USC Suspends Marinovich for the Week : Football: Quarterback left practice Monday, but Smith says the player was disciplined for academic reasons.

Quarterback Todd Marinovich has been suspended from the USC football team and will not play against Arizona State Saturday at Tempe, Ariz., Coach Larry Smith said Tuesday.

College football’s freshman of the year last season, Marinovich walked out of practice Monday, but Smith said that he was suspended on Tuesday for academic reasons. Marinovich probably will be reinstated next week, Smith said.

Smith said that he received a report that Marinovich skipped several classes last week, which was grounds for suspension under an agreement Smith made with Marinovich and his parents.

“About four weeks ago, I met with (Todd) and his family to confirm a report that he wasn’t attending class,” Smith said. “We (reached) an agreement that each week his progress would be evaluated and if he was attending class regularly, he would be permitted to play the following week. I received a report (Tuesday) afternoon confirming that he did not attend all of his classes last week.”

But Shane Foley, a 6-foot-2 senior from Newport Beach who will replace Marinovich, said that he was told during practice Monday that he would start this week against the Sun Devils.

Marinovich dressed for practice Monday, but after complaining of an earache, he met with Smith, a teammate said, and was told that if he didn’t want to practice, he should get off the field or leave. Marinovich left.

Smith and Ray Dorr, who coaches USC’s quarterbacks, confirmed that Marinovich had an earache--a visit to a doctor revealed an infection, Smith said--but Smith insisted that the suspension was related only to academics.

He said that he has set up tutors for Marinovich, who has “a couple of projects to make up,” Smith said.

Marinovich was unavailable for comment, but in a statement released by USC’s sports information office, he said: “We had an agreement that I wouldn’t miss class anymore. I didn’t uphold that agreement, so I’ve got to suffer the consequences and be suspended for the week.”

If Marinovich attends all of his classes this week and meets his academic commitments, Smith said, he will be reinstated to the team Monday.

Meanwhile, his absence creates an unexpected opportunity for Foley, who was an All-Southern Section player at Newport Harbor High School, but has spent his USC career as a backup.

“It was unfortunate to have it happen under these circumstances, but it’s a great opportunity for me,” Foley said. “I feel bad for Todd, but I’ve got to go with it and do what’s best for myself and for the team.”

Foley has completed four of nine passes for 55 yards this season, 14 of 23 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns in his career. His career totals also include 29 carries for 104 yards and two touchdowns.

Although Smith said that Marinovich’s absence would not greatly affect the game plan for Saturday’s game, Dorr said: “There will be more of an emphasis placed on the running game . . . to take advantage of Shane’s skills. He has excellent speed.”

Marinovich has been USC’s starting quarterback since he took over as an 11th-hour replacement for Pat O’Hara, who suffered a season-ending knee injury less than two weeks before USC’s opening game last season.

A 6-4 left-hander, Marinovich led USC to a 9-2-1 record and a 17-10 Rose Bowl victory over Michigan last season, completing a school-record 62.2% of his passes and earning recognition as the first freshman quarterback named to the All-Pac-10 first team.

He has been wildly inconsistent this season, playing spectacularly in the opener against Syracuse and against Stanford two weeks ago, but poorly at other times.

After the Syracuse game, he asked reporters to stop asking him about his chances of winning the Heisman Trophy and speculation that he would leave school early to enter the NFL draft.

Neither topic has been broached in recent weeks, but not because of Marinovich’s request.

He completed only seven of 16 passes for 80 yards in a 31-0 loss to Washington last month. And at the end of the third quarter of a 35-26 loss to Arizona Saturday at the Coliseum that virtually eliminated USC from the Rose Bowl race, he walked off the field to a chorus of boos.

Through three quarters against the Wildcats, Marinovich was worse, statistically, than he had been at Washington, completing seven of 18 passes for 61 yards.

He rallied in the fourth quarter to end the game with respectable numbers: 18 of 35 passing for 174 yards and a touchdown.

Still, he threw three interceptions and, as a 10-0 lead dissolved into a 28-17 deficit, he completed only two of 11 passes in the second and third quarters and USC failed to convert on nine consecutive third-down situations.

He didn’t complete a pass to a wide receiver until about 12 minutes remained in the game.

His season statistics aren’t much different than they were at this point last year, but all but two of his touchdown passes have come in two games.

“The thing I have tried to do, as his coach, is get him to reach a level of consistency, and I think Todd has struggled a little bit with that,” Dorr said Monday.

Smith said that he wasn’t surprised by Marinovich’s struggles.

“You don’t anticipate it, but I think he’s human like anybody else,” Smith said. “I think that’s the best way to explain it.”