If the NCAA grants this guy a waiver then anybody should be able to transfer and play the same year. The old "but somebody said something bad about me" BS shouldn't get you anything.
the only thing i ever heard about anyone saying anything bad came from a fan in the stands; not from a coach. if that's true, he can't claim it was racially motivated due to someone inside the program.
a player may not want to go up against a coach for saying something (which i would never understand, though, if you value yourself as a human being). but to run out like that because another student may have said something? sack up and stand up for yourself and stop being a little bitch about it.
i think there are other issues at hand that is causing him to leave. like maybe he isn't as good as the staff thought he was and he's hearing how much he won't be playing.