Air Force Academy – Air Force offensive line coach Pete Hurt has been placed on paid suspension for “inappropriate striking of a player” during a practice last week, athletic director Hans Mueh announced Wednesday.
The incident occurred Aug. 9 during the Falcons’ morning practice, and Mueh said it was captured on film. Teams routinely tape every practice.
AFA head coach Fisher DeBerry was at the practice, but would not divulge the name of the player or the severity of the altercation.
“I’m not sure I saw the whole thing. I saw it happen, but not all of it,” DeBerry said at a late-afternoon media briefing. “I don’t know if it was a punch or a push.”
Mueh said the player was not knocked to the ground. Air Force would not make any players available to comment on the situation.
Mueh, who was out of town last week, said he first heard “rumors floating around the department” about the incident when he returned on Monday. He was out of town Tuesday morning. DeBerry went to Mueh on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the incident, and the suspension was decided then.
“Officially I do the suspending, but Coach is the boss and he suspended Pete,” Mueh said.
Hurt, who joined DeBerry’s staff in February 2005, will remain on suspension until an internal investigation is complete. Until then, he is not allowed around the Falcons’ football facility.
“It’s a serious enough incident that we need to do it seriously and correctly,” Mueh said of the investigation.
DeBerry said it was an “isolated incident where Coach Hurt hit a player, trying to impress something upon him. It was very uncharacteristic of this coach.
“He loves his kids, and his kids love him. He’s a demanding coach and exacting coach, but his players love him.”
Hurt, 49, was fired from Division I-AA Samford in Birmingham, Ala., in October 2001 after the team started 1-4 after going 4-6 in 2000. He spent 7 1/2 seasons at Samford, where he went 42-39-1. After that, he was head coach and athletic director of Clinton (Ala.) High School before joining the Falcons. He graduated from Clinton High School in 1974.
Hurt has been an assistant coach at Rice, Lamar, Baylor, Southeast Missouri State and North Texas.
Fullbacks coach Paul Hamilton will take over the Falcons’ offensive line coaching duties, and offensive coordinator Chuck Petersen will coach the fullbacks.
“It doesn’t hurt us, particular at this time. It’s only the eighth practice, but of course we hope that this doesn’t stretch on,” DeBerry said. “As long as I have been head football coach, we treat our players with the utmost respect.”
DeBerry was publicly reprimanded last October for what academy officials called “seriously inappropriate” remarks he made a day earlier about black athletes.
