Bulldogs suspend two players for violating team rules

Georgia football players Bruce Figgins and Justin Houston have been suspended for violating team rules, coach Mark Richt announced Saturday.

Figgins, a junior tight end, was suspended for the first six games of the 2009 season and Houston, a redshirt sophomore defensive end, for the first two games.

A third player, junior wide receiver Tony Wilson, also violated team rules, Richt announced, but he was not suspended because he is in the process of being medically disqualified from competition because of a slow recovery from a severe ankle injury suffered in spring 2008.

Richt did not disclose the rules violated.

“I’m very disappointed in the poor judgment of these players,” Richt said in a prepared statement. “They’ll have to pay an appropriate price, and I’m confident they will learn an important lesson from their mistake.”

Richt had no further comment Saturday, Georgia spokesman Claude Felton said.

Figgins, who started two of 13 games last season, missed spring practice while rehabbing from January shoulder surgery.

Houston started only one game last season but seemed to get a jump on a possible 2009 starting job in spring practice, when he was one of only two scholarship defensive ends healthy.

Wilson caught one pass last season, missing most of the season because of the ankle injury that continued to affect him this spring.