LSU RB John Emery to miss opening 2 games to suspension: Sources

BATON ROUGE, La. LSU running back John Emery has been suspended for LSUs first two games of the season against Florida State and Southern, multiple sources told The Athletic, but Emery is still attempting to appeal the suspension and reduce it.

BATON ROUGE, La. —  LSU running back John Emery has been suspended for LSU’s first two games of the season against Florida State and Southern, multiple sources told The Athletic, but Emery is still attempting to appeal the suspension and reduce it.

The suspension is related to academic issues that led to Emery missing the entire 2021 season, and sources maintained that Emery has been in good standing since new LSU coach Brian Kelly took over. Kelly has publicly praised Emery’s progress and on Saturday said that he expected Emery to be a part of what the team does this season.

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LSU junior cornerback Raydarious Jones has also been suspended for the entire 2022 season due to academic issues, sources told The Athletic. Jones is a fourth-year corner who appeared in nine games last season but was not expected to be in the rotation this season.

Emery came to LSU as a five-star prospect from Destrehan, La., who many expected to immediately compete to start in 2019. Instead, he struggled to adapt to SEC football and had eyesight issues that led to him undergoing LASIK surgery. After a disappointing sophomore season, a breakout was expected in his junior season. Instead, he was suspended in Aug. 2021 for the fall semester.

This spring and summer, Kelly and LSU staffers have raved about Emery. All indications have been he’d be LSU’s No. 1 running back.

“I’m really proud of the progress he’s made since my short time here in making that happen,” Kelly said in spring. “And I think we’re gonna see him play for us this fall because of that. And that’s all on him, right? He had to make that decision, and good for him.”

But lingering issues from last fall’s suspension led the NCAA to keep Emery out two more games. Emery and LSU are attempting to argue, according to sources, that Emery meeting academic standards since he’s been surrounded by new coaching and support staffs should mitigate the punishment, and they expect to know more in the next week.

Emery’s case for appeal in 2021 was rooted in the extreme hardship he faced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. He fell behind in classes as his stepfather, Webster Garrison, spent much of 2020 hospitalized on a ventilator due to complications from COVID-19. Garrison suffered strokes and kidney failure, and two years later Garrison is still struggling to regain his health. Emery’s grandmother also died in 2020, and Emery had COVID-19 twice that year.

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The Emery family hired prominent lawyer Don Jackson to fight the suspension last fall, with Jackson telling The Athletic at the time:

“It’s damn near immoral to punish a young man who is going through the difficulties he is going through over the past 18 months,” Jackson said, “and now he has come out on the other side and he’s able to get some stability back. And he’s being punished. In my mind that’s damn near immoral.”

Jackson was confident in August and September that Emery would win the appeal by filing what he called “new information.” Instead, multiple appeals were denied.

If Emery’s 2022 suspension holds, he is still expected to be a key piece once he returns. Kelly said he couldn’t comment specifically on the situation when asked about it on Saturday.

In Emery’s absence, LSU will likely turn to Penn State transfer Noah Cain and explosive sophomore Armoni Goodwin, plus junior Josh Williams. Cain has taken first-team reps often the past two weeks as LSU prepared for Florida State without Emery. In three years at Penn State, Cain rushed for 790 yards and 12 touchdowns.

(Photo: Derick E. Hingle / USA Today)

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