Keith Ford suspended indefinitely by Oklahoma Sooners

The Oklahoma Sooners suspended reserve running back Keith Ford indefinitely for academic reasons.

Keith Ford has been suspended indefinitely for academic and team rules violations by Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops on Monday morning.

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Ford ran for 392 yards and five touchdowns as the team’s starting running back to open the season but a broken leg in mid-September when the Sooners beat the Tennessee Volunteers. He missed five games with the injury but by the time he returned to the lineup, freshman Samaje Perine had cemented his status atop the team’s depth chart.

The 5-11, 206-pound Cypress, TX native, Ford was expected to play a reserve role to Perine this year after the rising sophomore led freshmen running backs with 1,71 yards and scored 21 touchdowns. His biggest game of the year was also the biggest game any running back in the history of college football when he ran for a FBS-record 427 yards on 34 carries in the win against Kansas.

. @OU_CoachStoops confirms that running back Keith Ford has been indefinitely suspended for academic & team rules violations.
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) March 30, 2015

Ford will also have to compete with another rising sophomore for carries in Joe Mixon who was suspended for his freshman season after he punched a woman in the face. The former five-star recruit was one of the top overall recruits in the nation out of high school and should be able to begin living up to his recruiting ranking this fall.

With Perine and Mixon carrying the load for Oklahoma, Ford’s opportunities were likely to be limited before he was suspended indefinitely, so missing the rest of spring practice and barred from team activities in the summer isn’t going to help him carve out a role in the revamped offense in Norman this year.

New offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley comes from East Carolina where he ran a wide-open passing offense similar to what Oklahoma fans have seen from Texas Tech but the running backs are still a vital part of this or any offense. Losing Ford isn’t going to hurt Oklahoma unless there’s some new NCAA rule that moves games up to May and June.

Which begs the question, what’s the point of suspensions in the offseason?

Ford isn’t going to miss any playing time and Oklahoma isn’t going to be hurt where it matters most and that’s in the win-loss column. This is essentially a warning to Ford by Stoops that he needs to get his grades in order the rest of the semester and this summer or he could be in danger of missing the games that count in September.

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