Senior safety P.J. Mahone has been indefinitely suspended from the Falcon football team after breaking an undisclosed team rule.
The fourth-year starter will be replaced in the line-up by sophomore Keith Morgan, starting this weekend in Marshall.
Through two games, Mahone was leading the Falcons with 21 tackles and was just one interception return yard away from taking sole possession of second place on BG’s all-time list. And while that production will be missed, coach Dave Clawson said he had to make the decision.
‘It doesn’t help us, but this will not be an excuse why we’re not successful,’ Clawson said. ‘It’s hard to replace a guy that has that much experience. He’s been a four-year starter.’
Clawson later said there is a chance Mahone will return to the team before the end of the season, but that there are things he’ll have to do before getting that opportunity.
Mahone is also barred from any football activities this week, but will meet with Clawson next week to determine his future with the team.
Each year, the team is given a policy manual that outlines all the on- and off-the-field expectations. The coaches then review every page of that manual with the players, leaving stars and the reserves all on the same page when it comes to rules.
‘Whether it’s a fifth-string walk-on or your starting tackle, you have to apply all those rules fairly and equally,’ Clawson said. ‘P.J. violated one of those rules and he knew if he did this, this could happen, and it did.’
With discipline as one of the bigger issues facing the Falcons in the past couple years, one of the frequently asked questions when Clawson was hired was how he planned to handle these types of issues.
He’s made his intentions pretty clear in his nine months with the team, as he dismissed would-be senior defensive lineman Michael Ream from the program in the spring and has now suspended one of his three returning defensive starters.
Senior defensive captain Cody Basler said he thought the team had learned their lesson from Ream’s incident, but in the end, the players are all grown men and have to make their own choices.
‘We had a situation this spring, and you just don’t learn from that,’ Basler said. ‘At this stage in your life, you need to be able to make the decisions like that.’
Another senior, receiver Chris Wright, echoed Basler’s feelings.
‘He’s a grown man, and that’s the decision he made,’ Wright said. ‘P.J. Mahone is a great athlete, probably the best athlete on our team.’
But now, the coaches will put Mahone’s role into the hands of Morgan, who has started both games this season and recorded eight tackles.
‘Football-wise, P.J.’s a good player and we’ll miss him, but we’ll be fine,’ Clawson said.
