Two football games involving Louisiana schools were marred by fights over the weekend, and their respective conferences have handed down punishments. The Sun Belt Conference has suspended six Texas State and seven UL-Lafayette football players after a postgame altercation following the Cajuns’ 42-39 win. Head coach Michael Desormeaux says he was frustrated with how things were handled at the end of the game.
“I just think it’s really hard. You get attacked, and I don’t know how you’re supposed to respond. I don’t understand how this wasn’t cleared up before. Once it broke the first time, I don’t understand how we didn’t get people off the field. I just don’t understand how this happened,” Desormeaux said.
Desormeaux defended his players and believes that Texas State is to blame for the outburst after the game.
“If you’re walking down the street and someone punches you in the jaw, I would imagine you’d probably want to fight them back. So, we’re gonna deal with it when we’re gonna do the best we can. We’re gonna try to save as many guys as we can, because I think what happened is, I think it’s just, I don’t think we should have to be dealing with it. But we are, we’re gonna have to,” Desormeaux said.
Senior safety Tyree Skipper has been suspended for the rest of the season, while six other Cajuns will serve a one-game suspension. Even though the Cajuns won, Desormeaux says the locker room didn’t show it after the scuffle.
“In the locker room, it was a little bit of a weird vibe after with everything that happened. We still had some guys that were angry, that were hurt, that were upset. You weren’t able to truly enjoy it the way you’d like to,” Desormeaux said.
Meanwhile, the SWAC is suspending 18 Grambling State football players after their involvement in a brawl with Bethune-Cookman players that occurred after halftime in the Tigers’ 31-23 win on Saturday. Additionally, the university is being fined $40,000. Head coach Mickey Joseph says the team takes full accountability for the irresponsible behavior.
“The disrespect comment I made was never meant to condone violence or unsportsmanlike behavior. Still, in the moment, don’t reflect who we are at Gramling. And we take full accountability on maintaining the integrity of the game and remain committed to learning from this incident and moving forward in the right spirit,” Joseph said.
Nine players from Bethune-Cookman were suspended, and that school was fined $25,000.
