Addressing the Suspension: Short Term Pain, Long Term Gain

Yesterday, Coach Bill Curry announced the suspensions of 2010 Starting QB Drew Little and SS Fred Barnes for 4 games and 2 games, respectively.  Starting ILB Femi Opanubi was dismissed.  Starting WR Danny Williams and ILB Evan Bostic are suspended for the first week of Spring Practice which starts in 10 days.  Back up QB Star Jackson and CB Justin Hughes have left the team.  While this incited every reaction from disappointment to shock to worry, I'm here to calm the Panther Nation.

Both players were suspended for a violation of team rules and I will not begin to speculate the nature of the rules that they broke but I'll say this: For every current and future player, the line in the sand has been drawn.  Either you are pulling in the same direction or you let go of the rope. 

So why am I so calm?  We will be without our 2010 leader of the offense vs. Clark Atlanta, Old Dominion, at Jacksonville State and at Houston.  This is not good news for the anticipated results in those games.  We then face Murray State at home and then will have an Open date.  If Drew is prepared to resume his role as the Starting QB, he will have 2 weeks of practice time to regain that title.  If not, he'll likely serve as a back up as I believe the plan is to redshirt incoming Freshman Ben McLane, who will arrive in June.  After this 4 game stretch, I believe our schedule breaks slightly with five of the next seven games are very winnable games. 

Also, from a scholarship side of things, losing Star, Femi and Justin Hughes may look like very bad news but I believe that Star had checked out after a disappointing Fall and I wish him well.  Femi's loss hurts but we've added Qwontez Mallory who is likely to step right in and start once he arrives in May.  Hughes likely saw the writing on the wall as we added a very talented CB in D'Mario Gunn who I project as a starter in Spring.

Coach Curry has been described as "Old School." If that means that you set out expectations to your players and then you enforce discipline when those expectations are not met, then I hope our program stays "Old School" for a long, long time.

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments" - Jim Rohn.