Gus Malzahn's 'zero tolerance' policy apply to QB Marshall?

Big surprise here folks. Auburn (and former Georgia) quarterback Nick Marshall was cited this week for possession of marijuana in Reynolds, Ga.

More from College Football

Yes, this is the same Nick Marshall who Georgia head coach Mark Richt dismissed from his team in 2012 for allegedly being involved with a theft. The same Nick Marshall who helped lead the worst-to-first Auburn tigers to the BCS Championship Game last season.

As stated, Marshall only received a citation because he was in possession of less than one once of marijuana.

But could this still have effects moving forward with the Auburn football team, or possibly even Marshall’s future with the school?

According to Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn, yes…it should. Or at least it has in the past.

You see, when former Auburn tight end Ricky Parks was caught with some weed, it cost him his spot on the team. Or at least that’s what Parks says in the sarcastic tweet he sent out (then promptly deleted) about his dismissal from the team and Marshall’s situation.

Screen-Shot-2014-07-11-at-8.05.26-PM /

Keep in mind, the Auburn program and Malzahn have been known to have a short fuse when it comes to drug related issues with players, and the “zero tolerance” rule has been

used in the past

. But will it apply – should it apply – to Nick Marshall?

I’m sure a lot of you out there are saying, “It’s just a little weed, it’s no big deal. You have to expect that college students will smoke pot” In fact, there are some who contend that if you don’t think that marijuana is almost as common as beer on a college campus, you’re living in a fantasy world.

Welcome to my fantasy, folks.

The amount of marijuana found on Marshall is not the issue. Whether or not you, me or anyone else thinks that marijuana is a relatively harmless drug is not the issue.

Right now, at this time, in the state of Georgia (and Alabama) marijuana is an illegal drug. You may not agree with it the law, but it is what it is right now. It’s also banned and/or illegal according to the NCAA, and (last time anyone checked) the Auburn University athletic department.

So if you go by the letter of the law, and by past situations that Auburn has dealt with, Nick Marshall should (at the very least) face a suspension for his illegal activities.

I don’t really care if it was less than one ounce, and I don’t really care what anyone reading this thinks about the current laws in regards to marijuana. Marshall is a scholarship player, and is receiving free education (and basically an audition for the NFL) at the expense of Alabama’s taxpayers and the school’s donors. He should be held to a higher standard.

And a zero tolerance drug policy isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There’s no way of truly determining which drugs are really bad, and which are just kind of bad, and which are just *ahem* harmless. So you have to throw them all in one basket, and treat all drug-related incidents the same, regardless of the substance involved.

If that’s not done, then cries of favoritism or even discrimination could spur from any drug-related suspension or dismissal.

Malzahn’s statement following the news of Marshall’s citation was bland and canned:

"“I am aware of the situation that happened earlier today with Nick. I’m very disappointed and I will address it with him accordingly,” Malzahn’s statement read.No decision has been made about whether or not Marshall will still be one of Auburn’s three representatives at SEC Media Days on Monday."

SEC Media Days? Is that really what we’re concerned about? If all this kid gets (which is exactly what Malzahn has done as of Sunday night) is a timeout from being in the spotlight of the media, then “zero tolerance” is definitely going to have to be redefined.

Nick Marshall is a second-chance player. It doesn’t matter if his first chance was at another school. He screwed up, and screwed up majorly. That in and of itself should have been enough to put him on self-alert to stay out of trouble and not do anything against the law or school/athletic department policies.

He did both.

So now Gus Malzahn finds himself in a rather precarious position. Does he live up to the standards that he himself set forth and make Nick Marshall an example of his “zero tolerance” policy towards drugs (thereby potentially damaging his football team by sacrificing the quarterback who is probably the only one on Auburn’s roster who can run that offense successfully)…

Or does he look the other way, give the ol’ “slap on the wrist” and move on with trying to win another SEC championship?

We all know what will happen, but that’s not what should happen. Oh the trappings of that terrible thing called a moral compass.

If Malzahn really wants to improve the reputation of Auburn, and show the rest of the nation that the Tigers aren’t going to be complicit when it comes to student-athlete’s off-field behavior, then some sort of punishment – even a suspension – has to be handed down here.

But then again, if Malzahn were truly concerned about keeping Auburn’s appearances up and not giving rewards to players who squander such rewards at other schools, he wouldn’t have handed another Georgia castoff – Tray Matthews – a scholarship this year.

Home/College Football

Will Gus Malzahn’s ‘zero tolerance’ weed policy apply to QB Nick Marshall?

By Michael Collins | Jul 14, 2014