Virginia Tech linebacker Telvion Clark was dismissed from the team on Tuesday for a violation of team rules. His dismissal, combined with the loss of Tariq Edwards for the spring due to surgery on his leg, leave the Hokies with only two scholarship inside linebackers for the spring.
Clark, a rising r-junior, was arrested in Blacksburg on Saturday night with a charge of public intoxication. It was his second publicized incident. In January 2010, he was sent home on a bus from the Orange Bowl (along with several other players) for a violation of team rules.
Clark was Tech’s starting backer last August when Tariq Edwards was injured, and he performed very well. However, once Edwards returned for the start of the season, Clark himself was hurt and never returned to the playing rotation. He had five tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss against Appalachian State, and that was his only significant defensive action of the season.
With Clark off the team, and Edwards missing the spring due to his leg surgery, rising r-sophomore Chase Williams is expected to run with the #1 defense at the backer position. Jack Tyler will start at mike. Bruce Taylor will be out while recovering from his lisfranc injury, so Tech’s depth at the inside linebacker spots will consist of Brian Laiti (6-3, 217, r-So.), plus walk-ons Jonathan Halfhide (5-10, 217, r-So.), Griffin Hite (5-11, 213, r-Fr.), D.J. Ward (5-11, 207, r-Fr.) and Brandon Spitzer (6-2, 210, r-Fr.).
We’ll have a closer look at the linebacker positions in our linebacker preview on Thursday.
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This is just an unfortunate situation. Having been a student at VT its easy to find yourself on the wrong side of the law. I don’t know of any other town where there are as many police officers patroling the streets at night. I luckily have never had any issues but arrests like these are extremely common amongst students. Its sad a kid made a bad decision and it ended this way. I trust our coaches and am proud Tech has its high standards but you can’t help but to feel for the guy. When I found out I couldn’t play football anymore it was one of the toughest things to get through. I hope he can get through this and maybe find success elsewhere and become a better person from it. I just don’t want the media to portray him as a bad guy because it isn’t easy to live a normal life around Blacksburg and not get into trouble at some point. Yeah as an athlete you got to have your priorities straight and make good decisions but I guess my point is that these kinds of incidents happen to good students all the time.
We hear you vatechdn60 !!!
I didn’t go to VT but I was drunk many times in college in public.
Obviously Clark was on a short leash.
These actions are an example of what separates Virginia Tech from the football factories.
I trust Beamer and his staff to make good decisions.
This is like a career ending injury. Of course it’s a self-inflicted career ending injury.
Now somebody else has a opportunity to step up.
Maybe this is the wake-up call for the rest of Clark’s life. Wish him the best.
We are thin at LB at injuries and Clark has potential to be real good. My guess is that there is no way this was done to make numbers. Plus, Beamer has more class than to do it this way. He is no Saban.
Its 2 or 3 or some of both. The fact is he isn’t an impact player. It’s a sad, ugly world in college football these days! Fact is, the coaches have already figured out they can upgrade this position.
This wasn’t his first offense and he has been given numerous chances in the past. It has nothing to do with him being an impact player. Fact is his previous offenses more than talent/knowledge of the defense kept him off the field. Playing college football is a privilege not a right.
After reading the report on Clark’s incident (from Andy Bitter), I figured this would be a fairly straightforward internal discipline only sort of thing. After all, drunk in public, in a college town, especially at VT, is a pretty common charge. Clark was 21, so no underage issue. Figured this wouldn’t be a problem.
But instead he’s dismissed….leading me to 1 of 3 conclusions.
1. He’s done some other things wrong (other than getting bused home from the Orange Bowl) that we don’t know about and he already had his final warning, or
2. We’ve heard he’s been in Bud’s doghouse, so maybe this was the last straw or
3. You know how we took a big recruiting class, and everyone says “don’t worry, the numbers will work”? Well, there you go.
Or it could even be #4, some combo of the 3 above.
Based on what we’ve seen from Beamer in the past, it’s probably not one or two incidents or problems we’re talking about. I think he genuinely tries to get these guys with problems straightened out. Remember the kid with some kind of cocaine-related arrest some years ago? JMO
Won’t be number 3…..