August-2008

Grady pleads not guilty to misdemeanor drunken-driving charge

WYOMING, Mich. -- Michigan running back Kevin Grady pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge on Wednesday.

Grady faces up to 93 days in jail if convicted of operating while intoxicated. Jury selection will begin Aug. 14.

Wyoming police arrested Grady on July 2 and said his blood-alcohol level registered about 3½ times the state's legal limit.

The court said Grady has not retained a lawyer. He could not be reached for comment because a home phone number could not be found. Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez has said the matter will be handled internally.

A knee injury sidelined Grady all last season. The former East Grand Rapids High standout holds the state prep career records for yards rushing and touchdowns.

Vols punter Colquitt pleads guilty to drunken driving

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee punter Britton Colquitt will spend 24 hours picking up litter and lose his license for a year after he pleaded guilty Monday to drunken driving.

Colquitt, 23, was charged Feb. 17 with DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. He also received a suspended sentence of 11 months, 29 days, a $350 fine and court costs, a 24-hour detention in jail and must attend DUI school.

After Colquitt's arrest, Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer suspended the second-team All-SEC punter for the first five games of his senior season and revoked his scholarship.

Officers who stopped Colquitt said he admitted to drinking and driving as well as hitting a parked car and a tree stump, causing more than $400 in damage.

Colquitt was also suspended from the team as an incoming freshman in 2003 after a series of alcohol-related incidents.

He told The Knoxville News Sentinel he's trying to learn from his mistakes and wanted to complete his punishment as quickly as possible.

Longtime college coach Pont dies at 80

OXFORD, Ohio -- John Pont, who guided Indiana to its only Rose Bowl appearance 40 years ago and also coached at Northwestern, Yale and Miami of Ohio, died Tuesday. He was 80.

Officials at Miami said Pont died at his home in Oxford, Ohio. Pont had been fighting cancer.

Pont coached the Hoosiers from 1965 to 1972. In 1967, Indiana was 9-2 and represented the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl, where the Hoosiers lost to Southern California.

Pont spent 13 years at Miami as a player and coach. He was an assistant to Ara Parseghian and succeeded Parseghian, who left for Notre Dame, as head coach at Miami in 1956. When Pont graduated, he was the school's career rushing leader with 2,457 yards and became Miami's first player to have his number, 42, retired.

"John Pont meant an awful lot to me. He was the captain of my very first team at Miami in 1951 and was an outstanding leader," Parseghian said in a statement. "As a person, John could identify with everyone he met, from the janitor to the president."

Pont was head coach at Miami from 1956-62, Yale from 1963-64, Indiana from 1965-72 and Northwestern from 1973-77. At Northwestern. he also was athletic director from 1975-80.

He later coached at Hamilton High School in Ohio, the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati and in Japan.

Pont is survived by his wife, Sandy, three children and seven grandchildren.

West Virginia lawsuit against Rodriguez set for mediation

But West Virginia University attorney Jeff Wakefield says Judge Robert Stone's order is standard, and he thinks it's unlikely mediation will help.

Wakefield says the university remains firm in its position that Rodriguez owes $4 million under the contract in place when he resigned in December to take Michigan's head coaching job.

If mediation doesn't end the dispute, Stone will hear motions on Nov. 10.

Rodriguez says he was pressured to sign contract

In a deposition taken last month and released Tuesday, Rodriguez says board members Steve Farmer, Drew Payne and Perry Petroplus also assured him that his outstanding demands for the football program would be met when Mike Garrison became West Virginia president.

The deposition was taken for WVU's lawsuit to recover the $4 million from Rodriguez, who quit in December to coach Michigan. Rodriguez first agreed to the buyout in a December 2006 term sheet, then accepted it again by signing an amended contract on Aug. 24, 2007.

Rodriguez said he believed the board members partly because they were in influential positions: He says Farmer told him months before the official appointment that Garrison — then a 38-year-old lawyer with thin academic credentials — would get the presidency.

