Saturday, September 15, 2007

After two-game suspension, DSU Rouse returns to lead defense


By KRISTIAN POPE, The News Journal

Senior apologizes, prepares to face I-A Kent State

DOVER -- It may have been a private affair, but Kelly Rouse made an important public gesture at the start of this week.

He stood up and apologized to his football team.

Rouse, a senior defensive lineman at Delaware State, said he let his teammates and coaches down while serving a two-game suspension for violating school policy. Rouse was told by the coaching staff to decline from publicly saying what he did to get pulled from the season's first two games. However, he said the issue wasn't academics.

"For me, as a senior, not to be out there, I disappointed myself but mostly I disappointed my team and coaches and my family," Rouse said. "I wanted to make an apology to the alumni and students and my family. All I want to do now is make a tackle."

After missing DSU's victories over Coastal Carolina and Florida A&M, Rouse returned to practice this week heading into perhaps the program's biggest game of the season.

The Hornets will play against their first NCAA Division I-A opponent since 1987 when they visit Kent State of the Mid-American Conference today at 4 p.m.

Rouse is considered a leader for the Hornets defense.

"When I was on the sidelines for the first two games, I felt like I was killing my team," Rouse said. "You just get that feeling. When I saw these guys playing hard in the fourth quarter and I couldn't get in there, it felt like they were saying, 'You're killing us.' "

Rouse had been alerted before the season opener that he'd broken a new school rule. But he said he wasn't told that new athletic director Rick Costello had suspended him until a day before the Sept. 1 game.

"I don't know if they wanted to make an example of me," Rouse said. "When one guy does it, you have to do something. But they're more strict now."

If DSU has any chance to beat Kent State, coach Al Lavan, who was comfortable with suspending Rouse for two games, said it could happen only with Rouse, arguably his best defensive player, on the field.

Last season, Rouse, from Newark, N.J., made 47 tackles and 3.5 sacks in nine games.

The Golden Flashes (1-1) run a spread offense, but they have the 15th-best rushing offense in Division I-A, averaging 263 yards per game.

"We can't afford to lose his type of speed on the field," Lavan said. "But we have procedures and policies that have to be adhered to. That didn't happen with Kelly."

Rouse, who moved from linebacker to the defensive line in the spring under new defensive coordinator Ray Petty, will line up on the left side against Kent State. Rouse said he believes this game is his chance to prove himself as a player who can compete at the highest level of college football.

Though the Golden Flashes are a mid-major school, Rouse and his DSU teammates are viewing this as a rare opportunity for a I-AA program.

"They haven't seen me play at all," Rouse said. "They have no idea if I'm even coming. What I want to do is create an unfamiliar atmosphere around their quarterback [Julian Edelman]. I'm not the kind of player looking for stats, but I have some catching up to do."

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