Colleges

USF defensive back gets clearance to play

By GREG AUMAN
Published August 7, 2005

USF's football players report for the start of fall drills today, and the Bulls got good news Saturday on one recruit who was awaiting word from the NCAA clearinghouse.

Jerome Murphy, a defensive back from Elizabeth, N.J., was cleared on Saturday and was set to fly to Tampa. Murphy, recovering from a broken leg in April, is likely to redshirt this fall.

Linebacker Gene Coleman, who signed with USF in February, had to take summer classes at Pearl River (Miss.) Community College. His coach, Tim Hatten, said Coleman had passed all of his classes and would report.

The Bulls are scheduled to hold their first practice Monday afternoon and open the season Sept. 3 at Penn State.

MIAMI: Not a raindrop fell on the practice fields. Skies were blue, and an slight breeze brought relief from 88 degree temperatures. And still, the Hurricanes couldn't get through their first formal practice without a major disruption.

Sensors surrounding the fields detected lightning in the area half an hour into the session, forcing the team indoors and scrambling to rearrange the day's schedule.

With the staff mindful of more potential bad weather, today's workout was moved up seven hours to 8:30 a.m., though coach Larry Coker strongly prefers not to practice on Sunday mornings.

UCF: The school's first official practice was held under hot conditions in Orlando. Coach George O'Leary watched 105 players work for two hours.

"I thought there was great retention from the players back and I saw some active freshmen, which was good," he said. "We have 105 players out there and it really helps our depth."

The Golden Knights are scheduled to practice again today in shorts, then Monday and Tuesday in shoulder pads before the first full contact practice Wednesday. The first day of two-a-days is Thursday.

AWARD: Phil Barr, who overcame lung damage from a deadly nightclub fire in Rhode Island, is the NCAA Sportsmanship Award winner.

The Bates College swimmer was placed in a drug-induced coma for 21 days and had only 45 percent lung capacity when he left the hospital in 2003. He returned to Bates, in Lewiston, Maine, in September 2004 after a year of intense rehabilitation.

The fire on Feb. 20, 2003, killed 100 clubgoers and employees at the Station in West Warwick, R.I.

MEN'S BASKETBALL: Assistant Thad Fitzpatrick left Indiana to become assistant principal at a high school in Alabama.

Information from the Associated Press was used in the report.

[Last modified August 7, 2005, 01:31:12]