#Hokies LB and team captain Caleb Woodson was charged with a DWI on Saturday, according to online court records. It's listed as a Class 1 misdemeanor offense. He has a Sept. 9 court date.β Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) August 26, 2025
It's a misdemeanor but likely to see some kind of suspension or missed game time I would assume.
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Super timing!
FUCK
Jimmy Turk to the rescue!
Better Call Turk!
safe to assume he will no longer be a captain?
My first thought as well β not very captainly behavior
Saw one comment on twitter that I agree with. An infraction like a DUI/DWI, or other arrests should result in forfeited NIL, at least a hefty percentage. These kids want to earn money like the pros - teach 'em they gotta be on the field to make that money
I would think a DWI would be a significant hit to the marketability of your name, image, and likeness. Now if we are in a pay for play scheme, probably not so.
Ollie Gordon and OK St beg to differ.
And let's not act like NIL has anything to do with name, image, and likeness or marketability. It's just pay to play
(I typed that before reading your second sentence)
I wont debate whether or not NIL has anything to do with name, image, and likeness. But it does have a lot to do with contracts - if these kids (and they ARE kids) want to get paid like pros then they should expect clauses in their NIL deals to disincentive stupid-ass behavior like this.
Apparently he already has a reckless Driving charge too, greater than 20mph over, on a separate date.
So he's sitting out of year transferring to UGA?
Siefkes: I want you looking and playing g like UGA
Wooden: I got you
Siefkes: not like that
If Georgia wanted him, I'd be willing to bet he wouldn't need to sit out at all. Tried to transfer to East Caroline or Western Michigan, yeah, then he'd have to sit out.
He needs a couple more speeding tickets to be a lock to fit in with the team culture.
He's still got a pending 96 in a 70 charge...I think he's well on his way
96 in 70 is something! That said, I don't think it's as egregious as a 51 in a 25 would be
I had a 92 mph in 70 zone on I -64 east of Richmond this summer-so I guess I fit in to the team culture...but at age 60 and woefully out of shape, I doubt I'd make it ... /s
Seriously?
Offseason legal troubles, SCar and Vandy on the schedule...VT2SEC confirmed!
Well if there was one position we could definitely not afford to lose anyone, its LB
So naturally, this happens. For a team captain nonetheless. Right after the AD went to beg the BoV for more money for football.
Just unbelievably stupid for him to even be in this spot. At least when this happens to Georgia they have conference and national titles to show for it.
That's why we need more money for football though. To afford cabs
Really really stupid thing to do anytime let alone a week before the season.
VT does have a chance to play "big boy" football with this. P2 teams wouldn't hesitate to play him until at least the court date and then reassess.
Yep, this was last summer:
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/40481286/oklahoma-state...
In week 1 against South Dakota State, Ollie Gordon racked up 126 yards on 28 carries and 3 TDs
Mike Gundy in the press conference after it happened:
Was quite a thing to say at the time.
Wonder what the Brent Pry equivalent quote/spin would be.
Could just quote the Allman Brothers Band
"Not gonna let 'em catch me, no.
Not gonna let 'em catch the Midnight Rider."
FTFY
Next man up. I don't care if it is a freshman. It is time to see who can play and stop coddling stars. We did that last year and see how it worked out for us?
Just play him.
Ugh. How have we handled this in the past?
On one hand (probably the right hand, pun intended), I say sit him out and let him and the team know that we expect more out of our players, especially our captains. On the other hand, fuck that, play his ass, he hasn't even been to court yet.
Play him til his court date. If he's found guilty, suspend him for 2 games.
Of course, its just a coincidence that the 2 games before his court date are SC and Vandy and the 2 after are Wofford and ODU
...if you are correct
This is the way
Kind of similar to the Grayson Allen "indefinite suspension" that lasted until Duke
played a good teamlost to the Hokies in the first game of the suspension if I recall correctly.Didn't it last until right after we beat them in Cassell?
That's right it did. Just pulled up the espn article. "Maybe it's three games, maybe it's two weeks. I don't know." was the quote from Coach K. We were the first game after he tripped an Elon player so he had to be suspended at least for us.
