Sooners RB Suspended Indefinitely (UPDATED)
Posted on: March 30, 2015
Image via USA Today
After a weekend full of rumors surrounding Oklahoma running back Keith Ford and his current status with the team, Bob Stoops confirmed on Monday that Ford has been suspended indefinitely for ‘academic and team rules violations.’
. @OU_CoachStoops confirms that running back Keith Ford has been indefinitely suspended for academic & team rules violations.
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) March 30, 2015
Certainly a disappointing turn of events for a very talented player who, despite some ball security issues, had performed quite well when given the opportunity. While the “indefinite suspension” can be somewhat vague with respect to a player’s future with the program, if we’re going on previous history this tends to suggest Ford’s time with the program could very likely come to an end.
Time will tell on all of that, as for the more immediate future the Sooners are now down two running backs this spring following Ford’s suspension and a MCL sprain that has sidelined true freshman standout Rodney Anderson. However, if there was any position in which OU could afford a loss or two it’s at running back. Samaje Perine, Joe Mixon, Alex Ross and Daniel Brooks will handle the RB carries for the remainder of the spring.
– UPDATE: Ford’s parents put out a statement regarding their son’s suspension.
Statement from Keith and Mary Ford on the suspension of their son, #Sooners RB Keith Ford: pic.twitter.com/qI5M27lG7R
— Guerin Emig (@GuerinEmig) March 31, 2015
96 Comments
Didn’t see this one coming…
After the stuff from this past weekend it seemed somewhat inevitable, sadly.
The “Stuff?”
Just all the talk/rumors re: his status and possible transfer
I was more referring to the suspension than anything, I’ve never heard of him having any off the field issues.
Just some of the stuff I was hearing regarding all the talk in general.
I gotcha, I guess that means we may see a lot more Brooks or Anderson than we expected this fall, which I don’t think is a bad thing at all.
I thought he was just leaving. I wasn’t expecting to see that he was suspended. Very strange.
If academics are involved, hopefully he gets his grades right and transfers to a smaller school
It may be cheating allegations rather then failing to meet a GPA though.
Hope that you are wrong on the likelihood of this being the end of things for him. Seemed like a god kid and a humble young man but rules are rules. Hoping he can get back to the good graces by Fall
Hope I’m wrong as well. But simply basing that off Stoops’ previous track record, as I stated.
OU has more than just 2 RB’s available for the spring. Perine, Mixon, Ross, Brooks are all available. Plus Flowers if they want to add any “big” back sets for him like Millard had at times.
He said ,” down two running backs”. I had to reread it as well.
Sorry, y’all. Didn’t realize that read confusing like it apparently does. I had it in my head so of course it made perfect sense 😉
My bad, read it wrong.
No worries. Apparently I could have worded things better 🙂
Ehh, maybe if I wasn’t trying to speed read through it so I could get back to work I would have caught it the first time. Either way, love reading the site.
Appreciate you reading!
Also Mixon is being held out of the spring game & i would be shocked if they let Perine have more than 3 or 4 carries.. Spring game will be a heavy dose of Brooks & Flowers… More than likely though that means lots of work on the passing game, which will freak out the handwringing fans…
It may also allow for an unknown walk on to be a spring game hero again a la Dom Whaley. Not sure if there are any walk on RBs on the roster though.
Ha. All we’ll hear is Air-Raid, no running game etc…
Haa. I did this too.
I would love to see Flowers’ progress. I think this offense could be beneficial for him. I can picture the fear of having to defend 4 wrs sets with him as the singleback. Do you blitz that formation?
Really wish Mixon wasn’t suspended from the spring game now with Rodney Anderson out and now Ford gone. That could have been some really good experience for him.
Without speculating as to why he is off the team its sounds like the academic rules violation and indefinite suspension implies the issue must undergo a university process and is out of the athletic departments hands. The indefinite nature further implies that the university will decide his future at OU.
This is crazy…never would have imagined it. I remember a couple of years ago his freshman season, I really thought Ford was going to take over. Wish him the best, he’ll get his stuff straighted out.
well this certainly looks bad. In all reality he is the 3rd RB now . With Perine , Mixon playing next year. he kinda new his Playing time was gonna get cut short anyway. Maybe this is a blessing in disquise for Keith. He can get a chance to shine at a smaller school. The team rules thing is a head scratcher though.
Getting pushed back in the depth chart could have lead to becoming despondent being late or missing practice and meetings. Not making his tutoring appointments. It could be so many things. It is hard for these kids when somebody better shows up on campus and many have a hard time dealing with it. I hope he bounces back either here or he gets a fresh start some where!
And yet, things change quickly and happen unexpectedly.. How many times have we seen this in the past.????? Switzer ( and Stoops as well ) always said if a guy stayed at OU, he’d get his chance to play….How many times have we witnessed a guy leaving ( possibly due to depth chart ) and shortly thereafter, something happens that would have given the recently departed a chance to see the field ? Nothing is for certain except death & ever-increasing taxes…………..
