Should Courtney Upshaw Have Been Suspended For More Than One Quarter For Kicking Vandy Lineman?

I say yes, he should have been suspended for more than one quarter.

I know this is an exceptionally unrealistic black-and-white viewpoint, but he either did something wrong or he didn’t. If it was an accident, then don’t suspend him at all. Saban’s comments would seem to indicate this this was not an accident. If it was an unprovoked attack, then pull him from the game immediately (if noticed) and issue a real suspension, I would think the next game at a minimum. If it was in retaliation for previous aggression on the part of the Vandy player (does anyone actually know who this was?), then a short suspension might be warranted, but did CNS have such information?

So, a few questions from me: (1) What is this Vandy player’s name? The interwebz indicate that this guy’s father may have publicly commented on this as-of-yet anonymous Commodore’s behavioral issues. (2) Did Upshaw return to the Vanderbilt game after the kick?

With the apparently blatant nature of the kick (I haven’t ever actually seen it, including the link I posted above), and with some of the issues in Upshaw’s past (and yes, I understand that these charges were all dismissed, and I’m all for innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but I think we would all agree that although one has a right to be legally presumed innocent in court, one has no similar right to represent the University of Alabama on the football field), I would certainly think that more was called for here than a one-quarter suspension in the Ole Miss game.

…this is the most understated UT week in the history of the rivalry….

but i did note upshaw was going out of his way to be cordial to the vandy players after plays were over later in the game. which doesn’t change the severity of his transgression – it was just good to see he didn’t let his emotions stay in control of him the rest of the game.

but franklin seems to be coaching his players to play rough to the point of breaking the rules. georgia’s todd grantham may have been way out of line after the game last week but i’m pretty sure he wasn’t pissed for no reason. and the suspensions handed down on the vandy players by the conference bears this out.

i haven’t re-watched the bama vs vandy game closely but i’ll bet they were doing the same type of stuff in the scrum against us. and, after awhile, you get someone to react. that’s the point of the strategy. that someone was upshaw. and the bottom line is you can’t allow it to happen. weaker teams seek any advantage and this is one they will use.

right now franklin’s “turn around” of the vandy program is the feel-good story of the season. every sportswriter in america is falling over themselves to snuggle up to his three piece set in order to write about how this plucky team with brains is flustering the football factories. in a year or two, as these incidents multiply, you’ll see the mood shift and people recognizing the situation for what it is.

but after I watched it again just now, I’d say the punishment was more than enough. That was hardly anything. The guy’s body was in contact with his leg before he even moved it, which means it can’t be a kick.

The dude blocked him low and stayed on his legs. Upshaw pushed him (albeit aggresively) away with his leg.

Not that big of a deal.

That wasn’t even a kick. IMO, he shouldn’t have even received any punishment. Now Chuck Norris, that guy can kick! Y’all think we can recruit him for our special teams?

…was that he needed to be suspended for the whole game against New Miss. But now that we have information that the blockers were being less than ethical… What he did was wrong. In the heat of battle, we’ve all probably did or said things that are not our normal way to handle them, but we still ‘pay the price’ for that screw up (most of the time). So maybe the first half would have been a better compromise, IMO.

a lot of the severity of the punishment could stem from Upshaw’s response when the coaches brought this up to him. Usually punishment is lessened when someone owns up and takes full responsibility for their actions. If he immediately took responsibility and recognized that he was wrong and lost his cool for a brief moment, then Saban probably took that into account. If he would have started whining and saying he didn’t see the big deal, it could have been much more severe. That’s just my opinion. Lots of stuff we don’t know about.

I.E. running sprints after practice, up downs till you puke, running stadiums or any type of cardio related torture. Had it been a full blow kick or punch Im sure it would have been worse. The fact he got any suspension at all is impressive to me.

Compare this to UF players throwing blows in our game. I don’t follow the UF program but i didn’t hear of any suspensions from that. Guys are failing drug tests at LSU and are getting just one game…One quarter seems more than enough for what Upshaw did..

Although you cant unring a bell, my guess is that CU got a talking to on the sidelines after the skuffle and returned to the field to kill them with kindness.

Punishment accepted. Debate over. Its Tennessee week. Gawd them orunge paints is ugly!

CU (NO PERIODS!!) …….