Appalachian's Tharrington ineligible for '08 season

By: Tommy Bowman | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: June 24, 2008

Appalachian State will have some shoes to fill at defensive end next season in the defense of its national championship.
Gary Tharrington, who started 27 games in two seasons for the Mountaineers, is academically ineligible for next season along with backup end Tim Washington, who has left the team.
Coach Jerry Moore said today that Tharrington has been declared academically ineligible for the 2008 season.
"I hope that Gary learns from this and becomes a better man because of it," Moore said. "I personally think that he will. He has been a great contributor to our program and can still be a great contributor for us if he gets things in order in the classroom and regains his eligibility."
Tharrington, who redshirted as a freshman and would have been a junior eligibility-wise, had 84 tackles and five sacks last season for the Mountaineers, who won the NCAA Division I championship-division title for the third time.
Tharrington, 6-1, 275, from Spring Hope, led the team with seven quarterback hurries and 18 tackles for loss and was an All-Southern Conference selection.
Washington, 6-3, 265, from Sugar Land, Texas, played in 11 games last season as a junior after transferring from LSU. Washington had 37 tackles, including 10 for loss, and tied with Tony Robertson for the team lead in sacks with 5.5.
Both Tharrington and Washington played a few games at tackle last season.
Robertson will be a returning starter at one defensive end position next season. Quavian Lewis, a transfer from Vanderbilt, or Jabari Fletcher, a freshman last season who played in 13 games, could start at the other end.