College Football Capsules: Leach seeks court order to coach Alamo Bowl

LUBBOCK — The lawyer for Mike Leach says the suspended Texas Tech coach did nothing wrong in how he treated a player with a "mild" concussion, and Leach wants a court’s help to allow him to coach the Alamo Bowl on Jan. 2.

The motion for a temporary restraining order was filed Tuesday in Lubbock. An in-chambers hearing was set for Wednesday morning in the 99th District Court.

University officials suspended Leach on Monday while the school investigates a complaint from receiver Adam James and his family. James is the son of former NFL player Craig James, now a television sports analyst for ESPN.

A person close to James with direct knowledge of the situation alleges the player was twice forced to stand in a small, dark place while the team practiced. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition on anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the complaint.

Leach was "begged to work something out to avoid a confrontation," said a person familiar with the inquiry who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

That person also said Leach late last week postponed a meeting related to the inquiry and refused to sign a letter saying "no one injured would be returned to work out without doctors’ permission."

The school’s attorney left a voice mail message with Leach’s attorney that the university needed a letter of apology by noon Monday, the person said.

It did not arrive.

"That’s when they made the decision to suspend (Leach), thinking that would bring him to his senses," the person said.

Jerry Turner, vice chairman of the university system’s board of regents, declined to comment on whether, if true, the incidents might lead to Leach’s departure.

"We haven’t gotten to that point, of course," he said. "This is an ongoing inquiry, and I certainly do not want to prejudice the results of the inquiry."

Leach led Texas Tech to the best season in program history last year, going 11-2. But he and the university were at odds for months over negotiations for a contract extension. In February, Leach and the school agreed to a five-year, $12.7 million deal that could keep him there through 2013.

The clock is ticking on a portion of that contract. If Leach is the coach as of Thursday, the school owes him a $800,000 bonus.

Tech is the second Big 12 school to launch an internal investigation into a coach’s treatment of his players.

On Nov. 16, Kansas investigated Mark Mangino, who was the national coach of the year and got a big raise when he went 12-1 in 2007. Players said he was insensitive, though others defended him.

Mangino resigned Dec. 3 after reaching a settlement with the school that was later disclosed as a $3 million buyout.

In an affidavit included in the court filing Leach said he "would never intentionally harm or endanger a player" and that he has been "forced into this situation without being afforded any process." He also said "absolutely" no evidence had been given to him that showed he had violated any university rules or standards.

James was injured Dec. 16 and the next day was diagnosed with a concussion by team doctors, the person close to James said.

The person alleged James was sequestered at two consecutive practices:

— On Dec. 17, James said Leach told trainers to put him "the darkest place you can find." James was sent to an equipment shed near the practice field, where a member of the athletic staff checked on James to make sure he did not lean against anything or sit on the floor. James said Leach told him that if he came out he would be kicked off the team.

— When the team returned to practice two days later, on Dec. 19, James said Leach told trainers to "find the tightest, darkest place" for the player. James, in his street clothes, was put in an electrical closet inside the football stadium for hours, again monitored by a member of the athletic staff.

The person close to the inquiry said James spent two hours Dec. 17 in a shed the size of a one-car garage that was filled with coolers and that the player was "caught" sitting down on one. All the coolers then were removed, the person said, and the door to the shed was closed with James inside.

On Dec. 19, James was taken to an electrical room but the buzz was too loud, so he was taken to a press room where the furniture was removed and he was told not to sit down, the person said.

Craig James called to report the allegations on Dec. 19; a university attorney interviewed him and his son Dec. 20; Leach was questioned Dec. 20 or 21; and trainers, student trainers and the doctor who examined Adam James also were interviewed, the person close to the inquiry said.

Liggett said he has a letter from the doctor who examined James that supports Leach’s actions.

"He was not hurt by what happened in the equipment room," the lawyer said. "And Mike did not do anything to worsen the situation, in fact he put him in a safer environment by being inside."

Liggett said Leach did not postpone or blow off a meeting about the inquiry.

