Well, this was a jolt of reality in a relatively slow news period.
Todd Graham is getting another text in discipline as backup quarterback Anthony Gonzalez has been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules.
For much of last night, we didn't know what the issue was. But the Allentown Morning Call fills us in that it could be a marijuana arrest (credit to Adam Bittner over at SB Nation Pittsburgh, who mentioned it early this morning).
Ugh.
Obviously, something of a minor variety would have been welcomed, but with all of the negative press last year, even the small things are going to be blown up. In my opinion, this is really no small issue. It's not breaking curfew, missing a class, or failing to go hard in practice. It's (allegedly) an arrest.
The huge thing to look at is the whole 'Dave Wannstedt factor.' Pitt and Graham made such a big deal of stating they wanted to clean up the program, etc., even though Wannstedt couldn't be blamed for many of the things that went wrong off the field last year. So will Graham come down hard on Gonzalez? He and Pitt have kind of painted themselves into a corner in my opinion with all the talk about cleaning up the program.
I've written earlier on this site that while the issues with the team last year were nothing to be sneezed at, they were not the things that related to on-field play such as cheating, recruiting violations, etc. This is a big blow, but ultimately, nothing that a head coach really has much control over.
I hate to say it, but if this is true, Graham almost has no choice but to strike fast and strike hard on this one. What that looks like, I'm not entirely sure. Maybe it's a suspension through the Summer. Maybe it's missing a game or two. Maybe it's even more than that. Our experience with Graham is so limited that none of those options would really surprise me all that much.
The reason this is a tough pill to swallow is that Gonzalez played well in the Spring practices. He was pretty clearly the backup to Tino Sunseri and without Gonzalez, the team could have real issues at quarterback if Sunseri goes down with an injury or simply doesn't play well. Personally, I don't see a season-long suspension or a 'kicked off the team' scenario. From all indications, Gonzalez hasn't been in trouble before, so I've got to think some kind of warning is in order. But based on what we've heard from Graham, it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.