Troubled Louisville, former Auburn RB Dyer ineligible, out of Belk Bowl

Published Dec. 23, 2014 10:58 p.m. ET

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Louisville running back Michael Dyer will miss the Belk Bowl after being ruled academically ineligible, the school announced Tuesday. The Cardinals face Georgia in the Dec. 30 game in Charlotte, N.C.

The senior was Louisville's second-leading rusher with 481 yards and five touchdowns in nine games this season, with 100-plus yards against North Carolina State and Florida State.

The news brings to an end a career which began with a meteoric rise but came off the rails almost as quickly.

In 2010, Dyer broke Bo Jackson's Auburn record for rushing yards by a freshman with 1,093 and capped the season with Offensive Player of the Game honors in the Tigers' 22-19 victory in the BCS Championship Game. He had another 1,242 yards as a sophomore, but was suspended indefinitely before the Chick-fil-A Bowl for a violation of team rules. He reportedly failed drug tests and would later testify a gun he owned was used in a robbery by Auburn teammates, though he never took part in the robbery. He transferred to Arkansas State but was dismissed in July 2012 before ever playing a game after a traffic stop in which police reportedly found a gun and marijuana in his car.

The No. 20 Cardinals will depart for Charlotte on Wednesday afternoon. The Belk is among four bowls outside the major ones to feature two ranked programs; Georgia is ranked No. 13.

Louisville is playing in a fifth consecutive bowl game, with the only loss in that span coming against N.C. State in the 2011 Belk Bowl. Winning a third straight will be no easy task against the Bulldogs (9-3), who averaged an SEC-best 41.7 points.

Georgia was 12th in the FBS with an average of 255.0 rushing yards, though it will have to contend with a Louisville team that gave up 93.7 per game on the ground — third best in the country.

The Cardinals' quarterback situation, meanwhile, is also on unsure footing.

Freshman Reggie Bonnafon, who stepped in when Will Gardner tore an ACL, was knocked out of the season finale against Kentucky with a bruised knee. Third-stringer Kyle Bolin passed for 381 yards and three touchdowns to rally the Cards to a 44-40 victory.

Both Bonnafon and Bolin may see time against Georgia and can rely on senior wide receiver DaVonte Parker, who missed the first seven games with a foot injury but seems to have hit his stride after catching 35 passes for a team-leading 735 yards and five TDs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.