The season opener for NC State against Louisiana Tech will be one without their leading rusher Shadrach Thornton. CBS Sports is reporting that new coach Dave Doeren has announced the suspension due to a misdemeanor charge for assault when Thornton allegedly pushed his girlfriend.
Doeren explained to the media regarding the situation:
“I think he’s learned a lot and he’ll grow a lot from it. That’s part of our job as coaches is to discipline guys and to help them through mistakes. The bottom line is he knows he made a mistake putting himself in that situation. We removed him from all team activities except for academics and he had to live his life the way that he should live it, in my opinion and our team’s opinion before he could come back and exercise with the guys.”
One of Doeren’s main goals was to improve NC State’s rushing attack in 2013, so this early suspension won’t help that, but at least we know that Doeren is disciplining his players the right way.