Minnesota State players refuse to practice

MANKATO, Minn. – Football players at Minnesota State, Mankato, refused to practice for their former head coach on Wednesday, greeting his reinstatement by an arbitrator by demanding that the interim coach keep the job.

Todd Hoffner returned to campus for the first time since the arbitrator ruled he was fired unfairly last year in the wake of a child porn investigation that ultimately cleared him.

Mavericks players came out for spring practice Wednesday afternoon but were not in uniform, The Free Press of Mankato reported. They read a statement saying they were unanimous in wanting Aaron Keen to remain as head coach.

“We’ve all become outstanding community members, students and athletes in the last year and a half since the removal of Todd Hoffner,” said the statement, which junior safety Sam Thompson read aloud.

Keen gave a brief statement, saying the football program was bound by the ruling and that Hoffner is the head coach.

Athletic director Kevin Buisman said a meeting was scheduled for today between the players, Hoffner, Keen and the rest of the coaching staff.

Hoffner was arrested in 2012 over images of his children on a school-issued cellphone. Though he was eventually cleared by a judge who described the images as innocent pictures of children acting playful after a bath, the school subsequently suspended, reassigned and fired him for reasons that weren’t made public at the time. The arbitrator’s report said Hoffner was accused of viewing porn on his work computer, a charge that wasn’t proven.

His supporters said the school overreacted in the wake of the sex abuse scandal at Penn State, noting his arrest came just months after retired Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted of child sex abuse.