I've learned this the hard way in life... when you hold yourself to the higher standard and do things the right way, it doesn't change the outcome because bad people do bad things and it doesn't stop them. It's unfortunate but true. There is no phantom karma that comes in and saves the day just because you did the right thing. That being said, I want my school to actually have a conscience and try to teach these young men responsibility and accountability. Strip him of his captaincy and bench him week 1. Maybe it will rally the troops.
meh.... Michigan rules apply, not penalty whatsoever
Give him the the Michigan, UNC, Ok St, UGa, etc hammer: stripped of his captain C and sit out the game against Wofford.
My hunch is with the court date being Sept. 9th...Pry won't doing anything for USCe or Vandy (innocent until proven guilty and all). Two game suspension...for ODU and Wofford, lol.
Strip him of his captaincy makes sense.
We wanna be a big time football program, we got to act like a big time football program....
Meaning he plays until the Court finds him guilty and he sits the one to two cupcake games. If Pry suspends him for USCe, I have no faith in him anymore. F optics, Win games.
I don't think the Sept. 9th court date was accidental, lol.
Turk gets it.
My main football takeaway from this is that the players being out drinking and partying a week before the game means we're gonna get our asses kicked.
Umm, our players were out drinking and partying every single offseason since 18-22 year olds have been in college
Exactly. How many times did we hear about our players getting in fights and/or arrested on Draper the Friday night before a game? Maybe not all of them were drinking, but plenty were definitely partying!
Week before a game when the margins between a win and loss are that thin, is not a good idea. I guarantee you many top programs have guys who are bought in that aren't doing that.
It's fine to go drink and party as kids, I did in college too, but then don't pretend like you're preparing and competing at the same level as the other guys who aren't doing that
You're expecting young adults to act like actual adults. That's not how it works.
I think we can all recognize that what Woodson did was completely irresponsible (irrelevant of the impact to the football) and incredibly dangerous. We can also recognize that 18-22 year olds do really dumb things, and the good ones learn from their mistakes.
Ignoring the driving piece of this - drinking a week prior to an event where you have to perform doesn't seem that 'irresponsible' to me.
I agree with this but I think an important factor you're leaving out is that these young adults are getting paid obscene amount of money to go win football games. Being over the legal limit absolutely affects your body for an athletic competition a week later. It won't mean he plays bad, but it will affect preparation in the week leading up.
Athletic departments spend hundreds of thousands on sports science to find the smallest advantages to get each player at their best for each of the 12 games they play in a season. Getting drunk the week of a game is negating a lot of that extra work and shows performance is not a top priority
Or it just shows that he's a young adult male who stupidly thinks he's invincible. He probably doesn't think/doesn't realize that "Getting drunk the week of a game is negating a lot of that extra work"
IDK, I don't care about the drinking piece of this - seems par for the course to me. I care about the driving piece of it.
Lots of high performance jobs have people that drink and do drugs and still perform. Driving is just stupid and a terrible decision.
Maybe. Or they are just being college students and all of their friends that are not football players are just getting back to Blacksburg to start the semester. Nobody said partying. Could have been drinks over dinner.
People on twitter said the whole team was out partying at the bars. Not the best source admittedly and they're kids of course they want to.
But a lot of them are making upwards of 200k and many of them more money, a lot more, than most of us on this board make. Am I going to do something that jeopardizes my job performance because it's fun?
Yes? Have you really never gone to a sporting event or a concert the night before work? Not something I do often, but yea, last year I went and saw Zack Bryan on a Thursday night, got intoxicated - did NOT drive - and showed up for work the next day. Was my job performance impacted? You betcha.
Of course I have, but if it was the same week as a critical deadline, sales call, project delivery etc I wouldn't. (Or when I was younger, I might then pay the price later and realize it was a bad decision.)
Either way I'm not really arguing whether it's a reasonable expectation or not. To me it's just indicative of a group who isn't 100% bought in to winning football games
Was there a curfew? If the answer is no, then I don't give a shit. I don't care that he went out partying, I don't care that he got drunk and I don't care that many within the team did as well.
What I do care about is that he got behind the wheel while impaired. All the other stuff is noise.
And what I hope the school learns from this is that the athletics department needs to in-house a form of transportation for athletes to use when they are drinking so this doesn't happen again.
the athletics department needs to in-house a form of transportation for athletes to use
Will student athletic fees pay for that or what?
They are getting paid. Uber???
