Isaiah Crowell among 3 tailbacks suspended for failing drug tests (UPDATED)
Updated throughout . . .
ATHENS – Three Georgia tailbacks – including star freshman Isaiah Crowell – have been suspended for Saturday’s New Mexico State game for failing UGA-administered drug tests last week, two sources familiar with the process and the decision confirmed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Crowell, junior Carlton Thomas and redshirt freshman Ken Malcome will have to sit out 10 percent of the Bulldogs’ competition dates, as is UGA Athletic Association policy for a first-time violation of the student-athlete drug policy. The tests, which revealed marijuana use, were administered last week and the results were confirmed via private lab on Tuesday, the sources said.
Georgia coach Mark Richt would not confirm the reasons for the suspensions beyond his statement that it was for “violation of team policies.”
“We have certain standards in all that we do and their actions do not reflect the Georgia way,” Richt said in a statement released by UGA Sports Communications on Tuesday afternoon. “They will serve their suspensions, learn a lesson and I’m sure will be better men for it.”
Richt failed to mention the suspensions during his half-hour weekly news conference two hours before the news release was sent. He was asked about both Crowell and Malcome during that session with the media. Richt declined subsequent interview requests through UGA spokesperson Claude Felton. None of the players involved were made available.
Meanwhile, No. 2 tailback Richard Samuel underwent season-ending ankle surgery on Tuesday morning, meaning the Bulldogs (6-2) will be down to their fifth-string ball carrier when they play the Aggies (3-5) this weekend at Sanford Stadium.
Sophomore Brandon Harton, junior Wes Van Dyk and freshman Kyle Karempelis as the only true tailbacks available to play Saturday. Harton (5-foot-6, 174 pounds) and Van Dyk (6-0, 203) are both former walkons who were awarded scholarships this past summer. Karempelis (5-9, 180) is a first-year walkon out of The Wesleyan School in Norcross. Only Harton, with 11 carries for 33 yards, and Van Dyk, with one for one yard, have played in a game this season.
Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo indicated after practice Tuesday night that Harton and Karempelis would be the Bulldogs’ first two options. Georgia could also utilize fullback Zander Ogletree in the running game.
“I think it’s an opportunity for a lot of guys to step up,” Bobo said. “We may have to change some things up and do some things different to move the ball. Other guys have to step up and make plays. I feel confident in those two guys and Ogletree and the backs and tight ends and receivers we have to move the ball.”
The Bulldogs could also give offensive snaps to defensive backs Brandon Boykin and/or Branden Smith, both of whom have played often on offense this season. And Bobo also dropped the names of two freshmen: Safety Nick Marshall and cornerback Damian Swann.
“There’s a lot of guys out there could be possibilities,” Bobo said.
It is the second suspension of the season for Crowell, who missed the first quarter of the Vanderbilt game for an academic-related issue. Thomas also missed the season opener due to a suspension for another undisclosed violation of team rules.
Crowell’s coach at Carver-Columbus High School, Dell McGee, traded text messages with him on Tuesday.
“I just reminded him of where he came from and not to take things for granted because they can be taken away from you,” McGee said.
Crowell was rated the No. 1 running back prospect in country when he signed with Georgia last February. He currently leads the Bulldogs with 689 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns.
Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity insisted that the suspensions were not delayed discipline disciplinary actions from the week of the Florida game.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “We don’t pick when we do certain things. When certain things are found, we act right then.”
According to UGA Athletic Association student-athlete handbook, a one-game suspension can be the result of violations of three different policies: Drugs, alcohol or academics. But a violation of any policy cannot be enforced at a coach’s discretion.
“At the point a violation is discovered, if a suspension is required the penalty is enforced for the next competition,” Georgia senior Felton said. “Whatever the infraction was, it would have occurred this week.”
Georgia athletes are subject to preseason drug tests in every sport, random drug tests by the NCAA and periodic/non-random tests by the athletic association. In most cases it takes five to seven days for a lab to analyze the results.
– Chip Towers
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1,146 comments Add your comment
GT Joe
November 1st, 2011
5:07 pm
mutts in denial. crackin me up.
savannadawg
November 1st, 2011
5:07 pm
1.2.3. Hey, Carlton, Kendrum and Isaiah. I would like to introduce you to your replacements for next year. Here is Mr. Kieth Marshall, Mr. Chris Brown (Seminole County High in Donaldsonville) and Mr. Miles Jones from (Allatoona High in Cobb County). Have a wonderful career. It just won’t be here at “The University of Georgia”.
