Per MassLive.com, Pop Watson's suspension has been lifted and he has returned to team activities. According to Pop's father, the suspension had been for missing curfew. Happy to have the young man back.
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Look....this may sound overly cynical, but so be it....
I feel like this was a case of a coach that is starting to feel the heat throwing the book at a player for what was a relatively minor violation in order to try to "send a message."
Pop is also at one of the few positions where losing him for a week wasn't going to directly effect the team. If this was an OL, wonder if the punishment would have been as harsh...?
I look at it more as trying to establish a culture of responsibility.
This - I see it as a "Quarterback needs to be a leader both on and off the field" message.
Seems like Watson dealt with it fine, so maybe we should give the coach the benefit of the doubt?
He was suspended for a week. That doesn't feel like a full book throwing.
I don't think indefinitely means what people think it means. Watson's suspension likely had some criteria he had to meet to return and he met them. If he showed himself to not learn from the situation he would probably still be sitting out, indefinitely.
Curious. What do people think it means? And why don't they think it just means the timeline of the suspension is undefined? It is, after all, the plain English definition of the term.
I think people think it means a long time mostly for the reasons SoupHokie09 mentioned below. In the NFL indefinite suspensions mean you did something so bad we have to wait for the courts to figure out how we respond.
Yeah this. I think people have been so conditioned by extreme cases they don't even think about what the words even mean
Yeah...but how many times does suspending a 3rd string QB make this much much of a news wave?
If it is a starter or star player...sure, but Watson wasn't really expected to play at all this year.
It's possible that I'm reading too much between the lines but this seems like the sort of thing that is usually quietly dealt with...it just seems....odd.
Let's look at the options of what to discuss during the time of the suspension...
-1-3 start
-inability to score in the first quarter
-ineffective starter, with a back up that looks promising in his shadow but in fact has a terrible throwing motion.
-defense that is giving up big plays and chunks of yards
-a struggle to beat lower tier teams
So, discussing a 3rd stringer's suspension is better than that, for the moment. Otherwise, the pitchforks and torches will be out after 3 or 4 games... Maybe it is avoiding the elephant in the room, but once conference play starts lets see if the pachyderm can find the open door and leave.
A ray of sunshine in an otherwise overcast season... I will take it. Arrive early, work hard and be ready to play at a moment's notice Pop.
Go Hokies!
This curfew suspension from the 3rd QB who isn't playing this year anyway has been much bigger story than it should be.
I mean we're currently at the stage where the fans are looking for any reason to trash the coaches, regardless of how minor. So every anthill is going to be turned into Everest
Yeah, the sky is falling response to this has been confusing. He missed curfew. He was suspended for a game. Gallons of virtual ink were spilled over the least interesting set of events I could imagine.
yeah its not a big deal and he handled it really well tbh
kid looks like he has a future and i want him to keep that redshirt. no way we should throw him out there yet with this oline; he needs to grow and hit the weights hard.
There are some who might say that perhaps being a little more transparent and saying a player is suspended one game for a curfew violation might be wiser than saying a player has been suspended indefinitely for violation of team rules.
I think it depends on the players attitude. Pop was contrite, apologized and owned it.
So either Pry believes he is the future of VT and wants to make sure he is an off the field leader, or too many people were cheering for the new back up QB and we needed to give them pause? Or what he was doing while breaking curfew had the potential to be a problem? Or this has always been team policy? Or is it the QB coach? All the coaches need to go! Or is it Whit? This proof that ESPN is plotting against us to make sure we do not become the lynchpin of the new P-3 conference funded by NBC. Hahahahahahahahah.
( Quietly slips back into the dark feverishly muttering about losing it - losing it all......).
If I'm remembering correctly there was a Marshall game about 10 years ago that Cody Journell was suspended for because he missed curfew. The rumor was he missed curfew because he was sleeping with a Marshall cheerleader. In addition I think Journell's picture was featured on the game ticket. Man, Journell sure was an experience. So many stories.
Might as well start him this weekend. Let's see what he can do.
Could not disagree more. Let him keep his redshirt. You think he's getting us to 6-6 this year with the play calling we've got going on? If the answer to that isn't "Of course he is, and he might get us to 9 wins," then you let him sit and develop. Keep fixing the house around him, if he's the dude in a year or two then give him the best possible situation.
I don't think it is realistic that Watson or Wittke starts at QB here as a 5th year senior. The more experience they get this year, the better for us in 24 and 25. See if/how Drones develops over the next couple games. If he's the guy, fine. If not, give Watson or Wittke a shot.
I think what GGC said in another thread is the new reality. With NIL and the transfer portal, all you are doing is preserving the eligibility for them to have their pick of schools to transfer to for the final 1 or 2 years they have left.
Have we ever had an active starting QB transfer out? Not to say it couldn't happen, but if Pop is all he's cracked up to be (big if) and is starting by his R-Soph year, he'll stay (as long as he remains the starter) until he goes to the draft. If he's not starting, you're right. We're saving eligibility for him to play elsewhere, but also then his leaving isn't as big a deal, and not seeing what we've got there right now isn't hurting us long term.
Despite what everyone wants to say, we're not ODU yet. It would be a tough sell to poach a starter who's having success from a place like Tech.
Have we ever had an active starting QB transfer out?
Hendon Hooker; Braxton Burmeister
Neither of them was the active starter. Hooker (at least presumably) was told Burmeister was the starter. Either way, he hadn't been starting at the end of the season before he left. Yeah, I guess Burmeister was the starter in the games right before he transferred, but the head coach that recruited him had been fired.
My point was that if Pop has the goods, and is in a position to start long term, I'm not super concerned about him transferring.
What the hell is MassLive.com BTW?
It's a Massachusetts news outlet. Watson is from there.
This all makes perfect sense to me and I'm glad Pry sent this message. Pop is a true freshman given a huge responsibility, backup to a running QB, he needs to be 100% prepared to take over as the starter and therefore be a leader for the team.
You can't have your starting QB doing shit like breaking curfew. He's a true freshman so I'm sure Pry felt he needed to send him a message about expectations. That he's back so soon is hopefully a sign that he's taking it seriously and will be a reliable leader in the future.
It's very possible that I missed something because I am pretty sporadic during the off season, but is there a reason why everyone is acting like he will be the savior of VT football? He very well may be better than our other options, and I'm excited and happy for the kid, but it seems like everyone is acting like we have a 5* world beater QB sitting on the bench all because he made one nice throw during a spring game against our second team defense - which is somehow worse than our 1st team defense.
I mean, outside of the time when Tyrod was the starter, and maybe Logan, this has pretty much been the case for the last 20 years.
Indefinitely - for an unlimited or unspecified period of time
Similarly, to what maxANDcheese said, people were just freaking out because they didn't know what the definition of indefinitely was and usually see ESPN headlines seeing someone in the NFL murder someone, beat their wife, or sexually assault a bunch of women and teams don't know how the situation will resolve itself, so they just use a catch all term of indefinitely until more dust settles.