Sooners kicker Calum Sutherland suspended indefinitely By Joey Helmer
NORMAN, Okla. — Sooners kicker Calum Sutherland has been suspended indefinitely in light of a Title IX investigation for physical assault allegations made against him by his girlfriend. The Oklahoman first reported the news Friday afternoon.
“We have been aware of the matter and Calum has been suspended indefinitely since we were notified,” an OU spokesperson told OUInsider.com in a statement.
The arrest affidavit states there was a disturbance reported at the Callaway House Apartments just east of OU’s campus. An officer reported that Sutherland was walking away from the scene.
“During contact with the female party she stated a short physical and verbal altercation occurred,” the affidavit states. “I did not observe any injuries on her person. The female subject stated her boyfriend was Calum Sutherland. From information obtained by the victim and uninvolved witnesses it was believed Calum was extremely intoxicated and there was a high likelihood he was going to return back to the apartments and continue to cause problems.
Sutherland was arrested around 4 a.m. that Saturday, Sept. 22, for public intoxication. That, too, is when the alleged physical altercation took place.
“We’re obviously well aware of the situation this weekend, extremely disappointed in his choices,” head coach Lincoln Riley said in his weekly press conference following the event. “My philosophy on these deals is these guys live in the public eye. They take a lot of grief a lot of people don’t ever find out about. I’m not big on airing out guys’ dirty laundry in front of the rest of the country. We’re going to deal with it. I’m not going to tell you how we’re going to deal with it.
“It’s going to be handled internally, but trust me, it’ll be handled appropriately and the correct message set on what we expect in our program, conduct that’s expected. And when guys drop below the line, they’re going to be punished.
“So we’ll deal with it, but I’m not going to sit up here and go through the laundry list of things that are going to happen there. So I hope that you would respect that.”
Taking over for four-year kicker Austin Seibert, Sutherland started the first three games and made 2-of-4 field goals. That included makes of 22 and 32 yards in his last contest at UCLA. He’s also a perfect 23-of-23 on point after tries, and he hasn’t missed since his initial two field goals of the season.
“Field goals, dropped passes, that whole world to me is there’s drops and then there’s bad drops; and there’s misses and then there’s bad misses,” Riley said a week earlier. “And the way he hit the ball on the extra points, the way he hit the ball on the first long field goal, which I’ve told you guys how stupid that was on my part, but I just knew he was hitting it well. He had one bad kick. And watching the way he’s hit it in practice, his body language just had every bit of confidence.
“Gabe’s [Brkic] a heck of a second option there right now, no doubt about it. We have a lot of confidence if his opportunity comes up. But we never thought twice about changing Calum. He’s performed well, and it was great to see him just nail those two the other night.”
In relief of Sutherland, Brkic looked outstanding last weekend. He connected on 2-of-2 field goals and nailed all seven extra points. His field goal makes came from 33 and 34 yards out.
“As far as reopening it, I mean, to me it’s kind of always open,” Riley said of the kicking position. “You know, if you think somebody’s doing a better job than the person you’re playing with at any position, we’re going to make that change. I do [recognize] obviously this situation presented Gabe an opportunity, and Gabe did well with it. There’s no question about it. So we’ll evaluate it as we go through the week and just put the best guy out there that we think’s ready to help us beat Kansas.”
The Sooners take on the Jayhawks this weekend in Lawrence. Kickoff is slated for 11 a.m. CT at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
NORMAN, Okla. — Sooners kicker Calum Sutherland has been suspended indefinitely in light of a Title IX investigation for physical assault allegations made against him by his girlfriend. The Oklahoman first reported the news Friday afternoon.
“We have been aware of the matter and Calum has been suspended indefinitely since we were notified,” an OU spokesperson told OUInsider.com in a statement.
The arrest affidavit states there was a disturbance reported at the Callaway House Apartments just east of OU’s campus. An officer reported that Sutherland was walking away from the scene.
“During contact with the female party she stated a short physical and verbal altercation occurred,” the affidavit states. “I did not observe any injuries on her person. The female subject stated her boyfriend was Calum Sutherland. From information obtained by the victim and uninvolved witnesses it was believed Calum was extremely intoxicated and there was a high likelihood he was going to return back to the apartments and continue to cause problems.
Sutherland was arrested around 4 a.m. that Saturday, Sept. 22, for public intoxication. That, too, is when the alleged physical altercation took place.
“We’re obviously well aware of the situation this weekend, extremely disappointed in his choices,” head coach Lincoln Riley said in his weekly press conference following the event. “My philosophy on these deals is these guys live in the public eye. They take a lot of grief a lot of people don’t ever find out about. I’m not big on airing out guys’ dirty laundry in front of the rest of the country. We’re going to deal with it. I’m not going to tell you how we’re going to deal with it.
“It’s going to be handled internally, but trust me, it’ll be handled appropriately and the correct message set on what we expect in our program, conduct that’s expected. And when guys drop below the line, they’re going to be punished.
“So we’ll deal with it, but I’m not going to sit up here and go through the laundry list of things that are going to happen there. So I hope that you would respect that.”
Taking over for four-year kicker Austin Seibert, Sutherland started the first three games and made 2-of-4 field goals. That included makes of 22 and 32 yards in his last contest at UCLA. He’s also a perfect 23-of-23 on point after tries, and he hasn’t missed since his initial two field goals of the season.
“Field goals, dropped passes, that whole world to me is there’s drops and then there’s bad drops; and there’s misses and then there’s bad misses,” Riley said a week earlier. “And the way he hit the ball on the extra points, the way he hit the ball on the first long field goal, which I’ve told you guys how stupid that was on my part, but I just knew he was hitting it well. He had one bad kick. And watching the way he’s hit it in practice, his body language just had every bit of confidence.
“Gabe’s [Brkic] a heck of a second option there right now, no doubt about it. We have a lot of confidence if his opportunity comes up. But we never thought twice about changing Calum. He’s performed well, and it was great to see him just nail those two the other night.”
In relief of Sutherland, Brkic looked outstanding last weekend. He connected on 2-of-2 field goals and nailed all seven extra points. His field goal makes came from 33 and 34 yards out.
“As far as reopening it, I mean, to me it’s kind of always open,” Riley said of the kicking position. “You know, if you think somebody’s doing a better job than the person you’re playing with at any position, we’re going to make that change. I do [recognize] obviously this situation presented Gabe an opportunity, and Gabe did well with it. There’s no question about it. So we’ll evaluate it as we go through the week and just put the best guy out there that we think’s ready to help us beat Kansas.”
The Sooners take on the Jayhawks this weekend in Lawrence. Kickoff is slated for 11 a.m. CT at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
