Via UNC press release:
University of North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora has suspended sophomore Des Lawrence, redshirt freshman Donnie Miles, freshman M.J. Stewart and sophomore Brian Walker for Saturday’s game against Liberty. The one-game suspension stems from a violation of team policy.
"We hold our players accountable for their actions at all times," said hetad coach Fedora. "These players did not meet the high expectations we have for them as members of our program and have been disciplined accordingly. They will not play on Saturday or be on the sideline with their teammates."
This clearly stems from the alleged incident involving walk-on wide receiver Jackson Byron which was called "hazing" by Yahoo! Sports. Following that report on Tuesday, UNC announced it would investigate the incident and handle it appropriately. At that point this action was fairly inevitable. Once UNC announced they were looking into the allegations of hazing some sort of discipline was likely coming just tie the matter up with a nice bow.
As for how it impacts UNC on Saturday, two of the suspended players, cornerbacks Des Lawrence and Brian Walker were listed at starters on the depth chart released earlier this week. M.J. Stewart is listed as backup for Stewart at one of the corner slots. That leaves UNC thin in the secondary against Liberty. UNC still should be able to take care of business versus the Flames even with these players sitting out a game.
