Mansel Simmons hospitalized after alleged fight with Idaho football players

WSU wide receiver Mansel Simmons was hospitalized on Sunday after an altercation in which an Idaho football player allegedly assaulted him, according to Cougfan.com's Howie Stalwick.

Simmons

There has been no comment from WSU, as per its policy to not talk about any potential injuries relating to football players, so it is unknown whether he remains hospitalized.

According to the story, Simmons was with a group of WSU football players who were at a party in Pullman that also was attended by some Idaho football players. At some point, both sets of teammates were asked to leave because they were arguing, and at some point that argument escalated to a fight outside.

Simmons was taken to Pullman Regional Hospital before being transported to Spokane with a skull fracture and concussion, according to Pullman Police Commander Chris Tennant. At some point along the way, the car of the girlfriend of one of the Idaho players was vandalized. How vandalized?

The car had to be towed after "a door was basically ripped off its hinges," mirrors were torn off and the body of the car was dented, Tennant said.

Tennant said they have a good idea who committed the assault, but it appears no arrests have been made. It's also unclear if there are any leads on the vandalism, which circumstantially would point directly to the WSU contingent.

Simmons does not appear to be in any kind of grave danger (although it's tough to be sure since nobody is talking but Tennant), so with the caveat that this sucks for Simmons and our thoughts are with him, I suppose it's not too bad of form to speculate as to what this means for the WSU football team.

Simmons, a redshirt sophomore, came to WSU as a tight end prospect under Paul Wulff, but he was switched to outside receiver under Leach. The spring roster lists him at 6-4 and 226 pounds, and he was third on the spring depth chart at "Z" behind Gabe Marks and Isiah Myers. Given what we know about Leach's propensity to liberally rotate his receivers -- 12 different receivers caught at least one pass in 2012 -- Simmons almost certainly would have been in line for some playing time. One would assume that he's out for the spring and that his availability for the 2013 season is in question, given the seriousness of the injuries to the head.

An additional layer of intrigue? The proximity of the two campuses means that WSU athletes and Idaho athletes cross each others' paths often. For example, the basketball players often will play pickup games with each other out of season, and I'm sure there are more connections that I'm unaware of. While this event may well be a drunken one-off, there's no doubt in my mind that Bill Moos and Rob Spear have been on the phone with each other already to figure out how to diffuse the situation.

EDIT: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the party was in Moscow, because I am an idiot. Thanks.