Florida State has suspended five players for Saturday’s homecoming game against Boston College after their involvement in an on-campus brawl earlier this week, coach Bobby Bowden said in a statement released Friday by the university.
“The police report has not been concluded, but from the information that I have gathered, I am suspending five players who were apparently involved in the fray,” Bowden said in the statement. “Taiwan Easterling, Bert Reed, Corey Surrency, Cameron Wade and Richard Goodman will all be suspended for the Boston College game.”
Maj. James Russell of the Florida State University Police Department said Bowden’s decision was based on independent information obtained by the coach and that the department’s investigation was going forward, The Associated Press reported.
Police have determined that a female bystander who wasn’t involved in the fight, which broke out at the university’s student union, was struck in the face by a thrown chair. She was treated and released from a local hospital. Police said the current priority in their ongoing investigation is identifying who threw the chair.
Florida State police were called to a large fight involving Seminoles football players and members of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity near the student union at 12:37 p.m. on Wednesday.
Russell said Thursday the fight stemmed from bad blood between some of the athletes and fraternity members. No arrests have been made.
“It just tarnishes what everybody is doing,” Florida State President T.K. Wetherell said of the campus fight, according to AP.
Easterling, Reed and Surrency are all receivers who have played integral roles in Florida State’s offense this season. The three have combined for 51 catches, 722 yards and eight touchdowns as the Seminoles (7-2, 4-2 ACC Atlantic and tied with Wake Forest) face a crucial test Saturday in their quest to reach the conference championship game.
Wade is a redshirt freshman who has one catch this season, and Goodman is a senior receiver who hasn’t started this year.
This is the third time this season Bowden has had to suspend a receiver, as both Reed and Surrency have missed games. Surrency was suspended for the Georgia Tech game for an undisclosed violation of team rules, and Reed was suspended for the game against Virginia Tech for violating the school’s academic attendance policy.
