Brandon Spikes Suspended For First Half of Next Game for Eye-Gouge

It is a bad decision that will bring on more negative press for the SEC, and this time, we deserve it. 

Say Andy, you sound as if you have a "personal" problem with Spikes. Instead of be a "keyboard warrior", put yourself in position to hand out punishments to players that do wrong. My personal opinion is he is dead to the wrong but half a game is more than fair enough. If you don’t agree with that and can’t stand the outcome, just stop watching football. Problem solve. GO GATORS!!!

archangel: I have no problems with Spikes, have never met him, and love his intensity as a player. (I am a Gators fan.) But this deserved a game if the Michigan player got a game.

Oh no, the mainstream media voices are mad!!!lol, cry more

As a lifelong Gator fan, I too think he should have been suspended at least 1 game.  I think the SEC will probably throw 2 more quarters at the suspension.  The only thing going for Spikes is that Washaun was apparently uninjured.

Mr. Hutchins, you are correct in saying that the slap on the wrist is going to inflame the media boys.  Starting tonight, lookout.

Game or half game is BS. I guess this is worse than lying? NCAA needs to look at this SH!T. Send a message!

I wouldn’t suspend him. Arrange to have Spikes piled on and let the GA player gouge his eyes. Spikes is a great player. The entire SEC is out of control. Good teams, great fans, not much else. Wait, nothing else does matter, sorry.

There are too many sandy commenters at SN.  Make sure to scrub all your crevices next time.

I love Florida fan responses; their point is Florida is too great to be punished for anything, let alone an action that could have possibly damaged a man’s vision (retinal tears, detachments). Seriously, eye gouging isn’t part of football, you should be watching MMA if you want that kind of violence.

The human eye is tricky and one of the most difficult parts of the human body to fix/heal.

Sending a 30 minute message is not nearly enough. Oregons Blount was suspended for the rest of their season (originally) for punching someone. I’d have to say what Spikes did was more serious.

So if a vandy player gouges Tim Tebows eye this weekend we can expect a half game suspension.

So if a vandy player gouges Tim Tebows eye this weekend we can expect a half game suspension.

 I don’t agree with these punishments either and feel he should be actually kicked off of the team. And I am a gator fan. It’s ashame all teams do this not just the gator team. Infact, I feel the gators have the best all around players both in talent and integrity. You can’t judge the whole team by one player. Rember the Dockett/Graham issue. Dockett didn’t get any suspension but who is counting all the should be and could be. We’d be here till the cows come home. GO GATORS

Hey irz813,

Actually, if your tried this in MMA you’d get in much more trouble than this guy ever will.

The current SEC is best compared not to MMA but professional wrestlin’, what with the mysterious calls and the dirty plays.

With 24 arrests at UF since 2005, why does this surprise anyone? It’s business as usual.

Strange logic…the punishment should be less if he did not do any damage? The intent is the same;damaged eye or not. If a punch to the groin is one game, then an eye gouge should be at least a game.

I am the biggest Florida fan ever. I have bled blue and orange since I can remember. I haven’t played football since middle school and I don’t know what all goes on at the bottom of a scrum like that. Still, what Spikes did was inexcusable and should have a way harsher punishment than a half game. I think he should be suspended until after the South Carolina game. Not only does it make Florida look like we condone that behavior with that weak punishment, it makes Meyer’s statement of 1% of 1% seem like a joke.

How can he not get at least a game?  These thugs are getting a slap on the wrist which just shows the other thugs it’s OK to be a thug…these idiots know nothing of good sportsmanship.

A whole half? Wow.

Blount gets 7 games for punching a Boise player for taunting, in the heat of the moment. Spikes was maliciously trying to hurt another player, after the play was over, and up by 21 points. He gets to sit the first half of a meaningless game. What a sham. This disgrace of a human should be kicked off the team.

I think he got off easy.  He should be suspended for the entire season in my book. 

Here is my opinion.  Football obviously is already a high contact sport.  I for one get very frustrated when you get a lame roughing the passer penalty or a great hit gets turned into a helmet to helmet when the D player hit with his shoulder.  But the buck stops there.  When you try to intentionally hurt another player that is just inexcusable.  You should be GONE!  It’s hard enough to for me to coach youth football on discipline and good sportsmanship without these idiots doing these idiotic things!  That goes on and off the field as well!

Spikes should be suspended for this.  2 games minimum.  Will that hurt UF much because of the schedule?  Not at all, but a point needs to be made.  Watching multiple replays of the game has shown more than one incident by both teams.  Spikes just happened to get caught.  You can see Washaun attempting to elbow Spikes in the throat a few plays before this incident happened and nobody is talking about that.  Perhaps its just that non-gator fans comment on these threads more than non partisan fans.

