The Florida Gators on Friday officially ended the indefinite suspension of freshman quarterback Treon Harris, reinstating him to the football team but announcing he will not play in Saturday evening’s home game against the LSU Tigers.
“We have been notified that the University and legal process is complete,” head coach Will Muschamp began, in a statement released to the public.
“Treon has been reinstated to the team, but he will not play Saturday. This has been a learning experience for everyone involved. Treon has been honest with me throughout the process and is looking forward to rejoining his teammates.”
The female student who accused Harris of sexual battery on Monday withdrew her complaint early Friday, four days after the two allegedly engaged in sexual conduct.
Harris subsequently had his University of Florida suspension lifted, which led to the University Athletic Association allowing him to rejoin the football program immediately.
“The University of Florida has informed the University Athletic Association that the sexual battery complaint has been withdrawn, and the university is not proceeding with any action,” UF spokesperson Janine Sikes said in a statement released to OnlyGators.com late Friday afternoon.
An investigation against Harris for an alleged felony sexual battery charge began Monday at 12:49 a.m. when a call was made from Springs Residential Complex on campus.
About 12 hours later, Florida confirmed that Harris had been accused of the crime, noting that the UF Police Department and Gainesville Police Department were investigating the matter and in the process of collecting forensic evidence. Harris was immediately and indefinitely suspended from all team activities. He was later given an interim suspension from the school for a potential code of conduct violation.
Harris was neither arrested nor charged with a crime, but he immediately retained local attorney Huntley Johnson and began cooperating with the investigation. The UFPD and GDP spent hours collecting material from Harris’s dorm room, and Harris also turned over his cellular telephone to police.
The UFPD released a completely-redacted incident report on Wednesday.
Thursday, Johnson sent an aggressive and thorough press release to the media, claiming his client was “not guilty of a crime” and “did not mistreat this young lady in any way.” Furthermore, Johnson referred to the alleged victim as the “sexual aggressor” in not one but two separate sexual interactions that occurred Sunday morning.
Harris posted the following on Instagram on Friday afternoon.
This is from #Gators QB Treon Harris' Instagram just a short while ago. pic.twitter.com/ec84SFPLei
— Landon Watnick (@LandonWatnick) October 10, 2014
Redshirt junior Jeff Driskel will start at quarterback for Florida on Saturday when it hosts the LSU Tigers at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. and air live nationally on the SEC Network.
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Why would you come out and say he isn’t going to play ? First off he didn’t do anyhing . Second why not leave LSU guessing and lastly when driskel throws 3 interceptions and plays like he has since day one the stadium will quickly be chanting treon’s name. This coach knows how to blow everything. Time to get a new leader
He hasn’t practiced a single scheme with the team all week. He hasn’t watched tape. He has no better idea of what LSU has a a pro or con then you or I. He’s not ready to play this weekend. Oh, and let’s not forget the fact that he was involved in a criminal investigation all week. His focus hasn’t been on football.
It makes sense. Calm down.
Is he not playing because he’s not allowed or because he wasn’t able to practice this week?
My guess would be the latter, not practicing ~ not playing.
That makes sense. He wouldn’t know the game plan and we will need a good plan to beat LSU
So what, he’s the best we got even without practice!
Gonna be interesting if JD tanks, we need to find a way to win this game. Do we burn a redshirt on WG? Give SM a go at it next? Then let Treon come off the bench in the forth quarter and win it?
I am seriously getting sick of the Hate Mischamp barrage that has become commonplace on Only Gators. There are some that can’t even be thankful for the fact that Muschamp truly cares about his players becoming good men one day. There is just NOTHING he can do right by some of you anymore. Treon saw his entire future (life not just football) in serious jeopardy this week, what an emotional roller coaster for an 18 yr old kid. Why would you put him in that football game after all that with zero practice. If anything goes south in that game because of Treon’s play, most Gator fans nowadays will crucify both Muschamp & Treon for their poor decisions. Let the kid have a break, he’ll be back with the team soon enough! Take a breath for crying out loud! GO GATORS!!!
I usually don’t hit the ‘like’, ‘thumbs up’, ‘agreed’ button. But when I do, it’s for comments like this.
Thank You, GG98!!!
Preach on preacher!
Bravo! Let the season play out. We can second guess anybody and Muschamp is no exception. The nonstop bashing is ignorant.
I have issue with how this whole issue was handled.
First, I have no respect for this woman. If she was a victim, she should have stuck to her guns. If not, she tried to ruin Treon’s life and impacted the whole team.
Second, the university and UAA threw Treon under the bus without any evidence. Are you going to suspend someone anytime an unproven allegation is made?
This is BS. Is this what UF represents? An institution that is so PC that it will rather ruin a young man’s life than risk some bad PR.
I am utterly ashamed to be a Gator.
Most take the opposite view. It’s a no win situation……sucks all around.
Take it easy Mike. The University and the team did what was right, that is the card we are dealt in today’s world. The situation stinks anyways but it is the reality we have to deal with it is not a question of being PC at all.
The University conducted itself in a classy way.
You should definitively be proud of being a Gator. I am.
Go Gators!
My concern now with this whole process is the potential for a similar scenario to be fabricated for the sole purpose of sidelining a player. WHAT IF, any team is set to play in the Nat’l Championship, and a girl is planted in their QB’s way days or hours before the game to “cry rape”. Even if he never touched her, he will be sidelined until an investigation is done, so he is out for the NC game… I just see an issue here where teams better be keeping their star players on a damn short leash!
It could be worse than what you say, forget the team, what if fans or boosters start paying girls to do this?
