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Ohio State LB leaves field, curses out school on Twitter after heated sideline moment

It’s probably safe to say that K’Vaughan Pope won’t be seen in an Ohio State uniform any time soon.

During the second quarter of Ohio State’s game against Akron on Saturday night, the senior linebacker got into what local outlets said was a heated moment on the sideline. Pope apparently thought he was set to return to the field during the second quarter until he was waved off.

At that point, Pope removed his helmet and started walking back to the OSU locker room. An OSU staffer got him to return to the sideline briefly before Pope got into it with his position coach and teammates and did indeed go back to the locker room. At one point, Pope removed his gloves and threw them in the stands.

From Eleven Warriors:

Pope took his helmet off and appeared to have a heated verbal exchange with linebacker coach Al Washington before taking off his gloves and throwing them into the crowd. Team captain Kamryn Babb was among a contingent of Buckeye players that attempted to calm Pope down, but the fourth-year defender eventually walked to the locker room with Barnett by his side.

At one point Pope apparently started removing his uniform, something that Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day noticed.

From Lettermen Row:

Eventually he was corralled by Buckeyes staffer C.J. Barnett in the south end zone, and Pope was guided back to the sideline. Once there, though, Pope took off his gloves and threw them into the stands and began removing his Ohio State jersey — which apparently caught the attention of coach Ryan Day. After another conversation with multiple staffers, Pope was then led to the locker room while the game was ongoing.

Once Pope was back in the locker room, he pulled out his phone and started tweeting. The first tweet was completely innocuous.

The next one was posted and quickly deleted.

(Twitter screenshot)
(Twitter screenshot)

Yeah, that will do it.

Pope has played in 33 games at Ohio State, mainly as a backup and special teams player. He was expected to compete for a starting role entering the season, but has not been able to crack the top of the depth chart.

According to Eleven Warriors, Pope played only on special teams in Week 1, saw seven snaps against Oregon and then had 24 snaps on defense last week against Tulsa.