STRAIGHT FROM ANDY'S MOUTH: Tre Williams' Choice Probably Saved Sam Pittman Having to Suspend Him
Tre Williams's career as an Arkansas Razorback was over about the time he got pulled over just after midnight Sunday morning.
Opting out for the NFL Draft was just an excuse to save Sam Pittman the problem of suspending him for what would have been his final college game.
"Aw, I don't know why I'd need to answer it," Pittman said at his press conference Monday afternoon. He was clearly uncomfortable with the question.
"He's opted out of the bowl game, he's not on the team," he said trying to wiggle around the whole thing. "We take 'em case by case. You asking me what if he wasn't a senior?"
Tre Williams rushing the passer against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in October.
Nelson Chenault/USA TODAY Images
Well, Williams was at the previous practices the last couple of weeks for the bowl game. He had stayed with the team after the final game of the regular season against Missouri.
It's a pretty good guess he intended to play against Penn State in the Outback Bowl right up until the blue lights appeared in the rearview mirror.
But Pittman finally got around to how he probably would have handled a player that didn't have the bail-out option Williams had.
That was probably the question Pittman wanted in the first place.
"I would have suspended him for a game," he said. "I would have made him run, would have asked him to go get some rehab help, then we would have gone on a game-by-game situation after that."
That's pretty much the standard punishment and has been for awhile.
The Razorbacks have a time-honored tradition of bowl-game suspensions for decades for a whole variety of things.
Coaches discovered suspending a player for a meaningless post-season game, then bringing them back in the spring made it look to the fans like all was in order and the coach didn't lose a player.
Lou Holtz made headlines leaving starters Ben Cowins, Michael Forrest and Donny Bobo at home for an Orange Bowl game against Oklahoma, then came out smelling like a rose when the Hogs won the game, 31-6.
For good measure, Bobo successfully managed to get kicked off the Hogs' Fiesta Bowl team the next year.
Now the whole opt-out thing has made bowl games pointless for all but a handful of matchups. It's just one of the many things college football needs to fix.
Which is why most of these bowls are simply spring games with a bigger TV audience.
And, of course, more money involved.
• STRAIGHT FROM THE ANDY'S MOUTH
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