"So when it occurred, it added credence to my belief that, 'Hey, these guys know what's going on,' " Rodriguez testified at the April 21 proceeding in Michigan.

Those conversations occurred in August 2007, as Rodriguez's relationship with athletic director Ed Pastilong disintegrated to the point the two men barely spoke, Rodriguez testified. Likewise, then-president David Hardesty and his general counsel, Tom Dorer, didn't return phone calls from the coach's agent for "three or four months," Rodriguez said.

He said the board members also told him a signed contract would help Garrison's administration get off to a good start.

Rodriguez, who quit after seven seasons at the school, contends he was misled into signing by a variety of promises that were not kept.

WVU says Rodriguez had a sports agent, lawyer and financial adviser throughout the process and knew what he was signing. Rodriguez, however, contends he expected Garrison to keep a promise to reduce or eliminate the buyout — a pledge Garrison denies making.

The case will be heard in Monongalia County Circuit Court in Morgantown. A trial date has not been set.

Garrison and his chief of staff, Craig Walker, are among those yet to give depositions.

Rodriguez said the board members told him last summer that the governor wanted the contract signed before football season, so he met with Garrison and Walker on Aug. 24.

"And that's the time when (Garrison) said he didn't believe in buyouts, and that he would reduce it anyway, once he took office," Rodriguez testified.

At the meeting, Walker said the governor wanted the contract signed, Rodriguez said.

Manchin, he said, called the next day warning of negative publicity if the coach started the season without a signed contract.

Rodriguez said Manchin told him, "So I think you should get it signed."

Rodriguez first agreed to a damages clause in 2002, at the suggestion of agent Rick Davis. WVU would pay $2 million if it fired him, and he would pay WVU the same if he left before his contract expired.

Under questioning, Rodriguez first said the $2 million buyout was reasonable. He then said it wasn't fair that he should have to pay WVU the same amount it would pay him.

In 2006, Rodriguez hired agent Mike Brown, and that December, when Alabama made him an offer, Rodriguez reopened his contract. But a meeting with Pastilong "was discouraging because there wasn't an effort, I felt, to keep me," he said.

Two prominent boosters — Bridgeport construction company owner David Alvarez and Ken Kendrick, managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks — stepped in and asked him to list his demands.

They included a multimillion-dollar locker room renovation and his own website, which Pastilong said in his deposition that he opposed.

Rodriguez signed a term sheet Dec. 8, 2006, that essentially doubled his compensation package and the damages clause from $2 million to $4 million.

Rodriguez said he considered the $4 million "excessive" and "unfair," but acquiesced when he learned Kendrick had insisted on the amount. Kendrick had pledged $2.5 million to the WVU Foundation Inc., contingent on Rodriguez remaining coach.

Rodriguez also acknowledged he has agreed to a $4 million damages clause at Michigan.

After he got Michigan's offer Dec. 14, Rodriguez met with Pastilong and Walker. Though he had hoped for an agreement, he said that changed during a private 10 p.m. meeting at Garrison's house on Dec. 15.

Rodriguez said he implored Garrison to keep his promises.

"And up until that time it always had been positive, that we will work on it. We'll try. Give us time. We'll get it done," he said. "And that night I asked specifically, Tell me yes or no. And it was no to everything

Oklahoma QB Nichol plans to transfer

Sooners coach Bob Stoops announced Friday that Nichol would not be returning.

"We had a good conversation with Keith and certainly understand his desire to seek an opportunity in another program," Stoops said in a statement. "He knows that we are supportive of him under any circumstance, whether it's here or at a different school. We want what's best for him."

Nichol initially committed to Michigan State, but then enrolled at Oklahoma last January to get an early jump on the quarterback competition. Sam Bradford eventually won the starting job and became the nation's top-rated passer last season.

