Monday afternoon, Boone County prosecutors charged suspended senior tailback Derrick Washington with deviate sexual assault, a class C felony in Missouri.
Although the official policy of the MU Athletic Department is to suspend indefinitely until the resolution of any felony case, Washington will not return to the football program. The athletic department "permanently suspended" him Wednesday morning. How this differs from a dismissal remains to be seen, although Washington retains his athletic scholarship as long as he's enrolled at MU.
A plea deal reportedly was in the works, but Monday's filing of felony charges throws any possibility for a lesser charge out the window. Assistant prosecutor Andrea Hayes confirmed Wednesday the intention of "proceeding on the felony." Washington will enter a plea of not guilty at his September 22nd arraignment, according to his representation.
An interesting development in this case surfaced early this week. Attorneys for Washington claim that he was never served the order of protection filed against him, which explains his no-show at the July 21st hearing. This helps explain MU's allowance of Washington to practice, participate in Big 12 media days, place him on posters all around campus and be elected co-captain. If processors never served Washington, Coach Gary Pinkel, Athletic Director Mike Alden and Washington himself did not know the contents of the order until the Columbia Missourian obtained it last Thursday.
In the wake of numerous off-the-field preseason issues, Pinkel and the rest of the athletic department decided to act swiftly and decisively in Washington's case. Pinkel recently reiterated confidence in the way he runs his program. He reacted to the Washington situation in a way to save his reputation in the face of three DUI's and one serious felony.
He took the athletic department's standard policy on athletes charged with felonies up a notch. The evidence and stories presented to Pinkel outweighed the American ideal of "innocent until proven guilty."
Pinkel should be applauded rather than berated for the action towards Washington. It was a lose-lose situation. If he did not act so, message boards would light up with claims of the patients running the asylum. Now that he has acted, fans have cried out for Washington's legal right of innocent until proven guilty.
The idea of Pinkel patrolling all 126 staff and players, preventing everything from petty shoplifting to felony sexual assault, represents an impossible ideal. How he deals with those infractions shows his true disciplinary colors.
Whether he made the right choice Wednesday or not is irrelevant. Pinkel must stand by that choice and move forward with his team.
Regardless, the Tigers now must move forward without their leading rusher of the past two seasons. Pinkel listed sophomore Kendial Lawrence and junior De'Vion Moore at even as the number one running back when he released his weekly depth chart yesterday. In last year's contest with Illinois, the two combined for 19 yards on 12 carries while Washington gained 61 yards on 14 carries.
Offensive coordinator Dave Yost experimented with more two-back sets than normal this preseason. Washington's abscence will hurt the Tigers the most in these situations as they will have to lean on two inexperienced running backs in these formations. A common hurdle for many running backs new to the college game, pass protection, will undoubtedly materialize at some point this season.
While Washington's replacements may lack experience, but that doesn't mean they don't know how to play football. Washington himself used the 2008 Arch Rivalry game as his coming out party when, as a sophomore, he entered the game with 184 career rushing yards. In that 52-42 Missouri victory, Washington rushed for 130 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.
Why can't Lawrence do the same?
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