Harris Suspension: A Good Decision

No more suspense – we all know what Kelly decided to do about Cliff Harris’ bad decision. The decision is an indefinite suspension, meaning no time during the LSU game. Yes, it makes me a little sad that we won’t have such a threat on the field against this huge season opener against the Tigers but, in my opinion, this is the best decision that Kelly could have made. Yesterday I spent part of the afternoon reading through comments on various articles on this subject and in the forums – before Kelly’s decision was made public there was a lot of debate going on. Some fans really thought the situation was being blown out of proportion because this was a simple speeding ticket, and other fans make the point that it was a little more than a speeding ticket. Well, it was more than a speeding ticket. Speeding, suspended license, rental car, and a past of similar behavior makes it a whole different issue. Overall it feels like most Duck fans agree with this decision.

Don’t worry Tiger fans – losing Harris for the game is a blow but he does not make or break the entire Duck team. It will still be a tough game and should prove to be one of the most exciting of the year. Teams lose players before and during football seasons for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s injury and sometimes it’s a situation like this. The beauty is Oregon has been building a team that does not depend on any one player in particular. Certainly there is strategy made based around player strengths and weaknesses but it’s all variable. Kelly does well adjusting to the variables thrown at him and this situation is just another variable. Now the talk will shift to whether or not this is an NCAA violation based on the rental car situation. In the meantime I think Kelly absolutely made the correct decision here and it continues to set a higher standard for the entire Duck program. I personally hope that this ultimately helps Harris in the long-run. He has amazing potential and will likely move on to the next level so I hope all the best for him personally and he’ll be back on the field soon enough to prove himself this season.

The following are a few of the updated articles on the situation – this will mostly likely be old news coming out of this weekend and we can all look ahead to what’s happening on the field.

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