Cleveland charged … so long Jevon
Former Iowa wide receiver James Cleveland was formally charged with two counts of unlawful possession of prescription drugs this week, that according to Johnson County Court records. He’ll be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. April 24. He was not charged with violation of Iowa’s tax-stamp law, which is a felony. The drug possession charges are misdemeanors.
Word on Cleveland, who pleaded not guilty March 5, is he’ll be seeking a transfer to Sam Houston State, a Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA) school in his native Texas. Assuming he avoids jail time on the drug charges, I imagine Cleveland will have a solid career at that level — if he can stay out of trouble. He was well on his way to being a productive receiver in the Big Ten, so I wouldn’t be shocked if we hear from him in the future.
With the announcement that Jevon Pugh is leaving Iowa, that makes 18 players who have left the program for one reason or another since the beginning last season. A lot of outlets are making little of Pugh’s departure, saying he probably wouldn’t have factored into the equation in the backfield, that the starting job was going to be shared by juco transfers Nate Guillory and Shonn Greene, who ran for 378 yards at Iowa in 2005-06 before losing his way in the classroom. But I think Pugh would have had a say in it. He had all the physical tools, and I keep going back to what Albert Young said about him after Pugh scored that winning touchdown against Michigan State: “I’ll tell you, he’s a horse,” Young said. “He’s got great speed, and he’s strong as an ox.”
Young isn’t a guy who would go around throwing undue praise on a true freshman, so that tells me Pugh had displayed considerable skill in practice. Why else would the coaching staff not have redshirted him last season? No, until I see the undersized Guillory take the beating a back does in the Big Ten and until I see Greene, who hasn’t yet been accepted back into school at Iowa, on the roster, I’m going to assume the Hawkeyes lost their best back when Pugh decided to take an extended spring break back home in Naples, Fla. And I fully expect incoming freshmen Jeff Brinson and Jewel Hampton to challenge Guillory and Greene come fall. And don’t totally rule out Paki O’Meara who has looked decent running the ball in the few times I’ve seen him. This is going to be a by-committee deal.
