Junior defensive end Harold Stanback, junior safety/linebacker Ricky McCollum, sophomore wide receiver Nollis Dewar and two freshmen, receiver Todd Dorcelus and linebacker Carl Teague have been kicked off the Connecticut football team by head coach Randy Edsall.
The Uconn athletic department will not comment on the incident, but Dewar said that the suspension came about because the players purchased two six-packs of beer (Corona and Heineken if you care) Friday at a gas station across the street from the hotel where the team was staying in Tampa the night before the Huskies lost 38-16 to South Florida.
Quotes from Dewar per Courant.com Story:
"We were at a gas station and it happened to have beer and someone said, `Let's get some,'" Dewar said. "There was no plan before like, `Lets go buy some beer and have a party."
"We were walking back to the hotel and [assistant coach Carl Kotz] saw us. We just said we were going back to the room. He asked if we had anything in our bags and we all said no. Then we were in meetings later and he went through our rooms and searched through all our things and he said he found the beer.
"No one drank it. No one did anything with it. Nothing happened with the alcohol. And I am 21. There was no crime committed at all."
Dismissal does seem a bit harsh, especially when taking into account that Edsall apparently knew before the game that Dewar and McCollum had been involved in the incident and still allowed them to play against South Florida.
Of course this isn't the first time a similar situation has played out this season. Starting safety Marvin Taylor was arrested Sept. 15 by campus police for sixth-degree larceny and illegal use of a credit card, but despite Edsall being aware of the arrest, Taylor started in UConn's game against Wake Forest on Sept. 16. Edsall then announced on Sept. 20 that he was suspending Taylor indefinitely, and then dismissed him from the team the next day.
So we guess the story here is if you play for Randy Edsall and get arrested or caught buying beer with minors, you'd better lead your team to victory that Saturday or your ass is liable to get kicked off the team.
We'd hate to think that this is some sort of karma for the Huskies breaking of our perfect season three weeks ago, but......DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS UCONN?!?!