Wake Forest suspends six players a day before playing Maryland
Wake Forest was already going to be playing shorthanded against Maryland, having lost its best offensive player, receiver Michael Campanaro, to a broken right hand.
That turned out to be just the start of the bad news.
Wake Forest suspended six players -- cornerback Merrill "Bud" Noel, safety Daniel Mack, linebacker Mike Olson, guard Frank Souza, running back Deandre Martin and wide receiver Airyn Willis -- for an unspecified violation of team rules. The players will be suspended just one game.
"I'm disappointed that some of our kids made poor decisions," Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said in a statement. "These are good kids who just need to learn from their mistakes."
While we're not sure yet what the six players did, it's better for Grobe to take a stand now than let whatever it is become a bigger issue, like Casey Pachall's arrest and suspension this week at TCU after he wasn't suspended earlier this year. But this does take a big chunk out of Wake Forest's roster.
Noel, Mack, Olson and Souza are starters and Martin is the team's second-leading rusher, with 279 yards. Stressing discipline within the program should pay off in the long term for Grobe. In the short term, it's a bombshell that'll make things pretty tough for Wake Forest on Saturday.
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