Joey Halzle, a senior-to-be, was the Sooners' backup and replaced Bradford after he suffered a concussion in the first quarter of a loss at Texas Tech last season.

Nichol played in three games last season, completing 2 of 7 passes for 15 yards. He still has three years of eligibility remaining and has not used his redshirt season. He said "it's wide open" where he will transfer.

"A lot of people are going to assume that Michigan State's at the top, Michigan's at the top and stuff like that, and those are great schools, but I don't even know if they want me or anything like that," Nichol told Grand Rapids, Mich., radio station KBBL. "I don't know if they would want me to come play for them.

"To say that I want to go to a certain place, I don't know. I've just got to go back home, talk to my family and see who calls, what coaches call. I just don't want to be presumptuous like that."

Coming out of high school, Nichol changed his commitment after Michigan State fired coach John L. Smith. He said he thinks current coach Mark Dantonio knows what's best for his team and will decide whether to pursue Nichol.

"I grew up a Michigan State fan and it was the hardest decision I ever had to make switching from there and going to OU," Nichol told the radio station. "I don't regret going to OU at all. I have gained a ton of experience and I grew up a lot and matured, far beyond anything I thought.

"I think this whole experience made me grow as a person and as a football player as well."

A telephone message left at a listed number for Nichol's father, Gary Nichol, in his hometown of Lowell, Mich., was not immediately returned.

"Keith worked very hard while he was here and put forth all the effort our coaches could expect. He contributed to our program with his character and dedication," Stoops said. "Keith leaves with our appreciation and best wishes and we will do what we can to make this an easy transition for him."

Lawyer: Bush skips deposition in sports marketer's lawsuit

"He literally ran from his deposition," said Brian Watkins, the attorney for sports marketer Lloyd Lake, who is suing Bush.

Watkins said he received a fax from one of Bush's attorneys saying the New Orleans Saints running back wouldn't be coming.

Bush's attorney, David Cornwell, declined to comment.

"I have nothing to provide for you," Cornwell said when reached on his cellphone.

Watkins requested that Bush bring extensive financial records, including those documenting the purchase of a car, as well as canceled rent checks for the suburban San Diego home where his parents lived and for a condo in Los Angeles.

Lake is seeking to recoup some $291,000 in cash and gifts the star running back and his family allegedly accepted from Lake and his former partner, Michael Michaels, while Bush was at USC.

Lake claims he gave Bush cash to buy a car and that Michaels allowed Bush's parents to live rent-free in a San Diego-area home. Lake and Michaels were trying to attract Bush as a client for their marketing firm, New Era.

Michaels settled with Bush in 2007.

The latest development came 13 days after Lake and Watkins walked out of a deposition after a man accompanying Cornwell opened his jacket to expose a pistol.

Watkins said Bush's lawyers are trying to keep transcripts of Bush's deposition from being given to the NCAA.

"The NCAA has asked for a copy of Reggie Bush's deposition transcripts. I told them we will definitely consider it," Watkins said. "They want to prevent that from happening."

The NCAA and Pac-10 are investigating whether Bush and his parents took improper benefits during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Bush has not met with NCAA and Pac-10 investigators.

Bush has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

If Bush is found retroactively ineligible, he could lose his Heisman.

If the NCAA determines that USC violated rules, the football program could have to forfeit victories from those seasons — when the Trojans won a national championship and lost in the BCS title game against Texas — and face additional penalties.

Gamecocks WR Lecorn charged with pot possession

A police report says the freshman receiver from Ocala, Florida, and two other men told police they had been smoking marijuana Sunday night in a car at the apartment complex.

An officer who was patrolling the complex smelled the marijuana when she came over to the car to tell the men to turn down the music.

Police said they found a burnt marijuana cigarette in the car's ashtray during a search and Lecorn indicated it was his.

It was not immediately clear whether Lecorn had an attorney.

Lecorn had 27 catches for 315 yards and three touchdowns last season.