Scratch what I just wrote about Tennessee’s luck.
After going 11 months without an arrest under Lane Kiffin’s watch, two UT freshmen have been arrested for armed robbery this morning, according to a Knoxville television station.
Nu’Keese Richardson and Janzen Jackson allegedly robbed a person in the parking lot of a Pilot convenience store with a semi-automatic handgun. The store is located on UT’s main drag, Cumberland Avenue.
Police arrested them a short time after the robbery at 2:00am ET.
Reports from the scene indicated two men approached the victim in the parking lot and used a small semi-automatic handgun to hold him up. They then fled the scene in a powder blue sedan. One of the suspects was described as wearing a black University of Tennessee t-shirt with an orange Adidas logo.
Richardson, a receiver UT flipped from Florida, was the subject of rumors last week that he might be looking to transfer from Tennessee. He was also the player at the center of Kiffin’s February claims that Urban Meyer had cheated by calling a recruit on UT’s campus. Richardson was that recruit.
Jackson, a safety UT flipped from LSU, served an “administrative suspension” last week and sat out the Vols’ game with Memphis. Jackson — who was probably on his way to a Freshman All-American season — has had three rumors surrounding him:
* A Knoxville radio station reported last week that Jackson had failed a drug test.
* We reported that Jackson had skipped a practice and headed home during the Vols’ open date.
* And it’s also been reported that Jackson was punished earlier this season for having a girl in his dorm room.
Ironically, Kiffin pointed out UT’s clean rap sheet during yesterday’s coaches’ teleconference.
With both players being true freshmen, this event will no doubt bring into question the type of players that Tennessee is recruiting.
It will also bring up reminders of Ed Orgeron’s issues at Ole Miss… where a number of high-profile recruits were on and off campus in the blink of an eye due to academic and off-field woes.
Having no one arrested for 11 months is quite an accomplishment for an SEC program.
But armed robbery isn’t your run-of-the-mill charge. The armed robbery will get a lot more attention than the 11 months of clean livin’, I can assure you of that.
IRONY UPDATE — About 5 hours before Jackson and Richardson were arrested, this article was posted by The Knoxville News Sentinel. The headline? “Jackson learns from mistake.”
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