Update: Three more Tech players suspended – for a half
John Dewberry helped Bill Curry win in Athens in 1984. The QB was no help in Birmingham in 1985. (AJC file photo)
Update: Georgia Tech announced Sunday that three more players — defensive Anthony Egbuniwe and defensive backs Michael Peterson and Louis Young — has been suspended for the first half of Monday’s Independence Bowl. They broke curfew in Shreveport, which I believe trumps John Dewberry’s curfew-breaking in Birmingham in 1985 for sheer ingenuity.
It’s that festive time of the year when Georgia Tech lets us know which of its players won’t be playing in a bowl game. The Jackets arrived in scenic Shreveport on Thursday, just in time to offer the following release:
Shreveport, La. – Georgia Tech announced today that four football players, including two who have already earned their undergraduate degrees, will not play in Monday’s AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl because of various academic issues.
Senior defensive end Robert Hall and senior linebacker Anthony Barnes are ineligible to compete in the game against Air Force under NCAA academic guidelines. Sophomore wide receiver Stephen Hill and senior safety Mario Edwards are both ineligible for not meeting Georgia Tech academic requirements.
Of the four players, Edwards and Hill were listed as starters on the Yellow Jackets’ most recent depth chart.
A few questions: How can you earn your degree and still be academically ineligible? Has any Jacket had a more disappointing season than Hill, who was touted as the next Demaryius Thomas but who hasn’t played well and now won’t play in the bowl game at all?
There’s a time-honored Jacket tradition of players getting docked for the postseason. Usually it’s the quarterback: John Dewberry was suspended for the All-American Bowl in 1985 for breaking curfew in Birmingham, which is tough to do, and in 2006 Reggie Ball was declared ineligible for the Gator Bowl, which brought a strange career to its inevitably strange end.
These latest suspensions constitute just another installment in an ongoing Tech saga. On the bright side, the Tech Four won’t be remembered as the most egregious college football development of Dec. 23, 2010. That dishonor belongs to five Ohio State Buckeyes, chief among them quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who were suspended for five games of the 2011 season — though not for the Sugar Bowl — for NCAA violations that include receiving improper benefits from …
A tattoo parlor. Seriously.
By Mark Bradley
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372 comments Add your comment
acowa
December 23rd, 2010
11:49 pm
I have that newspaper framed. Wonderful day in Athens.
Big D Dawg
December 23rd, 2010
11:59 pm
it looks like there’s only 4 year olds from both teams on this blog.
Kevin
December 24th, 2010
12:04 am
fuc$ you big dawg
Sports Review
December 24th, 2010
12:05 am
[...] Yellow Jackets quarterback Joshua Nesbitt will not play in Monday's AdvoCare V100 …A tradition continues: Four players suspended for Tech's bowlAtlanta Journal Constitution [...]
I bought aj green's jersey
December 24th, 2010
12:08 am
da2ug,
let me explain how techs academics work compared to ncaa. Tech expects more out of their students than the ncaa minimum. So the grades would need to be better to meet tech’s standards right?
right?
right?
classes at tech are harder ( and theres no way you can argue against this one amigo) than classes at many other schools and students have a lower gpa. its the rigor that sticks out. It’s like getting a 2.0 at an ivy league school compared to a 3.5 at north georgia. I’m not calling out any school or saying tech is ivy league. This isn’t trying to brag on tech’s academics, I’m just explaining it like how you asked.
I hope your job centers around monitoring the ajc blogs. If it does then you must earn very well. If not, well thats your loss.
Also, if the only thing that matters is uga football because we’re in the south, then I surely hope you are a football coach. If you’re not, then you need to set your priorities because you’re not living to your potential as a human being.
Kevin
December 24th, 2010
12:16 am
Dude, don’t kid yourself. Every school has joke classes (i.e. freshman seminars) that athletes take. On top of that, athletes get free tutoring and also “advantageous” grading from professors. The fact that your boys didn’t make the grades reflects on them as individuals and your program in general. Don’t flatter yourself with “tough classes at Tech” bull.
I bought aj green's jersey
December 24th, 2010
12:28 am
tech has one freshman seminar thats a one hour class. Those guys werent freshmen and werent taking that. Most football players choose mgt as their major, which happens to be a top 30 program. So a top 30 program is filled with of joke classes. please
try housing or social work or maybe turf management
Your Daddy
December 24th, 2010
12:48 am
42-34!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
flagboy?
