Starting linebacker will not play for the rest of the season
Just a day before CU faced Miami (Ohio), CU linebacker Michael Sipili was suspended through the end of the semester. The sophomore was scheduled to start in the Sept. 22 game.
Coach Dan Hawkins said he found out Sipili would be suspended by the university early Friday afternoon before the game. Sipili will be replaced this season by sophomore Jeff Smart.
“It surprised me but that’s life. Obviously, Jeff Smart has been playing great football and Mike certainly would add an (opportunity), but Jeff’s been playing great in there as well,” Hawkins said.
Sipili was suspended for the first three games of the season because of the fight he and teammate Chris Perri were involved in at the end of June. On Sept. 12, Sipili was sentenced for third degree assault.
Perri was suspended the first three games as well, but returned to play against Miami (Ohio).
Since Sipili violated two articles of CU’s Student Code of Conduct, the university suspended him through Dec. 21.
“Mike’s a great guy. He’s a great football player you know, things like that happen. It’s football, and you know, it’s life more importantly,” senior defensive tackle George Hypolite said. “We figured, you know, Jeff Smart’s a good guy and the guys we have behind him are great guys and we’ve got a lot of great guys on defense. We just rallied and we told him we’re going to get it for him.”
Sipili had entered this season at the top of the depth chart at “mike” inside linebacker. In his freshman season, he played in every game, including two starts.
Hypolite said situations like this bring into question what is “fair.”
“Fair is very relative and things aren’t always going to happen the way you want them to,” Hypolite said. “But you know Mike’s a great kid and he’ll be back playing Buff football soon enough and until then we are just going to keep trying to put victories together.”
Contact Campus Press staff writer Margot Schneider at margot.schneider@thecampuspress.com.
