Fitzgerald Toussaint arrested for drunk driving [EDIT: Fitz suspended indefinitely by Hoke]
This perfectly sums up how I now feel.
Sucks, but hey, to put things in perspective...Did you guys hear what happened at Penn State?
I know that avatar.
I know I'll get flamed, but is there an unusually prevelant culture of drinking around this team? Seems like there have been way too many arrests involving acohol since Hoke took over.
Nobody wants to hear it, but we're neck and neck with Ohip for the B1G lead in arrests over the last year and a half. This is not OK and if the fan base and alumni continue to ignore the problem it's going to get worse.
Never looked at it that way. Better to catch it early. Time to lay down the law Hoke.
Too bad Hoke isn't Dantonio. I seem to remember a similar situation involving C.L. Rucker and Dantonio picking him up from Ingham County Jail on the way to Iowa City. That is why Hoke is of the Schembechler/Moeller coaching tree, not the Tressell win at all costs tree.
That doesn't make it inexcusable, but it does make me wonder if he was drunk or just over .08, which isn't drunk for most guys. A lot of these legal troubles seem like it's college kids doing college things, esepcially regarding Big Will's legal issue.
That doesn't excuse it, of course, but it's not like these kids are getting in trouble for violence, etc, unless I'm missing something.
is a prevalent culture. However, it's not one of drinking... it's one of entitlement.
getting arrested. That falls on RR (or Lloyd, for Stonum).
Not sure if that's a valid excuse. He's been their coach for a year and a half now. If you give him credit for turning the team around, you can't turn right around and blame the problems on the previous coach. Not that I think he's to blame either, but he's the head coach so he ends up being ultimately responsible for these things.
I'm not sure that is a valid argument, considering Hoke has had major influence over these kids for over a year now. Anything about RR is irrelevant in my opinion.
I have faith that Hoke will apply the appropriate punishment for this stupidity, like he has thus far with the other problem-children.
EDIT: this was a response to jblaze... not sure why it got mixed up.
I don't know when, or if, you went to college, nor if you went to Michigan, but the drinking culture you cite isn't a Michigan football team "thing," it's a generational "thing." Binge drinking is the rule, not the exception, at Michigan and probably every school in the B1G. I graduated from Michigan, and have spent time visiting friends every B1G school, save Penn State, and found alcohol abuse to be the norm. Not defending this practice here, just trying to provide perspective.
Agreed. By the time I graduated, I knew a lot more people who had MIP's or some other alcohol-related incident than I did people who hadn't had any run-ins with the law.
There I fixed it for you
Ever been to BYU? How about Pepperdine?
Congrats Fitz,
Bye-Bye 1600 yard season (although I would have been quite happy with anything over 1200). A two or three game suspension is at least going to be the penalty. Personally I hope he gets leaped on the depth chart and never regains the opportunity to be a feature back, which may have propelled him into entering next years draft and being a top 100 selection.
We all make mistakes and hopefully he will learn from his, but I hope that it is VERY costly for him.
Disgruntled Season Ticket Holder
opportunist that i am, i just went and put some money on alabama -10.5 on 5dimes, assuming that the line will go up when the inevitable suspension is announced.
GTFO
I understand that college students make dumb decisions, as I did my fair share of stupid things while drunk in college as well.
But there is really just no reason to take a vehicle when you're going out in Ann Arbor. All of the bars are within walking distance.
Ah but did you have a Blue Pass (my part time job was at the medical center, best benefit) and have to walk from Tower on E.Williams up to the med center or public health?
Car with Bluepass was awesome.
I hate to say it (and I'm sure I'll get roasted for it) but this doesn't surprise me at all. I've been hearing a lot of stories (from friends still living in ann arbor) about him doing really dumb stuff this summer. I felt like it was just a matter of time before he got in some sort of trouble, I just wish for his sake it wasn't something as serious as this.
care to elaborate?
Punched a bouncer in the face at Rick's awhile back. He was lurking around my buddies car (possibly looking to break into it), my friend asked him what he was doing and fitz started trying to get into a fight him (this was on Friday btw)
He has a toddler. A DUI is irresponsible to begin with, but when you're a young father, c'mon.
Jesus H. Christ, come on Fitz.
I'm going to get negged for this, but as much as we love to make fun of Meyer and D'Antonio for their disciplinary records, this is the 6th since Hoke has come that we've had some sort of issue.
Marvin and Jerald Robinson, Stonum twice, Campbell, and now Toussaint. Now I realize that many of them were minor, and Stonum is gone now, and that none of these are Hoke's players that he recruited, but still, 6 is way too high IMO, and especially considering that many of them are alcohol related offenses (DUI etc.), which can be very dangerous.
On anothe vote, this just makes me hate Spartan fans more. On RCMB, one kid wrote that it's obvious Hoke won't actually suspend Fitz for any gametime because he called him Fitz in the press release.
It's okay. It's the norm now that someone will neg you for pointing out the truth they don't want to believe.
College kids are college kids, and not the demographic best known for making good decisions all the time.
It happens at every program (even the service academies)....it's the follow through discipline that will make/break a coaches rep as a disciplinarian.
But I don't buy the "it happens at every program arguement." I mean, sure, it does, but not 7 arrests in a 16 month span happening. I mean hell, MSU hasn't had a single arrest since 2010.
And even if it does, isn't this Michigan, fergodsakes? We should be held to a higher standard (Michigan arrogance at its finest right here). Yes, Hoke can make his rep by giving serious punishments here, but it would go a long way to his rep to prevent these arrests from ever happening.
I know that sounds convoluted because it might actually be. Hoke needs to try and put an end to this, but he can't control what the kids do outside of the football field all the time. He needs to set an example, but for him to set an example, this kind of stuff needs to happen. All of that's true. But this has put me in a shitty mood, and all I care about now is it stopping. Now.
And now potentially Frank Clark too. Holy lack of discipline batman.
Looks like Frank Clark is charged with Home Invasion - Court date August 2nd!
7th if you count Furman, who rightfully was acquitted, but he didn't exactly handle himself like a Mcihigan man by losing his temper and having to be held back by girls. This is fine for a school like Ohio or an SEC school, but 7 in a year and a half is too much here. I wonder if anyone will ask Hoke a tough question or 2 about it?
You can't really be wishful that he won't miss any game time, then laugh at Tressel, Dantonio, and Meyer when they slap players wrists for running afoul with the law. This is why I wish nobody on this board with ever comment on how our rivals deal with punishing players.
he blew a .12. That was according to the Sherriff I think.
It's not important what he blew on the PBT, only what he blew at the station on the certified breathalyzer machine. Article doesn't say where the "above .08" comes from. Sometimes that makes all the difference. I know that in Indiana, the PBT isn't admissible in court.
silas redd to the rescue?
silas redd to the rescue?
FUCK! Come on Fitz. You can't do these kinds of things being a key player on this team.
I pray he'll be able to play the first game and that he can fix this mess..
Can we petition Delany for a waiver because I mean The Cowboys Classic is such a big event in kids lives and we should not take that away from them. /Tresselled
If this isn't the biggest bag-over-the-head, punch-in-the-face I ever got, GOD DAMN IT!
If I saw him at this moment I would want to "look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?"
""We will use this as an opportunity to educate Fitz and make sure he understands the high standards that we have established within our program." - Brady Hoke, from the Yahoo! Sports article on this
I do at least like that Hoke seems on top of these things and makes players accountable regardless of their importance to the team. This was a very shortsighted thing to do, especially when you're a parent as Fitz is, and hopefully this is a wake-up call and he gets things squared away during the suspension and going forward after the suspension.