"Nope, didn’t happen," the Lubbock attorney said. "I’ve been denying that all day."

He said Leach learned about the specific allegations against him when he talked with the school attorney Dec. 20 or 21 but he was not told of "any rule he broke."

Liggett also denied a voice mail message was left for him demanding an apology by Monday.

"Nobody did that," he said.

Turner said the investigation is being handled by the school president’s office, with the assistance of its general counsel and athletic director Gerald Myers.

The NCAA is letting Texas Tech conduct its investigation and has not gotten involved, NCAA spokesman Cameron Schuh said. The Big 12 has no authority to investigate what the conference labeled an "institutional matter," Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda said.

Texas Tech players, speaking to reporters Tuesday for the first time since Leach was suspended, declined to discuss the incident or James. Cornerback LaRon Moore called Leach "different" but said the coach only wants the best from his players.

"He goes about it an unconventional way," Moore said. "But all he wants to do is push us, and we’ve talked about it with the coaches. That’s just his way of doing it. He tries to push us, tries to make us better and tries to make us men and get the best of our ability out of us."

James was with the team in San Antonio as it prepares for Saturday’s bowl game against Michigan State. Defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill will be the interim coach.

Asked if it was awkward for James to be around the team, McNeill said, "I hope not."

--The Associated Press 

Horned Frogs arrive in style for Fiesta Bowl

PHOENIX —Texas Christian’s flight to Phoenix only took a couple of hours.

The Horned Frogs’ journey to the Bowl Championship Series was a lot longer.

It’s been three weeks since the Fiesta Bowl paired the third-ranked Frogs with another unbeaten, No. 6 Boise State, in a game billed as the "BCS Buster Bowl," the first meeting of non-automatic qualifiers on college football’s biggest stage.

And it’s been more than a decade since coach Gary Patterson arrived in Fort Worth with hopes of resurrecting a program with a long and colorful history.

"You probably think we’ve been waiting three weeks to get here," Patterson told Fiesta Bowl volunteers after the Frogs arrived at Sky Harbor Airport on Tuesday afternoon. "I’ve been waiting 12 years at TCU."

Patterson spent three seasons as TCU’s defensive coordinator before taking the reins for the 2000 GMAC Bowl. He’s 85-27 at TCU, and his 85 victories are second in school history to Dutch Meyer, who won 109 games and coached the Horned Frogs to The Associated Press national title in 1938.

"It’s been a long stretch for us," Patterson said. "Twelve years ago, people said this couldn’t be done."

No wonder TCU’s arrival on a sunny, 60 degree afternoon felt like a party, with a mariachi band greeting the traveling party as it deplaned.

But the Horned Frogs will get to work soon. TCU planned to have its first on-site practice on Wednesday afternoon at Pinnacle High School — the first of five workouts before Monday night’s game.

Patterson said the Frogs have already benefited from being a part of the BCS. He said that he and his staff have been able to talk to recruits who might have snubbed the program in the past.

"Probably the biggest hurdle that we’ve had to get over recruiting-wise at TCU is the, quote, automatic qualifier conferences would say, ‘Well, you don’t want to go to TCU because you’re never going to play for the national championship, you’ll never get to a BCS bowl,’ " Patterson said. "And no longer is that hurdle there.

"We’re able to get into some homes that maybe even three weeks ago, we weren’t able to do," Patterson said. "As far as the other things, just on a national stage, I don’t know if you can even put it into words what it’s been able to do for us."

The Horned Frogs are 12-0 for the first time, and for a few hours on Dec. 5 it appeared that they might slip into the BCS title game.

Third-ranked Texas found itself in an ugly defensive struggle with No. 21 Nebraska in the Big 12 playoff, and a Longhorns loss may have cleared the way for TCU to become the first school from a non-automatic qualifying conference to play for the national title.

The Longhorns kicked a field goal on the final play to pull out a 13-12 victory, and that ended TCU’s hopes. And the next day, unbeaten Cincinnati nosed past TCU in the final BCS standings, so it may not have mattered anyway.

