Projected Starter and Arkansas Transfer AJ Turner has been kicked off the team for "Failure to uphold to the standards required of him on multiple occasions"
A 2nd String LB Quintario Heath has been Suspended for the Montana State game for Unspecified reasons. Sophomore Xavier Woodson, who started as Freshman Last year will replace Turner as the starter at Will LB. Transfer Austin Copeland will be his backup.
Heath leaves us a little bit of a hole,. but he is the backup to All World LB Q Lee, so its more of a small depth issue to replace, and depth is the one thing we have a ton of on defense.
I guess it is easy for me to sit back and say "what are these kids thinking" but I really don't know. You look at the fact that they have a talent to play a game and get an education and some of them just don't take advantage of it. I know all schools will have this issue and I applaud the coaches who will take a stand. Hopefully it will register with others before they head down that path.
I was watching some round table discussions on ESPNU with a bunch of different coaches from the different conferences and they were talking about the difficulties of coaching and recruiting today. A common thread from each was that the players today (especially at the bigger schools) come on campus feeling they are heisman candidates, generally lack discipline (papaphrase) and are wondering what is in it for them. They are stars before they hit campus and buy into the hype.
Good on your coach for taking a stand. Hopefully the one who is just missing a game will not be a repeat offender and becomes a great player for you. As for Turner, he will probably be heading to FCS or Div II territory.
There is a reason the Razorbacks ran off former SEC All-freshman LB AJ Turner. Too bad he didn't learn from that.
Well I say it when it happens at other schools so I'll say it here.
The test of a school isn't whether they recruit angels, it's in how they deal with it when a player gets in trouble.
I watched what happened at Arkansas when Houston Nutt handed out light punishment for alcohol related offenses and finally when a player passed out drunk in the a drive through in his car and arrests were well into the double digits he finally brought the hammer. I understand a coach handing out different punishments when the difference is based on knowing the kid and trying to best reach him rather than how valuable the player is athletically. I saw Joe Hollis nearly destroy AState football because kids who loafed in practice who were really good were never in danger of losing their snaps.
As long as a coach understands that no amount of talent is worth creating a toxic environment, it is a rare situation where I will be critical of giving a kid another chance and a rare situation where I will agree with overlooking it when that chance is squandered.