Mack's hand may be forced in this one...the national spotlight is focused on Texas this week.
I agree on the surface this doesn't look good and the rest of the nation is only looking at the surface. However, when you look at the facts (weed belonged to Harris, gun was registered to Gatewood), it's not as bad and Brown is just guilty of being stupid enough to sleep with a gun in his lap. It'll certainly be interesting how Mack handles it.
The below commentary from stateman's Kirk Bohl's sums up the situation Mack is faced with pretty well.
Apparently, Tarell Brown took that announcement by the Princeton Review two weeks ago as a challenge.
When the survey revealed that Texas was nation's No. 1 party school but had a tenuous grip on that lofty rating because it was only 13th in marijuana smoking, Monday's blockbuster seemed to indicate that several Longhorns decided to party down.
Who knew Ramonce Taylor was even back in town.
This is hardly the kind of news Mack Brown was hoping for the week before the team's biggest game of the year. When the coach told his football players he wanted them to get up for the Buckeye game, this was not what he had in mind.
We're going to have to put a hold on all those Maurice Clarett jokes while the Longhorn band practices its Wabash Cannabis routine.
As of now, Tarell Brown is guilty of nothing except staying out too late (the team has no hard curfew) and associating with someone who is using marijuana and owns a gun. If the marijuana was his or he intended bad things with the gun, the situation could get worse.
Mack Brown, meanwhile, is left in a sticky predicament. The appearances alone are horrible.
Suspend him without justifiable cause, lose the game and it could create a rift within the team.
Dismiss it with nothing more than a stern warning, and you risk sending a message that discipline is lax. Do that, and Mack Brown could take a public-relations hit and disappoint all those Mack-loving mommas of blue-chippers everywhere.
Clearly, Tarell Brown and special-teams player Tyrell Gatewood shouldn't have put themselves in such a tenuous position. Where was the good judgment during arguably the most important week of the year? Where was that team chemistry Texas so values?
Personally, I'd probably lean toward a one-game suspension. Players would hear that.
Coincidentally, Texas is least vulnerable at receiver and secondary — two spots where it has enough depth to stock two Big 12 teams — and could sustain the loss of Tarell Brown, with strong backups such as Brandon Foster and Ryan Palmer. But that shouldn't be the final determinant. Fairness to the players and to the team should be the final determinant.
"Our football team is very focused," defensive co-coordinator Gene Chizik said. "Overall, our team is very mature."
Mack Brown isn't running a day care, but he needs to make sure his team adheres to upstanding behavioral standards. If not, be prepared to hear opposing fans taunt with cheers like "Book 'em, Horns."
There is some precedent for Mack.
In 2003, school president Larry Faulkner ordered tailback Cedric Benson suspended for one game after Benson kicked in another person's apartment door while trying to retrieve a plasma television set that belonged to him. Of course, Benson missed a game against Baylor that Texas won 56-0. Big risk there.
Mack Brown met with both of the arrested players Monday afternoon and gave a very cursory statement. He was described by a school official as "disappointed" in the players' actions but not livid.
"At this time," he said in the statement, "we are holding them out of all team functions as we gather as much information as possible before making a team decision."
Let's be real here. College kids smoke weed. Not all of them. But lots.
And anyone wishing to throw stones better beware of their glass houses. Someone inside might be getting stoned. An NCAA survey in 2001 found more than 27 percent of more than 21,000 athletes said they had used marijuana.
According to the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, about 46 percent of all college students self-report that they have tried marijuana. Of that group, 16 percent in the last month.
Texas says it randomly tests all its athletes for marijuana without giving notice, but obviously doesn't release the results. And as we know, there is no such test for stupidity.
