Three Arkansas Football Players Arrested

It seems that the Arkansas Razorbacks can't seem to stay out of the news recently.  A team that finished the 2011 season in 5th place in the rankings and finished off the season with a nice 29-16 bowl win against the Kansas State Wildcats has had a tough offseason.  The Razorbacks were 11-2 last season, but when the season came to a close was when things really went sideways.  Head coach Bobby Petrino was caught in the midst of a major scandal and was left without a job soon after that.  Things haven't turned around just yet though, as it was recently reported that three players on the team were arrested this weekend for burglarizing dorm rooms on campus.

The three players were wide receivers Marquel Wade and Maudrecus Humphrey, as well as tight end Andrew Peterson.  The University police arrested them after they saw security videos that showed the players walking into the dorm rooms where different items had been taken.  It included things like computers and textbooks, and in total everything was valued at around $5k.

This put some instant pressure on the new head coach at Arkansas, John L. Smith, who responded instantly by suspending all thre players indefinitely.  This means that six players have been suspended in the past two months, and things have just continued to spiral downwards for a football program that has incredible promise.  The first arrest came when offensive tackle Jason Peacock used a stolen debit card to buy $35 worth of gas.  This was followed up by another wide out in Kane Whitehurt being charged with possession of a controlled substance, and then lineback Tyler Gilbert apparently took part in an apartment break-in.

On May 1st a student reported that her laptop had been stolen from her dorm room.  There were then 10 additional reports of stolen items over the next week from different dorms, leading to a full investigation.  The videos that were reviewed saw the three players attempting to open doors until they found open ones.  From there, a bookstore clerk said that he saw the three players selling used items consistently over the past few weeks.

This is a story that we'll have to monitor over the next few weeks, but it's one that could definitely have a huge affect on the Razorbacks going into the 2012-2013 season.  The biggest issue will be the fact that they will be losing Wade, who was expected to be one of the biggest threats on this Razorbacks' offense this season.  In their spring practice he finished one scrimmage with five touchdown catches and was supposed to be one of the key starters.