UConn safety Jerome Junior breaks up a pass intended for USF wide receiver Sterling Griffin as UConn defensive back Byron Jones helps on defense during the fourth quarter as the Huskies held on for a 16-10 victory.

The UConn Huskies football team’s secondary took a hit on Thursday when it was announced that safety Jerome Junior had been suspended by the school.

Here’s the release from UConn:

STORRS, Conn. (February 16, 2012)  – University of Connecticut safety Jerome Junior (Baltimore, Md.) has been suspended from the team for a violation of team rules. He is no longer enrolled at the University and will not be for the fall 2012 semester as well. Junior was to be a redshirt senior this fall. He had 60 tackles in 2011, which was fourth on the team. The University will have no further comment on this matter.

According to Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant, Junior was not suspended for anything criminal but rather something had been stirring over a while. UConn head coach Paul Pasqualoni wouldn’t get into specifics with DC but passed along this statement:

“The message is that we have program policies, we have a very, very high level of expectation of our players in many areas and one of those areas is behavior — whether it be on campus, off campus, in the meeting room, on the practice field, at the game — we’re not going to accept anything but appropriate behavior,” Pasqualoni said. “It was a violation, for me, it was a violation of what’s expected here in the football program, and we can’t accept it.”

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Photo credit: John Woike – Hartford Courant