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From the Miami Herald
UM-FIU FOOTBALL BRAWL
Suspensions handed down for fracas
Three starters are among the 13 Hurricanes who will miss the team's next game for their roles in the melee with FIU players.
BY BRIAN COSTA
[email protected]
CHRIS CUTRO / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD
START OF SOMETHING BIG: Saturday's brawl resulted in the suspension of 31 players from Miami and FIU.
Thirteen University of Miami football players received one-game suspensions Sunday night for their involvement in Saturday's bench-clearing brawl with Florida International.
The suspensions, announced in a joint statement from the university and the Atlantic Coast Conference, will leave Miami without three starters from Saturday's game -- safety Brandon Meriweather, right guard Derrick Morse and punter Brian Monroe.
The ruling also will cause depth problems for the defensive secondary and offensive line as the Hurricanes prepare to face Duke on Saturday.
Earlier Sunday, UM coach Larry Coker called the brawl ``disgraceful.''
''That's not college football,'' Coker said. ``It's not what we represent at the University of Miami, and it will not be tolerated.''
The other players suspended were cornerbacks Bruce Johnson, Carlos Armour and Randy Phillips, running back Charlie Jones, offensive linemen Chris Barney and Tyrone Byrd, fullback James Bryant, tight end DajLeon Farr, wide receiver Ryan Hill and safety Anthony Reddick.
Wide receiver Lance Leggett, who threw a running punch at an FIU player toward the end of the brawl, was not suspended.
Coker announced the suspensions of Reddick, Meriweather and Bryant on Sunday morning just based on TV replays after the game. Later in the day, UM and ACC officials reviewed tapes of the incident and reached a joint decision on the other players.
ACC commissioner John Swofford told The Miami Herald he met Sunday with the league's head of officials, Tommy Hunt, to review video of the fight. Swofford said a Sun Belt Conference official also attended the meeting at the ACC's Greensboro, N.C., office, and that the leagues discussed how each would handle the incident.
The Sun Belt Conference and FIU gave the same punishment -- one-game suspensions -- to 18 Golden Panthers players.
When asked for his reaction to what he saw on tape Sunday, Swofford said, ``Disgust. Disappointment. I think anybody that cares about the game, you look at that and you know right off it's something that doesn't belong in college football.''
Saturday's slugfest was the latest in a series of troubling incidents for Miami. The Hurricanes got into a scuffle with LSU after last year's Peach Bowl and exchanged pregame shoves with Louisville last month.
Still, Coker defended himself when asked about his level of control over the program. ''I do have a grip on this program,'' Coker said. ``Don't ever doubt that. Don't ever doubt that.''
The brawl started in the third quarter when the Hurricanes took a 14-0 lead on Jon Peattie's extra-point kick. The fight escalated so quickly that it was difficult to point to one altercation as the cause. But players from both teams rushed the field after FIU defensive back Chris Smith pummeled UM holder Matt Perelli.
''They actually slam-dunked our holder,'' Coker said. ``They grabbed our holder and actually did lift him up and threw him to the ground.''
FIU players on Sunday said Hurricanes center Anthony Wollschlager set off the melee when he shoved Golden Panthers defensive back Marshall McDuffie Jr. during the extra point.
But Coker said FIU set the tone for the night when a Golden Panthers player ran through Miami's pregame warm-up area ''talking noise'' and shoved a UM player.
''I think you've got a lot of players from their team frustrated because they're not here, and maybe weren't recruited,'' Coker said. ``As the game started to get away from them, I was very concerned that something like this might happen.''
UM athletic director Paul Dee did not point fingers but called the brawl unfortunate. ''I wish we hadn't reacted the way that we did,'' he said.
The game was the first between the two local schools, and there is another game scheduled for next season. But it is now questionable whether it will be played.
Dee and Coker said they will discuss the matter with university president Donna Shalala and did not want to rush to a decision.
But when asked what UM has to gain from the matchup, Coker said, ``Nothing. A home game. I mean, really, what do we have to gain? The only thing [we gained] now is we've lost several players for the next game at Duke.''