Georgia Suspends Three Running Backs for New Mexico State

Today, Georgia announced the suspension of three of its four scholarship running backs: Isaiah Crowell, Carlton Thomas, and Ken Malcome. Mark Richt called the cause of the suspensions a violation of team rules, and the players will be on ice for only this weekend's game against New Mexico State.

ESPN is reporting that the actual cause of the suspension was the three of them failing a drug test last week. It doesn't say what kind of drug they tested positive for, not that it really matters, but a one-game suspension for a first failed test is the standard policy for UGA.

What does matter is when the test results came in. Given that the date of the test and the turnaround time for the results are not public knowledge, there's no way to say whether the coaches knew about the failed test before last weekend's game against Florida (though there were rumors of Crowell failing a drug test on some Florida message boards before the game, for what that's worth). If Richt did know and still delayed the suspension, then he'd be guilty of, well, being a Division I-A football coach.

With those three on ice and Richard Samuel out for the rest of the regular season due to ligament damage, UGA will be down to only its walk on running backs against New Mexico State. Somehow, I think they'll manage.