USC: No Evidence of Cheating : Drug testing: Review committee conducts interviews with athletes and finds no wrongdoing in school program, but some procedures are questioned.

After interviewing more than 50 USC athletes, a review committee announced Wednesday that it found no evidence of regular or systematic cheating in the school’s drug-testing program.

Mike Garrett, an associate athletic director who is one of eight committee members, said he interviewed 22 football players who refuted a Times article that reported problems with USC’s drug-testing program.

The remaining athletes were interviewed by other members of the review committee.

“I interviewed people that if I mentioned their names everyone would know who they are,” Garrett said. “Many of them said, ‘Hey look, I didn’t know there was a problem until I read it in the paper.’ ”

A task force was appointed by Mike McGee, USC athletic director, two days after Trojan quarterback Todd Marinovich was arrested on Jan. 20 for possession of cocaine.

In the aftermath of Marinovich’s arrest, The Times reported that football players had been cheating on drug tests since USC started its program in 1985. The article reported that 15 present and former players, most speaking on condition that their names would not be used, said they had cheated or had known players who had cheated. They said the players cheated by trying to cleanse their systems with diuretics or by hiding clean urine given to them by friends in their underclothes during testing.

McGee said in the article that athletic officials suspected one player of cheating, but was unable to prove his guilt.

“They (the players) said none of those things happened,” Garrett said of his interviews, which included four players no longer on the team. “They said there was little or no cheating at all. Again, it was rumor. ‘I heard this guy did this.’ I said, ‘Did you in fact see this?’ They said, ‘No, I didn’t.’ There was never any witness to anything expect what they heard.”

Garrett said the players felt they were so closely monitored that it would have been difficult to cheat if they had tried.

Garrett said he asked each athlete three questions:

--Had they been tested throughout the year.

--Had they cheated on the test, and did they hear of cheating.

--Did they know of anybody who cheated before.

Garrett defined systematic cheating as that which would permeate the system. He defined regular cheating as that which would occur at a “frequency where someone felt they could beat the system at any interval they wanted.”

Garrett said the committee also interviewed Marvin Cobb, an assistant athletic director who has overseen the testing program since 1986. Cobb has filed a discrimination suit against the university. The suit contends Cobb was not promoted to a promised position because he is black.

Garrett said McGee is considering naming Garrett to take over the drug-testing program.

“We just want kind of a fresh look, it would be a nice face-lift,” Garrett said.

Although the committee did not find evidence of cheating, Garrett said the members questioned some parts of the program. He said they are investigating the randomness of selection of athletes and observation methods.

David Murphy, executive director of the Exodus Recovery Center in Los Angeles and a member of the committee, said he was impressed with Cobb’s ability in directing athletes to treatment. He said testing alone will not get people into recovery.

Members of the committee are: Garrett, Murphy, Peter Clarke, chairman of the USC President’s Athletic Advisory Board; Cece Freeman, a UCLA Student Health Services counselor; Barbara Hedges, senior associate athletic director; Kim Jasper, administrator at Comprehensive Drug Testing; Peter Nosco, chairman of USC’s Faculty Senate Athletic Affairs Committee and Ron Orr, assistant athletic director.