Seminole Troubles Are Bad for USC

Trouble with the law, trouble in the classroom, trouble with the bathroom scales. . . .

Florida State has had so much off-field commotion in recent months--well, you could practically find an incident for every game the Seminoles have lost in the 1990s, which is a grand total of 10.

A check of local police records by the Tallahassee Democrat after a series of arrests turned up eight players who had been charged with offenses varying from burglary to drug possession between the Sugar Bowl in January and the beginning of fall practice.

Dismissals and suspensions resulted, but have the fifth-ranked Seminoles, who come to the Coliseum to face No. 23 USC Saturday, really been laid low by the blows?

The consensus? Hardly.

“They’re just so deep,” said USC offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, who isn’t counting on any breaks from Florida State’s depleted secondary.

“Some of our best depth, we just lost,” countered Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden, whose team was deep enough to redshirt 20 freshmen last season. “You lose a starter, that moves your depth up. If you lose your second team, that means instead of having a senior or a junior or a sophomore backup, you jump from a senior to a freshman.”

Much as the garrulous Bowden is liked and respected, that argument isn’t being given much credence, and the Seminoles remain 14-point favorites.

“Most coaches in the [Atlantic Coast Conference] have trouble keeping a straight face when they hear Bowden is whining over his depth,” said Steve Ellis, a reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat.

A partial catalog of the Seminoles’ offenses:

* Starting cornerback Mario Edwards was dismissed from the university by a student board for acts of violence against a female student that reportedly included slapping and choking. He also was facing petty theft charges for keeping and using a cellular phone he’d found and was under an injunction to stay away from the female student. His replacement at right corner will be Coronta Cody, a redshirt freshman.

* Starting defensive tackle Julian Pittman is suspended for at least the USC game, pending the outcome of a court case involving charges of burglary and credit-card fraud. His replacement is Corey Simon, a sophomore.

* Backup linebacker Hank Grant was dismissed from the team for an unspecified team violation. After his dismissal, it became known that he had been arrested for possession of marijuana in February.

* Backup rover Robert Hammond was also dismissed for an unspecified violation.

* Backup safety Sean Key, who played in every game last season, is suspended for at least the USC game, pending a hearing stemming from a campus fight with a male student that resulted in thousands of dollars in dental bills for the student.

Bowden, the coach at Florida State since 1976, is neither trying to explain away nor apologize for the incidents.

“When it rains, it pours,” he said. “The big thing is, you hope the team learns by this happening. These are not things we haven’t warned the kids about. We warned ‘em over and over. Now you say, ‘See what we’re telling you?’ This is the result. You hope they learn. Maybe it’s just a purge. Maybe now that we’ve lost some players, we’ll be done with it for a few years.”

There have been other losses unrelated to scrapes with the law:

* Running back Rock Preston was supposed to replace Warrick Dunn, but flunked out of school. Dee Feaster takes over--at least until freshman Travis Minor, hobbled by an ankle injury, lives up to his advance billing as Dunn’s heir.

* Fullback-tight end Pooh Bear Williams, a fan favorite in short-yardage situations who struggled mightily with his weight, quit football the day of the 1 1/2-mile preseason run.

“Pooh Bear might could have rolled a mile and a half,” Bowden said. “I don’t think he could have run it. He got too dang heavy. When we signed him, he was 245. . . . This year, he came back at 320.”

In an unrelated matter, a summons was issued for Williams’ arrest in June because he allegedly wrote a worthless check to a local grocery store.

So that is the state of Florida State, which went undefeated in the regular season last year, only to lose the national championship to Florida in the Sugar Bowl, 52-20. Defensive end Peter Boulware is gone from that team too, having jumped to the NFL after a 19-sack junior season.

But Florida State is one of those schools that doesn’t rebuild. It reloads--sort of like USC used to.

It’s interesting that there isn’t much crowing at USC about Florida State’s travails. The Trojans have trouble in their recent past, too, most of it related to the NCAA and academics. There was tailback Shawn Walters’ yearlong suspension for receiving payments from an agent, and tailback Delon Washington has been suspended twice over ethical questions related to academics. Last season, four starters were suspended for a game for trading team-issued athletic equipment for other sporting gear.

On a larger scale, Florida State had the so-called Foot Locker scandal back in 1993, when a sports agent took a group of players on a $6,000 shopping spree, prompting Florida Coach Steve Spurrier to call FSU “Free Shoes University.”

The Seminoles hope the trouble is behind them.

“We couldn’t afford to lose the guys we have, especially opening with USC,” said standout linebacker Daryl Bush, who added that depth is a concern but allowed that Florida State has a cushion.

“In the past, we’d play two whole offenses, and rotate defensive players in. This is a little different.

“I think the first team on both sides of the ball, we can play with. But the depth--something we’ve really had in the past--isn’t there. We have got the talent. We just don’t have the experience.”

*

SUPER SATURDAY

GAME 1

No. 3 TENNESSEE (1-0) at UCLA (0-1)

Rose Bowl, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7

GAME 2

No. 5 FLORIDA STATE (0-0) at No. 23 USC (0-0)

Coliseum, 5 p.m., Channel 7