Dockett Is Suspended for the Sugar Bowl

Florida State defensive tackle Darnell Dockett was suspended for the Sugar Bowl, the latest in a string of Seminoles punished this season.

“He broke one of our rules and is suspended for this ballgame,” Coach Bobby Bowden said Sunday. “He will not make the trip.”

Bowden wouldn’t elaborate, but Dockett’s lawyer, Stephen Dobson, told the Tallahassee Democrat that police are investigating something that happened at a store in Tallahassee’s Governor’s Square mall.

Police Lt. Sandra Garber declined to comment.

Florida State already is without its top two quarterbacks for the Sugar Bowl against Georgia.

Chris Rix was suspended for missing a final exam, and Adrian McPherson was kicked off the team after being accused of stealing a check and is now being looked at in a gambling investigation.

Dockett started all 13 games for Florida State and led the defensive line in tackles with 58. He will be replaced by senior Tony Benford in the Sugar Bowl, Bowden said.

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Defensive back Brett Bell was suspended, and linebacker Broderick Williams injured a knee, leaving Wisconsin without two key players for the Alamo Bowl against Colorado.

Coach Barry Alvarez wouldn’t specify why Bell, a sophomore, was punished, saying only it was for “disciplinary reasons.”

Williams, a junior, was hurt in practice last week.

The Badgers left Sunday for San Antonio to get ready for the Saturday game.

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Two Wesleyan (Conn.) University football players were arrested after a foot chase with police and charged with robbing a Gap clothing store at gunpoint.

Young Douglas, 21, the team’s leading rusher, and Daniel Quinones, 20, a linebacker, were arrested shortly after the store was robbed Friday night, police said. Police said $2,600 was taken from the store.

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Sloshing through the snow in Idaho last year wasn’t much fun for Clemson center Tommy Sharpe, even though the Tigers beat Louisiana Tech in the Humanitarian Bowl.

“We’re Southern boys,” he said. “We don’t like to go up in the cold.”

He won’t have that problem this year. Clemson (7-5) plays Texas Tech (8-5) today in the Tangerine Bowl at Orlando, Fla., where the forecast calls for a sunny sky and temperatures in the 70s.

The Tigers will have to contend with Kliff Kingsbury, the Red Raider quarterback. Kingsbury led Division I-A with 4,642 yards passing, and threw 42 touchdown passes while running Coach Mike Leach’s wide-open offense.

Leach is 0-2 in the postseason since joining the Red Raiders, and they’re 0-4 since beating Air Force in the 1995 Copper Bowl.

Clemson won three of its last four after switching quarterbacks, as redshirt freshman Charlie Whitehurst replaced junior Willie Simmons. Whitehurst completed 63% of his passes and threw eight touchdowns and one interception.