Willie Martinezz
November 1st, 2011
5:08 pm
I RULE……I RULE……I RULE…..I RULE……I Will be your salvation at running back. Old Willie
Diehard
November 1st, 2011
5:08 pm
GT Joe – I don’t know what you meant, just what you said.(And learn to spell big words like testis, before trying to use them in a sentence).
Know it all
November 1st, 2011
5:09 pm
Thank you for making my point. Run the sketchy story without doing more checking into it.
GT Joe
November 1st, 2011
5:09 pm
Savannadawg: hate to break it to you; miles jones is a lock for GT.
Besides, his GPA is too high.
CMR
November 1st, 2011
5:10 pm
“We have certain standards in all that we do and their actions do not reflect the Georgia way,” Translation: “Our standards are sufficiently low that we will allow any 5-star recruit to play for us, no matter how low their character. When found to be doing something that we can’t cover up, we will suspend them when convenient to the program and will not result in a loss or losing my job. After all, I am a good Christian man.”
GT Joe
November 1st, 2011
5:10 pm
Diehard: grammar must not be taught where you’re from. Testes is the plural form of testis. Like Nuts is the plural of nut. Get it?
ryan
November 1st, 2011
5:11 pm
All the momentum we had is gone now worried about Auburn and GT we should beat NMST this real bad timing after we lost Richard Samuel all i can say STUPID , STUPID , STUPID dawg fans we should not sleep on GT or Auburn we have worst luck with RB’s i have lot more respect with what GT did Clemson i am humble .
texasdawg89
November 1st, 2011
5:11 pm
Crowell needs to watch some film of Jaquizz Rogers when he was a freshman at Oregon State. He never left the field and he is only 5′6″. Georgia needs to go out of state to find a tailback. The homegrown tailbacks of the past few years have not been kind to UGA .
SmokeDawg
November 1st, 2011
5:11 pm
I can’t believe they smoked without me…I’m so hurt.
Snow White
November 1st, 2011
5:12 pm
GT has impeccable standards. They would NEVER do anything to cover up a problem. LOL!
Dawgfan22
November 1st, 2011
5:12 pm
GT- what did they look like?
The Georgia Way
November 1st, 2011
5:13 pm
Bet this all happen b4 the UF game.
GT Joe
November 1st, 2011
5:14 pm
It’s funny how the drug game parallels real life.
GT grads own businesses. UGA grads purchase from these businesses.
GT players sell drugs. UGA players buy/use drugs.
TampaDawg
November 1st, 2011
5:14 pm
Convenient Week
November 1st, 2011
5:05 pm
Very covenient that the suspensions happen on a week with such a TOUGH opponent.
——————–
Welcome to an old conversation there genius. That argument has been thoroughly debunked but thanks for playing.
SmokeDawg
November 1st, 2011
5:15 pm
Anyone seen Herb?
UGASUCKS
November 1st, 2011
5:15 pm
coach richt is really raising some fine young men up in athens. It’s unbelievable how many incidents happen with uga players. and of course this comes out right after the florida game…
no dog
November 1st, 2011
5:16 pm
In the future, will you guys now test on Thursday instead of Friday? Your competition would certainly hate for the “caught” not to get the correct suspension date.
GT Joe
November 1st, 2011
5:16 pm
Tampa: debunked? I must have missed that post. Can you refresh my memory on the debunction?
SmokeDawg
November 1st, 2011
5:17 pm
Cheech and Chong screening. My house. BYOW.
Troll Patrol
November 1st, 2011
5:17 pm
GT Joe, I’m coming for ya.
TampaDawg
November 1st, 2011
5:17 pm
What’s really funny is the people on the Tech blogs who take a peak over here and are embarrassed by GT Joe (and that’s a fact!)
VA Dog
November 1st, 2011
5:17 pm
Stupidity would have been suspending players for the Florida game when you had an OPTION to do it for game without the same importance.
Crowell's Momma
November 1st, 2011
5:18 pm
Just say no.
SmokeDawg
November 1st, 2011
5:19 pm
Can someone crack a window? I can’t see out of the windshield!
Dawgfan22
November 1st, 2011
5:19 pm
I heard that they got suspended for eye poking and making threats?
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
November 1st, 2011
5:19 pm
GT Joe
Dont you have some graffiti to scrub off the campus walls and streets on North Ave
Diehard
November 1st, 2011
5:19 pm
GT Joe- my mistake. I admit I’m not an expert on male genitalia like you. To each his own I guess.
ryan
November 1st, 2011
5:20 pm
Day after Halloween what a nightmare .
