Grant is seeking compensatory damages and an injunction restoring his scholarship.
The trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, however, records obtained by the Louisville Courier-Journal show Grant has no witnesses or documentation to support his claim.
Twin brothers Isaac and Jacob Geffrad allegedly assaulted Grant on Oct. 24, 2010. He suffered an eye injury that required two surgeries to fix. Both Geffrad brothers were kicked off the team, but neither was indicted by a grand jury.
Grant missed the rest of the 2010 season, but was medically cleared for fall camp in 2011. However, he suffered a concussion in practice and decided to leave the team.
Strong, who is now the coach at Texas, is expected to testify during the trial, but said in a deposition that he never promised Grant a scholarship for grad school.
Grant said Strong not only promised to keep him on scholarship through the spring 2012 semester, but also through the following academic year while he pursued his graduate degree in criminal justice. That would have been six years of scholarship for Grant, who enrolled in 2007.
"I mean, why would you give a kid five years if he isn't playing?" Strong said. "I have 85 scholarships. What if every kid told me when he graduated, 'I want to continue to go to school, Coach?' How would I fill up my other class?"
There’s also the issue of how Grant left the team, which is disputed in court documents.
Grant claims he left the team because of his eye injury. He said he was seeing spots and that he was concerned his vision would get worse if he kept playing. Strong claimed Grant never mentioned any vision problems and that, “he quit the team.”
The university did offer Grant grants through the spring 2012 semester that were worth $7,510, for room, board and tuition. However, Grant declined, stating that that was not what he was originally promised.
"It's like any other kid who's got a degree," Strong said during the deposition. "It's time to go get in the work world. I am going to need your scholarship because you're done."
For more Louisville news, visit CardinalSports.com.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
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From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Former Louisville linebacker Patrick Grant sues school over alleged promised scholarship
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