Still looks more like he was trying to rip his helmet off more then trying to eye gouge him.  But meh, what do I know.   If it was him trying to rip his helmet off then a 1/2 a game seems appropriate to me. 

If someone tried to goegue Teblows Eyes, he would end up on death row!

2 quarters??? How is that different from a punch, his intent was to hurt a player and he broke the rules? At least a game or more. Way to go Florida teach your kids if you brake a rule its only a slap on the wrist. That entire team needs to be scared straight with the prisoners or maybe the Bengals. Love Good Old Urban looking away at his player again when they do something this bad. A national title is more important than teaching lessons.

What if you did this at your place of work?

yep. looks a lot like he was trying to pull off his helmet. not a huge escalation after Ealey had already elbowed Stamper in the gut and punched Haden in the face.
http://forums.gatorsports.com/eve/forums/a/ga/ul/4531096639/inlineimg/Y/Ealey.bmp

there’s a reason Richt is mum about this.

We call that Border-War Love…. welcome to the bottom of the pile in the SEC.I love that this player was Not hurt at all…he gets up and makes no mention of it to anyone and plays the next down. I think the term "eye gouge" is not accurate and used only to make up some drama. Yes his hand is in the facemask and Spikes is up to no good…but trying to blind the guy….really? Spikes has some swamp land for sale since your buy’n. We expect dirty play from a rival team that has been beaten the last 17/20 (ask Tebow why he needed to come to the sideline to wash out his eye) Ask Spikes why he had to come to the sideline after the dirty helmet hit (fist/uppercut) this was also caught on tape… There was the earlier one where they knocked his helmet off and penalized them 15 yards… the late hits on Tebow also caught on tape (no penalty). Show me that this player’s eye was hurt…then you actually have a story….strap on your figure skates this football game is too much for you.

Can anyone interview the player with the missing eyes?  Maybe he has something to say about what actually happened….vs. what it looked like Spikes was doing….  JustMy2cents….

to be honest i dont see anything in the "georgia fullback eye gouge"

I hope the SEC or NCAA step in on the Spikes case to make the punishment a full game—-

The half game suspensions seems like a token punishment for a potentially severe act of gauging a players eyes behind his protective visor.

If you did that in a bar or outside in the street—-you would be arrested for assault in most cases.

Same goes for the Michigan lineman “low blowing” the Illinois DL after the fumble. This is supposed to be the year of “Sportmanship” by the NCAA with the pre-game and post game handshakes and it doesn’t seem to be working out very well so far.

This replays and Internet videos and messaging has sure acted as a mini=police force for some of these “sneak attacks/sucker punches” on players and the leagues and conferences are being forced to punish the offenders—which is good.

A half game suspension is a half *ss punishment.The SEC’s reputation as a win at all costs league is reinforced by this.

Ha! Wow a whole half of a game? Dez Bryant lies about dinner with Deon gets his season washed. Oregon player punches out Dude and dang near starts a riot and is about to be reinstated. Spikes tries to gouge a guys eyes out on national daytime TV, which could’ve caused permenant eye damage btw and he gets half a game? He should be suspeneded for at least 2 games, one game for each eye. What a Joke, maybe Tebow can pray for him and the SEC.

The suspension is a joke, Urban looks like a douche on this one. Wow a one half suspension against the Commadores. Ooooooh. The SEC is an even bigger joke on this one. Lets face it they wont discipline Florida right now for a shooting. Gouging eyes is not an emotional reaction. Its an exposure of character. Spikes is a dirty guy, he got exposed for it. These things have a way of coming back on a guy like this. Ill be waiting for the Karma train to roll into the station.

Meyer is showing his true colors.Win at all costs, with no respect for your opponents, or what is right and wrong. Meyer is failing at life.

Meyer is a great coach who’s done his job. He disciplined a player without succumbing to the panty-waste hysteria sweeping the media and all of the Gator haters…. To all of you girls out there, maybe football just isn’t the sport you should be watching.

I agree with the poster who said that this guy should be kicked off the team.  I don’t care how good player he is.  There is no room in any sport for a player who intentionally tries to hurt another player.

This phony punishment is gross.  The SEC should add to the suspension and take away a scolarship next year.

I would have expected Meyer to sit Spikes for the whole game vs. Vandy. However, I think Mark Richt has bigger problems than Spikes trying to poke out his player’s eye – if he loses big to Georgia Tech in a few weeks, the Georgia alumni will be getting very medieval on him!