But Patterson apparently hasn’t spent much time wondering about what might have been. He said the Horned Frogs would be fired up to face the Broncos (13-0) in Glendale’s University of Phoenix Stadium.

"I can tell you right now that when they asked me, if I had a choice, this is where I wanted to go," Patterson said. "And Boise was the team I wanted to play. You want to play the best."

--Andrew Bagnato　

Concussion warnings come too late for NJ athlete

MARLBORO, N.J. — Tammy and Ted Plevretes don’t need more research to link football concussions to devastating brain damage.

They need only look across the kitchen table, where their 23-year-old son Preston sits mostly silent in a wheelchair, a home-health aide at his side.

Four years ago, Preston took the field for La Salle University a month after an earlier concussion. He collided head-on with an opposing player on a punt return at Duquesne University on Nov. 5, 2005. He was briefly knocked unconscious, awoke and was combative for a few minutes, then lapsed into a coma.

He survived lifesaving surgery to remove a massive blood clot, and has since endured three more brain operations, a trip overseas for a stem-cell transplant and years of grueling therapy. Yet his progress has been limited, and he struggles to walk and talk.

This fall — amid rising awareness in the NFL about the long-term effects on the brain of repeated concussions — the Plevretes family settled a lawsuit against La Salle for $7.5 million. The suit charged that the Philadelphia school failed to treat Preston’s first concussion properly, causing the later catastrophic injuries from what some doctors call "second-impact syndrome." La Salle argued the injuries stemmed solely from the hit at Duquesne.

"We still love football. We don’t want anyone to stop playing it," said Tammy Plevretes, 49, of Marlboro, N.J., whose 60-year-old husband once played for the rough-and-tumble, semi-pro Brooklyn Mariners.

"(But) I think kids need to see what can happen," she said. "This isn’t a broken leg. It’s a broken life."

———

Preston was fortunate to be injured a few blocks from Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, where a pair of neurosurgeons on duty whisked him into an operating room. They removed a massive hematoma, staunched the bleeding and relieved the near-fatal pressure inside his skull.

Dr. Robert Cantu, a Boston-area neurosurgeon, served as the family’s medical expert for the lawsuit. Cantu testified at this year’s Congressional hearings on NFL concussions, telling lawmakers there is "growing and convincing evidence" that repetitive concussions can cause degenerative brain disease.

Preston’s erratic on-field behavior, combined with the excessive bleeding, point to second-impact syndrome, he said.

"He enters the game symptomatic (for concussion). That sets him up for another injury causing this malignant brain swelling," he said.

Once a person is vulnerable, additional brain trauma does not always have to be severe to cause devastating damage, Cantu said.

"The second blow may be remarkably minor, perhaps only involving a blow to the chest that jerks the athlete’s head and indirectly imparts accelerative forces to the brain," Cantu wrote. Death can occur within minutes when the brain ruptures from the brain stem.

Such catastrophic injuries are rare. Cantu has treated about eight cases similar to Preston’s, many of them youth football injuries.

The more common concern for NFL players — or anyone suffering multiple concussions — is dementia, depression and other neurological problems as they age.

"That’s my biggest concern. How am I going to be when I’m 50 or when I’m 60? Will I have all these brain diseases and will I have a problem remembering things?" Brian Westbrook of the Philadelphia Eagles said after suffering two concussions in a three-week span this fall.

Westbrook, who missed seven games before returning to action Sunday, was not alone on the sidelines. Both of last season’s Super Bowl quarterbacks, Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner, and numerous other high-profile players sat out at least one game this season with concussions.

That’s a stark turnaround from the days when such injuries often were ignored or hidden.

"Young athletes are horrible self-reporters. They want to please, they want to play, especially with a macho thing like football," said Brian Mason, who directs CentraState Wellness and Fitness in Freehold, N.J., where Preston spends much of his week in therapy.

The Plevretes, who refused to sign a confidential legal settlement, want youngsters to protect themselves.

"Be — safe," said Preston, mustering the focus and strength he needs to string together short, whispered phrases. "Do you — want — to end up — like me?"

