TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -Alabama coach Nick Saban said cornerback Simeon Castille would be punished “internally” for his early morning arrest on a disorderly conduct charge, the fourth arrest in the same off-campus bar district this summer.
Saban said Tuesday he had already settled on what the punishment would be but would not say if it includes a game suspension leading up to the opener Sept. 1 against Western Carolina.
“This is not the kind of behavior that we want in the program,” Saban said in his first public comments about Castille’s arrest over the weekend. “We will correct it internally, and I am very hopeful that we will not have these kinds of situations occur in the future.”
Castille, 21, an All-Southeastern Conference player, practiced Tuesday.
The police report said he was cursing at people in an SUV stopped in the street and challenging the people inside to a fight. The report described the incident as “what appeared to be an ugly fight waiting to happen in the middle of University Blvd.” Castille was arrested Sunday at about 2 a.m. in a bar district near campus.
Traffic was backing up in the street and “at least 200 people” were watching from the sidewalk, according to the report.
The SUV pulled away when officers walked up, but Castille kept yelling and ran after the vehicle. Castille then said he was “just playing with his teammates” and not trying to start a fight, the report said.
Jeremiah Castille, Simeon’s father and a former Tide All-American, later told reporters that the arrest “wasn’t warranted.”
Saban didn’t go that far, but called Castille “one of the finest young men on our team.”
“I feel badly for Simeon and his family, but I also think that there are lessons to be learned from this,” he said.
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