Two articles first is from the Hartford Courant, second from the UConn Daily Campus.
~ Rick
Edsall Kicks 5 Off Team
Caught With Beer Friday, 3 Play Saturday, Then Dismissed
October 10, 2006
By SHAWN COURCHESNE, Courant Staff Writer
UConn coach Randy Edsall announced the dismissal of five players from the football program Monday for a violation of team rules while in Tampa, Fla.
A two-paragraph statement released through the school said that junior defensive end Harold Stanback, junior safety/linebacker Ricky McCollum, sophomore wide receiver Nollis Dewar and two freshmen, receiver Todd Dorcelus and linebacker Carl Teague, were the players dismissed. The press release also stated that the university would have no further comment.
Dewar said Monday evening that the incident stemmed from the players purchasing two six-packs of beer Friday at a gas station across the street from the hotel where the team was staying in Tampa the night before the Huskies lost 38-16 to South Florida.
"I don't know why he came down so hard," Dewar said. "That was a decision that he and the coaching staff made, and they stuck with their decision. It's just hard for me being that it was my first offense, the first thing I ever did wrong there. I was thinking a suspension maybe or something. I did not expect to get dismissed from the team."
It was the second major disciplinary action against members of the team by Edsall in less than three weeks. Former starting safety Marvin Taylor was dismissed from the team on Sept. 21 after his arrest on a larceny charge.
UConn (2-3) plays at home Saturday against Army.
Stanback, 21, from Temple Hills, Md., and Dewar, 21, from Windsor, each played in all five games for the Huskies this season, including Saturday's. McCollum, 22, from Washingtonville, N.Y., played in three games, including South Florida, where he had three assisted tackles. Teague, 19, of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Dorcelus, 20, of Irvington, N.J., had yet to play.
Dewar would not say which player bought the beer, but he did say that a six-pack of Heineken and a six-pack of Corona were purchased.
Dewar said that he, McCollum, Dorcelus and Teague were confronted by UConn recruiting assistant Carl Kotz when they were walking back to the hotel. Dewar said Kotz didn't realize that Stanback had been with them.
Dorcelus:
Teague:
"We were at a gas station and it happened to have beer and someone said, `Let's get some,'" Dewar said. "There was no plan before like, `Lets go buy some beer and have a party.'
Dewar:
"We were walking back to the hotel and [Kotz] saw us. We just said we were going back to the room. He asked if we had anything in our bags and we all said no. Then we were in meetings later and he went through our rooms and searched through all our things and he said he found the beer.
"No one drank it. No one did anything with it. Nothing happened with the alcohol. And I am 21. There was no crime committed at all."
Edsall was scouting recruits in the area Friday evening. Dewar said when Edsall returned to the hotel he woke up all the players involved except Stanback and confronted them about having the beer.
Head Coach Edsall:
"We told him what happened, that it was a spur of the moment thing," Dewar said. "He said we'd talk more about it when we got back [to UConn]."
Dewar said Edsall dismissed McCollum, Stanback, Dorcelus and Teague on Sunday. Dewar didn't meet with Edsall until noon Monday.
"The other players got dismissed [Sunday] so I knew it was coming," Dewar said. "We were supposed to meet yesterday, but after he dismissed the other guys, it was just such a shocker to me that I never met with him. I couldn't believe what was going on so I just couldn't bring myself to talk to him."
Sources confirmed that Edsall knew Dewar and McCollum were involved in the incident before the game and still allowed them to play against South Florida. Dewar and sources confirmed that Edsall didn't know Stanback was involved until Sunday.
Taylor was arrested Sept. 15 by campus police for sixth-degree larceny and illegal use of a credit card. Despite Edsall being aware of the arrest, Taylor started in UConn's game against Wake Forest on Sept. 16. Edsall announced Sept. 20 that he was suspending Taylor indefinitely, then dismissed him the next day.
Taylor pleaded guilty to the charges Sept. 26 in Superior Court in Rockville and was sentenced to one year of probation and 50 hours of community service.
