Pitt Panthers defensive end Jabaal Sheard was has bene suspended indefinitely after being arrested early Sunday morning for throwing another man through a glass window of an art gallery on Pittsburgh's South Side.
Sheard's suspension is technically indefinitely, but that could mean a lot of different things. The preliminary hearing in the case is July 28th, and until the suspension is lifted, Sheard cannot even participate in any team activities.
Sheard is the Panthers starting left defensive end, and plays opposite Greg Romeus, who is a possible 1st round draft pick next year. It will hurt the entire defense if Sheard misses any time, as the Panthers rely heavily on their pass rush for their defense to be successful. If you had to pick a weakness of Pitt's defense, it is the secondary, and without Sheard in the lineup, you are missing a vital part of the pass rush, and allowing opposing quarterbacks to have time to pick apart the Panthers secondary. This also will probably bring more double teams to Romeus' side of the ball for any game(s) that Sheard misses.
Unfortunately, even missing 1 game is a big deal, as the Panthers actually schedule real teams on their non-conference schedule - something Penn State knows nothing about - and open the season at Utah. The 2nd game of the season is against D-1AA New Hampshire, and Game 3 is against Miami. So, seems easy enough to me. Continue to state that we are looking into this issue, and doing our due diligence on that matter until after Sheard plays in Week 1 at Utah, then suspend him for the New Hampshire game, and then bring him back to play Miami.
