that usually know what's going on. Obviously, this is a real thing, although a whole bunch of the speculation on here, RU site, HR, FLO, is not accurate. No weight issues, no injury issues, no culture issues, etc. From the PSU point of view, it's a kid who went home and is struggling about coming back - like a lot of normal college freshman. Although this is still just conjecture for the most part because there hasn't been a lot of communication. He just didn't come back up to SC this summer and hasn't gotten in touch with anyone about it.
I also don't get the impression that they are too worried about this. Whether that's because they don't think it's going to happen, or they are just like "let the kid do what he wants, we'll be fine one way or the other." I'm really not sure - this is consistent with what I've seen in other situations. These guys are supremely confident in what is going on up there and that the fact that they are going to be the best program whether an individual boards, jumps off, or never gets on the train. So confident that it would probably smack of arrogance to rival fanbases. But it is always an "alpha dog" attitude that bleeds through when I talk to my sources. Not pompous, but they don't seem to worry about a lot of stuff like we do on message boards. And I guess for good reason.
I also don't get the impression that things - at least on the PSU side - are anywhere near contemplating a waiver (not that it seems like they would really work to stop this if they couldn't get over this hump), so I would bet a ton of money that all the waiver chatter is coming from the RU side of things.
Not to pat myself on the back, but it sounds exactly like what I thought was going on before talking to anyone. A freshman kid who is very close with his parents coming home. Maybe rethinking about going back to a college that is 4 hours away and in an entirely different setting than he grew up in. Lot's of homeboys and guys who train him and with him encouraging this and going off the rails excited with the possibility of him going home without really knowing any details of what is involved (for reference - just look at the multitude of threads with posts about redshirts, grad transfers, waivers, lol). Then the RU staff scrambling to figure out a way to make this happen when it is a very difficult thing to do and they're not really sure how to get it done but they don't want to let an opportunity like this slide.
I really wouldn't worry about it, but know that will fall on deaf ears. I don't think that staff is losing sleep over it.
BTW - just wanted to add, that I'm not talking to Cael like spyker does. So this is 3rd and 4th hand info although I've gotten fairly good at interpreting especially when info lines up from different people. But something always gets lost in translation. Put it at 83%.