I feel badly for Ford but this should definitely open up some playing time for Ross who I felt was really coming on in the latter part of the season. Hes another RB who could be a real problem for defenses shifting out to the slot.
I agree and feel that Ross is under valued. He scored the only TD in the bowl and improvement is likely. Sure handed and breakaway speed should play well in the new offense. I hope he’s the big surprise and blossoms.
Just throwing it out.. But Ford does have a redshirt available if he & OU are so inclined..
True, but if he’s been suspended for violation of team rules, that usually means repeated drug test failures. If it isn’t a drug test failure, then it’s conduct detrimental to the team (complaining to others players about playing time, spreading dissension by making disparaging comments about other players, coachrs or the University) or it’s something even worse like a crime. Think Trey Metoyer.
Stoops has shown no tolerance for that kind of crap in tbe past and dont expect him to change that now. Academic violations are self-explanatory…either skipping class or failing or both.
Having two violation categories mentioned by Stoops is never good. If I had to guess, he’s probably smoking weed frequently and skipping class and grades are suffering as a result. His attitude has probably been a little sour too, due to lack of playing time. This is all my speculation, but indefinite suspensions are usually reserved for really bad problems. I think Esvo is right, it probably indicates his days at OU are numbered. Expect to see him starting for Tarleton State next year, and hope that you are pleasantly surprised by his return to active OU status.
let’s leave the speculation to boards such as landthieves. no reason to disparage a kid with wild speculation. his name is not mud, so no reason to smear him all over the internet
He showed so much promise especially at Tulsa 2013…. Just goes to show that being a student AND athlete takes some serious discipline when being a student alone can be tough at times.
any chance his problem was one of walking the floors at night with babies and not being able to study ???? seems to be an epidemic of that on the squad……………..
So young men who take care of their children are a problem? This explains a lot
2001: Stephen Dale buys University of Oklahoma tshirt at walmart. He now officially owns team.
I bet he was one of those that wanted Stoops fired after losing to O-State in 2001
Go Big Red!
I’d be surprised if he owned anything that didn’t have an orange cow on it.
If you just ignore the fool, perhaps he will go away?
Typically I’d agree
at·tri·tion
əˈtriSH(ə)n/
noun
noun: attrition
1.
the action or process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure.
I am told that it is as much of an attitude situation as an academic issue. He didn’t like his prospects for a lot of carries in the fall and quit working hard. At least that is what I had been hearing for awhile now. Mixon and Anderson had both been outworking him and were both more impressive thus far. My source says that Mixon is the real deal and that Anderson had been even more impressive that Perine was last spring.
Supposedly, he thought he was ready for the NFL and was by far the best back at OU. The emergence of Perine and the reinstatement of Mixon seems to be more than he could handle. I wish him luck.
I agree, but I think it became apparent that Anderson was a stud as well. I really predict HUGE things from Anderson.
I like Anderson, too. Hopefully he can get healthy again and stay healthy…….Liked Ford’s ability as well…………….
Don’t think you should speculate about that! Really!
I don’t see an issue w/ it, especially w/ the qualifier I put on it. But I certainly respect the right for you to have an opinion and/or disagree.
That was ment to the guy saying he was smoking weed and skipping class without having a clue
Oh, okay, my bad then. And I’d totally agree w/ you, btw.
This is what happens when you cant hang on to the damn football. You lose your job and it spirals from there
An emerging WR with a torn MCL and a suspended RB….OU Football definitely has a case of the Mondays
I’ll bet Sooner Dave wishes he knew this was in the cards…
He still wasn’t going to get much playing time with Mixon back.
Yes but he would have still gotten some touches late in games.
…and you never know about injuries, we’ve been thru that before and it can happen quickly
Really sorry to hear this. Even before he committed I thought he was one of those “can’t miss” guys considering his talent and demeanor. Given my track record of recognizing potential, this was the equivilant of the kiss of death. Hopefully he gets back on track, or at the very least, has an opportunity to right his wrongs somewhere else. Best of luck to him. .
Sooooo….it’s all your fault, then? 😉
According to my kids, everything is my fault.
phew!…I can now explain to my kids that the real culprit has been found…:-)
I resemble that remark…
Which of our lovely visitors had to have comment’s deleted? Was doing yard work and missed the vile.
Dang, I really hate this for the young man and the team.
Bless his heart. Wish him the best, whether that means returning to the team in good graces or with another road to travel. Mama hugs to him.
I may be the only one, but I still wasn’t sure if he wasn’t our best rb
I’m with you. I hope he can get back on track and it all works out for him in the end. I think he has the potential to be a great player.
Ford would probably be the best RB on 75% – 80% of all D1 Universities but I believe that Samaje is the better of the two. Mixon might be as well but the jury is out on that of course.