McCollum's father, Brian Monroe, said that Edsall told McCollum he could keep his scholarship through the end of the academic year. He said his son called him Saturday and said there had been some trouble with the coach the night before.
McCollum:
"Ricky said that him and Randy locked horns and that's all he said," Monroe said. "We all know that Randy's hard and he expects a lot out of his players. As far as Ricky's concerned, [Edsall is] the head coach, he plays the music, you have to dance to it. Ricky just told me that it was nothing criminal. He just said they locked horns on an issue and I told him it was up to him to work that out with Randy.
"He has only 12 credits to go to finish up and he's going to finish his 12 credits and graduate. That's my only concern at this point."
Attempts to reach Stanback were unsuccessful.
Stanback:
Stanback played in eight games over two season before this year. McCollum played in the final nine games of the 2004 season, mostly on special teams. He sat out last season with a shoulder injury.
Dewar had two receptions for 20 yards this season. He played in all 11 games last season, making one start, and finished with seven receptions for 103 yards.
Dewar said he will probably transfer to a school outside of the state.
"Hopefully, they'll know that I'm a good guy, that I'm a good kid and I've never done anything wrong before and that this is not an incident stemming from anything bigger," Dewar said. "It was just a few guys who made a stupid mistake. The punishment, it was something. It was just a dumb mistake and we're paying for it big time now."
Courant Staff Writer Desmond Conner contributed to this story.
Five Players Dismissed
By Zac Boyer
UConn Daily Campus
http://www.dailycampus.com/media/sto...&&mkey=2289105
Issue date: 10/10/06 Section: News
Five football players were officially dismissed from the team Monday afternoon after an incident during the Huskies' trip to Tampa, Fla. to face South Florida this weekend.
A press release from the Department of Athletics said Nollis Dewar, Todd Dorcelus, Ricky McCollum, Harold Stanback and Carl Teague were kicked off the team for what was officially listed as a violation of team policy.
Sources said some of the players left a team meeting after 9 p.m. Friday night at their hotel, the Tampa Marriott Westshore, and headed across the street to a convenience store with a team bag to purchase beer with McCollum's ID. When the players returned to the hotel, they were met by coaches who questioned the bag's contents. A search of the players' belongings eventually revealed the players had purchased the beer.
Dewar, McCollum and Stanback are each over 21 years old, while Dorcelus is 20 and Teague is 19.
The press release said the coaching staff and the university would have no further comment on the matter.
Both Dewar and Stanback played in Saturday's Big East opener against South Florida, which kicked off at 7 p.m. Saturday and the Bulls won, 38-16.
The dismissals come three weeks after safety Marvin Taylor was dismissed from the team after using an illegal credit card to make purchases. Taylor, along with Dontá Moore, Tyvon Branch, Dan Davis and Danny Lansanah, took part in an incident in Willimantic in May 2005 during which a pellet gun was shot through the driver's side window of a car. The players were parked at a convenience store.
The violations are also part of a string of reprimands for behavior. Rob Getek and John Baranowsky were kicked off the team last season for unspecified violations of team policy, Craig Berry left the team for personal reasons in the spring, Trey Tonsing was suspended from the team in February and has since left the school while Matt Gray left the team before this season.
Dewar, a sophomore wide receiver, appeared in all five games this season, catching four passes for a total of 40 yards. He played in all 11 games last season as a redshirt freshman and came up with an 89-yard performance against Lousiville in the season finale Dec. 3.
Stanback, a junior defensive end, also appeared in all five games this season and registered a total of five tackles. He came off the bench to play in two games last season and made an appearance in six games in 2004, his redshirt freshman year.
McCollum, a junior linebacker, played in three games this season, while Teague, a freshman linebacker, and Dorcelus, a freshman wide receiver, had yet to appear in a game.
The Huskies host Army Saturday at noon at Rentschler Field in their final out-of-conference contest.
5 UConn Football Players Booted From Team
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