Florida Gators suspend QB Treon Harris, CB Jalen Tabor for Tennessee game

By Adam Silverstein
September 23, 2015

The Florida Gators have suspended sophomores quarterback Treon Harris and cornerback Jalen Tabor for Saturday’s game against the Tennessee Volunteers, head coach Jim McElwain announced after Wednesday’s practice.


According to ESPN, Harris was suspended for a failed drug test, while Tabor was suspended for refusing to take a drug test. Both are violations of university policy.

“They chose not to play in this ballgame. Jalen Tabor and Treon Harris won’t be with us this week, which simply means we’ve got to have some guys step up,” McElwain said, refusing to provide additional details or refer to their absences as suspensions. “Each one of us have choice, and they made a choice to do whatever. It hurts because we’ve got a lot of guys that really care about this team, and some of the guys will step up and play.”

As to how he felt about the duo being suspended? “It hurts. I’m not angry at them at all. It’s a choice,” he said. “They were choices; they weren’t suspensions. They made choices and that’s the way it goes. That’s really all we’ll talk about it.”

Both Harris and Tabor will be active for the team’s following game against Ole Miss. “They’ll be back the following week,” McElwain said.

With Harris suspended, redshirt freshman Will Grier will be firmly entrenched as the starting quarterback in the contest. Redshirt senior transfer Josh Grady will serve as the backup. Sophomore Quincy Wilson will start in place of Tabor.

“I’m excited for the opportunity for some other guys,” McElwain said. “On the offense part, obviously that thins you out at the quarterback position, but that’s why we … have some packages for Josh to be ready to go in. Feel good about that.

“Defensively, again, we’ve got some guys really where we’re going to get hurt a lot probably there is the depth in the special teams. Deiondre Porter‘s got to step up, and he’ll be wearing the sombrero this week in our special teams stuff, and he’s got to have a big game. Looking forward to seeing some guys play, so that’ll be it on that.”

Harris, who started the Gators’ season opener only to play sparingly in Week 2 and not see the field last Saturday, was previously suspended one game during the 2014 season while being investigated for an on-campus incident.

Tabor was previously cited for possession of marijuana, and both players were cited last December for an incident in which Harris was driving with a suspended license while Tabor and a former Florida player were passengers. Police found marijuana in the vehicle but not on any of the players’ person, so no one was arrested for possession or suspended for the Gators’ bowl game.

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