———

By all accounts, 6-foot-3, 220-pound Preston Plevretes was a gung-ho jock — just the type who might ignore an injury to play. He also was dueling for a starting linebacker spot at La Salle.

"He was a tough kid on the field," then-coach Phil Longo testified in his deposition.

A 19-year-old sophomore, Preston had missed his freshman year due to grades and was sidelined early that fall with a broken hand.

La Salle had orthopedists on call for broken bones, but the team had no neurologists lined up to consult about head injuries. Staff referred players to the student health center unless a trip to the emergency room seemed in order, according to trainer Bill Gerzabek.

"It would take probably two months for the office visit (with a neurologist)," Gerzabek said in his deposition.

In October 2005, Preston returned to action just two weeks after hand surgery, still sporting a cast. In an Oct. 8 game at Marist University, he complained of headaches and told Gerzabek for the first time that he had head-butted someone at practice four days earlier. He left the game and was referred to the health center, where Preston saw a nurse practitioner on Oct. 10th. She performed a standardized concussion test, but gave it incorrectly, the lawsuit alleged.

The next day, Ted Plevretes took his son to their local emergency room, and for an eye exam because Preston complained about his vision. The head scan proved negative, and Preston returned to the student clinic for follow-up on Oct. 12. He said he did not have a headache that day, and, according to Gerzabek, was cleared to play four days later.

But he continued to complain of headaches to friends, most notably on Nov. 2 or 3, which his girlfriend said he spent lying down. The team left for Duquesne on Nov. 4.

"If the stories about the headaches are true, Preston not only failed to be forthright with Bill Gerzabek, but he ignored the warning label on his football helmet, which specifically warned against playing with a headache," La Salle argued in its trial memorandum.

———

In a sharp about-face this month, the NFL has encouraged players and their families to cooperate with Cantu and colleagues at the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, who are conducting autopsies on the brains of former athletes — and finding disturbing evidence of brain damage in football players, boxers and a former NHL player.

The NFL also has issued new concussion guidelines, and ordered that independent physicians determine when a player should return. At youth levels, more teams are teaching players to recognize warning signs, including headaches, dizziness, tinnitus and blurred vision.

"The threat of lawsuit for inappropriate care is real, but I would also like to think that enlightenment is also driving it," Cantu said.

At least one neurosurgeon, Dr. Douglas Smith of the University of Pennsylvania, fears the new rules could backfire, leading players to try to hide their symptoms. Even doctors aren’t sure when it’s safe to return.

"That’s the million-dollar question," said Smith, director of Penn’s Center for Brain Injury and Repair. "If it were me, the appropriate time to go back is about 50 years."

———

As the Plevretes shared a pizza at home this month, Ted played a videotape of Preston’s high school football banquet. A handsome, boisterous Preston brings down the house roasting his Marlboro High School coaches.

The 23-year-old Preston, watching from the kitchen, beamed what one therapist called "that million-megawatt smile he uses to charm people." Preston always loved the limelight, and had hoped to become a sports broadcaster.

Tammy Plevretes, a former entertainer-turned-cheerleader for her son, allowed a rare wistful comment.

"It’s a little hard for mom, because I miss him," she said quietly.

Aides tend to Preston while his parents are at work — Ted works for a financial company, while Tammy runs her own small business. Their other child, 21-year-old Perry, is in film school in Florida. The couple was watching Perry play high school football when Preston was injured.

In their absence, Longo and Gerzabek chased the ambulance on foot to Mercy Hospital. Team staff stayed in Pittsburgh for several days, while La Salle held prayer vigils and welcomed Preston back for a visit a year later.

"From the time of Preston’s injury, the university community ... ha(s) been hoping and praying for his recovery. That hasn’t changed," La Salle said in a statement. The school has since dropped football for unrelated reasons.

Preston had more brain surgery this summer to alleviate seizures, but the procedure caused other setbacks.

One recent Friday, he spent five hours at CentraState, moving through rotations of speech, occupational and physical therapy.

Preston has little short-term memory, but still manages to flash his old charisma at times. During speech therapy, he was asked which is taller, a tree or mountain?

