Former football players arrested for assault

Three former football players — Marcus Reynolds Jr., Matthew Rowe and Giacomo Gonzalez —allegedly charged into a student’s room in Legacy Hall, assaulting him and leaving him badly wounded on March 3.

Reynolds Jr. was arrested under the charge of burglary of habitation on the date of the crime; however, Rowe and Gonzalez were arrested on March 22.

GROUP ASSAULT: Two more men have been arrested in connection with an alleged assault of an MSU student in his dorm.

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Suzanne Shipley, university president, said, “I think [Bill Maskill] is tremendously disappointed. It is one football player being attacked by another football player that got other players to go with him.”

With these arrests made just days before Mustangs Rally, one of MSU’s biggest recruitment events, Shipley said this has a potential negative impact on recruitment, but she is hopeful that it won’t.

“Most of the time, we get it right and every now and then we get it wrong. Students will be able to choose us on the basis of the many, many things we do right, an intent to always do right and a willingness to do right,” Shipley said.

Kyle Williams, director of athletics, said staff in the athletics department our disappointed with the students actions.

“[Our response is] disappointment, certainly,” Williams said. “We certainly don’t condone this type of behavior and we are going to react to this situation and take care of what we need to take care of.”

According to Williams, this is not the precedent that Bill Maskill, head coach of football, has set for the team.

“This is not what coach Maskill has put together for the last 16 years and so we’re all in this together. I want students to be here for a reason,” Williams said. “I want students to have a tremendous college experience and certainly choices and decisions students make are up to them.”

Williams assured the situation is being address and will be handled accordingly.

“This situation disappoints me, but we are addressing the problem and when everything comes out it will be addressed the way we run things,” Williams said.

According to head coach Bill Maskill, though players may not always get along on the field it is never acceptable to handle conflict of the field .

Maskill said, “As a team, I didn’t like that. That’s not how you respond to teammates.”

After the incident occurred, Maskill said he made the decision to kick the suspects off the team.

“This is not indicative of our team and this is not indicative of our character,” Maskill said.

The suspects have since been released from jail.