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colleyvillesooner
8/8/2007, 10:52 AM
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2965321

Source: Tennessee suspends RB Coker for violating policy

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee running back LaMarcus Coker, the team's leading rusher last season, has been suspended indefinitely for violating the school's substance abuse policy, a source told ESPN's Joe Schad.

Coach Phillip Fulmer did not specify what Coker had done when he announced the penalty Tuesday.

"He must fulfill some obligations to the program and to me before he can return," Fulmer read from a prepared statement after practice. "I have tried, as has the administration, to work with him, but at this time he must help himself."

If Coker will be eligible for the season opener at California has not yet been determined. Tennessee will now rely on steady junior running back Arian Foster, who topped 100 yards in each of the last five games of the 2005 season as a redshirt freshman.

Coker, a sophomore, led the Vols with 696 rushing yards his freshman year, even though he was sidelined for two games by an injured knee. He was competing for time with junior Arian Foster and sophomore Montario Hardesty.

Coker, who had a pair of touchdown runs for more than 80 yards each last season, was suspended for several practices last December for undisclosed reasons.

OSUAggie
8/8/2007, 11:16 AM
Foster and Hardesty are pretty good options to put back there, plus Creer and others add some nice depth.

colleyvillesooner
8/8/2007, 11:20 AM
True but it's never good to lose your leading returning rusher 3 weeks before the fist game.

OSUAggie
8/8/2007, 11:39 AM
Right.

But I'd liken it to a Georgia or USC or whatever that tends to use a boatload of backs each year.

(Plus I wasn't that big of a Coker fan, thought he was about the same level as a Thomas Brown or David Yancey or someone of the like, and that Foster should have been the main runner).

Paperclip
8/8/2007, 11:51 AM
He's a Coker, he's a smoker, he's a midnight toker...

OUinFLA
8/8/2007, 11:53 AM
True but it's never good to lose your leading returning rusher 3 weeks before the fist game.

Tennessee plays the fist game :eek:

goingoneight
8/8/2007, 01:39 PM
"Isn't that Fulmer cup beautiful? I said, isn't that Fulmer Cup beautiful? Man, that's beautiful... and we bringin' it all the way home to KNOX-VEELE, TENN-UH-SEE, BABEEEE!!!"