After landing his second drunk-driving arrest in a little over six months over the weekend, and as expected, Darius Ashley has been disciplined by Louisville head coach Charlie Strong.
The cornerback’s not being dismissed from the football program, however, as there’s a much larger issue the school feels the obligation to help Ashley navigate.
Strong confirmed Friday that Ashley has been indefinitely suspended from the Cardinals, and intimated that he may never play another down for the school. One thing that won’t happen, though, is the program abandoning the defensive back as he battles what appear to be significant alcohol issues.
“‘He may not ever run down that field or make another tackle, he may not ever make another interception,’' Strong said. ''But our major concern for him right now is to help him tackle what he’s fighting right now and that’s the issue of alcoholism.”
Strong was very, very emphatic when the topic of a dismissal was broached.
“Any time you talk about do you dismiss a young man,” Strong said, “when you see what has happened, two within seven months, you dismiss him from the team -- What does he become? Just another statistic in society? So what did we accomplish and how did we help him? You have to help people. Here’s a young man who has never been an issue on our team until those two issues that he had, which are two serious issues, but he’s a young man, he went to class, never had a class issue with him, did all the right things. ... We have to help young people.”
Ashley was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in December of last year and then again this past weekend. In both cases, he was more than double the legal limit of .08 -- .192 the first time, .186 the second.
The junior was expected to start at one of the corner positions for the Cards in 2011, but obviously he has bigger issues to deal with right now than where he stands on a depth chart.