GT Joe
November 1st, 2011
5:20 pm
VA Dog: That’s not stupidity. That’s honor and respect for the game, team, and school.
But surely Richt agrees with you. Gotta save his job…
P. Johnson
November 1st, 2011
5:20 pm
Just punch GT Joe in the mouth. That’s what I told our fans to do if UGA fans are popping off.
Matthews Dawg
November 1st, 2011
5:20 pm
Now all of the haters will come here and they already have and say that it happened before the UF game. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t, doesn’t matter now. Put Branden Smith and Boykin back there along with the other 2 guys Van Dyk and Harton and see what they all can do. I laugh at some of the GT and UF people on here. Now we only won because IC and the others played. We won, get over it!! Let’s go whip NMSt and get ready for AU. Go Dawgs!!
GT Joe
November 1st, 2011
5:21 pm
Diehard: I guess if you had two testes, you’d be an expert too.
Sorry, ma’am.
CMR
November 1st, 2011
5:21 pm
VA Dog: Good point. That is indeed the UGA way! After all, no matter how low our standards, morals and sportsmanship fall there will always be someone we can point to who is lower. I know enough math to know Lowest Common Denominator means.
rogeriter
November 1st, 2011
5:21 pm
If Richt didn’t discipline players, you would all complain that he’s too soft. But when he does it you complain “What’s wrong with the program?” Nothing is wrong with the program thats not wrong with most other schools today. You just hear more about it because we live in Ga. He could “let it slide” and no one would know a thing about it, like many other schools do.
I’m more concerned with whats wrong with our country…and our president.
TampaDawg
November 1st, 2011
5:22 pm
Sure GT Joe, the conspiracy of the timing of the suspensions coming before NMSU is hardly a conspiracy.
If it was drug related as the ESPN “source” states, that source also states that it was taken the week before the Florida game … last week … drug tests are sent off to independent labs and it takes several days once the samples are received to go through them all. After they are all processed (and I am sure it was more than just four samples), those with a positive match to a tested substance get rechecked and in quality lab scenarios checked one more time to attempt to rule out as many false positive possibilities as possible. Then the results have to be reported and that’s often done with care to not violate HIPAA regs for all involved, innocent also since these results often tell the tale of other substances that are not illegal or controlled. That’s why getting the results back in a week to ten days is usually the norm.
JaxDawg
November 1st, 2011
5:22 pm
I read they were caught smoking weed BEFORE the fla. game. the suspensions were delayed a week.
GT Joe
November 1st, 2011
5:22 pm
I wonder if Richt called them “dumba$$es” when he informed them. Like after the Vandy game.
Win at Any Cost
November 1st, 2011
5:22 pm
That’s the Georgia Way!
Thomas Brown
November 1st, 2011
5:23 pm
They don’t take a peak over here. They live over here. Trying to ignore front page headlines the last several days in a row of no arrests and Georgia tek students beat up, robbed, downtown and the last line in the paper about urban schools adjacent to the slums.
GT Fan
November 1st, 2011
5:23 pm
Sorry, that GT Joe has such an inferiority complex that he has to trash someone else to make himself feel important.
Is it too late?
November 1st, 2011
5:23 pm
Enter your comments here
Georgia Sucks
November 1st, 2011
5:24 pm
At least we beat better competition! Rednecks
Still@theKool-aidBAR
November 1st, 2011
5:25 pm
UGA coaches knew Crowell had a Smoking problem long before this week. They knew about his Habit while he was being recruited. Kids in school know who smokes and who doesn’t and people knew about Crowell.
I just don’t understand kids risking their best chance to have a much better life over Underage drinking and Drugging.
Mark Richt Snake Oil Salesman
November 1st, 2011
5:25 pm
Just win baby any way I can.
RiffRaff
November 1st, 2011
5:25 pm
Seeing how these guys may or may not work out makes me more concerned on the recruiting front. No RB’s have been signed so far for next season.. Keith Marshall has been offered, but hasn’t decided. Gotta be able to run it in the SEC, just ask Fla.
GT Joe
November 1st, 2011
5:26 pm
Here we go with the timeline, Tampa. Adding speculation to the speculation?
Thomas Brown
November 1st, 2011
5:26 pm
spiice K2 laced synthetic mjj
TampaDawg
November 1st, 2011
5:26 pm
Georgia Sucks
November 1st, 2011
5:24 pm
At least we beat better competition! Rednecks
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Your opinion .. but checking the BCS standings, it’s not a shared opinion. Maybe it’s because you lose to lousy teams.