Another week, another Tennessee football player running afoul of the law.
The latest miscreant is freshman tailback Daryl Vereen, who was arrested early Monday morning outside Gibbs Hall and charged with public intoxication when police responded to a fight outside the Volunteers’ athletic dorm.
This follows an incident earlier this month, when rising sophomore wide receiver Gerald Jones and freshman wideout Ahmad Paige were stopped for having a burnt-out license tag light. When police searched the car, they found a couple of marijuana cigars (a.k.a. blunts), leading to charges of marijuana possession.
What made the first incident even more embarrassing was that Jones and Paige were hosting a recruit. Think Clemson coaches (the other school this recruit is considering) were quick to use this situation against UT?
The snap judgment is to blame coach Phillip Fulmer for not having his players under control. That would be right—and wrong.
While one can wonder why Fulmer keeps bringing in guys who find trouble, you can’t ask him to hold players’ hands 24/7/365. At some point, you’d like to think these guys would figure out the cost of a scholarship doesn’t give them the right to puff weed, get soused, etc., so on and so forth.
That having been said, it sure doesn’t make the program look good when players keep screwing up off the field. Apologists might try to say that it happens at other schools, and they’re right, but how does that justify it happening in Knoxville?
Why not try to be unlike other programs? Why not try to impress earlier upon the players that it’s not all right to light up a joint, get inebriated with officers on the scene or get into needless fights (as other UT players have done in the past)?
Fulmer is assuredly furious over the events of the last week and a half. To get his point across to the players, he returned Monday night from a recruiting trip and made the team embark on a punishment run at 6 a.m. today.
Vereen’s punishment consists of community service with a drug rehabilitation facility, participating in police ride-alongs and a curfew for the entire winter semester.
“These young men need to understand that they represent the University of Tennessee and our football program and these immature actions need to stop,” Fulmer said in a press release issued by the university this afternoon.
Maybe they will. But recent history tells us that sometime before the Aug. 30 opener with UAB—probably well before then—someone will probably forget the 6 a.m. running and Fulmer’s admonitions to stay out of trouble.