If you missed last night's Gray Box of Doom™, Urban Meyer will have yet another player discipline issue to deal with after freshman running back Bri'onte Dunn was cited by the Alliance Police Department over the weekend for drug paraphernalia possession:
Ohio State running back and former GlenOak All-Ohioan Bri’onte Dunn was cited by the Alliance Police Department over the weekend for drug paraphernalia possession and a seat belt violation, two sources with knowledge of the incident told The Repository.
Both charges are misdemeanors and Dunn was not arrested or booked into the jail, the source said. Online reports elsewhere Sunday incorrectly said Dunn was arrested.
...
One source told The Repository that Dunn was initially pulled over for not wearing a seat belt and a marijuana pipe was found in the car. There was a second passenger in the car, the source said.
Ohio State has not commented on the situation, and we don't yet have enough information to take a stab at what kind of punishment Dunn is in store for, but you can bet it will be swift. Dunn becomes the sixth Buckeye to run into trouble with the police since Meyer took over eight months ago. A look at the other five:
- Early January: Defensive back DerJuan Gambrell violated team rules (the infraction was never publicly specified) and was kicked off the team.
- January 7: Defensive back Dominic Clarke was picked up for driving while intoxicated. He was dismissed from the team a little over a week later.
- June 2: Tight end Jake Stoneburner and offensive lineman Jack Mewhort were arrested and charged for "obstructing official business" for running from Shawnee Hills police officers after they happened upon the pair urinating between buildings near the Muirfield Village golf course. Stoneburner and Mewhort were later suspended and lost their summer scholarships.
- July 5: Linebacker Storm Klein was charged with assault and domestic violence after a scuffle with his ex-girlfriend. Two days later, he was dismissed from the team.
That, my friends, is a list that delights professional troll Mike Bianchi to no end, say nothing of the Fulmer Cup points.
The Buckeyes are already light at running back this season with Jordan Hall expected to miss the first six games of the season after suffering a freak injury earlier this summer. Depending on how harshly Dunn is punished, things could get even thinner behind Braxton Miller.
A BLOWOUT AT GRIDIRON KINGS. After completing pool play with a 1-2 mark, the Midwest team, featuring five future Buckeyes, advanced to the Gridiron Kings finals, but was throttled by a loaded Southeast team.
The event, put on by ESPNHS, was a great opportunity for CB Cam Burrows, RB Ezekiel Elliott, WR Jalin Marshall, S Jayme Thompson and CB Eli Woodard to see how they fared against the nation's elite and the results were a bit of a mixed bag.
Midwest advanced to the finals with a hard-fought 20-14 win over Southwest in the semifinals, but the team then ran into the buzzsaw that is the Southeast team in the finals and fell 47-19. Burrows, in particular, had a rough outing and was victimized a couple of times on touchdown passes thrown in his direction.
Burrows, for his part, plans to use the performance as motivation.
BUY: O'BRIEN SALVAGE COMPANY. Despite sanctions that will effectively turn his Penn State Nittany Lions into Purdue for the next half dozen years, Bill O'Brien is off to a great start keeping his 2013 class together. Quarterback Christian Hackenberg, ESPN's top-rated pocket-passer, recently reiterated his commitment to Penn State, as did several other recruits, including elite tight end Adam Breneman.
"Yes, we are all 100 percent committed," Breneman said of himself, Hackenberg, Will Fuller (Philadelphia/Roman Catholic), offensive linemen Brendan Mahon (Randolph, N.J./Randolph) and Andrew Nelson (Hershey, Pa./Hershey), and defensive lineman Garrett Sickels (Little Silver, N.J./Red Bank Regional).
"Halfway through the day the six of us went up to coach O'Brien's office and told him we are going to stay committed," Hackenberg said, according to Pennlive.com. "We believe in coach O'Brien and his coaching staff."
Hackenberg and Breneman, despite injuries, are clearly the two stars of this Penn State class and getting the two to reaffirm their commitment is nothing short of a miracle for O'Brien, though the fact that Penn State avoided a television ban and the Nittany Lions will be playing televised football each weekend helps somewhat to mitigate the damage of a bowl ban1.
An army of coaches from opposing schools is still swarming State College (this is nothing new) and the Nittany Lions will likely lose star running back Silas Redd (flirting with USC) as well as backup quarterback Rob Bolden (LSU), but stabilizing the 2013 class is an important first step for O'Brien.
ARTISTS BE RENDERIN'SELL: EVER HEARING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS STORY. At some point, ESPN is going to have to cover the growing academic scandal at North Carolina as a first class story. Until then, we'll do our part to keep it alive.
The latest turn sees a special faculty committee at the University of North Carolina calling for an — stop me if you've heard this one before — independent commission outside of the university to review athletics and academics in Chapel Hill.
The report, released Thursday, also states staffers in the school's Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes referred players to classes in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM). In May, the university outlined fraud and poor oversight in 54 AFAM classes between 2007 and 2011, including classes that met irregularly if at all.
That included a class last summer with 18 current football players and one former player.
Meanwhile, others are connecting the dots to the basketball program.
I assume that we're just one rigged camp raffle away from an SI cover story, right?
YO DAWG, I HEARD YOU LIKE VIDEOS OF VIDEOS. Friday Night Lights was the debut of the new 42x124' Panasonic HD screen on the South Stands scoreboard:
As you can see, the $7 million scoreboard project has some work remaining, like the crown, which should really just be a cutout of this, but won't be and we're okay with that.
ETC. Arkansas State dismisses former Auburn back Michael Dyer for violating team rules... Miami is saving all the nickels it can ahead of a potential NCAA right cross... These aren't real, but oh, what I wouldn't give to make them real... The Queen Mum was a bit salty during the opening ceremony... China has the lead in the medal table... USA!! USA!! USA!!... I needed this in May... Wut.
- 1 When the NCAA permitted just one nationally televised game per week, bowl bans were a lot more effective form of punishment, as they were televised outside the NCAA's purview.
