Marquel Wade Suspension: SEC Gives Arkansas Receiver 1-Game Ban for Dirty Hit

There's been a lot of controversy in the football world recently about what kind of hits truly count as being dirty. There are some dirty hits, however, that don't require any discussion at all.

Arkansas freshman receiver Marquel Wade delivered one of these on Vanderbilt's Jonathan Krause during Saturday's game. Krause was on punt return duty for Vanderbilt in the third quarter, and Wade hit him after he had called a fair catch. It was a vicious hit on a player who was clearly defenseless, and for that Wade was flagged and then kicked out of the game.

According to Matt Jones of NWAOnline.com, the SEC decided on Tuesday to suspend Wade for one game, meaning he will miss this Saturday's contest against South Carolina.

Suspending Wade is a no-brainer. It would have been bad enough if Wade had hit Krause at all, but he blatantly destroyed him. To make matters worse, Wade then got up and started calling attention to himself like he had made an amazing play.

So in one instance, Wade was guilty of two major offenses: a dangerous hit on a defenseless player, and unsportsmanlike conduct.

To his credit, Wade did apologize (see CBSSports.com) for the hit on Monday, saying that he was trying to give 100 percent and simply "messed up."

The best thing Wade can do now is take this experience and learn from it. He is a younger player with plenty of football in his immediate future, so he needs to put this behind him as soon as possible.