06-25-2008, 12:26 PM
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Head Coach
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 10,830
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Total Points: 499,990.48
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Quote:
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
UC hopes ex-Gopher joins fold
Need Zimpher's OK after LB's legal woe
By Bill Koch ? bkoch@enquirer.com ? June 25, 2008
University of Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly is waiting for clearance from school president Nancy Zimpher that would allow former Minnesota player Alex Daniels to become a member of the Bearcats' football team.
Daniels, a linebacker from Columbus Brookhaven High School, was one of four players dismissed from the Minnesota team in July 2007 after they allegedly were involved in an incident with an 18-year-old woman on campus.
Daniels, 21, was arrested but never was charged with a crime, according to Kelly. He transferred to UC last year, paying his own way, first at Raymond Walters College, a UC branch campus, and then in the College of Arts and Sciences on the main campus.
"He needs to meet some criteria that we set relative to academics and his situation and relative to his court case," Kelly said Tuesday. "We had to get all the proper documentation and run it by the president."
According to a July 18, 2007, Associated Press story, Dominic Jones, a junior and one of the best defensive players on the Minnesota team, was accused of having sex with an 18-year-old woman who was "physically helpless" after a night of binge drinking at a campus apartment in early April of that year.
Investigators said Daniels used his cell phone to film Jones having sex with the woman. Hennepin County (Minn.) attorney Mike Freeman said Daniels and Minnesota players E.J. Jones and Keith Massey also had sex with the woman earlier that night.
"I don't know what facts the prosecution had that they had to charge one and not the others," Kelly said. "All I know is in our conversations with our lawyer, (Daniels) was not charged and will never be charged. The case has been closed."
When asked if he were concerned about public relations fallout if Daniels joins the UC team, Kelly said: "If he was charged with a crime, I would be concerned, but he was never charged with a crime. What we're dealing with here is bad judgment ...
"The bottom line was that he needed to come to school and work on his degree. He got into school on his own. I feel comfortable if the president signs off on it."
If Daniels gets the OK from Zimpher, he will be eligible to play this fall and will have two years of eligibility remaining.
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UC hopes ex-Gopher joins fold | Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati.Com
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