By: Doug Ireland/Sports Information Director
NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State football coach Bradley Dale Peveto said Monday he has reinstated former starting quarterback Paul Harris to the Demons' team, ending a suspension which began at halftime of NSU's Sept. 1 season-opening win over Delta State.
Harris, a junior, was indefinitely suspended for conduct detrimental to the team after outbursts on the sideline and in the locker room during halftime of the Delta State game. He has been excluded from all team activities since he was banished to the stands by Peveto before the third quarter began on Sept. 1.
Harris, who has started 14 games including the 2011 opener for Northwestern since the last four games of his true freshman season in 2009, will be evaluated in practice this week as the Demons (2-2 overall, 1-0 in the Southland Conference) play rival McNeese State (No. 18 nationally, 2-1 overall, 1-0 in the SLC) Saturday evening at 6 in NSU's Turpin Stadium.
Junior college transfer Brad Henderson, who entered the Delta State game on the Demons' third offensive series in a pre-determined rotation, has sparkled since. He guided NSU back from a 17-0 halftime deficit to a win over Delta State, and has completed 69 percent of his 80 passes with only one interception and four touchdowns this month. He remains the Demons' starting quarterback.
“Paul made a big mistake and has paid a big price. Paul has missed a third of our season. He has lost his starting job. He had a list of conditions and requirements to meet to have the opportunity to return to our team, and he has done what we asked,” said Peveto.
“He returns under what we call a football contract with conditions and requirements. He does not come back with a clean slate, he comes back with two strikes, that's how we judge it. He accepts that.”
The 18-member Demon Deacons leadership council, players from each position group elected by team vote, met with Harris Sunday night to consider his status. Peveto accepted their recommendation to reinstate Harris.
“I put the team first, and Paul second, in this situation. Our Demon Deacons were very much a part of reaching this decision, working with me. Their input was decisive after they met with him,” said Peveto. “His final requirement to coming back was to apologize to our team and everyone involved, and that is happening today.”
Peveto is optimistic that the 20-year-old Baton Rouge-Tara product would not only comply with terms to remain in good standing, but that he would grow from the experience.
“I'm in the young people business. I asked myself in this decision, how would I want my little boy, Jacob Peveto, to be treated. I would hope that if he had measured up, he would get a second chance. Paul has done everything we've asked since being suspended. He earned the discipline, and he has earned this opportunity to rejoin our team.
“If it weren't for second chances, and people who gave me tough love, I wouldn't have gotten to this point in my life, as a young man and as a grown man. I think this can be a win-win, for our team and for Paul. From the day after it happened, I didn't want to cast him aside without a chance for redemption,” said Peveto.
“I gave him the option to wait until next spring and come back, under the same conditions, and he said he wanted to be part of this team, not next year's. Paul has been very, very remorseful, and he comes back as very much a team player, and I am very proud of him for that.”
The Demons reviewed game tape of their 34-0 win at Nicholls Saturday, then took the field at Turpin Stadium Monday night for their first practice preparing for McNeese.
