It was a quiet day and a half since news of six Notre Dame football players being arrested over the weekend hit the wires. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly broke the silence on Sunday afternoon by dismissing senior Max Redfield from the Notre Dame team and suspending Devin Butler indefinitely. The other four members of the team arrested Friday night have not received any disciplinary action at this time. That could change depending on the outcome of the legal process.
“During the past 24 hours, I have met with each of the members of our team involved in the two incidents that occurred over the weekend, reviewed the evidence available to me, and consulted with others involved in the leadership of our team and the University,” Kelly said in a statement released by Notre Dame this afternoon. “That process has only served to deepen my disappointment in the poor decisions made by these young men. Their conduct fell far short of what we expect from those who represent our football team and this great university.”
Then Kelly dropped the hammer down on this upperclassmen involved. “On the basis of my review, I have decided to dismiss Max Redfield from our football team and place Devin Butler on indefinite suspension,” Kelly said.
While Redfield and Butler were the only two to receive immediate disciplinary action, the others involved – Kevin Stepherson, Tevon Coney, Dexter Williams, and Ashton White – could be subject to further action. “The other individuals, while not being separated from the team, will be subject to disciplinary measures internal to the football program.”
Redfield and Butler were given their punishments already given their status as upperclassmen. Redfield has also run into disciplinary actions in the past and sat out the Fiesta Bowl this past January as a result. “The expectations we set for the members of our team are high, but they are especially so for the upperclassmen who are expected to provide leadership and a positive example to the other members of the team. Max and, at least at this stage in the review of his case, Devin, have failed in that regard and so have lost the privilege of continuing to be part of our team.”
Before any one overreacts and thinks the other four players involved are “getting off easy”, there is still the very real likelihood that they could end up being suspended or worse as well. We just won’t know until the legal process plays out in this case. “n making this announcement it is important to stress that all of the players involved in these two incidents remain subject to justice system and University discipline, and those processes could yet impact their standing with the University and the team.” said Kelly.
As in every case of disciplinary action, the fate of all of the student athletes involved here will be determined by the University, not Kelly or the athletic department. “At Notre Dame, where we place so much importance on the integration of students who are athletes into the broader university, the primary responsibility for discipline lies, as it should, with the University’s Office of Community Standards.”
Kelly decided to take action into his own hands in the case of Redfield and Butler. “Even within that system, there are times when a player’s conduct so clearly fails to meet the standards I have set for our football team that it is appropriate to take action independent of any decision that might be made by the Office of Community Standards,” Kelly said.
“This is such an instance.”
We’ll dive into what this means for Notre Dame on the field this fall, but at a minimum this news thrusts freshman Devin Studstill into a starting role at free safety. While this certainly isn’t an ideal situation, Notre Dame was forced to start a true freshman in the secondary in 2012 as well after projected starting CB Lo Wood suffered an ACL injury in camp. That ended up working out alright for Notre Dame and Keivarae Russell. Hopefully the same happens here.
Much more on this as the story continues to develop.
I’m betting he’s a Proctologist ….
He does some poking around then comes up with this shit.
No thanks Lou and stop telling us what to do.
You guys should be Nebraska fans. They have unreasonable expectations of their once glorious program as well. Read the comments on the Omaha paper’s website for some quality entertainment.
Plan A – Zaire
Plan B – Kizer
Plan C – Defense
Plan D – Kickers
I feel good about the opener, no “heeds” needed…
take “heed” ?
Was that a typo?
I defer to Nostradavid for predictions. If he says have a Plan B you should take heed.
Oh Ron, no one cares about your whale vagina either, but you do make the boards interesting…
Who are you taking in the opener?
“Wait’ll we get them silly bastards down in that rock pile. There’ll be some fun.
They’ll wish their fathers had never met their mother when we start takin’ their bottoms out and slammin’ em into them rocks, boy!”
I’ll check the tape but that round went to whisky breath.
Jack – no one cares that you claim to have gone to ND. If you had you certainly could spell The former QBs name properly and acknowledge he too is a graduate of ND.
Wow David. I mean, Wowsers!
The argument you’re making seems to be the inverse of what your family quietly knows too well. Sure, your mom should have done better. But, with the underbite, the heavily pronounced brow, the body odor, and the pendulous labia that led all the neighborhood kids to refer to her as “halfbirth”, only so much could be reasonably expected.