One team that would not be affected by this type scenario would be FSU. They have proven they will ignore the evidence, dam the facts and protect their star players no matter what. Easy for them when the FSU police and the Tallahassee PD are in cahoots with the football program. What a difference from the UFPD and the GPD.
This kind of thing could change everything. Players now have to be sequestered off hours? No contact with females at all? The timing of this whole thing smells bad, this lady is withdrawing the complaint “for now” but can come back at any point and refile? Sounds like a potential payday to me.
Right now I’ll say I favor bringing Muschamp back no matter what happens the rest of the season. He has the kind of integrity this university needs regardless of what happens on the field. He is molding these youngsters into being mature men.
Florida handled the situation exactly the way they should have. Couldn’t have been done any better.
Commentators on here have harshly criticized me for comparing the half ass u handling of Winston and other incidents to the way Florida handled this one. Well, well, well, look what is happening now in tally. Winston is finally going to face a disciplinary hearing almost two years after the fact. Not to mention all the other crap this entitled clown has pulled. The stench in tally is overwhelming right now. They attempted to sweep things under the rug in order to benefit what happens on the football field. Now it is all going to blow up in their faces. Think Fisher, the AD, or the president is actually going to have the balls to suspend him now? If these guys were at Florida I would want them all terminated immediately and Winston dismissed. Start over and try to rebuild the reputation. Instead they are starting to smell more like the stink from Happy Valley.
Dave Fisher and the AD won’t have much of a say if Winston is found guilty of violations to the code of student conduct. An independent party is supposed to be in charge of this investigation. Now I don’t know what the code of student conduct is at FSU, maybe it was re written by Winston’s attorney. I don’t know how truly independent this judge is going to be, maybe it is a choice between Winston’s uncle, a big time FSU booster and Fisher’s sister in law. But seriously it seems that FSU and the Tallahassee’s PD gig is up and it’s finally time to face the music and face the cover ups and the intentional incompetence that has driven this case from the get go. If Winston is found guilty then automatically he should be dealt with immediately without the imput of the HC or the AD.
The alumni should demand that the board of regents conduct a thorough investigation into how UF handled the matter. One of two things happened. Both of them are bad.
One, someone pressured a victim to withdraw her charge against an emerging football star.
Alternately, both the university and football team suspended an innocent student without any evidence before he was charged with a crime.
How is either scenario classy? In either scenario, someone completely mishandled the situation. Either scenario is a firing offense. The university had a knee jerk reaction to a PR crisis. They clearly demonstrated that they would rather throw an 18 yo under the bus rather than face any bad PR.
Whether or not Treon CAN play, how does it benefit US (or him), to announce that he WONT play? Perhaps this is disinformation for LSU. Otherwise, they should have been left to guess about Treon’s availability, and to game plan accordingly.
I don’t know why so many people are hung up on this notion that the University of Florida shouldn’t or can’t do anything until a criminal charge is filed. Absolutely they can and should have made a temporary suspension. They are not bound by the ‘legal’ system and don’t have the same standards to meet.
A victim of violence, and that includes threats or intimidation, can get a restraining order issued by a judge based solely on an accusation. A hearing would be set for twenty days later for both sides to present their cases. In the meantime the accused has a no contact order issued against them, and that doesn’t just mean physical contact. A husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend can be removed from the residence during that period. That’s called being progressive towards the victim. Same as happened here.
UF is an institution of higher learning and as such has a higher standard of expected behavior.
This situation may not be resolved yet.
Winston is now finally facing four charges under the student conduct code and he hasn’t been charged with a crime yet. Somebody in tally finally looked under the rug. He probably doesn’t even care at this point as he will be on to the pros next year. We’ll see how the new NFL deals with him.
Quit living in the dark ages folks. There is human safety involved.
Dave, I agree with the thrust of your remarks, but I must defend the U of F “dark ages”. The University’s behavioral standards were very strict. Most girls lived in girls-only dorms, or in sorority houses. There were curfews and locked doors after curfew. Seems stupid today, but it tended to reduce the opportunities for an incident like this. You can’t be accused, wrongly or rightly, if you aren’t there!
Dave. Thank you for demonstrating that progressivism is incapatible with rule of law.
It is time for the board of regents to step into this matter. Hopefully, they will provide some much needed adult leadership. The administrations of both UF and FSU have mishandled this for different reasons.
I would agree the board of regents should intervene in the half ass u debacle but no way in the Florida situation.
It was handled ‘by the book’.
How would you feel about this situation if it was your daughter, sister, or even mother in this situation? It’s not about rule of law, it’s about the standards of one of the most outstanding universities in the world. A higher standard than criminal court. And if this guy wasn’t a football player nobody would even care. I don’t think a five day temporary suspension rises to the level you are claiming it does.
Wouldn’t you rather err on the side of caution than be staring at what half ass u is staring at? The electron beam microscope is focused on tally for sure now. The board of regents won’t have to look far to find garbage there. Personally, I wonder why the FDLE hasn’t stepped into the criminal investigation there. tally pd has been know for some time for their corruption, that is why their chief had to resign in disgrace.
By the way, if you are going to try to impress people with your use of big words, you might want to get them right. ‘Incapatible’, really?
How would you feel if you were suspended for something you did not do?
Since when does a “higher moral” code include punishing an innocent person?
By which book was this handled? The one on how to handle a PR crisis?
BTW…unlike some of you, I kept my mouth shut until the facts began to emerge.
The incident looked suspicious, but I avoided a rush to judgement until the police decided to whether to make criminal charges.
That is what responsible people do.