GSU/PV Suspensions
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MikeBigg
Well-Known Member
Vinita said:
Only if they were stupid. Ain't no way I would (as a referee) jumped into the middle of that melee. Ever noticed how (on every level) Referees leave the scene immediately after a game is over. It's a matter of being responsible for their safety. No post game discussions or interview...just get the cfuk gone.
MSGSU
Member
SWAC belatedly suspends coaches, players in fight
Nick Deriso
[email protected]
October 8, 2004
GRAMBLING - Five days after a post-game fight at the State Fair Classic, the Southwestern Athletic Conference handed down one-game suspensions to 19 players and assistants.
In all, nine members of Grambling State's football team and eight from Prairie View were suspended. An assistant coach from each school will also miss this Saturday's contests. GSU is at Mississippi Valley State in Itta Bena, Miss.
Interim GSU coach Melvin Spears insisted that his team only retaliated after being provoked: "All actions of our football family members," he said, "were an attempt at self-defense rather than aggressive violent behavior."
Word of the suspensions didn't reach the Grambling State coaches until they were coming off the field after Thursday's practice - leaving the team no time to practice with the reconfigured lineups. The staff scurried to fill the positions, while the media relations department prepared a statement.
In that release, Spears apologizes to "the Grambling State University administration, faculty, staff and students in addition to the Southwestern Athletic Conference."
The interior of both starting lines for GSU has been decimated. Both senior defensive tackle Aqua Etifia and junior tackle Jimmy Zachary are out, along with junior left tackle Jonathan Banks, sophomore left tackle Andre Bennett and senior center Lance Wright on the other side of the ball.
Sophomore defensive end Marcus Dawson, junior middle linebacker Dimitri Carr, junior cornerback Donald Alexander and freshman safety Austin James also will stay behind.
Both Spears and Prairie View head coach Henry Frazier III were reprimanded and fined "for not showing the proper restraint in their conduct during the fight," according to a statement released by the SWAC.
Frazer declined comment in a SWAC teleconference earlier this week. "My AD (athletics director) has asked me not to comment until we finish the investigation," he said.
The suspended GSU coach is Mark Roberts, a graduate assistant with the offensive line who ended up with black eye in the altercation.
"The incident was embarrassing," said SWAC assistant commissioner of media relations Wallace Dooley Jr., "and marred what had been an outstanding event. We will continue to enforce the policies to ensure that everyone in our athletics programs act in a manner that brings credit to our member institutions, themselves, intercollegiate athletics and the conference."
John Petty, the senior from Newellton, will assume Carr's duties at middle linebacker. Junior Joshua Kador will move to the interior defensive line.
Senior Derrek Governor is set to take over at left tackle, with either freshman Doug Smith or junior Travis Holden on right tackle. Junior Tommy Dural, who came in during the Bethune-Cookman game when Wright was injured, will start at center against Mississippi Valley.
?The News-Star
October 8, 2004
Nick Deriso
[email protected]
October 8, 2004
GRAMBLING - Five days after a post-game fight at the State Fair Classic, the Southwestern Athletic Conference handed down one-game suspensions to 19 players and assistants.
In all, nine members of Grambling State's football team and eight from Prairie View were suspended. An assistant coach from each school will also miss this Saturday's contests. GSU is at Mississippi Valley State in Itta Bena, Miss.
Interim GSU coach Melvin Spears insisted that his team only retaliated after being provoked: "All actions of our football family members," he said, "were an attempt at self-defense rather than aggressive violent behavior."
Word of the suspensions didn't reach the Grambling State coaches until they were coming off the field after Thursday's practice - leaving the team no time to practice with the reconfigured lineups. The staff scurried to fill the positions, while the media relations department prepared a statement.
In that release, Spears apologizes to "the Grambling State University administration, faculty, staff and students in addition to the Southwestern Athletic Conference."
The interior of both starting lines for GSU has been decimated. Both senior defensive tackle Aqua Etifia and junior tackle Jimmy Zachary are out, along with junior left tackle Jonathan Banks, sophomore left tackle Andre Bennett and senior center Lance Wright on the other side of the ball.
Sophomore defensive end Marcus Dawson, junior middle linebacker Dimitri Carr, junior cornerback Donald Alexander and freshman safety Austin James also will stay behind.
