If you missed the news from earlier this week, Missouri dismissed redshirt freshman Maurice Massey following the receiver’s weekend arrest.

Massey was arrested in Columbia on fourth-degree assault, third-degree domestic assault and first-degree property damage charges. Following that news, Mizzou issued the following statement on Monday morning:

“Maurice Massey has been dismissed from the Mizzou Football program for a violation of team rules. Since electing to opt-out of the 2020 football season due to COVID-19 last month, he has not been involved in any of our practices or team activities.”

On Tuesday, during his first media availability of the week, Eli Drinkwitz was asked about his policy regarding dismissals and the thought process of removing Massey from the program.

“Maurice Massey opted out of the football season. I think an unintended consequence of the opt-outs, I have not had contact with Maurice since he opted out. He hasn’t been in our building. He’s only had access to tutoring and trying to stay in charge of his academics,” Drinkwitz shared. “Part of the condition of opt-out, you still have to maintain good standing with the university and your personal life.

“Obviously, disappointing position for him to be in. Just felt like it was in the best interest of our program to move on, based on the violation of the opt-out. Each situation is handled differently. There is no hard and fast rule. We really have two rules in our program, No. 1 is be on time and No. 2 is the team, the team, the team comes first. We operate under those two rules and that’s what we did. Wish him the best in whatever the situation is for him.”

Massey appeared in four games during the 2019 season for Mizzou, reserving his redshirt during his debut college season. He did not catch a pass for the Tigers during that time.

The Missouri native was a three-star recruit in the 2019 recruiting cycle out of Kirkwood High School in St. Louis.