Yeatman yanked | by Pat

Caught up in the good news of Signing Day was the disappointing news of tight end Will Yeatman's recent arrest.

St. Joseph County prosecutors charged Yeatman with a Class A misdemeanor of criminal recklessness and a Class C misdemeanor of operating a vehicle with a blood-alcohol level above .08.

According to the charges, the criminal recklessness misdemeanor stems from Yeatman "driving a car on a pedestrian sidewalk on the campus of Notre Dame." According to the probable-cause affidavit, Yeatman had a blood-alcohol level of .11 at the time of his arrest.

Yeatman has been suspended by ND from both lacrosse and football for the spring semester, which is a big blow to the lacrosse team. Yeatman was a potential All-American this season as a sophomore. The immediate impact to the football team is a bit more muted. Yeatman is in line to take over the #1 TE duties from John Carlson, but his lacrosse responsibilities would have limited his appearance at spring practice anyway. Last year he missed half of the spring practices.

In the meantime, ND is left with only one scholarship tight end for spring practice. Mike Ragone is going to get plenty of reps but ND will have to dip into the walk-on ranks when practicing two tight end sets. That is, unless someone like Luke Schmidt gets cross-trained at TE in a H-back type of role.

Charlie Weis did not say if he expected Yeatman to be back in time for the season in the fall. When Rashon Powers-Neal was pulled over for a DUI in the fall of 2005, he was suspended from the team for the entire semester. If Yeatman's punishment is similar, then he will likely be back in time for the 2008 season.