AJC: Dennis Andrews no longer onthe Team

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

Go back and watch the 2nd offensive play of the OB. DA will be missed bigtime, this one stings.

I agree, of course, but we sent a few packing over the last two or three years and were better for it. Eighty-four other players will see this and learn from this, as much or more than Dennis Andrews will eventually learn from this.

 

[RLR]

So you believe that the coach should turn a bling eye to illegal activity within the team? That is absurd. I don't think that an academic institution should allow any student to participate in an illegal activity that will prevent them from getting a job with almost any hiring company. Kind of the opposite of what they are supposed to be instilling in students, athletes or not.

I think it's a bad situation. And when we recruit 17/18 year old kids to be a part of our team, we should do everything we can to support them. Should we turn a blind eye? No. But should we abandon a player when he's in the wrong? I don't know. Again, I apologize for taking too hard of a stance. I don't know enough details about our program or this situation. And, I think GT and CPJ are highly respectable characters. So, as a fan, I should give them the benefit of the doubt. I just don't share the sense of justice and righteousness in losing a player. Maybe it's the only way. Maybe it is fair. But at the end of the day, it's a bad situation for Dennis Andrews. And as of yesterday, Dennis Andrews was part of the GT family. I guess it will just take sometime for me to accept that he's no longer part of that family. I hope he can redeem himself from this mistake. I hope he grows from this. I'm sure everyone here shares these wishes. Go Jackets.

 

[AE 87]

We don't know for sure what it was, but if he was suspended, it wasn't 1st offense. It's happened almost every year, so it's not like it's a surprise. The kid must've done something he knew had this consequence.

Rant away that it should be okay to break stupid laws because "everybody" does, but you look silly imo.

 

[forensicbuzz]

My understanding is dismissal comes from the 3rd offense, suspension after the 2nd. Someone closer to the program should probably be able to answer this better.

 

[JorgeJonas]

We don't know for sure what it was, but if he was suspended, it wasn't 1st offense. It's happened almost every year, so it's not like it's a surprise. The kid must've done something he knew had this consequence.

Rant away that it should be okay to break stupid laws because "everybody" does, but you look silly imo.

I think there's a fundamental difference between sanctioning the behavior and actively seeking out violations. The likelihood is that at least some underage players probably consume booze, and they probably speed, but there's no testing for either of those things. I won't speak for anyone but me, but all I'm advocating for here is a similar approach - if he got arrested with it, fine, punish him, but if he is kicked off the team for not passing a test, that's silly.

 

[jwsavhGT]

I think it's a bad situation. And when we recruit 17/18 year old kids to be a part of our team, we should do everything we can to support them. Should we turn a blind eye? No. But should we abandon a player when he's in the wrong? I don't know. Again, I apologize for taking too hard of a stance. I don't know enough details about our program or this situation. And, I think GT and CPJ are highly respectable characters. So, as a fan, I should give them the benefit of the doubt. I just don't share the sense of justice and righteousness in losing a player. Maybe it's the only way. Maybe it is fair. But at the end of the day, it's a bad situation for Dennis Andrews. And as of yesterday, Dennis Andrews was part of the GT family. I guess it will just take sometime for me to accept that he's no longer part of that family. I hope he can redeem himself from this mistake. I hope he grows from this. I'm sure everyone here shares these wishes. Go Jackets.

I agree with this post more than your earlier one, maybe because I'm a part of the "older generation." I'm sorry to see DA miss out on such a fantastic opportunity & I hope he is willing/able to complete his education at GT. My thoughts are with him & his family.

 

[Architorture23]

My response to these sorts of things is always that the severity of the rule broken is pretty immaterial. Team rules exist for the betterment of the team, in general. Disregard for a team rule shows selfishness and disregard for the team concept. Players that break multiple team rules, and therefore hurt the team, should not be kept around.

And I'm a huge Dennis Andrews fan. Best AB we had coming by far because of his devastating blocking. I loved watching him play. But he, more than once, placed himself above his team.

As Bud Kilmer might put it "The hard work of so many sacrificed by the disrespect of a few."

 

[JacketFromUGA]

In semi related news most of the injured are good to go http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/college/several-injured-tech-players-are-ready-to-go/nmS8Y/

Snoddy, Burden, and Marshal are "full go"

 

[Ibeeballin]

On to the next. Nothing to worry about at the A back position

 

[RLR]

We don't know for sure what it was, but if he was suspended, it wasn't 1st offense. It's happened almost every year, so it's not like it's a surprise. The kid must've done something he knew had this consequence.

Rant away that it should be okay to break stupid laws because "everybody" does, but you look silly imo.

IMO, continuing to enforce the rules with the same draconian punishment is silly, especially when it doesn't seem to alter future behavior. But that doesn't mean I think you're wrong.

