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A defensive lineman for the Iowa St. Cyclones will be missing from the football team’s season opener at MidAmerican Energy Field at Jack Trice Stadium versus South Dakota State University on Saturday.
The Iowa State Athletics Department announced this morning that, senior defensive-tackle Kamilo Tongamoa, would face a one-game suspension.
The suspension comes just days after the athletics department at Iowa State announced the indefinite suspensions of four freshmen, who are also on the football team.
Spokesmen for the athletics department, Mike Green, told the Des Moines Register earlier today that the Tongamoa suspension relates to an offseason arrest.
Tongamoa was arrested in January on four separate charges of OWI-1st offense, striking an unattended vehicle, failure to have a valid license or permit while operating a motor vehicle, and failure to prove security against liability.
Tongamoa would later face a suspension for being in violation of the Student-Athlete Code of Conduct policy.
It’s unclear at this time if the suspension imposed in January included the one-game suspension at the start of the 2018 season.
As of this morning, Tongamoa was not listed on the depth chart, but he will likely return as the backup DT for the Iowa game.
Tongamoa is a 2017 JUCO transfer to Iowa State from Merced Community College (Merced, CA). The 6-foot-5 junior defensive lineman was ranked as the No.4 best overall defensive tackle by 247Sports, and appeared in only four games for the Cyclones in 2017, recording just one tackle.