Both Spears and Prairie View head coach Henry Frazier III were reprimanded and fined "for not showing the proper restraint in their conduct during the fight," according to a statement released by the SWAC.
Frazer declined comment in a SWAC teleconference earlier this week. "My AD (athletics director) has asked me not to comment until we finish the investigation," he said.
The suspended GSU coach is Mark Roberts, a graduate assistant with the offensive line who ended up with black eye in the altercation.
"The incident was embarrassing," said SWAC assistant commissioner of media relations Wallace Dooley Jr., "and marred what had been an outstanding event. We will continue to enforce the policies to ensure that everyone in our athletics programs act in a manner that brings credit to our member institutions, themselves, intercollegiate athletics and the conference."
John Petty, the senior from Newellton, will assume Carr's duties at middle linebacker. Junior Joshua Kador will move to the interior defensive line.
Senior Derrek Governor is set to take over at left tackle, with either freshman Doug Smith or junior Travis Holden on right tackle. Junior Tommy Dural, who came in during the Bethune-Cookman game when Wright was injured, will start at center against Mississippi Valley.
?The News-Star
October 8, 2004
twhite1
New Member
tierre said:
Looking at the names of the GSU players that are suspended, It will have an effect on GSU's game with Valley. GSU's team chemistry on both sides of the ball maybe off somewhat, but at least the guys filling in have played in game time situations with the exception of the freshman Doug Smith.
SUjagTILLiDIE
Well-Known Member
I think it is horrible that the swac office waited so late to announce the suspecsions of the players. This should have been done no later than Tuesday so the teams could have prepared. Horrible.
Robber
Consigliere
Like Panthro was saying on his thread, they shoulda been on this Sunday. Burn the midnight oil and as you suggested, announce suspensions no later than Tuesday. Instead, they wait until Gram is running off the practice field on Thursday to tell them that 9 guys won't be playing. Pathetic!!!SUjagTILLiDIE said:
Swac PR Man
New Member
This is probably useless :sleep2: with many minds set to criticize and blame, but for what it's worth, here is a timeline of how this situation was dealt with at the SWAC office;
Sunday-10/03 (10a) -- Commissioner & senior staff members meet on incident and begin collecting statements from school administrators (AD, coaches) and game officials. Request tapes from schools and Fox Sports.
Monday-10/04 -- begin review of game tapes (some were of poor quality) ... continued contact with school administrators ... asked Fox Sports for additional tapes (angles).
Tuesday-10/05 -- Received and reviewed additional tapes from Fox Sports. Contacted school officials of preliminary findings (players coaches that were identified)
<B><I>Tuesday Night --- SWAC office email and website went down (Major communications company failure)</B></I>
Wednesday-10/05 -- ... Overnighted dubbed tapes to schools for their review ...
<B> SWAC changed website & email servers (company), service restored (propagation) Thursday A.M.</B>
Thursday-10/06
(1:00p) -- Reviewed tapes again on appeal from school(s) of several players identified.
(4:00p) released sanctions release.
<B> BOTTOM LINE </B> -- SWAC office followed a procedure, collected information, attempted a thorough and fair investigation, stayed in contact with schools, notified them first ... then levied sanctions. We purposely did not release named to the public, privacy of individuals, left that to schools if they wished.
As I stated before ... this may not matter to some :shades: , but this is how it shook down. :idea: :idea:
SWAC PR Man
Sunday-10/03 (10a) -- Commissioner & senior staff members meet on incident and begin collecting statements from school administrators (AD, coaches) and game officials. Request tapes from schools and Fox Sports.
Monday-10/04 -- begin review of game tapes (some were of poor quality) ... continued contact with school administrators ... asked Fox Sports for additional tapes (angles).
Tuesday-10/05 -- Received and reviewed additional tapes from Fox Sports. Contacted school officials of preliminary findings (players coaches that were identified)
<B><I>Tuesday Night --- SWAC office email and website went down (Major communications company failure)</B></I>
Wednesday-10/05 -- ... Overnighted dubbed tapes to schools for their review ...
<B> SWAC changed website & email servers (company), service restored (propagation) Thursday A.M.</B>
Thursday-10/06
(1:00p) -- Reviewed tapes again on appeal from school(s) of several players identified.
(4:00p) released sanctions release.
