COLLEGE FOOTBALL / BOWL REPORT : FREEDOM BOWL : Utah Has Shuffled 9 Defensive Backs

Utah has had nine defensive backs sidelined because of injuries this season, forcing the coaching staff to move reserve quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers into the secondary.

The one defensive back who wasn’t injured this year is senior safety Cedric Crawford.

Crawford, who already has his degree in film studies, wants to enroll in USC’s graduate cinema school next year.

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Jamal Anderson, Utah’s 245-pound fullback, practically grew up at Muhammad Ali training camps.

Anderson’s father, James Anderson, is a bodyguard who worked every Ali fight from 1973 to 1980.

“Ali used to let me take Jamal to his training camps when Jamal was just a little kid,” the player’s father said.

Anderson bailed Ali out of a jam at the Newark, N.J., city hall in 1973.

“Ali was holding a Free Hurricane Carter rally, and he drew so many people, they pressed him up against the city hall wall and it looked for a while like he might get crushed.

“I was a liaison guy for the Newark police then, and I got him through the crowd, into the building, out a side door and into a car. He liked how I handled it, so he hired me as a bodyguard.”

Since then, Anderson has guarded personalities such as Sugar Ray Leonard, Richard Pryor and Donna Summer.

His son? Jamal Anderson gained 958 yards this season, scored 14 touchdowns, averaging 123 yards over the last four games. He has been invited to several NFL scouting combine camps.