EUGENE — Suspended Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount met with a group of at-risk teenagers and spoke about punching a Boise State player, telling them he would not let it define him as a person.

Blount has not been allowed to speak to the media since he was suspended for punching defensive end Byron Hout in the aftermath of Oregon’s season-opening loss to the Broncos on Sept. 3.

But the senior and several other players spoke Thursday at the John Serbu Youth Campus, the Register-Guard reported.

Blount told the teenagers about his upbringing in Florida, his brother’s brushes with the law and his own struggles academically.

“I took the long road here,” Blount said. “I didn’t come straight out of high school. My grades was not enough to go Division I, so I had to go to a junior college in Mississippi. I did what I had to do in Mississippi, I got here last year, did what I had to do to get in the position I was in at the beginning of this season … and I screwed that up.

“Now I have to work my way back up to get where I need to be and get to participate in the things I want to do, and be a part of this football team.”

Blount has been allowed to remain on scholarship and practice with the team. He said that talking to the teens was not among the conditions for reinstatement that Kelly had set down.

— From wire reports