YET AGAIN, FOOTBALL OFFSEASON = CRIME SEASON

Year-in and year-out, football players manage to find trouble with the justice system during the offseason. Doesn’t matter which school, eventually somebody does something less than brilliant and ends up on the police blotter.

Most are misdemeanors, some are rather trivial, but the consistency probably only mirrors the trouble other college kids their age manage to find. Problem is when Jim in room 18 in Ashby Hall gets busted for a bag of pot, nobody cares (save Jim, Jim’s mom and Jim’s dad.)

Of course, it begs the age old question “What were you thinking?” And the all-too consistent answer “I wasn’t.”

Enter the Wolfpack.

According to the Raleigh News & Observer, four N.C. State football players and a former Wolfpack women's volleyball player face misdemeanor charges after police recovered marijuana and drug paraphernalia during a search of an off-campus apartment early Saturday.

Three football players - defensive tackles Markus Kuhn (middle), 23, and J.R. Sweezy (scheduled to start, but suspended after a misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor larceny after a March 18 altercation with a shuttle bus driver), 21, (below) and offensive tackle Jake Vermiglio (possible All ACC in 2010), 22 - were charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, simple possession of marijuana and maintaining a dwelling for the purpose of using a controlled substance.

Allison Davis, 22, who was a senior on the N.C. State volleyball team this past fall, faces the same three charges as Kuhn, Sweezy and Vermiglio.

A fourth N.C. State football player, tight end George Bryan (All Conference, 40 passes for 422 yards and six touchdowns), 20, (top photo) faces a single charge of maintaining a dwelling for the purpose of using a controlled substance. All of the charges are misdemeanors.

Nice mess.

N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien commented on the charges in a brief statement released by a school spokeswoman.

"I have been made aware of the situation," O'Brien said, "and appropriate action will be taken."

How does this happen? Let’s see – LIKE IT ALWAYS DOES!

An off-duty police officer working a security shift at the College Inn apartment strolls down the hall and is bowled over by the strong smell of mary jane…Hmmm, he thinks: “Should I bust these kids or let it slide?”

Evidently, he wasn’t a Wolfpack fan…

Not helping – three bags of pot, a blunt stuffed with the stuff, two homemade bongs and pictures on somebody’s Blackberry of pot plants…

Then to make matters worse (Note here, dudes: Avoid situations that involve search warrants), the published list of items taken from the apartment also included a box of ephedrine sulfate injection capsules. Ephedrine is on the NCAA's banned substances list.

Jeez.