Buchanan indefinitely suspended
CHAMPAIGN — Illinois starting Bandit Michael Buchanan was suspended indefinitely after his weekend arrest for DUI.
Buchanan, a sophomore from Homewood-Flossmoor, won’t play against Southern Illinois on Saturday night and could miss more games.
Among the options for the Bandit position include moving defensive end Clay Nurse to that spot.
Buchanan had three tackles against Missouri on Saturday.
Buchanan becomes the third defensive starter lost in the last two weeks. Cornerback Terry Hawthorne is out four to six weeks with a foot injury, and safety Supo Sanni tore his Achilles’ tendon and is out for the season.
I am a realist, and I know that kids get in trouble but I can never remember in 30 plus years watching Illini football that players have gotten so out of hand as in Zooks tenure.
Zook and his staff need to have a zero tolerance policy and stick to it. There needs to be severe consequences for these stupid actions.
I am getting sick of it.
p.s. Keep things positive with all of you (everyone) on the football team. Talk about personal responsibility (and so forth) and the great events to come for all of you on the team. You have been given a rare opportunity to succeed in college as well as playing a sport that you love. Players on scholarship are indeed lucky to have them these days. Don't throw your future away by doing foolish things for the moment as a young person. You have your whole life ahead of you. Stay out of trouble. Finally, GO ILLINI!
I agree with kfj. But on a related topic, I remember last year hearing stories about Juice trying to be the sheriff and stake out his teammates to make sure that no one was screwing up. bad idea. If a guy screws up, punish accordingly and move on. If it's a widespread problem, punish more severely and move on. We don't need to stereotype the entire team as irresponsible based on one man's actions.
If we are in the SEC area no one hears of this and the cop would be fired and knows it if he even thinks about giving this kid a DUI. Its the same thing in HS sports which some towns give kids breaks after breaks to benefit the team while other schools are so strict kids wont even go out because people have it out for them. This is right under our nose.
I know kids in early 20's are going to mess up and Zook has kicked off a bunch of player in his tenure the problem is kids that we are recruiting are getting away with stuff in HS and we don't see it and comes back to haunt us in College. THIS IS GOING ON LOCALLY BIG TIME. Please jsut dont let the old Goat Loren investigate the story because it will make no sense when he writed it!
I just dont get why these kids think that they can do these things? They get to go to college at the U of I for free and somehow mess it up. I am ok with them having a few beers or whatever but call a cab, have a DD , something!
Also these players shouldnt be aloud to go anywhere with out a teammate around. One more thing, who cares about what the sec schools do? They have lower standards to get in and to stay and I dont want the big 10 or esp the U of I lowering standard just to get and keep 4 and 5 star players.
Who Cares what SEC schools? How many National Champoionships have they won VS. the field the past since 1998? Answer is 6 (last 4 in a row) how many has the big ten won? answer 1. I dont want the big ten or Illinois to lower their standards either. But we aren't winning going to win a thing so don't b!tch when we are staying home year after and you can sit around reading Tate say i told you so after he hypes the team up for 3-4 months. We spent a ton of $ on a stadium to watch a football team that isn't better than a NAIA school!
Is Basketball Season here yet?
I have to say that this is a reflection of the kids but also Zook. I dont think this man or his staff cares about these kids off the field and this is part of what is happening think about it we are losing kids due to grades, illegal activity etc. These kids bring so much money to this school and they should have the tuitoring and the coaches should be chekcing up on their kids. These are still young men who need guidance and I know someone who says this isnt happening.
Howdy Illini Faithful,
I'm not trying to stir things up here, but just wanted to add my (probably skewed) take as a lifeling Gator and former Zook detractor.
Zook has never been much of a disciplinarian, which he proved over and over during his tenure in Gainesville. This was one of the more disappointing aspects of his time at the helm at UF. He even got into a brawl at a frat house during a party! No kidding!
It's unfortunate that he's failed to address off the field issues -- I guess that the tiger's just not going to change his spots. BTW, I'll be the first to admit the SEC has a pretty poor rep as a whole in this department as well these days.
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