Tennessee freshman CB Deion Bonner suspended indefinitely

The suspension of cornerback Deion Bonner is more bad news for coach Derek Dooley. (US Presswire)

Tennessee freshman CB Deion Bonner has been suspended indefinitely for an undisclosed violation of team rules, a team spokesman confirmed to CBSSports.com on Thursday evening.

Bonner has only appeared in nine games for the Vols this season, playing mostly on special teams, but he is perhaps better known for being arrested and charged in April of 2011 in connection with the theft of iPods and iPhones from the lockers of Georgia football players during an open-house event at the school, according to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Georgia then stopped its pursuit of Bonner, a four-star prospect, according to Rivals.com. Tennessee coach Derek Dooley recruited and signed the Columbus, Ga., native and defended his decision at a press conference on signing day of this year.

"We did a lot of diligence on the situation,” Dooley said Feb. 1. "Deion was incredibly truthful, incredibly remorseful and I don't know of a high school player who had to pay the piper more for what they did than what he did. He had an absolute public disparagement, had to sit out five games of his high school career and everybody stopped recruiting him."

More recently, Bonner was listed as a suspect in an on-campus theft on Oct. 31, but a UT spokesman recently told the Knoxville News-Sentinel that the case had been dropped to inactive status with no charges filed.

"There's no change in his status as of now," Dooley said Nov. 5 when asked about that incident. "The only thing I have is the stuff that has been presented to me by him and anything else is a no issue. Unless, I get anything else."

It's unclear if Thursday's announced suspension is related to the Oct. 31 incident, but any trouble from Bonner is another bad sign for Dooley, who well might only have two games left as the head coach of the Vols.

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