Your a joke if you dont think Spikes was trying to poke his eyes, and your an even bigger joke if you think that is part of football.  Im sure Hoggetowne and GatorAllin would be the first 2 ladies crying if it were to happen to anyone on their team.  Instead of making stupid comments like "maybe football isnt for you", maybe you should sack up and just call the play what it was "dirty".   Since Urban Meyer and the SEC arent classy enough to do the right thing, the NCAA should take control and make their own sanctions.  But I guess they are too busy trying to uphold the suspension of Dez Bryant for having lied about having a meaningless conversation with Deion Sanders.  Thats priorities for you.

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What gets me is the number of people
wanting LeGarrette Blount of Oregon to go to jail because he punched
someone.
A little fisticuffs compared to eye gouging!
So many
jumped on the Oregon program as being out of control.
Oregon took
significant steps to discipline Blount and send the message this
won’t happen at Oregon.
Urban apparently doesn’t believe in
developing humans. The players are just meat to satisfy his personal
agenda.

This kind of stuff really riles up the Gator haters, but that is expected when your team is on top.  There is a lot of hysteria about what Spikes did and a lot of it stems from the fact that he plays on the number one team.  Hell, there are some weirdos suggesting that this is part of and overall SEC problem.  Ridiculous.

That being said, Spikes should have gotten a one game suspension.  Half a game reeks of insincerety.  We all know that stuff was going on between both the teams, but it doesn’t make it right at all and Brandon, you got caught, so you should suffer the consequences.

The SEC has some serious issues with officiating and policing itself when it comes to their Golden Calves. To me this is worse than what the Oregon RB Blount did, given a choice I’d take a sucker punch over being poked in the eye indefinetly at the bottom of a pile. I’m surprised Tebow doesn’t suspend himself for a half for being on the same team as this guy, Saint that he is.  

Another saggin who is in the lower sector of the socio-econimic status that only knows how to act like an animal.  My guess is there was never a father figure and he is angry at the world for his upbringing

There is no excuse for this type of behavior. Be a grid-iron gladiator but do it fairly. At the least, this should be a 1 game suspension. 

This was perfect for Urban if you think about it.  The SEC was/is going to increase the punishment of whatever Florida does, if Florida would have made it one game then the SEC would say no it should be two games to save face with the negative attnetion to ref situation.  Now the SEC will say no we’ll double the suspension Florida has already done and make it a full game.  Everyone will save face.  I am not condoning this action but this is only brought about beause of replay, this happens all of the time in football at all levels and for years, even more so years prior, the only reason this is so big is because we can slow it down and analyze it and everything else that happens.  This isn’t a repetative thing for Spikes and the University is always proactive when things happen about suspending players.  I would rather have a linebacker like Spikes on the Browns next year than one that tried to be polite and politically correct.  Nice players are for media and people who are not true fans, give me a linebacker that will do whatever it takes and be nasty and you’ll have a whole team of probowl linebackers from years ago.  As for some people they will just use this to try and bash the Gators for the success they have had because they wish they had the success.  If I am not mistkaen football is a game of violence and stopping the other team from doing what they want to do, if you want to see the opposite of that you could look at the Cleveland Browns this year.  One game suspension is what something like this calls for, don’t get overhyped about what team it is.

Wow!  Kick him off the team?  Maybe Meyer is showing a little loyalty to a guy who came back for his senior season.  If this, or something like it were to happen again, then yes, kick him off the team. 
I’m still waiting for Richt to say something about it—wonder why he hasn’t yet?

Brandon Spikes was representing the Univerity of Florida Saturday when he performed his act.   It may be a reactionary and/ or a  defense mechinism to push, shove or even punch.  Eye gouging is pre-meditated. Brandon made a mental decision to hurt the running back and then decided on the best way of doing so.   He PLANNED it. 

An arguement could be made that he was punished only a half because he chose the Florida approved method of cheating but was caught. 
Urban is basically saying," it is ok, but do not get caught next time".  The University is saying,"It is ok, as long as we win – win at any cost!"

I am glad the University of Floriday is not my alma mater.

I’m very thankful the University of Florida is my alma mater and I’m thankful to Brandon Spikes for playing football at UF.  I’ve enjoyed watching him play football over the years and can’t wait to see him back in the second half against Vandy.  Hopefully he gets a chance to play even if it’s a blowout so it doesn’t look like Meyer is listening to the media.

Hello were is the ncaa in all this. Dez bryant gets a year for telling a lie about a non issue and this clown doesn’t even get a talking to. Bull crap.