December 24th, 2010
1:06 am
Rough for anyone to miss the bowl game, especially if it is a kid’s last game. But, as a Dawg fan, I’d rather see Nesbitt on the field instead of any of those guys anyway. The real shame is that his career was cut a little short.
AS FOR THE NCAA and OHIO STATE. . . . i mean, what can you honestly say about that crap. The NCAA is a joke.
gburdell20
December 24th, 2010
1:16 am
Seriously Bradley, you had to do back TWENTY FIVE YEARS to call something at Tech a tradition??
student
December 24th, 2010
1:23 am
I have been a tech fan my entire life and I am now a student. Why the heck are those guys not eligible for our bowl game. Yeah, Hill sucks. But, according to the coaching staff he is the best guy we have. How does the coaching staff let our “best wide receiver” and Mario Edwards not pass class. I am a big CPJ supporter, but that is pathetic. What is wrong with football this year? Also, we all need to start chipping in to get rid of CPH, really sienna? CPH fails again. With all the negativity aside, lets go Jackets and TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!
Sautee Dawg
December 24th, 2010
1:27 am
What’s the matter Mark? slow day, couldn’t dig up anything negative on the Dawgs today?
Suprised you picking on the Gnats.
Paul in RDU
December 24th, 2010
2:12 am
The announcement on the 4 GT players being inelgibible for the bowl game is a little strange and certainly incomplete. There are 2 players who have graduated who aren’t eligible because they have failed to meet NCAA requirements. Then there are 2 players who are ineligible because they failed to meet GT academic standards. As far as the second pair are concerned – what does “failing to meet GT academic requirements” mean? Are they elgible per the NCAA rules?
For the graduates, who knows which NCAA requirements they have not met. I haven’t read anything about them being in graduate school so it is likely that they were taking the minimum hours (NCAA requires 6 completed) and blew a class off – can’t say I blame them. Of course, if they were playing in the Sugar Bowl they could have sold their 2010 Orange Bowl jerseys and been told that they were eligible for Shreveport but had to sit out the first 5 games of 2011.
Urban Meyer and Billy Donavan
December 24th, 2010
4:32 am
Why did the Buckyeye players pay for tattoos? Didn’t they like the ones we put on them in the National Championship Games in 2006?
Oh, and on a side note, wasn’t John Dewberry the former Athens resident/UGA transfer that spanked the puppies who got arrested for cruelty to animals, uh, Dawgs?
Mark Bradley`s Booster
December 24th, 2010
5:29 am
Mark: In this case, I do not think the suspensions of these four GT players (except maybe Edwards) will have a significant impact on the game. Unless Air Force just falls apart, they are the better team and should win regardless of the suspensions. Tech is not a good team and really does not deserve to be in any bowl game.
Douche Patrol
December 24th, 2010
5:43 am
D A Double U G
December 23rd, 2010
11:08 pm
Anybody know what Lincoln County High School’s JV team and Georgia Tech have in common?? Both play on Thursday Nights
________________________________________________________
so did Alabama
OldSchoolGT21
December 24th, 2010
6:14 am
Let us all recall and understand that you can’t get a Tech degree by rolling down your window and driving through campus like you can at UGA. You mean to tell me that Washaywney Easily is a smarter lad than any of these four? That guy is will be pumping gas one day if he’s not in jail. There are bound to be causalities at a school with the toughest academic standards in the southeast. Check US World News and report for the facts on where GT ranks in the southeast. THWG!
Dub Vee
December 24th, 2010
6:21 am
If Hall and Barnes are ineligible because they have graduated and exhausted their eligibility, why call them academically ineligible? Aren’t they ineligible because they are no longer in school — not in undergrad, but not in graduate school either? Can’t play if you don’t go to school at GT.
Looking for clarification here.
NoFKNdog
December 24th, 2010
7:12 am
All you dog fans know it. You cannot escape the fact. Bradley even knows it. Just look in the mirror and you will be reminded.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!
bitter rouge agent
December 24th, 2010
7:12 am
I will deliver my kids without any problems, just have your check book out!!!!!!!!!!!1
PS No im not related to father newton, hahahahahahah, pay for play suckers, long live capit— something ism—uh something uh
Joey
December 24th, 2010
7:26 am
“…suspended for the Hall of Fame Bowl in 1985 for breaking curfew in Birmingham, which is tough to do,…”
*****************************************
Great line, Mark.
