CSU Suspends 3 Due to Rule Violations
Sophomore receiver Tony Drake, who turned heads last fall with a record-setting performance as a kickoff returner in an early season loss at Nevada, and sophomore tackle Justin Becker were declared academically ineligible and removed from the CSU football team's roster.
Neither player had participated in official team practices since they began Aug. 4 because of academic concerns, and coach Steve Fairchild said Saturday he didn't know the future plans of either player.
Fairchild also announced that he had suspended junior receiver Byron Steele, sophomore safety Ezra Thompson and redshirt freshman fullback Kivon Cartwright for a unspecified violations of team rules. All three players participated in a practice session Saturday at Hughes Stadium that lasted nearly three hours.
"I like all three guys; I think they're good kids," Fairchild said. "They violated team rules, and there's some consequences they have to suffer."
Drake, a 5-foot-8, 169-pounder from Dallas, played in 11 of the Rams' 12 games last fall and set a Mountain West Conference record for kickoff return yardage in a game with 242 yards on nine returns, a record that teammate Derek Good broke later in the year. Drake started twice and finished the year with seven carries for 85 yards and one touchdown and six pass receptions for 71 yards.
Becker, a 6-7, 280-pounder out of ThunderRidge High School in Highlands Ranch, played in four games as a reserve last fall. Both he and Drake were listed No. 2 on at their respective positions on a depth chart released just before the start of fall practices.
"Im very disappointed for them," Fairchild said. "I like both of them. I think they could have helped us this year.
"I'm sorry that it didn't' work out, but again, I don't think we can lose sight of the fact that they are student-athletes, and we take the student part of it very seriously."
Steele, a 6-3, 211-pounder from Arlington, Texas, who started two games last season and caught 20 passes for 313 yards, declined, through a school spokesman, to talk to a reporter after Saturday's practice. He and Thompson, a 6-2, 207-pounder from Tinley Park, Ill., had both been working with the second-string units during practices, while Cartwright, a 6-4, 227-pounder from Pueblo, was working with the No. 3 offense.