"If a tree — is on — a mountain — then the tree — would be — taller," he replied, grinning.

That tells the parents their eldest son is still himself.

The settlement will allow the intensive therapy to continue, and pay for round-the-clock aides and perhaps more experimental stem-cell treatments.

"My hope is that he gets his life back again," Tammy Plevretes said. "Will anyone ever love him? Will he get married, have children, have a job? Things we all take for granted, I don’t know if he’ll ever have."

--Maryclaire Dale

Vols star Eric Berry apparently bound for NFL

ATLANTA —Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin believes Eric Berry will play in the NFL next year.

Virginia Tech is just trying to figure out what position Berry will play on Thursday night.

Berry, a junior safety, could play his last game for Tennessee in the Chick-fil-A Bowl against Virginia Tech. He is projected as a high first-round pick if he enters the NFL draft. Most mock drafts list Berry among the top five picks.

Berry said the draft decision is "kind of made." He said he wants to play the bowl game in his Atlanta hometown before he discusses his plans.

"I want to focus on Virginia Tech," he said.

Virginia Tech’s biggest concern is following Berry on the field. He has 14 career interceptions but the safety often plays in the middle of the defense like a linebacker.

"We’ve asked Tennessee to put a little red light on top of Eric and so we’ll know where he is all the time," Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring joked Tuesday. "They haven’t really gotten back with us to let us know if they’re going to do that."

Berry (5 feet 11, 203 pounds) is an effective run-stopper. He is second on the team with 83 tackles, including six for losses.

"From what I’ve seen they use him more like a linebacker, putting him in the box," Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor said. "He’s a big hitter. He’s strong in defending the running game.

"We know he can run the field and he does cover the field well. But as far as the tapes I’ve seen, he’s down playing linebacker and he gets to the ball quick."

Free safety? Strong safety? Linebacker? Nickel cornerback? Return specialist? Berry has filled each role, and Kiffin said the junior’s versatility will pay off big in the draft.

"What Eric has done such a remarkable job of is the ability to do so many different things and to put that on film," Kiffin said. "Your film is your resume. ... You’re going to have to do the things that the NFL wants to see when they come to watch your film.

"Eric’s played man-to-man coverage, we’ve blitzed him, he’s played back in the middle and he’s played down. So to be able to do all those things and then also to play on our special teams as many snaps as he has, he’s created a lot of draft value for himself."

Berry smiled as he heard Kiffin add "I would think he’d go extremely high — whenever he leaves."

When making a bowl appearance in Atlanta earlier this month, Kiffin said "I would anticipate him probably not being with us next year."

Kiffin said he won’t try to convince Berry to return for his senior season.

"This may be the only conversations that I don’t recruit in, is with these guys because it’s too important for them to make the right decision," Kiffin said. "This isn’t about me and it’s not about Tennessee. This is about Eric and Eric’s family."

Kiffin said he advised the junior to seize the NFL opportunity.

"I told him from my perspective he’s done everything he can do," Kiffin said. "If he wants to go, this is the time to go. I would never want to hold someone back from that, because it would be real hard to live with yourself if you tried to convince someone to stay and then something happened to him injury-wise and they weren’t able to get what they had worked so hard for."

Berry said he has been thorough in studying his options.

"I really just wanted to make sure there was no stone unturned," he said. "I sat down with Coach Kiffin and talked about it and talked with my family and talked with some of my close teammates and friends about the whole situation. I wanted to make sure I weighed every possible scenario or situation that could happen."

Berry won the Jim Thorpe Award honoring the nation’s top defensive back earlier this month. He was a first-team All-America selection by The Associated Press.

Kiffin said it’s a compliment to Berry that he won the Jim Thorpe Award even though only two of his 14 career interceptions came this season. He had seven interceptions in 2008 to lead all FBS players.

The 14 interceptions rank fifth in school history and third among active NCAA players.

