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The suspensions of Demarcus Robinson, Darious Cummings, Jay-nard Bostwick and subsequent reinstatements of those three players by head coach Will Muschamp drew the ire of many on Monday and Tuesday.
Because the game between Florida and Idaho was suspended due to weather and the Gators never actually played the game, do the suspended players deserve to be reinstated despite not missing an actual game?
Muschamp responded to his critics during the SEC teleconference earlier today.
“It’s not just about suspending players for games. There’s a lot of things that go into discipline,” Muschamp said. “It’s about altering and changing behavior, which we’ve done. I think our discipline speaks for itself and how we’ve handled our football team.”
ESPN’s Woody Paige on Around the Horn yesterday described Muschamp’s decision to reinstate Robinson, Cummings and Bostwick “the biggest, lamest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Muschamp added that he was frustrated by the criticism he’s received from the reinstatements.
“At the end of the day, it’s more than [suspensions]. There’s a lot of things that go into these situations , a lot more people know. And it’s very frustrating for me as a coach…to have someone being critical and you don’t even have all the information.”
Florida has often been the whipping boy of player discipline criticism, especially since the Urban Meyer days.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, 24 different players were arrested by the beginning of the 2010 season under Meyer. Once Meyer left the program, details emerged of a “Circle of Trust” Meyer had with his favorite players, which often resulted in lax discipline for those chosen few.
When Muschamp was named head coach of the Gators, he was quickly forced to deal with the repercussions of Meyer’s lack of discipline. Muschamp suspended and eventually dismissed cornerback Janoris Jenkins from the team after being arrested for possession of marijuana (his third or fourth such offense) to which Jenkins said to the Orlando Sentinel “If Meyer was still the coach at Florida, I’d still be there.”
For Muschamp, instilling a new sense of discipline among the players takes time. It’s not something that can happen over night. In 2013, he was forced to suspend eight players throughout the season, including suspending Robinson twice for violation of team rule.
However, discipline has been trending positively for the Gators over the last year. According to Thomas Goldkamp of GatorBait.net, the Gators have only had one arrest in the past 409 days, which was a misdemeanor marijuana charge for freshman defensive back Jalen Tabor.
In regard to the latest suspensions, it is simply not the fault of Muschamp’s that the game was suspended. Who could have predicted that? Many have made a comparison of the current Muschamp situation to one that Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin faced in 2012 when Hurricane Isaac postponed their opener against Louisiana Tech. The news of the postponement broke a few days before the game was supposed to be played. Two players – Steven Jenkins and Howard Matthews – were suspended for the season-opener, but when the game was postponed, questions arose if they would still be suspended come Oct. 13 on the makeup date for the game. Sumlin established they would be suspended for that game.
Muschamp could come out and do the same thing, I guess.
“I can’t even answer that question, number one. We don’t know the situation of the game right now,” he said in response to if the three players would be suspended if the game is played later in the season.
If there’s a makeup date for Idaho for Oct. 25 or for another time, that decision can be made then. In the event that the game doesn’t get played, he could suspend those three players for Eastern Michigan. But what would that accomplish At that point, he is now suspending three players for essentially two games. He’d be suspending them two games for issues that Muschamp said in his weekly press conference on Monday have all been resolved.
“We did have Darious Cummings and Jay-nard Bostwick suspended for the first game for a violation of team rules. They will be back this week with us. They’ve [done] not just as far as a suspension of a game, but they’ve had a lot of things from me as well,” Muschamp said. “Demarcus Robinson had a university sanction that’s been resolved. You asked me last week if he had handled all of his business from the year before and he had. This is a totally separate issue.”
On Wednesday, Muschamp further defended his players, specifically Robinson.
“The situation with the first ballgame was a campus sanction, which I fully supported. He’s had a 3.0 [GPA] the last two semesters…he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do.”
If Robinson and the others have served their sentence, what more can you ask of them? Is it fair to extend their punishment because of some unforeseen issue like weather? I say no, because Muschamp is right. Discipline is much more complicated than just a simple suspension of games. And with a recent record of just one arrest in 409 days, it’s hard to argue with how he handles these situations.
“At the end of the day, I make the decisions in this program. I handle the discipline in this program, and it’s handled very well.”
Drew Laing will be providing analysis and insight on Florida, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina.
