Nadir Barnwell, Rutgers freshman cornerback, was charged by the Rutgers University Police Department early Sunday morning for drunk and careless driving, a violation of team rules. As a result of the charges, the 18-year-old Piscataway High School graduate has been suspended for Saturday's game against Temple.
"Nadir Barnwell is going to be suspended for this game this week for a violation of team rules," Rutgers coach Kyle Flood, told My Central New Jersey. "He won't be available to us."
"My plans are for it to be through this week, but it's not finalized yet. But it will be for this week."
Barnwell who started the last four games at corner for the Scarlet Knight, was considered as the top cornerback on the team for the Temple game after senior Lew Toler suffered a season-ending broken arm and redshirt freshman Ian Thomas quit the program abruptly two weeks ago.
As a result, Barnwell's absence for Saturday puts further pressure on Scarlet Knights. Rutgers (4-3 overall, 1-2 AAC) will now be reduced to four corners against the owl's game - Gareef Glashen, true freshmen Anthony Cioffi and Delon Stephenson and redshirt freshman Jevon Tyree.
Barnwell, a four-star recruit and Piscataway's all-time leader in touchdown passes as a quarterback, enrolled at Rutgers in January.
He started in the team's 49-14 Homecoming loss to Houston at High Point Solutions Stadium, Oct.27. The team allowed 400 passing yards in the embarrassing loss to the cougars and is now ranked 121st nationally out of 123 schools in pass defense, the Star Ledger reports.