How can Ohio States not be suspended for the bowl?
Dap01
December 24th, 2010
7:31 am
This is sad because there will be 4 less Techies in LA for this game. Now the grand total is 760 if you add the equipment managers.
bitter christmas carrol
December 24th, 2010
7:37 am
To all my blog buddies, kiss my -fricking as—, hahahahah, really merry christmas and a happy new year yaaaaaw, PS just saying punks, PS2 tech, bulldogs rule!!! allburn su—xs, just saying cheaters
bitter christmas carrol
December 24th, 2010
7:42 am
I love the AJC except for the poor work done by our bill fat as—king and cow chip so called covering collage recruiting yoo, just saying, keep up the good work MARK!!!!
Frankly
December 24th, 2010
7:58 am
I enjoy poking fun at gtu, but this type story really does not need to have the comment section open. Too many hurtful post about this type of story, when this is really a sad time in the lives of the young men and their teammates. I agree with the smack talking with other fans, I just don’t like it at all when it is personal, and believe me, these players take these comments personal. Good luck to each except for the last regular season game each year, and as always THWGT!!!
BoWeevil
December 24th, 2010
8:04 am
4 Georgia tek football players FLUNKED OUT
SuperB
December 24th, 2010
8:09 am
The two GT graduates who are now academially ineligible for the bowl game:
1. What were their degrees in?
2. Pretty much debunks the braggioso that Tech’s degrees are worth more than other schools.
3. Let’s face it, there are 2 standards: one for regular Tech students and one for it’s FB and BB players.
catlady
December 24th, 2010
8:21 am
Please explain why the Ga guy got suspended immediately (after a long time) but the Ohio State players get to play in their (big) bowl game because they “weren’t educated properly). C’mon, now, they didn’t know they couldn’t do that? Horsefeathers! Talk about a double standard!
SuperB
December 24th, 2010
8:23 am
OHIO STATE: When did the players actually sell those items? It is curious we are just finding out about it. Did it just happen? Mark May stated on ESPN that if these had been SEC players instead of Big Ten– all five players would NOT play in the upcoming Sugar Bowl. May called the Big Ten the NCAA’s “sacred cow.” He is 100% correct!
Remember when Maurice Clarett flunked (African-American Studies,) with a zero on the mid-term? Clarett was given a “special” make-up exam at the end of the semester, (the only student in the class who got a do-over,) then played against Miami in the national championship game and helped OSU win.
Suspending these five for Akron, Toledo, and Colorado means nothing– OSU will breeze in those. Only Miami and Michigan State are on the table– IF these guys even bother to return to Columbus next fall. Having the coach and AD make excuses for the five is insulting: had they not heard of A. J. Green and the “Case of the Used Jersey?”
What do you think Mark?
Covers Dixie like the Dew
December 24th, 2010
8:26 am
Merry CHRISTMAS,
Go Jackets.
Dr. J
December 24th, 2010
8:27 am
You can’t sell a Tech jersey.
Talked our way out of it
December 24th, 2010
8:32 am
THE ohio state university must have powerful connections.
GT
December 24th, 2010
8:38 am
Speaking of Dewberry, follow his career after his playing days and compare it to the players getting D.U.I s the last couple of years in Athens. It might explain a little about this academic ineligibility at Tech compared to other schools. The reason so many players like AJ Green think they’re playing for free is they have no appreciation of an education and those notions are certainly not discouraged once they arrive in Athens. I think following these guys careers, if it doesn’t depress you too much, kind of puts the light on what is real here. You do not need the NCAA to tell you garbage in garbage out at far as college students.
Cooper Taylor quit Tech, felt isolated, an odd ball on his own football team. This is a bad sign that Tech may be moving or really has for a while into the same direction of a Georgia. Not too much written about this but the recruiter are using it to their advantage in recruiting against Tech. It is very hard to be an athlete today and be a student. The requirements of an athlete are heavy. Looking at these out of condition Georgia players and lack of skill sets from Tech, I’m not sure I totally buy that but when you are putting functional illiterates into a system and then deciding which one of these are academically eligible, when in truth they probably all are is somewhat humorous.
