WVU Football: Noel Devine Allegedly Involved in Assault

Kicking dope heads (James Ingram, Ed Colington, John Holmes) off WVU’s team pronto earlier this month was easy.

Especially if the dope heads: a) are caught with dope in their car, b) invite the cop back to their apartment to see more, c) have said stash in ready-to-sell baggies and, d) are not starters.

New head coach Bill Stewart looks like the no-nonsense moral sheriff in town, doing the right thing.

Now comes the case of Noel Devine and Jock Sanders.

West Virginia papers are reporting that the pair was involved in a fight outside a Morgantown night club early Saturday morning. (What’s that old phrase? Nothing good happens after two in the morning?)

A student claims that a dust-up in the club led to an assault on the sidewalk outside that resulted in some bruises and kicking, and two of the perps were Devine and Sanders.

So far, silence from the WVU football headquarters.

This one is not so clean-cut as the case of the three dope heads.

This situation: a) has only a complaint, and no response from Devine or Sanders, b) has no admission of guilt from Devine or Sanders, c) does not involve drugs or a felony charge and perhaps most importantly, d) involves next year’s starting running back and starting slot receiver.

Devine is expected to step in where All-American Steve Slaton, who has left for the NFL, left off. Sanders was being groomed all last season as a replacement for slot receiver Darius Reynaud, also to the NFL.

If either is kicked off the team, it’s a palpable hit. If both are kicked off, it might be disastrous. About the only way the night club incident could have been worse was if Patrick White and the sole returning defensive starters were involved, too.

Some WVU fans have been holding their breath, waiting for something like this to happen involving Devine (both parents dead, friend shot to death in front of him, father of two children by two different women and, most worrisome, mentee of Deion Sanders). But there’s nothing I find violent in Devine’s background. Same for Sanders.

Still, if it turns out that Devine and Sanders did help beat up a fellow student, no matter what their value to the 2008 Mountaineer football team, Coach Stew needs to treat them as if they were walk-ons. That’s the message he needs to send.