Tennessee Dismisses Nu'Keese Richardson, Mike Edwards

In February, Nu'Keese Richardson was one of the crown jewels in Lane Kiffin's first recruiting class at Tennessee.

Kiffin wooed the four-star recruit, a longtime Florida commit, away from Urban Meyer and then bragged about the recruiting victory at a UT recruiting breakfast. At the time Kiffin incorrectly argued that Meyer had committed a recruiting violation by contacting Nu'Keese during his visit to Tennessee.

From there Kiffin also engaged in a public feud with the head coach at Pahokee High School. Richardson was, in fact, the spark that turned Urban Meyer and Lane Kiffin's war of words into a conflagration. Richardson was the apostrophe that loosed a thousand ships, and now he's the apostrophe that will never play football again for the University of Tennessee. On Monday, Kiffin announced that both Richardson and fellow freshman recruit Mike Edwards have been permanently dismissed from the team.

"After extensive and thorough research of the situation over the last four days and considering various disciplinary options, I've decided it's in the best interest of our program to remove Nu'Keese and Mike," Kiffin said. "As I've said many times before, we hold our student-athletes to an extremely high standard on and off the field. Our student-athletes must be responsible members of society, and this type of conduct will not be tolerated.

"We want a positive culture for our student-athletes that allows them to succeed in the classroom, on the field, and in life after college. My hope is that these two young men will learn from their terrible decision. Clearly, their actions have no place in our program."

Both men were charged with attempted armed robbery after allegedly trying to rob two men at a Knoxville gas station early Thursday morning . A third Tennessee player allegedly involved, freshman Janzen Jackson, remains banned from team facilities but Kiffin has not yet ruled on his status. Jackson's situation differs from Richardson and Edwards in that he was allegedly inside the station when the other two men attempted to rob the driver and passenger of a 1998 Hyundai Elantra just off campus.

By the opening game of the season, Tennessee fans cooed "Nuuuuu" as Richardson fielded the season's first received punt. Just eight games later, Richardson's career at Tennessee was complete. And that career offered little in the way of highlights. Richardson had eight catches for 101 yards, and six rushes for 58 yards. In all, a sum total of 159 yards of offensive production for a player that many believed would be an explosive addition to the Tennessee program.

Now Richardson's name is linked in infamy with other high-profile recruits, such as Willie Williams of Miami, who have flamed out early in their collegiate careers. Whether Richardson or Edwards can reclaim any of the promise they showed at another destination remains to be seen. For the present season, their football career is over. And somewhere in Florida, even if he won't publicly admit it, Urban Meyer has to be beaming.

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