Citadel Quarterback Charged With Robbery ... Of One of His Own Coaches?

Among the four people charged Saturday in a Charleston, S.C., armed robbery was Miguel Starks, who was being considered as the possible starting quarterback next season at The Citadel, and Reginald Anthony Rice, a former linebacker for the military academy, as well as two College of Charleston students.

The victim in the case is one of Starks' own coaches at The Citadel, assistant coach Joshua Harpe of West Ashley.

A police affidavit states Starks pointed "a handgun (semiauto) at the victim, struck him once in the head with the handgun and ordered him back into (the) apartment ... The defendant ... then bound the victim with black duct tape around his legs, mouth and eyes and threw him face down on the living room floor."

And thus any already preposterously-slim hopes Starks would otherwise have for returning to the team, or even the school, got that much slimmer. Compounding the baffling and unconscionable nature of the crime was the fact that Harpe, also a former student at The Citadel, is the current offensive quality control coach, meaning he and Starks are very familiar with one another. On the surface, it's hard to see how a football-related grudge could have led Starks to be part of the robbery; The team's head coach just a month earlier had announced that the team was switching to a more run-oriented option offense to better suit his skills. The QB led the Bulldogs to their biggest win of the season against Furman, largely thanks to his four rushing touchdowns.

Starks has already been cited as the apparent link among the suspects, which would suggest that, if guilty, he could have a had a role in organizing the crime as well. This would also mean that it was Starks who thought that robbing a guy he works with on a frequent basis and leaving him alive would be a great, foolproof idea.

(H/T to EDSBS)

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