You can’t drop the ball on the ground as many times as he has and be considered the best running back.
Probably one of the last players on this team I would expect to get suspended…
update added
Jordan, maybe you can help clarify the update for me. Are Ford’s parent’s saying that it is common for players to have academic issues (poor grades) after injury? Or is it that they are they saying it is common for players to revert to cheating after an injury such as his. I understand it is probably still just speculative at this point, I just am unsure what his parents are referring to.
They’re saying that it is not uncommon for there to be difficulties recovering mentally. I won’t condone cheating if that’s really what happened, but as someone who’s been in a similar (albeit much worse) situation, there is definitely a huge impact on your grades. If that really is the source of what’s going on here, Ford deserves our sympathy and support. I hope he can pull through this.
Agreed.
Well, I hesitate to speculate on something like this but the way I read their statement was that they believe their son is struggling with things right now. What that means exactly I couldn’t really say, and as I’ve already said I think it would be pretty irresponsible to just blindly speculate.
I’m not aware of any claims to cheating that you seem to be referring to, however. The talk is he had been missing workouts and classes, presumably now with this statement b/c of whatever it is he’s struggling to deal with. Therefore, I think it’s fair to assume that’s the root cause of the academic issues/suspension.
Ahh I see. Those were the first two things that came to mind when I heard of the suspension but I never really considered missing classes. But again, like you said, being speculative can be a bad thing for everyone involved, so I was just hoping you could shed a little bit more of light on the situation for me which you did. Thanks Jordan.
Stop trolling. They’re saying that he’s struggling mentally, as in depression, anxiety, etc. This is NOT uncommon, and ‘cheating’ or ‘academic issues’ are obviously things that someone who’s dealing with these things will face when dealing with these issues.
Those who have faced injuries know this very well, especially when looking towards a career in the sport you love.
I’m not trolling. I simply asked for a little more clarification which was just given to me. I wish the best for Keith just like everyone else.
Wish the best for Keith. Hope he can get everything straightened out.
With the added update providing much insight, I amend my original statement on the subject to this: keep your head up, Keith! Life has many blessings in store for all of us!
That’s why it’s never okay to rail on a kid w/o knowing circumstances, I am glad he has a support system around him.
Truth.
Keith Ford has been, essentially, given a “take a step back and get it together.” If it was as bad as the rumors, he would have been booted.
Sounds like the parents still expect him to figure it out and stick around — and Stoops’ decision would seem to indicate the football program is not ready to close the door on him without giving him a chance to do just that.
I gotta say I like the update. It sounds like his parents are seriously interested and involved in helping him overcome the difficulties and stay at OU. Often when I see parental involvement demonstrated in a high profile way, it seems more about the parent than the kid, but this doesn’t read that way to me. Seems like a good thing.
It also sounds like Keith WANTS to stay and work through everything. That is heartening, too. He has always seemed to be highly competitive and a fighter. He appears to be showing that, now. Hoping Keith fights through his troubles and comes out the other side stronger than ever, off and on the field.
It does read that way (the good one). Since he did not red shirt he could use that to get things squared away. Sounds like Stoops acted more out of “get things together” and probably a little something else than it being a punitve- can’t have you impact the team in abad way kind of way. Everything I’ve read about Ford says he is a decent kid; hope this ends up being a good story.
yes. My guess is that Stoops’ action as far as the suspension goes was simply rule based. He’s pretty clear and straightforward about that as far as I’ve seen. Star or rookie back-up, there are certain things that will result in discipline and/or suspension. The other stuff, continued communication and support and anything else would definitely be from the “get things together” side. Hoping for the best.
Thank God for parents!
Sounds like depression. Whatever it is, i hope he gets through it.
Really sad how dramatically his position with the team has changed in just one season. Goes from being the obvious starter and the RB that had fans truly excited the year before to being like 3rd on the depth chart. Really a stunning transformation IMO.
Wow — amazing statement by Keith Ford’s parents. And God bless Bob Stoops for standing by Keith. I have never doubted Coach’s compassion and sincerity but this statement has reinforced my belief in him as a man and a coach. Anyone who questions Bob’s motives, knows nothing about the man we call Coach.
I too think it was a wonderful statement of caring and support for their son while being respectful to the coaches and OU. I am cheering for the young man to make it back. We Sooners have to stick together.
Definitely seems like depression; that’s very serious, and if that’s the case I’m really praying for him. Hopefully, he’ll earn a second chance.
What an inspiring message from Ford’s parents. With so many good people on this young man’s side I believe he will come through this and be a better person.
Hang tough, Keith. It isn’t the difficulties we face in life that matter, it is how we deal with them.
https://youtu.be/FkJLTGweKl0
He is still Sooner family and we all wish him well regardless of the path. I don’t know if he really understands the prayers and positive thoughts that are directed to the Sooner players and Coaches by the the Sooner Nation, himself included. I hope it works out.