Urban Meyer Must Suspend Carlos Dunlap After DUI Charge

At 3:25 on Tuesday morning when Florida Gator defensive end Carlos Dunlap was found passed out in his running car, the SEC championship game just got a whole lot more interesting. Because combined with the intrigue, the attention, and the amazing stakes came a test of Urban Meyer's two greatest weaknesses: A.) his lax discipline record and B.) his thin skin. As we noted in the offseason, Florida has had 24 arrests in the past three seasons. At the time, the Florida public relations staff helpfully noted, "The 24 arrests represent 19 different players."

Whew, that makes me feel so much better.

Since June, Florida has played a football season and their players have stayed out of trouble. Until now. On the very week of the most-hyped game in SEC football history Urban Meyer has to deal with a huge national distraction that leaves him with only one possible response: he has to suspend Carlos Dunlap for this week's game.

In some ways, Dunlap did his coach a favor by committing such a egregious error. If Dunlap had failed a drug test, gotten in an altercation on University Avenue, or stabbed someone with a shiv fashioned out of an old mouthpiece on the football field while they're buried under a pile of players, Meyer could have faced a difficult decision. But now Dunlap's fate for this week's game is sealed.

At least it would be for any other coach in America.

With Meyer, especially in the wake of the Brandon Spikes imbroglio, you never can quite be sure.

After all, Dunlap was just a) underage b) passed out at 3 in the morning c) on the week of the biggest game of your life d) arrested e) and allegedly wasted.

Let's not be too tough on the kid.

Some positives: he wasn't armed or carrying drugs. There was no one tied up in the trunk of his car -- assuming the trunk was searched -- and he wasn't wearing Gator football gear while robbing someone at a campus gas station.

So, really, when you consider all the facts, it's kind of a difficult decision for Urban Meyer.

Right.

Now let's dive in and consider the implications of this arrest.

1. Can Julio Jones get down the field against a weaker Florida pass rush?

After a first-half of the season in which his number wasn't called very often, Julio Jones has exploded on the scene. With Alabama's running game ineffective against Auburn, Julio singlehandedly led Alabama on the drive that gave them the lead against the Tigers.

But most of those passes were underneath against a zone defense.

Will Greg McElroy have the time to dial up Julio for a big play down the field?

Maybe.

Certainly the odds are better.

2. How in the world are you that drunk and driving alone?

Dunlap isn't a 45-year-old longshoreman, he's a college student. That means he probably wasn't drinking alone on Monday night.

Leaving me with this question: how in the world did his friends let him drive away in his car? What's more, and I'm not condoning drunk driving, how did they let him drive away in his car alone?

Again, part of being in college is not just making the right decision all the time, we all do dumb things, but it's also about making sure that you make the wrong decisions with the right people. That might sound counterintuitive, but if you do something wrong you want to surround yourself with friends who don't allow you to compound your errors.

Here Dunlap was already making a bad decision -- drinking heavily late at night on the week of a big game -- and compounded the error by driving.

3. Florida's pass defense is currently No. 1 in the nation.

They've given up only six touchdown passes all season long. Granted their talent in the secondary is extraordinary and partly that's the reason, but how much has an explosive pass rusher like Dunlap helped in forcing teams to throw the ball short?

A ton.

This is a big hit for the pass defense even though you're actually subtracting a defensive lineman.

4. Tim Tebow continues to mask the Gator team in an aura of saintliness.

I wrote this back in June:

"99 percent of all national media and sports fans equate Florida football with Tebow. Period. It doesn't matter what anyone else does, Tebow is perfection on and off the field. So the program is perfect as well. Sure it's a lazy and harebrained way to judge a team, by projecting Tebow's moral code onto the rest of the team, but clearly it's happened. Tebow is a stand-in for the entire Gator team.

You have to wonder whether Tebow ever looks around the locker room, shakes his head, and thinks, "Man, an awful lot of these guys are going straight to hell."

Again, just because one man is Jesus incarnate doesn't mean the rest of the team is made up of saints.

5. By the way, can you imagine how awkward this situation was if the arresting officer is a huge Gator fan?

He had to run the license and then slam his hat down and jump on top of it.

No one talks about the number of times players don't get arrested for doing dumb things like this, but I tend to think players in college towns get away with a lot more than what they're charged with.

Why?

Because the arresting officers are also fans.

Not this time.

6. How serious is Dunlap taking the game if he's out drinking that heavily on Monday night?

I've been to Gainesville, you've been to Gainesville (or you should have been if you're a football fan), do you really think Dunlap couldn't have gotten the partying out of his system on Saturday night after the Florida State win?

Especially considering the Gators played in a 3:30 eastern kickoff.

By 10 at night, he could have been well on his way to living it up.

How well could he really practice if he's passed out drunk at 3:30 in the morning?

7. Before Gator fans tear up their sleeveless t-shirts in sorrow, recall that there's precedent for beating Alabama with a future NFL first-rounder sitting out the game.

Anyone remember Percy Harvin didn't play last year?

And Florida still exerted their will on Alabama in the fourth quarter.

Even without Dunlap, Florida is still the better football team.

8. Will Urban Meyer and Florida learn from the Brandon Spikes situation and limit the distraction by issuing an immediate suspension?

The Brandon Spikes incident turned into death by a thousand paper cuts. To avoid this mess on a much bigger national stage given the upcoming game, Meyer needs to immediately suspend Dunlap for the entire game and put this behind the team. Doing so would show that Meyer learned something from the Spikes mess.

The Dunlap situation sucks for the Gators, but trying another suspension for a half or prolonging the mess longer is actually a bigger strain on team preparation.

Maybe Dunlap can come back for the bowl game, but for now Meyer needs to unequivocally announce the suspension.

Because ultimately, no matter who your root for, there's only one response that can come out of this situation: Carlos Dunlap is sitting come Saturday. Anything less and Meyer is proving that he doesn't care about anything but winning football games.

Which may be true, but he has to pretend it isn't.

Clay Travis is the author of three books. His latest, "On Rocky Top: A Front Row Seat to The End of an Era" chronicles the 2008 Tennessee football season and is on sale now.