Status of Katzenmoyer, Murphy in Doubt

Reports that Ohio State linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer and offensive lineman Rob Murphy will be academically eligible this season are premature, according to Athletic Director Andy Geiger.

“All this is rumor. No one at Ohio State has announced anything,” Geiger said Wednesday night.

Several Columbus broadcasters, citing unnamed sources, reported Wednesday that Katzenmoyer and Murphy achieved C averages.

Geiger said it would be today at the earliest before the school could confirm reports that Katzenmoyer and Murphy had achieved C averages.

The status of a third starter, defensive back Damon Moore, wasn’t known immediately.

Top-ranked Ohio State opens the season Saturday at No. 11 West Virginia. Ohio State Coach John Cooper said the three would start against the Mountaineers if they were eligible.

*

Oregon State Coach Mike Riley suspended senior defensive end Inoke Breckterfield, one of the Pacific 10 Conference’s best pass rushers and perhaps OSU’s best all-around player, on Monday after the player was arrested over the weekend following a dispute outside a bar in Corvallis.

Last month, Riley suspended senior Jason Dandridge, projected as the starting tailback, for Saturday’s season opener against Nevada after Dandridge and another player were implicated in an alleged sexual assault of a woman at an off-campus party in June. The charges against Dandridge and freshman Calvin Carlyle, a backup linebacker, were eventually dropped after the woman decided not to help prosecutors, but Riley stood by his suspensions.

“There is a bigger picture out there,” Riley said. “I plan on being at Oregon State for a long time, and I want the kind of program we are proud of in many ways.”

Junior backup noseguard Paul Luoma, 25, also was suspended for the Nevada game, even though he was not arrested.

*

A Washington State defensive tackle who is the subject of a rape investigation has left the team.

Taeao Salausa is trying to transfer to another football program, possibly at Cal State Northridge, team spokesman Rod Commons said.

Salausa was suspended in July pending the investigation.