<B> BOTTOM LINE </B> -- SWAC office followed a procedure, collected information, attempted a thorough and fair investigation, stayed in contact with schools, notified them first ... then levied sanctions. We purposely did not release named to the public, privacy of individuals, left that to schools if they wished.
As I stated before ... this may not matter to some :shades: , but this is how it shook down. :idea: :idea:
SWAC PR Man
SUjagTILLiDIE
Well-Known Member
I don't think the Valley game counts for Gram. So it is in their best interest to let the players sit out this game.
GSUperTiger
The "Icon" of BCF
SWAC PR ManSwac PR Man said:
I can not agree with a SWAC infrastructure (IT) issue being an excuse. Does the SWAC office understand magnitude of this tardy decision? The G-MEN have worked diligently all week with our projected starters for yet another hard conference game on the road. Although the game does not count for Grambling in the standings, our 2nd string O-lineman have received limited reps. Not stating suspensions are not warranted, but this tardy decision is abominable, and the effective immediately mandate is equally egregious. Grambling plays for championships. Championships are won with preparation. The G-MEN are starting a freshman phenom at QB with his blind spot potentially exposed because ample work with the 2nd string LT was not executed due to this decision.
The SWAC office owes more to Grambling than this. Not to get too personal, but Grambling put this conference on the globe (irrefutable). Grambling represents the SWAC (storied tradition renowned across America), and the SWAC is not representing Grambling with this decision.
During your review from Sunday to Tuesday, were any of the refs reprimanded? I was the game, and the refs inability to sustain order (late hits, etc) really fueled the post game altercation.
GSUperTiger
The "Icon" of BCF
Ahhh, Nita Nita bo bita banana fanna...you know I am bout the Icon.Vinita said:
I am just concerned about the precedent set.
GSUperTiger
The "Icon" of BCF
I agree...but it was a message to Frazier to control your players....besides PV never stopped scoring.Fiyah said:
GSUperTiger said:
A message of what?
PV's previous score was in the middle of the 4th qtr, GSU just came off a safety.
BOX SCORE:
4th QTR
PRAIRIE VIEW-TD, C Gibson 7 YD RUN (C McCall KICK) 6:09 4th
Qtr
GRAMBLING-TD, A Kauuan 2 YD RUN (B Morgan KICK) 11:47 4th
Qtr
GRAMBLING-SAFETY, 13:17 4th Qtr
GRAMBLING-TD, Z Haymond 6 YD PASS FROM B Landers (B Morgan
KICK) 14:00 4th Qtr
PRAIRIE VIEW-TD, G Chatman 30 YD PASS FROM M Hill (A Fontenot
RUN FOR TWO-POINT CONVERSION) 14:58 4th Qtr
H
Harbinger
Guest
DaGSUMan said:
Exactly, during the game you have some measure of control. A kid will adhere to your instructions because of the possible effect it will have on the game. I don't know how many of you saw that U of Houston v.s. Hawaii melee last year, but the refs straight bolted out of the stadium.
The game was over....hey had no control.
MACHIAVELLI
Chairman/C.E.O.
Fiyah said:
PV tried to run up it's score.
GSUperTiger
The "Icon" of BCF
A fight was inevitable. Difficult to stand and watch while a teammate gets assaulted.jag4life said:
Looks like and reality are different.
DAHILL
Well-Known Member
It seems as if MOST PEOPLE are blaiming EVERYBODY except the people who were involved in the fight... I have heard people blaim the refs and the SWAC office for an incident that certain PV and GSU players committed..... Blaim the two schools... IF they had any type of discipline the schools would have suspended the players THEMSELVES and wouldnt have to wait for the SWAC office to do it. The two schools are responsible for their actions... I am sure both schools knew which players would be suspended in the first place.
GSUperTiger
The "Icon" of BCF
Suspend players for defending themselves. I saw all this unfold. As I wrote above suspensions were automatic whether one was right or wrong. This is not the issue. This issue is that all the unsportmanlike conduct allowed in the game surely fueled the aftermath.DAHILL said:
Only in the SWAC, officials are not consistently repimanded (at least the public is not made aware like in other conferences). I heard a bad call in the Bama St/SU game (Hornets did a Chris Webber).
The SWAC should set a systematic approach with these issues.
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