Florida issues statement on Treon Harris, Jalen Tabor: "Bowl status hasn't changed"

Late Friday afternoon, Florida released a statement on the citation of Treon Harris for a Tuesday incident in which he was stopped after speeding on campus and discovered to be driving without a valid license, in a car that was not his — or belonging to fellow Gators Jalen Tabor and J.C. Jackson, both passengers for the stop — and with two small bags of marijuana on board.

It is succinct.

"We are aware of the incident and are dealing with it internally and their bowl status hasn’t changed."

Translation: No one's getting suspended.

The players whose status could have changed are Harris and Tabor, who have each become significant contributors for the Gators this fall; Jackson, who is redshirting, wouldn't have played anyway.

Both Harris, the named party in a sexual battery complaint filed and withdrawn in October, and Tabor, who was cited for marijuana possession in May, have had encounters with the law before in Gainesville; personally, I wouldn't have minded a non-internal punishment, like a suspension for part of all of Florida's bowl game, for a second strike for both of them.

But with the only charge against any of the players being one against Harris that might get dropped if and when he gets a license, I don't know that there was all that much reason, besides recidivism and dumbness, for a significant suspension. And, well, if Harris didn't do actually do anything "wrong" in regards to that sexual battery complaint, and Tabor didn't do anything "wrong" now, what recidivism is there, really?

So what this boils down to is whether a suspension or other public punishment conveys the message of "Don't do dumb things" better than an internal one does.

And because we have to evaluate that based on future actions, we won't know the answer for a while.