A New Definition of Suspension

Miami coach Randy Shannon was talking tough Sunday when he suspended seven players, including starting quarterback Robert Marve, for one game.

"Like I said before when I took the job at the University of Miami, we hold everybody to higher standards than most teams in the country," Shannon said.

Oh really? If Shannon were serious about sending a message to his players, he would have suspended them for a meaningful game, not Charleston Southern, the Hurricanes' opponent Thursday night in Dolphin Stadium.

Shannon is not alone. South Carolina's Steve Spurrier announced that starting tailback Mike Davis is among a group of players who will sit one game for missing class, but that game won't be Thursday night's opener against North Carolina State.

"It’s a middle-of-the-year game," Spurrier said. "They’re all missing that same game."

That means the Gamecocks will be short-handed against either Wofford or Alabama Birmingham. A big whoop-de-do about nothing.

Georgia's first two opponents are Georgia Southern and Central Michigan, and that's a good thing because Mark Richt has suspended six players. Rest assured they'll be back for trips to South Carolina and Arizona State because the Bulldogs are gunning for a national title.

But nobody has made a bigger mockery of a suspension than Nick Saban, who ordered that receiver DJ Hall sit for Alabama's game against Louisiana Monroe last Nov 17. With the Crimson Tide and Warhawks tied in the third quarter, Hall's suspension was magically lifted. It didn't help. Alabama lost, 21-14.

Saban looks like an even bigger fool when you consider a passage in his book, "How Good Do You Want to Be?" In it, Saban talks about how a Little League coach should do "the right thing" and suspend his standout player who skipped practice to go to the mall. No surprise that Bill Belichick wrote the forward for Saban's book.

Suspensions, what are they good for? In college football, absolutely nothing.

Comments

[Doug]

Ergh, please don't lump Richt in with guys like Spurrier or Saban. The rule at Georgia is that if you get suspended during the offseason, you start missing games from the beginning of the season on -- and that goes whether the opener is a D-IAA gimme like GSU or an actual challenge like a game at Clemson (eight players suspended in '03) or at home against Oklahoma State (starting TE suspended last year).

What Richt doesn't do is un-suspend players in the middle of a game (a la Saban) or cherry-pick a game in the middle of the season that he can afford to be shorthanded (like Spurrier).

[Ross]

I agree with Doug. If you are going to point fingers and try to make your point by using big name coaches, take note that Richt and Shannon are suspending their players for the first games of the year. I guess it just sounds better if you leave those details out.

[Alex]

Robert Marve is being suspended for an incident that happened last season, during his redshirt year. Most coaches wouldn't have even bothered to suspend him for any time this season. As for the other Miami suspensions, they are for minor 'team rules" issues, like being late to meetings or missing a study hall.

So, uh, not to rain on the parade here... but since when does "difficult" = "meaningful"?

You seem to be laboring under the assumption that it's not "punishment" unless it also punishes the whole team, which is silly. The vast majority of a team would be much more opposed to being suspended for a cupcake because a) they're more likely to play and b) they're likely to play BETTER during that game.

Whether or not its an effective punishment has nothing to do with how much harder it makes the game for the team and everything to do with how much that particular game means to the player.

If you're just looking to get your daily Alabama dig in, there are a lot more legit ways to do it.

[Bear323]

I see that you have a need to get in a dig at Nick Saban or Alabama on an almost daily basis. I noticed that you chose a Saban suspension from last year, but all other examples you offer are for this upcoming season. What about Coach Sweatervest in Columbus? I see he has suspended two players for two games (Youngstown State and Ohio Univ.), but they will be back in time for the trip our west to play USC.