College football
If Clarett wants CFL it's his call to make
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 12, 2003
COLUMBUS, Ohio - If Maurice Clarett wants to play in the Canadian Football League, he'll have to make the first call.
The Montreal Alouettes own the CFL rights to the suspended Ohio State running back, but general manager Jim Popp won't pick up the phone to start negotiations.
"If he has any intent of giving up college - hires an agent and automatically becomes a professional - or it is deemed he can't play in college anymore . . . then this organization will wait for him to contact us," Popp said Thursday.
Popp thinks Clarett should stay in school and weather the seasonlong penalty assessed Wednesday.
"I'm a true believer that all players should try to get their college education," Popp said. "They can only play pro football so long. He needs to get his degree. That's the best thing that can happen to him."
It's among Clarett's options. He could stay at Ohio State and go to class while on scholarship, waiting for his suspension to end. He also could ask to be released from his scholarship and transfer to another school. Clarett would still have to sit out at least the mandated suspension season.
If he moved to another Division I-A school, he would also have to sit out a transfer year. If he transferred to a school in Divisions I-AA, II or III, though, he would not have to sit out the transfer year.
The NFL isn't a possibility - unless Clarett challenges the league's rule that requires players to be out of high school at least three years.
The CFL doesn't have that sort of requirement. The Alouettes (9-2) have the league's best record and lead their division by 41/2 games. Then again, they also have two established tailbacks.
Popp selected Clarett for the Alouettes' negotiation list this summer, shortly after word of the player's off-field problems arose. But while acclaimed NFL rookies can get millions of dollars in signing bonuses, the CFL is not nearly as lucrative.
MICHIGAN: Safety Marlin Jackson was sentenced to a year's probation and ordered to spend 10 days in a jail work program for hitting a student at a party.
He also must pay $450 in fines and court costs and an undetermined sum to the victim and enter an anger management class, chief assistant prosecutor Joseph Burke said. If he does not comply, Burke said Jackson could spend 30 days in jail.
MISSISSIPPI: Freshman Danny Bell was cleared to play by the NCAA and practiced with the team, coach David Cutcliffe said.
Bell, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound safety from Jacksonville, was being held out of practice until the NCAA approved his academic qualifications.
Bell is the second Ole Miss freshman to be certified eligible by the NCAA this week.
On Monday defensive tackle Brandon Jenkins of Memphis was cleared to play this season.
TCU: Running back Ricky Madison will miss the season after surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right knee.
Madison was hurt in the first quarter against Navy on Saturday when he planted his right leg on a running play and it twisted. He returned in the second quarter, but left in obvious pain after just two more carries.
Sophomore Lonta Hobbs, who rushed for 1,029 yards in eight games last season and has 141 yards and four TDs in two games this season, is TCU's starter. With Madison out, redshirt freshman Robert Merrill and senior Corey Connally will back up Hobbs.
OBIT: Frank G. Mautte, halfback and the captain of Fordham in 1936, the last season for the Seven Blocks of Granite, died Tuesday in Troy, Mich. He was 88.
Thursday's game
UTAH 31, CALIFORNIA 24Brandon Warfield scored his third touchdown of the game on a 14-yard run with 1:06 left for the host Utes.
Warfield was held well below his average of 177 yards per game, finishing with 94 on 30 carries, but he could not be stopped in the fourth quarter. He carried seven times for 46 yards on the final drive, ending it by breaking an option around the right side and diving across the goal line.
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