Uber/Lyft is a thing. Drunk Driving is a pride issue. It's people who don't want to give up their keys because those are THEIR keys. It's completely illogical. Giving every player a chauffeur won't solve the issue (nor should the university fund such a silly endeavor)
I can guarantee you that the Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Alabama teams are out partying the week before their first week of games as well. Hell, the '95 Cowboys had a party house and would do wild things during game week. Let the kids enjoy their youth while they still have it (but do it responsibly)
I'll give you Georgia, since they open against Marshall, but I seriously doubt Ohio State & Texas are given they are #3 and #1, respectively, and playing each other first. Alabama is a maybe for me...they may just be cocky enough to write off F$U given their last season, but at the same time they need to protect their on-the-CFP-bubble status at #8.
They aren't out clubbing and getting completely black out drunk all week prior to games...but going out for a few drinks a week prior to a game, or even after games on Saturday nights is pretty much normal. If you think they are under lock and key 24/7 from first practice to end of the bowl game that's a myth.
I dont know how many D1 athletes you hung around in college, but I can tell you with 100% certainty EVERY team had a large portion of their players partying this weekend.
Drunk-On-Miller on line one, sir.
This is pro football now. If we are paying, he needs to be playing. Let the courts handle their side.
Pry doing his weekly conference right now...status for USCe is "yet to be determined". Stripped of his captaincy with the opportunity to earn it back.
Pry has lost the locker room. /s
UGA gonna send him an offer letter tomorrow
Good news y'all, we made the front page of ESPN!
Any news is good news?
Also, do people still check ESPN?
Wouldn't worry about it
This is simultaneously relieving and worrying
You ready Woodson? Good, cause you're going!
Front page of ESPN, even above the Summer of Terry ending for the Comanches.
We are so back
Got bumped off by Taylor and her man.
Why do I feel like this is an organized crime reference?
How dare Taylor and Travis upstage our Middle Linebacker news. We all know our teams were great when Beamer had his team in the news when it came to drinking and bar fights
I'm just glad the Eagles ruined their plans to have it done on the field after the Chiefs secured the 3pete.
Go Birds
I'm seeing a lot of judgement here. I acknowledge that what he did was very irresponsible. But let's not act like we've never been there. Anyone who drinks has gotten behind the wheel at some point, even if it was 20 years ago. If you say otherwise, you're a liar. Most people are just lucky and don't get caught. I think we can extend a little grace to him.
He's making six figures in Blacksburg as a 20 year old and Uber exists. I'm not saying he's an bad person, and I don't think anyone here is saying that, but it's a dumb mistake to make, and a SUPER avoidable one at this point. It's possible to extend grace to a person and criticize an action.
Cause this NEVER happens with pro football players who make 10s of millions and not 10s of thousands. It's been my experience that dumb does not necessarily distinguish between financial classes.
I can honestly say that I have been WASTED (and will be again in the future) and never once got behind a wheel with the intent of driving. I've left my car places, gotten rides, paid for rideshares, shacked with randos, but have never once attempted to drive after more than 2 drinks.
It's Blacksburg though. There's barely a need to get in a car stone sober.
Sad news. Hope the kid figures it out and can get back on the field to keep him away from distractions that lead to trouble.
Everyone seems disappointed in him but I thought we wanted SEC-caliber players? π
In the coaches meeting: "Dammit, we were so busy making sure all LBs stayed off of Jet Skis and Wave Runners, that we forgot all about cars..."
Why do I see another ugly season coming?!!
As long as he steers through the line and wrecks into the ball carrier, all is forgiven.
With all the NCAA BS going on... Play. Him.
Wait til his court dates for next steps.
i wouldn't have said this 20 years ago but it's a driving issue, not a football issue. let the driving people do whatever it is they do to drivers who do this
aside...I was telling Mrs. D last night Napier probably has to make the playoffs given how much UF is paying to keep Lagway. her response..."is that the money for name, rank, and serial number?"
I wish I could get paid for name rank and serial # a few decades ago.
-Let the bears pay the bear tax, I pay the Homer tax!
-That's the home OWNER tax.
Don't you mean the hoMEOWner tax? ;^)
π¬
πππ
tracks
Yes, he may have left some of those on some road or other.
Well, we no longer have the worst thing that a linebacker has done in a car this season.
I think the bigger thing is that, the likelihood something like that happens goes up exponentially when you are driving in the state Woodson was allegedly driving in.
Glad that he avoided the worst case.
Georgia?
The country?
The state of being intoxicated, while in Montgomery County (Sheriff's Office).
Per the Associated Press.
These cameras have really muted colors
So what was the verdict? Is he playing?
Edit: yep and missing tackles
He's playing