Four Virginia football players will not participate in tomorrow's game against No. 24 Georgia Tech due to a violation of team policy, the University announced in a press release yesterday morning.
The four suspended players are senior wide receiver Ottowa Anderson, junior safety Tony Franklin, sophomore defensive end Vince Redd and senior nose tackle Kwakou Robinson.
"There are some internal issues that we're doing a little investigation on, and when we've culminated that process and finalized what that means, we'll make a determination on some people's status," Virginia coach Al Groh said during the ACC's weekly teleconference Wednesday.
The verdict of that investigation was handed down yesterday and resulted in the loss of three established starters in Anderson, Franklin and Robinson. Franklin is also one of four Virginia captains for the 2005 season.
Arguably the biggest hit for the Cavaliers will be taken at nose tackle, a position already lacking in depth due to the untimely loss of back-up senior Ron Darden last week. Darden, who was forced to quit the team due to reoccurring concussions, had played in all seven games this season and started the three leading up to Virginia's 51-3 win over Temple last weekend. He did not play against the Owls; Robinson started in his place.
Darden and Robinson's absences leave sophomore Keenan Carter as the team's lone nose tackle available to go tomorrow against the Yellow Jackets. The 6-foot-1 inch, 307-pound Carter, who has played but not started in all of the team's eight games, has 21 tackles.
The Cavaliers were going to count on Franklin, who moved to safety this season after spending his first two years at Virginia at cornerback, to help contain Georgia Tech's first team All-ACC wide-out Calvin Johnson, who leads the ACC in receiving yards per game. Johnson has averaged 90.6 yards per game this season and has totaled 40 receptions for 725 yards and five touchdowns.
With Franklin a no-go, sophomore Jamaal Jackson will get his first career start and will be saddled with the burden of holding Johnson in check. Franklin has started all eight of Virginia's games at safety. Fortunately for Jackson, he's five inches taller than Franklin, and at 6-foot-3 only gives up one inch to the 6-foot-4 Johnson, who thrives on taking advantage of shorter defensive backs.
"That's why he has the success that he does," Groh said of Johnson. "He just can play over the top of a lot of defenders. He's done a terrific job of that, and obviously, Reggie Ball understands where to put the ball to enable him to do that."
Anderson, who returned to Virginia this season after spending all of last year at home in Norfolk on academic suspension, has nine receptions for 168 yards. Since the Cavaliers' season opening 31-19 win against Western Michigan, however, he has only had six catches for 59 yards. Anderson started the first four games of the season but has since been overtaken on the depth chart by junior Fontel Mines.
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