Pitt Football Disciplinary Problems: Jeff Knox Trial Postponed

Former Pitt safety Jeff Knox has had his preliminary hearing postponed at the request of his lawyer. Knox was dismissed from the team after an alleged assault against a woman at Chatham University.

Knox is scheduled to be back in court on November 18th.

Pitt’s off-field troubles continue to mount up as Dave Wannstedt suspended three more players this week - RB T.J. Peeler, DL Bernardo Nunez, and LB Kevin Adams. The issues appear to be somewhat minor ones at least compared to some of Pitt’s other issues relating to suspensions this season:

As I stated before the game three players did not make the trip and are officially suspended indefinitely from the team for various indiscretions and basic general immaturity. The three players are defensive linemen Bernardo Nunez, linebacker Kevin Adams and tailback T.J. Peeler. Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said after the game that all three will not be participating with the team until they take care of some things academically and prove they deserve the chance to play college football again.

Obviously, there’s nothing ‘minor’ about not doing well academically, but these issues don’t appear as serious as some of the other things that have plagued Pitt players this year including assault and DUI charges. It seems like the door is open for all three to return to the program.

In Pitt’s latest off-field problem, the Panthers have kicked freshman defensive back Jeff Knox off the team following an unknown off-field incident last night. This is the latest in a long string of behavioral problems the Pitt football team has encountered this year.

Christopher Harding, a Pitt senior injured in the alleged Keith Coleman assault, spoke out on the incident involving he, Coleman, and a third man, Brendan Connor:

Harding said he was out walking by himself very early Saturday in Oakland when he witnessed the incident begin.

“In front of him was a guy and a girl. He, like, walked right in between them and hit them both; and the girl stumbled,” Harding told KDKA’s David Highfield from a hospital room at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital.

The incident happened along the sidewalk in Oakland around 2 a.m.

“Of course the guy said something like, ‘What are you doing?’ And he ended up punching the kid,” Harding said.

He claims Coleman had the man in a neck hold, so Harding said he decided to try to break it up.

“Then, he, like, started at me and I think he swung at me, then he hit me in the left shoulder and broke the collarbone,” said Harding. “He hit me in the left shoulder, then he had me in a headlock.”

Harding ended up on the ground and later lost consciousness.

There were accusations of a racial slur being used, but Harding says that isn’t true:

According to police papers, Coleman said he was walking down the street when two men called him a racial slur, but Harding says he never used a slur and is offended by that claim.

“I heard him telling the police officer that he actually thought I was the one saying that. That was definitely not that case,” added Harding.

The original report mentions a witness who believes he saw Connor “go after” Coleman first, so at this point, details are extremely murky. But one thing is clear – Pitt players have found themselves in all kinds of trouble lately.

The issues keep piling up for Pitt, as offensive lineman Keith Coleman has been arrested:

Keith Coleman, 20, a reserve offensive lineman, was arrested early this morning after an altercation in which another man suffered a broken collarbone, Pittsburgh police said.

Police Sgt. James Kohnen said Mr. Coleman was arrested at 1:48 a.m. after the fight broke out during a dispute with two other men at the intersection of Semple and Ward streets. A witness told police that Mr. Coleman spoke to two women, which upset their male companions, Sgt. Kohnen said.

Mr. Coleman told police that the other men used a racial slur to refer to him, Sgt. Kohnen said. An altercation erupted, and one of the other men was injured.

The amount of trouble Pitt players have gotten into in the past few weeks really is remarkable.

Paul Zeise of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sheds a bit more light on the Jason Douglas and Dan Mason situation.

For starters, Jason Douglas has apparently had some previous team issues and Zeise speculates that Douglas will be dismissed from the program.

Dan Mason also needs some help cleaning up academic issues, so it sounds like Dave Wannstedt wants to make sure he’s not skating on this one. He also apparently wasn’t drinking as Douglas had been, which is good news.

However, it begs the question – why the heck wasn’t Mason the one driving? If he was completely sober, it makes no sense that he wouldn’t have been the one behind the wheel.

Just another poor decision.

Dave Wannstedt took action against Dan Mason, who was a passenger in the car Jason Douglas was driving, by demoting him to the second team.

“I met with Dan Mason’s mother this morning and his family,” Wannstedt said. "Dan has to understand and learn to make better decisions as far as what he is doing, where he is at and who he is with. And as a result, I moved him to second-team middle linebacker.

“As I told him this is for his good, he needs to prove to me that he can do the right things and be accountable off the field, in the classroom and on the football field and when he does that he will get his job back.

I don’t think this will be a one-game situation. From that statement, it seems as if Dave Wannstedt may take a little bit of time with this and I see it stretching out over a few games. It doesn’t look like Mason will miss any entire games and I expect him to play a great deal. But his move to the second unit definitely is not great news for Pitt. Tristan Roberts will get the starting spot and Max Gruder will move over to fill Mason’s place.