Urban Meyer and his Ohio State Buckeyes will be defending their national title this season; a season that begins on Sep. 9 when they take on Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.
The Buckeyes, however, will be taking on the Hokies without four of their key players: Joey Bosa, Jalin Marshall, Corey Smith and Dontre Wilson, who were suspended for the team’s first game.
The announcement was made today and ESPN’s Joe Schad reported that suspension is for “marijuana and academics.” Ohio State’s head coach Urban Meyer and athletic director Gene Smith spoke out about their team’s suspensions.
Bill Rabinowitz, OSU football beat reporter for the Dispatch, tweeted Smith’s comments on the suspension.
#OhioState AD Gene Smith on the suspensions: "When a student-athlete violates a policy, then there’s sanctions and repercussions."…
— Bill Rabinowitz (@brdispatch) July 30, 2015
Smith on his disappointment about the suspensions: "Disappointed (to see it) at Ohio State. I’m disappointed when I see it anywhere…"
— Bill Rabinowitz (@brdispatch) July 30, 2015
Smith… "in college athletics. You hope young people will respond through the education and through the examples and you go from there."
— Bill Rabinowitz (@brdispatch) July 30, 2015
Doug Lesmerises of Cleveland.com reported that Urban Meyer told the Northeast Ohio Media Group and Canton Repository at the Big Ten Media days, “It’s a college mistake, whether it’s social or academic, whatever it is, it’s not a character indictment.”
Meyer does realize that this will make winning their first game a little harder, but him and his team will push on.
“Whether you have a pulled hamstring or sprained ankle or stuff, we recruited well, we expect to move forward. It’s disappointing. We’ve known about it for a while, though, and as our players would say, go as hard as you can and move forward.”
Everyone will see how this suspension will effect the Buckeyes first game when they take on the Hokies in September.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