Choking Hazard
December 24th, 2010
8:39 am
Thanks for the contemporary update todd.
ThugNation
December 24th, 2010
8:39 am
No such thing as academic ineligibility 60 miles east of Tech. I heard about some football players in Fleabagville being brain scanned in a test to see if sustained blows to the helmet caused any problems and there was no measurable brain activity. Seems about right to me!
Milledgeville Dawg
December 24th, 2010
8:40 am
I love it. The entire athletic program is in shambles.
dawgfan
December 24th, 2010
8:40 am
Techies, UGA could have 90 players suspended for the bowl game and it doesn’t make a bit of difference. Like the morons that you are, you are completely missing the point. The point is that you constantly run your fat mouths about how smart your football players are and use this myth as a pathetic crutch when they don’t perform on the football field. Well morons, the facts suggest otherwise.
I would still like one of you brilliant Techies to explain to me how someone can graduate from the vaunted “Institute” and still be academically ineligible by the NCAA. You’re real good at running your mouths so why don’t you take a stab at it? Thanks.
CrackerJacket
December 24th, 2010
8:45 am
Mark Bradley has been awarded the Pukelitzer Prize for this investigative, gut wrenching expose’ that changed the sports world. Way to go Mark! What a loser.
CrackerJacket
December 24th, 2010
8:48 am
The program that is in shambles is that pack of uncoached loser thugs of Richt’s. 13 arrests – leads the nation. AD driving drunk with another women and her panties. REAL CLASS!
GT53
December 24th, 2010
8:48 am
Bradley,
You are getting to be the “new” Terrance Moore, (such an AH). By the way, what college did you flunk out of?
tc
December 24th, 2010
8:48 am
Mark, you seem to have struck a raw nerve here. Thanks!
Katherine
December 24th, 2010
8:50 am
I just can’t believe the OSU players getting to play in their bowl game….its disgusting.
T-Bone
December 24th, 2010
8:53 am
Mark, Please write an article about the (wretched) state of Tech basketball. I mean they lost to Siena, of all teams! We need all the help we can get getting rid of Hewitt. It’s sad; Hewitt’s a nice guy and represents the school well, but he is not producing.
Reality Stinks
December 24th, 2010
8:55 am
Like Ive said so many times before
Tech is a fraud, your going to tell me there is no academic cheating going on there give me a break
poopdawg
December 24th, 2010
9:08 am
Bradley , the only tradition that continues is your crappy writings! Quit stirring the pot.
buzzwax
December 24th, 2010
9:16 am
In less than five minutes from reading this FISH WRAP of an excuse for ‘journalism’, I was able to find out that not only TWO of the players have graduated they simply didn’t have enough hours this semester post graduation to remain eligible. The headline should read GT ACADEMIC ADVISOR IS AN IDIOT. These two gentlemen have graduated from a great school and should be HONORED!! I also found out in less than five minutes the other player missed passing a class by TWO POINTS and WILL GRADUATE next semester. So thats THREE OF THE FOUR who will have graduated from Ga Tech. THAT is WAY MORE THAN ANY FISH WRAP ‘reporter’ can say!!!!!! EVER!!!
Mr. Hill, grow a pair, pull up your socks and show everyone what you can do!!!!
Ted M
December 24th, 2010
9:20 am
A few questions: How can you earn your degree and still be academically ineligible?
That is a good question, how can we get that answered?
When I first read it I thought it must have been a misprint but it looks like its just more evidence of how rotten the NCAA is.
Frontman
December 24th, 2010
9:21 am
Dawgfan,
I’ll speak real slow now so you can understand. Even if you have graduated, you still have to pass a certain number of semester hours to remain eligible for NCAA purposes. They didn’t. Does that make it through your thick skull? Sorry for all the big words, a$$ clown
superDawg
December 24th, 2010
9:34 am
It is damn funny watching nerds scream we are smarter than you,yea your all rhode scholars in your own minds.Now go sweep the floor and get it ready for Santa Claus.
1eyedJack
December 24th, 2010
9:49 am
I will make no inflammatory statements concerning GT football player’s “academic eligibility” until the other shoe drops.