--Charles Odum 

JoePa’s roller coaster decade ends at Cap 1 Bowl

ORLANDO, Fla. — A trip to the Capital One Bowl five years ago would have been considered progress in Happy Valley. Now it’s what Penn State settles for when it gets shut out of the BCS.

It’s been a roller coaster of a decade for coach Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions.

So perhaps it’s fitting that the decade for No. 11 Penn State ends in Orlando, the nation’s amusement park capital. After a fall from college football’s elite from 2000-04, Paterno has Penn State winning consistently again — to the point where 10-2 and a New Year’s Day bowl berth might be considered ho-hum.

The turnaround hasn’t been lost on players such as senior Josh Hull, whose class has been involved in 39 of the program’s 50 wins since 2005. That’s nearly twice as many as the 26 victories Penn State had the previous five seasons.

"Coach Paterno and the rest of the staff were looking for a good group of kids that could get this Penn State program back on the right track," the linebacker said after practice Tuesday morning at an Orlando high school. "So we’re very thankful that the coaches showed us enough faith, they saw enough things in the kids they recruited to turn this program around."

Friday’s game against No. 13 LSU will be the last in blue and white for Hull, fellow linebacker Sean Lee, quarterback Daryll Clark and 17 other seniors, many of whom were being recruited while the program was still stuck in the doldrums.

It also could be the last game for two highly regarded juniors, linebacker Navorro Bowman and tailback Evan Royster. Both players said Tuesday they wouldn’t make decisions on entering the NFL draft until after the bowl, though Bowman appears to have more to ponder since he has been mentioned as a potential first-round pick.

A third-team All-America linebacker, Bowman said there is a chance he will return to Penn State despite a second straight standout season. He already has his bachelor’s degree, though the more important grades when it comes to his NFL future are those he is awaiting from the league’s draft advisory board.

"Joe (Paterno) is keeping that under wraps," Bowman said. "Focus on this game and we’ll talk about that afterward."

At least JoePa is sure to stay, with two years left on a three-year extension signed in December 2008. He turned 83 on Dec. 21 and shows no sign of turning in his trademark jet-black sneakers.

His age hasn’t appeared to turn off top talents such as Bowman or Royster, or the highly regarded recruiting class that has verbally committed to come to Happy Valley in 2010.

Paterno gives credit to his assistant coaches.

"Well it’s gratifying to me," Paterno said earlier this month. "I’m pleased about the squad but I just don’t think we are giving the assistant coaches enough credit."

A goal-line stand late in a November 2004 game at Indiana seemed to be the crucible for Penn State’s turnaround. Paterno’s club was 2-7 going into a game they held on to win 22-18.

Since then, there have been two Big Ten championships and two lucrative Bowl Championship Series berths as part of a string of five straight bowl appearances.

"I feel really proud about that ... really getting Penn State back up to the top like they used to be," said tight end Mickey Shuler, a Pennsylvania native whose father, Mickey Sr., was a standout tight end with the Nittany Lions and in the NFL. "I’m looking forward to finishing up my career strong."

It’s been an eventful decade for Paterno off the field, too.

He’s had two surgeries to address major injuries, including a hip replacement last year. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2007. He endured a legal tussle waged between university administrators and the media over whether his salary should be public information, a tug-of-war that ended when a court ordered Penn State to release the records.

Documents released in May showed Paterno made more than $1.03 million base salary plus any bonuses, not including compensation from outside sources.

He’s also sure to end this decade as the victor in the unofficial race with Florida State coach Bobby Bowden for the winningest coach in major college football. Paterno’s 393 wins are five ahead of Bowden, who is retiring after the Gator Bowl on Jan. 1.

Yet for all the success the last five years, there is a segment of die-hard fans who want more — this is, after all, a school that won national titles in 1982 and 1986.

Some are dissatisfied that the Nittany Lions can’t consistently beat Ohio State and, most recently, Iowa; others want Penn State to get back into the perennial national title contender stratosphere that includes schools like Florida and Texas.

"I think we’re ready to play with anybody," Paterno said in an interview with The Associated Press last month when asked about Penn State’s national stature. "I think we’re competitive."

--Genaro C. Armas