80% of solving any problem is understanding the struggle. 15 - 20% is understanding the possible solutions. The rest, which solution you choose, doesn't really matter. I respect your opinion, even though I disagree with it. You very well could be right - this is the best solution to the problem. I guess my only argument is that we seem very eager to skip over the underlying struggle and go straight to the "he broke the rules. sorry, not sorry". That's why I (misguidedly, mistakenly) said that I don't respect people who blindly follow the rules in my OG post. B/c - at some level - i fear that people don't care about these players or this very real problem. It's easy to say, Dennis Andrews, you used illegal drugs. you're off the team. It's hard to look at your friend/teammate/brother and say, sorry we're done. I don't care about your struggle. I don't care about finding the best way to help prevent future players from making this same mistake. You messed up. and that's that. Because that's what the rule book said. I'm not saying I necessarily have a better solution. I just think it's incredibly more difficult of a situation than a simple binary choice. If it was, why would he / the countless other number of players before him choose this option?

 

[AE 87]

I think there's a fundamental difference between sanctioning the behavior and actively seeking out violations. The likelihood is that at least some underage players probably consume booze, and they probably speed, but there's no testing for either of those things. I won't speak for anyone but me, but all I'm advocating for here is a similar approach - if he got arrested with it, fine, punish him, but if he is kicked off the team for not passing a test, that's silly.

I hear you. Drug testing is part of the NCAA. So, it's possible that the school could turn a blind eye to something regulated by the NCAA, but that does then translate to de facto sanctioning. For people without religion, morality is often defined in terms of crime and punishment.

 

[RLR]

I agree with this post more than your earlier one, maybe because I'm a part of the "older generation." I'm sorry to see DA miss out on such a fantastic opportunity & I hope he is willing/able to complete his education at GT. My thoughts are with him & his family.

Incredibly immature and unwarranted comment on my part. I wrote it without thinking. Apologies for including that line / overall tone of the first post.

 

[Eastman]

While I am comfortable with having such a rule, another concern may be that such activities are rarely done alone. At least that is what people have told me.

 

[jwsavhGT]

Incredibly immature and unwarranted comment on my part. I wrote it without thinking. Apologies for including that line / overall tone of the first post.

No offense taken. No apologies needed.

 

[JorgeJonas]

I hear you. Drug testing is part of the NCAA. So, it's possible that the school could turn a blind eye to something regulated by the NCAA, but that does then translate to de facto sanctioning. For people without religion, morality is often defined in terms of crime and punishment.

I don't believe the NCAA has a testing policy, except that the schools shall have a drug policy and educate athletes on it, and that they may test athletes at NCAA sanctioned championships and bowl games. The violation comes in not following the policy, which I think is, in part, what tripped up Syracuse.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

SIMPLE - no matter what the rule is, as long as it is understood and administered equally to all players, it is the player's responsibility to meet the rule or LEAVE. I am not questioning whether something should or should not be the rule, but if a player knowingly violates the rule, and he knows that he will be "tested" for the rule, then he has made a choice that breaking the rule is MORE important than being on the team, and that is a problem, even if the rule is eating too many lollipops.

 

[deeeznutz]

On to the next. Nothing to worry about at the A back position

This coming from a guy who played on CPJs Tech teams is VERY reassuring!

 

[AE 87]

I don't believe the NCAA has a testing policy, except that the schools shall have a drug policy and educate athletes on it, and that they may test athletes at NCAA sanctioned championships and bowl games. The violation comes in not following the policy, which I think is, in part, what tripped up Syracuse.

Yeah, the NCAA does year round random testing in addition to championships now. Street drugs can be screened for SAs with past failures. That's in addition to school policy which works as you say.

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

Dennis made this decision not Paul Johnson. Tech football will go on and hopefully Dennis will live a long and successful life.

Go Jackets!

 

[TechPhi97]

Maybe it's a generational thing, but I don't have respect for someone who blindly follows rules. To me, that's a copout, not a hard decision. It's throwing a player under the bus. "You smoked marijuana, something 75% of your peers do. Marijuana is against the rules. Therefore, you're outta here kid, even though you've worked hard, sacrificed for the program, and did everything else we asked of you." I wasn't exposed to the Reagan indoctrination, so maybe that's why I don't get it, but every modern study I've seen on "drug addiction" supports a conclusion that's the exact opposite of this hard-line, social ostracization enforcement policy.

But then again, I respect CPJ. And he's closer to the team then me, obviously. And I respect the opinions of everyone on the board b/c most of you are more intelligent than me. So, I guess all of that ^ is my emotional reaction to this unfortunate news. But as a football fan with no skin in the game, how much longer do I have to see talented football players who seem like decent people be banned from playing football because they smoke a little weed? Ricky Williams, Josh Gordon, 200 GT players the past 3 years, . . . oh well.

Team rules are team rules. While I agree with your position (I'm not sure this was his violation of team rules or not), but you can get kicked off the team for showing up late to practice or not hustling; doesn't have anything to do with the law, it's the team.