PINE BLUFF — Arkansas-Pine Bluff might not be without 25 players when it hosts Grambling State on Saturday after all.
Three days after the Southwestern Athletic Conference suspended 25 UAPB players for their roles in a post-game fight with Southern on Oct. 15, the league said Monday it could spread the suspensions out over several games.
So, rather than missing 25 players for Saturday’s game and five players who were suspended two games for using what the league called “excessive force,” UAPB could be without some players for each remaining game.
UAPB Chancellor Lawrence A. Davis Jr. said UAPB sent the league a letter not long after the SWAC released the list of suspended players last week, while Coach Monte Coleman said his preference is to divide the punishments over the final four games.
“That’s what we hope,” Coleman said. “The ball is in the Commissioner’s hands right now.”
SWAC spokesman Tom Galbraith said Commissioner Duer Sharp and the league office are considering an edit to the punishments announced last week “out of the consideration for the student-athletes who are eligible,” and that an announcement could come today.
Both schools will also be fined an undisclosed amount.
Coleman said Monday he’s not sure how it will be decided which players will sit out which games, and Galbraith said the SWAC has considered different arrangements.
“That’s really what we’re deciding right now,” Galbraith said. “We’re not going to disclose how we do that, but the release, whenever we decide on it, will make that clear.”
Davis, who said Friday UAPB had no intentions of appealing the suspensions, said Monday he and Athletic Director Lonza Hardy Jr.’s concerns involved the players who would be forced to do more without such a large chunk of suspended players.
“Football is a physical game,” said Davis, while watching part of UAPB’s Monday workout. “... All [players] will serve suspensions.”
Whenever that is, though, is still unclear.
UAPB, which had a bye on Saturday, practiced for the first time Monday since the suspensions were announced. All players — including the 25 who will miss at least one game — participated.
The Golden Lions’ biggest hit appears to be along the offensive line. Lyron McClenney, a starter at right tackle, will miss two games and Colton Jones, a three-year starter at right guard, will miss one.
“To lose both of them, that means I lose my whole right side [of the offensive line],” Coleman said. “I don’t want to do that. So I’m hoping it’s over four games.”
Two running backs — Stephen Jones (2 games) and Justin Billings (1) — will also miss time, but Coleman said his team’s four-back rotation should leave them with plenty of options. Leading rusher Adrian Moore and Dennis Jenkins, who had 111 yards and scored a touchdown against Southern, were not suspended.
Other suspended players who started against Southern were: wide receiver Dezmond Beverly (2 games), Free safety Ryan Shaw (1 game), linebacker Joe Dalton (1 game) and defensive end Damien Lee (1 game).
UAPB (4-3, 3-2), which took control of its own path to the SWAC Championship game with the 22-21 victory over Southern, hosts Grambling Saturday and Alabama State on Nov. 5 before playing at Mississippi Valley State on Nov. 12 and hosting Texas Southern on Nov. 19.
“The thing I expressed to the team is that one way we can lose this game is mentally,” Coleman said. “I challenged them to make sure we are mentally prepared to win this football game.”
Sports, Pages 18 on 10/25/2011