Troubled Gators Just Happy to Be Playing Football : Freedom Bowl: Florida could be second school to get NCAA death penalty after controversial season.

The University of Florida football season, pitted with trouble almost from the opening kickoff, will pause for a break in the action. The Gators will play Washington in the Freedom Bowl at 11 a.m. Saturday at Anaheim Stadium.

It will be a brief respite to actually play football, then it’s back to the controversy, alleged illegalities and turmoil that have marred the Gators’ 1989 season.

The problems began with a season-opening upset loss to Mississippi and have yet to subside, and may not for months to come.

There are charges of assault, drug use, fraud, gambling and illegal payoffs facing Florida athletes and coaches. The Gators’ rap sheet extends far and wide.

With Florida’s 7-4 record, including three losses in the last four games, some would think the Gators are lucky to be playing in a bowl game.

Then again, with the Gators’ record off the field this season, some might think they’re lucky to be playing, period.

Charges that Coach Galen Hall made illegal payments to assistant coaches from 1986 to 1988 and to a player in 1987--both violations of National Collegiate Athletic Assn. rules--forced him to resign Oct. 8.

On Oct. 16, quarterback Kyle Morris and three other Gator football players were suspended for betting on professional and college football games. The four did not bet on Florida games or on games involving Southeastern Conference teams.

The NCAA has yet to rule on the case and a decision to file criminal charges has yet to be announced by Florida State Attorney Len Register.

Morris, a sophomore, reportedly has worked out an agreement with the school that would allow him to be reinstated with his scholarship restored, sometime after the Freedom Bowl. The NCAA would have to approve such a move, however.

And that’s only a portion of the dark cloud that hangs over Florida’s football team.

On Nov. 20, Tony McCoy, a junior defensive tackle, was arrested in connection with a sexual assault charge on a 22-year-old female student. McCoy, who was charged with one count of sexual battery and one count of aggravated battery, has not returned to the team.

Earlier this month, it was disclosed that Hall and Florida basketball Coach Norm Sloan used a little-known expense account to ring up $41,000 in purchases of golf sweaters and pistachio nuts, among other things.

And last year, a federal grand jury in Tallahassee, Fla., linked former Gator football and basketball players to drug use in the Gainesville area.

Some of the players told the grand jury they received money from Sloan and assistant Monte Towe.

Sloan, Towe and two other assistants resigned Oct. 31 in the wake of mail fraud and perjury charges.

That investigation led to indictments of four sports agents on charges of defrauding the university by making payments to football and basketball players with eligibility remaining. The four pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

After Hall resigned, defensive coordinator Gary Darnell was named interim coach and almost immediately Gator boosters began to clamor for Steve Spurrier, a former Heisman Trophy winner at Florida and current Duke coach.

There have been reports this week that Spurrier, whose Duke team played Texas Tech in the All-American Bowl Thursday night, will be named coach as early as today.

“I was assured that if any changes were made, I’d be the first one to know and that’s all I ask,” Darnell said.

At least one player, cornerback Richard Fain, would like to see Darnell hired.

“I felt he did a terrific job,” Fain said. “He’s a motivator. He doesn’t pull any punches. I’d enjoy having him as the head coach.”

This season has left an indelible mark in and around Gainesville. The battle lines are clearly drawn.

Charles Reed, the chancellor of the state’s university system, called for, among other things, a ban on spring football, freshman eligibility and athletic dorms at Florida’s nine public universities.

On Nov. 29, Stephen C. O’Connell, President Emeritus of the University of Florida, wrote in a guest column in the Gainesville Sun, “So where is the scandal here?

“The university and its athletic programs ought to be judged not by the fact these incidents occurred, but by what it has done about them.”

The university conducted an 18-month investigation into Hall’s payments and recently concluded a lengthy investigation of Morris’ alleged gambling. Both reports were made available to the NCAA.

Nevertheless, Gator followers are nervously awaiting the NCAA’s ruling. If a school is found guilty of major violations twice within a five-year span, the NCAA can impose the death penalty for one or two years. So far, Southern Methodist’s football team is the only program to receive that punishment.

In 1984, Charley Pell resigned amid allegations of recruiting violations. The NCAA found 107 violations and placed the Gators on three years probation, making Florida eligible for the death penalty.

That’s one reason Saturday’s game means so much to Florida. For three hours, give or take a TV timeout or two, Team Turmoil will have a chance to play football.

“Nobody on this team had anything to do with it, yet we are somewhat the victims of this ordeal,” linebacker Jerry Odom told reporters in Gainesville two days after Hall resigned.

Indeed, Odom, a junior who is second on the team in tackles, and his Gator teammates have had to pick up the pieces from a season gone wrong.

In a strange way, the troubled times have brought the Gators together.

“The way we responded is probably one of the reasons we’re going to this bowl game,” said All-American running back Emmitt Smith. “We battled back through adversity and responded in a positive way. It didn’t affect me. I try to put everything in perspective. I’m trying to put the bad stuff behind and the stuff that’s good for the team in front.”

Still, Florida’s season has been one of curious twists, turns, ups and downs. And that’s just the Gators’ play on the field.

After a 24-19 loss to Mississippi, the Gators won four in a row, capped by a 16-13 victory over Louisiana State.

“Family. Family,” fullback Cedric Smith screamed in the locker room after Arden Czyzewski’s 41-yard field goal with no time remaining beat LSU. The Gators gave Hall the game ball, perhaps knowing it would be his last.

Hall resigned the next day, leaving Darnell to coach the team.

Darnell, a second-team all-Big Eight linebacker in the late 1960s at Oklahoma State, served as an assistant at Kansas State, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, SMU and Wake Forest before coming to Florida in January, 1988. He also was the head coach at Tennessee Tech for three seasons (1983-85).

The Gators beat Vanderbilt, 34-11, in his debut. A week later, they followed with a 27-21 homecoming victory over New Mexico in which Smith rushed for a school-record 316 yards.

But then Florida lost three of its last four to fall into a fourth-place tie in the SEC.

“We had a good year,” Darnell said. “There were probably one or two games that could have gone either way. Maybe the resolve became stronger because of (the turmoil) and we learned to rely on one another. There were a lot of lessons learned from this.”

The Freedom Bowl, untroubled by Florida’s off-the-field problems, came calling and the Gators eagerly accepted.

It’s nice to be wanted. And not just by NCAA investigators.