Another one bites the dust...

[BeeDee]

Word has it that incoming freshman LB Dustin Fortson has quit the Ole Miss football team due to "personal reasons". Those personal reasons seem to be related to Coach O driving the team relentlessly in preparation for the season. You know what they say: If you can't take the heat... get outta the kitchen. Better that he quit now than into the season when we may have otherwise been counting on him.

[Cianne]

Looks like they may have to move Lamarck Armour from TE to LB.

[Cianne]

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050817/SPORTS030103/508170352/1109

OXFORD — The Ole Miss freshman football class absorbed another blow on Tuesday when linebacker Dustin Forston became the fifth rookie to leave the program.

Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron confirmed after Tuesday's practice that Forston, a highly-touted Miami, Fla., native had left the team. Orgeron said it was Forston's decision to leave.

"We tried to keep him here and keep his spirits high," Orgeron said. "We asked Forston to stay here and he decided he didn't want to do it. He's a good young man and we wish him nothing but the best."
Forston could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He was one of five linebackers in Orgeron's first signing class. Alex Forston said Tuesday his son left the team because he was disappointed with his status on the depth chart. Forston, a first-team All-State pick out of Miami's Northwestern High, was a strongside linebacker running behind sophomores Garry Pack and walk-on Dontae Reed.

"I spoke with (Dustin) and I told him I was disappointed with him leaving," Alex Forston said when reached at his Miami home. "This wasn't about him getting in trouble or anything. The only reason he gave me was that he said he was told one thing and that a guy who had walked on was playing more. I told him that happens sometimes, especially early in the season, and that he should stick with it."

Forston, a 6-foot, 215-pound defender, is the fourth Ole Miss player to part ways with the team since practiced started on Aug. 6. He is the eighth member of Orgeron's February signing class to have either been dismissed for disciplinary reasons, quit or failed to meet NCAA academic requirements to enroll at Ole Miss.

Orgeron said Tuesday that some of the attrition was due to players struggling to adjust to higher demands and expectations at the college level. He also said he was forced to take some recruiting gambles on a few players because he only had about a month to recruit after getting hired on Dec. 15.

"During the evaluation process, we saw a few things we liked on film and it was in the last week (before signing day) that we got some of these guys," Orgeron said. "After you spend about a year with them (recruiting), the evaluation process will be more exact. I think that's pretty obvious."


So sad. He actually had to work his way to the top of the depth chart.

[BeeDee]

That is the definition of a quitter. Good frickin' riddance.

[supergenius]

Were you guys counting on this kid?

[BeeDee]

Were you guys counting on this kid?

Nope. He's an incoming freshman LB. He thought he was gonna get some guaranteed playing time and he didn't feel like proving himself. Coach O's all about competition. No one - and I mean NO ONE is guaranteed a position or playing time on his team. Everyone is expected to compete for their position, regardless of what you've done in the past. Fortson didn't see it that way and got hacked off that a walk-on came in and showed him up in practice and was getting more playing time (at 2nd or 3rd string) than he did, so he threw in the towel and went home to mama. Like I said, good riddance to bad rubbish.

[Cianne]

I'm glad we have Dontae Reed. That guy is pushing the entire LB corps to be better because nobody wants to be beaten by a walk-on.

[Rebeldrummer]

yea he's pushing Mr Football and last year freshman all american ....