Accused players not welcome

Editor's note: Janzen Jackson, Mike Edwards and Nu'Keese Richardson are charged with attempted armed robbery. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the charge.

The waiting game continues.

Janzen Jackson wasn't watching film with the rest of the team Sunday, and Tennessee doesn't have any plans to let him.

Nu'Keese Richardson wasn't around to sneak in a workout, and the Vols aren't even letting him in the facility.

The same rules are in effect for Mike Edwards as well, and as the investigation into the roles of the three freshmen in last Thursday's alleged attempted armed robbery progresses, that status won't change.

For all intents and purposes, that seems to suggest an indefinite suspension whether UT coach Lane Kiffin calls it one or not.

"They won't play or practice until I get all the information in, because this is too critical," Kiffin said. "No way would we ever, with something like this possibly having happened, no way would we ever let one of those guys ever play for us. We don't let them come to the functions over here, meetings or practice or anything.

"I'm not calling it anything except for telling you that they're not part of any of our activities until we get more information in. There's no way I would ever let them be around our team and be around our functions with what's been said that may have happened."

The uncertainty mostly seems to be about the involvement of Jackson in the well-publicized arrests of last Thursday, and from an on-field perspective the Vols (5-5, 2-4 SEC) would certainly benefit from the return of the starting safety against Vanderbilt (2-9, 0-7 SEC) on Saturday (TV: ESPNU, 7 p.m.) at Neyland Stadium.

UT was repeatedly gashed for big plays in a 42-17 blowout loss at Ole Miss on Saturday, and with Jackson at the back of the unit for the majority of the snaps this season, nobody in the country had been better at avoiding them.

But with Jackson at home for the weekend and suspended the previous week against Memphis, the Vols have suddenly looked mortal defensively and have struggled at times to get off the field.

"Well, sure it is (frustrating)," Kiffin said. "You have three players that from a football standpoint were playing for us. Obviously one of them is a great player on defense, and going into the last two games we had given up the least explosion plays (20 yards or more) in the country. Well, there's a reason for that.

"We play Eric (Berry) down and play him back there, so anytime a play breaks he's the last line of defense. He hurts us from that standpoint. The other two were playing more and playing on special teams, so that hurts our depth there. That part is very frustrating."

There's also no definitive timeline for when that frustration might end.

Kiffin acknowledged speaking with all three players in some form since the incident occurred, but he obviously needs to hear more than their side of the story before making a decision he can officially classify.

"(There's) nothing different than before," Kiffin said. "We don't have all the information. Obviously if it comes out that what we hear happened did happen, it's something that we will take very seriously.

"But they're not in any of our activities, obviously they didn't go to the game with us, nor have they been in our facility or any of our meetings.

"We've got to make sure we have all the accurate information and know exactly what happened before we make any rash decisions."

At least temporarily the Vols appear to have made one. It just doesn't have a name.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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