Maybe this is why Florida never scheduled a big season opening game before.
The Gators will be down eight players this Saturday when they kick off the season against Michigan.
Jim McElwain announced today that James Robinson has been suspended for the season opener, after he was issued a citation for possessing marijuana. This past Thursday, McElwain issued a statement that said that the situation “had been dealt with,” seemingly implying that nothing would happen. But he took a sharp turn from that today when asked if Robinson, who hasn’t missed practice due to the incident, would play against Michigan, saying “No. I thought that was perfectly obvious.”
McElwain has gone to bat for Robinson before, sticking his neck out for him to get him to campus to begin with after he fell off of several other schools’ boards due to another incident with marijuana while on a trip to Ohio State. He even called eighteen JUCO coaches to see if they had a place for him in case Florida couldn’t take him. And while smoking marijuana is hardly the most sinister way to break the law, it’s still illegal, and Robinson knows it. Given that this is his second offense in the span of eight months, and that this one came after McElwain went to bat for him, it’s difficult to imagine that Robinson has any more room for error throughout the duration of his Florida career.
It’s at this moment that you remember that seven other players have been suspended indefinitely for their misadventures with school credit cards, most notably Antonio Callaway, and now the Gators are down two receivers. For once, Florida has some depth at the wide receiver position, but it goes without saying that winning big games like this are best done with all hands on deck.
