If this was only about the injury, then he could have stayed with the team and just "retired" from playing due to injury. There's a lot a guy can do while injured to help the team, not to mention the whole "student" part of student-athlete.

So there's room in there to say he was asked to leave, and there's room in there to say he decided to leave because he didn't want to be a student, wanted to prepare for his next step somewhere other than Utah, or whatever else.