Linebacker Beau Hankins has left the team and has given up football for health reasons. Hankins, a junior, has largely had a special-teams role on the team.

“He’s going to graduate in May, and when he got another concussion in the (Notre Dame) game, he just came in to see me (to say) that he wanted to hang it up,” coach Paul Johnson said Monday. “It’ll be good.”

Hankins, from Birmingham, Ala., played in 24 career games with 18 total tackles. He was named the defensive scout team player of the year in 2013.

From his Twitter account, Hankins said he will "pursue his dreams" in another field, thanked teammates and coaches and expressed his sadness to leave the team.

Hankins wrote, “There aren’t enough words to truly express how I feel on paper but just know this isn’t the end, it’s only the beginning.”

He is the third Tech player known to have left football due to concussions in the past two years. Offensive linemen Nick Brigham and Chase Roberts took medical redshirts, Roberts in the summer of 2014 and Brigham this past offseason.

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