Now, obviously you’ve given no reason for anyone to doubt your lofty football knowledge on these boards, but this seems to be a blindspot. Only a fool would expect ND to be the next Alabama or OSU. The Irish program recruits from maybe 20% of the available top talent in the nation, if it’s a really great year. Making it into championship contention every five years is a monumental achievement. To balance that out, our players get a phenomenal education, and can actually speak English. If this tradeoff isn’t good enough for you, maybe you should fanboy for one of the aforementioned. At least on their boards, the posters might actually think you’ve got something intelligent to say about the game. You could even add a side blog for men who went without oxygen for too long out of the womb.
Um yeah, Goodbye to Max and the rest…NOT a single one of these names was on my radar other than Coney. It takes a lot more to play at ND and succeed, I am sure a chunck of my tuition went to guys like these who didn’t appreciate what they have…&$&$&@$@# YOU! Keep your $%^it together and make it work, otherwise you can go to kansas like Charlie Weis and Dayne Chryst….You had your chnace and blew it…next man up!!!!!
Are students allowed to have weapons at all on the ND campus? If not it means one of the players has been breaking a rule for quite sometime unless they park their vehicle off campus.
If Redfield admits the gun and pot was his, charges would probably be dropped against the other 4. While they’ll still probably get some kind of discipline they might not have a criminal record. If indeed the pot and gun was his.
I’m guessing my response is:
uncle evan, just wow.
Is your mother tongue something an Earthling could hope to learn?
Hopefully being an epic troll helps you sleep at night.
David, just wow.
Jimbo: Clearly you have the ability to comprehend words that are strung together into sentences. That makes you a rare bird here.
These clowns espouse championships, yet defend on-field mediocrity and celebrate program operational stability as the feat of a true savior.
At which gate do you figure Kelly’s statue will be placed….?! Exposure toward the rising sun would seem fitting.
I don’t see how much of this is BK’s fault. I’m not his biggest supporter, but he seemed to act swiftly once this story broke. He laid down the expectations to the players and the consequences for failing to meet those expectations. And when they failed to meet those expectations, he handed them the consequences.
Some of you guys talk like Kelly is working on his 3rd or 4th national championship. Good coach yes. Great coach? No way. He’s set the new standard at ND- 3 loss seasons which I guess is better than the 3 clowns before him. The ND drama continues and another years slips by without a title.
Dear Max,
Goodbye Notre Dame, hello community college.
david
September 19, 2015 at 4:41 am
I have followed ND football for many years. But unlike many others, I do not see any problem having unflattering thoughts or opinions. Blind, mindless devotion is for fools and saints, and I’m neither.
Georgia Tech is simply a better football team than ND is.
@David – sounds like you’ve been smoking some of Max’s weed, man. BK ain’t goin’ nowhere. He’s reestablished ND Football, after an assistant Boob (Davie), an incompetent elitist coach (Tywrong Won’tingham), to use your terms, and a well-meaning (though ultimately unqualified-as-head coach) Charlie Weis. The crap NBC shows of the locker room at 1/2-time is entertainment. BK’s a good, not excellent, but good coach.
David, you must be the smartest college football guy in the world. You are the only football expert who thinks BK is incompetent. Every other expert thinks he’s doing a great job. Wow.
I know, nothing like this happens at any other college. ND is very unique in being the only school I’ve ever heard of that has disciplinary issues. No other school has these problems.
ND should fire BK now. I know Nick Saban and Urban Meyer, and so many other elite coaches like them are just chomping at the bit to come coach at ND. They just need to pull the plug now.
Weird. I would have thought Kelly’s demonstrated lack of elite coaching competence would eventually be his undoing at ND.
But his players’ general lack of respect for his authority might get him before that.
And that would actually be lucky for him if it did. Because then he could blame it on “unrealistic expectations” at ND, and still find another big time job somewhere else (a la Tyrone).
Based on what I know, Butler is in the most serious trouble. Forget dismissal or expulsion, he could face jail time.
Redfield has had issues his whole time at ND. Enough is enough. Good riddance. I don’t know enough about the other four but they were exhibiting poor judgment. If they survive this incident, this had better be a wake up call for them.
See ya Max … ‘Thanks’ for everything!!!
I am guessing here but it looks like the gun and weed were Max Redfield. I could be wrong but if this is the case I don’t suspend the other players and games. Losing a starter before game 1 hurts but I am sick of Redfield.