We had a similar incident at ND last year, a starter on the basketball team was caught with MJ in his car during a traffic stop. He was expelled for the semester. He was allowed back into school this summer and is back on the team. I think that's a pretty good response. Like the Tenn players it was a misdemeanor, so I think 2nd chances are appropriate. Subsequent violations probably should be treated with permanent expulsion. At Texas we had a kid (Ramonce Taylor) who was a terrific talent in football who got caught with 5lbs of MJ...he was expelled and not allowed back to the univiersity. He did some jail time. I don't know what has happened to him since then.
I'm going to take a contrary position here. These are young people, if it's their first offense it needs to be documented and some internal team punishment. However we don't need to throw them to the wolves to quickly, after all I think we all did things when we were young that we would not do now. Don't take me as being easy on things like this, it's that I think we need to recognize the difference between youthful indiscretion and more serious transgressions. Otherwise we end up losing someone who could have been salvaged.
No it's a felony, which is why there was no wiggle room for him. Same for the couple of players who burgularized an apartment. It was a felony and they just can't be kept on the team. The guys who got caught the week of the Ohio State game in Austin had wiggle room because of ambiguity of who actually owned the pot, the driver who was a former player took ownership of it and saved the active players butts and after missing that game and a couple more they were back with the team.
I have to agree with Bill here. I think a misdemeanor simple marijuana possession is not serious enough to be kicked off the team without a chance at redemption. Perhaps they should be suspended for a semester but I think they should get the opportunity to redeems themselves in the future. I was friends with a lot of football players at the small college I went to and, trust me, there was a lot of smoking of the illegal variety going on with those guys. I think you'd find plenty of guys who would fail drug tests during the offseason on football teams across America in every division. That's not to say it's OK or should go by with just a slap on the wrist but as has been said before, these are just kids and many people tried marijuana in college. I'm not trying to rationalize or even justify these guys' actions but you have to take some things into consideration here.
5 Lbs. of pot is not for personal use. That's a felony distribution case. That's one hell of a lot of grass with a very big street value.
RT and some buddies were taking it to a big graduation party...that they weren't invited to in the first place, to sell it to the partiers. Of course he later said he didn't know any of that.
Fulmer meets with players Interresting to read the opinions of Tennessee fans below this article. This one is getting 10 times the traffic that most of these articles receive. ...and no, I am not responsible for any of the comments.
Fulmers response seems reasonable, I'm not sure that being forbidden to host a recruit is all that much of a punishment. But the community service is a good place to start. It would have been more severe at ND, but I'm not sure that means it is the right thing to do.
I read the article and the comments which are all over the board. You know what gets lost in situations like this? The individual player involved and what is best for them! All to often people with some other agenda make their comments. If you don't like Tenn, then let's bash them over this, you don't like Fulmer, then let's bash him over this yada yada yada. Just how serious is an offense like this? If it's the first one, not very serious. How does the punishment fit the crime? Can't host recruits, community service, tested for drugs more frequently and ride with a cop! They don't mention counseling as such but the above is plenty for the offense. Not to someone who wants to rag on Tennessee, not to someone who wants to get at Fulmer, not to someone that wants to rag on football in the SEC, not to many others. But to a reasonable minded person for the first offense these young men certainly got the attention of some people that I'm sure they didn't want to know them.
I have never used MJ...I know very good people who have. I think this kind of thing has to be taken very seriously and the players punished without being thrown under the bus. At the same time, it is inevitable that being under the spotlight there will be a double standard, unfair or not...and the kids need to understand that right from the get-go... There also is the issue that they weren't at home...it seems that they were out driving around getting stoned. It seems to me that Fulmer has handled it well...I hope it's lesson learned and they go on to have great careers.
There is another group to consider: Someone who as a Tennessee fan and wants to see the trend of off the field issues declining. That's me!
Tom, all of us want to see the off the field issues decline. However keep in mind these are very young matcho young men and that other students do these things and you never hear. I would say this to you, that if you have a number of issues of only this level and your coach handles them on an individual basis like he handled this one your program is not hurting. If you have many that above this level of seriousness then maybe there's a bigger concern. As was mentioned above there is a double standard and these young men need to understand that, but we also need to understand they are still young people. These days I want my coach to also be a father figure, a tough love father figure who keeps track of his players and gives them guidance. Just my 2 cents.
I think the timing of this incident hurts more than anything. I don't know how you feel, Tom, but I feel really good about Clawson as OC as well as the other changes that have been made to the staff. With all of the optimism that I feel about the UT program, this setback is a little reality check I guess. On the other hand, as I said, I really like the moves Fulmer has made. We'll see how Clawson does as OC first but I think, if he is successful, Fulmer may be grooming his successor. It still should be an interesting season ahead.