When Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall was cited for a small amount of marijuana back on July 11, Gus Malzahn knew that he was going to have to disciple his quarterback somehow. Tiger fans knew it was coming; they didn’t know what the disciple was going to be.

Keeping Marshall at home for SEC Media Days might have seemed like disciplinary action in Malzahn’s eyes. In all likelihood, though, most players, including Marshall, would rather not be there. So Marshall got bailed out of going. He, of course, would have preferred another reason for him not being there though.

So, it is almost 50 days after Marshall’s citation and we still really don’t know what Malzahn’s plan is. If it is a form of gamesmanship to not communicate how much and when Marshall will play, then so be it. As Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema said Wednesday, the Hogs have two defensive game plans for Marshall and Auburn starter Jeremy Johnson. They’ll just roll with it as the game moves along.

Bielema made a clear point to one particular reporter on Wednesday’s SEC coaches’ teleconference that he wasn’t saying he would have handled the Nick Marshall situation differently when he said the following on Monday:

I am excited about……the consistency that we’ve (on our depth chart) really the last 10 days of preparation. We know who is lining up, we don’t have any suspensions, we don’t have anything hanging over us in a cloud of doubt. We’ve just got our guys lined up playing good football, which we like.

“No, (I wasn’t saying that) at all. You are reading too much rhetoric,” Bielama said. “Every coach has a policy in place that their university uses. For us, we have a certain policy in place if certain things pop up. I like dealing in the black and white. Decisions have got to be made. They are kind of made for you. I think that is the relationship I have with (Arkansas athletic director) Jeff Long and where I have been at previously. 

“As far as how Gus handles his team, he’s obviously done a great job of it to win an SEC title and put himself in the national championship game and his team speaks volumes about what that coaching staff is capable of doing and how capable they are.”

The ball is in Malzahn’s court now to make the right decision. Marshall’s needs to be accountable for his actions and not just given a slap on the wrist.