College-Football Notebook: Murder charge filed in Connecticut case

■ Police charged a 21-year-old man with murder in the stabbing death of a Connecticut player outside a school-sanctioned dance, where the suspect's attorney said he was just trying to break up a fight.

John William Lomax III, 21, is scheduled to appear in court today on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit assault in the Oct. 18 death of Jasper Howard, police said. His bond was set at $2 million.

Police also arrested two other people in connection with the fight that led to Howard's death. Hakim Muhammad, 20, was charged with conspiracy to commit assault and Jamal Todd, 21, faces a felony charge of falsely reporting an incident and a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment for pulling a fire alarm that emptied the dance early that Sunday morning.

None of those arrested is a UConn student. Lomax and Muhammad live in Bloomfield, about 30 miles from campus. Todd lives in Hartford.

Police have said that Howard was stabbed once in the abdomen during an altercation that erupted after the dance was evacuated. Several other football players were with him, but none has been charged and Coach Randy Edsall said he hasn't heard that any football player was involved in anything other than "verbal jostling."

■ The NCAA's bid to delay a court order to release its records on academic cheating at Florida State was rejected yesterday by the Florida Supreme Court.

In a terse one-sentence order, the high court denied the NCAA's emergency motion. However, that decision does not preclude them from considering the merits of the case later.

Attorneys for the NCAA provided the records to a Tallahassee law firm to prepare for release, although they aren't expected to vary much from documents already made public by Florida State. The school released copies earlier this month from "screen shots" of documents posted on a secure, read-only Web site, but not the originals.

The Associated Press and other media sought immediate release after an appelate court on Oct. 13 upheld an earlier ruling that the documents are public records. A circuit judge last week ordered the NCAA to release the documents by 2 p.m. today unless it could win a stay.

Coach Bobby Bowden stands to lose 14 victories that would make it difficult for him to overtake Penn State's Joe Paterno in their race to be major college football's winningest coach. Paterno now leads with 390 victories to 385 for Bowden, who hopes to hang on long enough to reach 400.

■ Linebacker Sean Spence has an injured left knee and will not play Saturday when No. 18 Miami visits Wake Forest.

Spence aggravated the injury at least twice in Miami's loss to Clemson last weekend. The extent of his injury has not been announced.

Spence is fourth on the team in tackles, with 35 through seven games. He has 5½ tackles for losses and two sacks.

■ Quarterback Justin Tuggle and running back Josh Haden have decided to transfer from Boston College.

Tuggle, a redshirt freshman, started the first three games, sharing time with David Shinskie, and in four games completed 13 of 37 passes for 229 yards, with four touchdowns and three interceptions. Tuggle has not played in the last four games.

■ Tight end Michael Palmer of Clemson, who took a helmet-to-helmet hit last Saturday against Miami, says he's feeling good after suffering a concussion but is not sure he'll play Saturday against Coastal Carolina.

Palmer said yesterday that he still had a bit of a headache. He says he remembers the game, a 40-37 Clemson win in overtime, but that his memory of the unintentional hit by linebacker Darryl Sharpton is fuzzy. Palmer said he would know later in the week if he will be cleared to play against Coastal Carolina.

■ Adam Robinson, a starting running back at Iowa, is probably out for at least the rest of the regular season with an ankle injury.

Coach Kirk Ferentz wouldn't go into specifics about the injury but is hoping that Robinson can return for a bowl game.

Robinson said after last week's 15-13 win at Michigan State that he rolled an ankle late in the game. Robinson has 629 yards rushing and five touchdowns. His likely replacement, fellow freshman Brandon Wegher, has for 321 yards in relief of Robinson.

■ No. 5 Cincinnati is getting quarterback Zach Collaros ready to play Saturday at Syracuse while Tony Pike tries to adjust to a new cast on his non-throwing arm. Collaros, a sophomore backup, is expected to make his second straight start after throwing three touchdown passes and only two incompletions in Saturday's 41-10 victory over Louisville.

Pike had to have a new plate put into his injured left forearm after he got hurt during a win at South Florida on Oct. 15. He had a similar medical procedure last season, and missed two games.

■ The NCAA has denied a request from defensive tackle Demarcus Granger of Oklahoma for a medical-hardship waiver to play another season, Coach Bob Stoops said yesterday. Granger, who started 11 games in 2007 and played as a reserve last season, said he was born with a condition that didn't allow enough room for the nerves in his lower back. He had surgery last December, with a surgeon scraping some bone away to relieve the pain.

■ Eric Decker, Minnesota's leading receiver, will miss the rest of the regular season with a foot injury, and Coach Tim Brewster said yesterday that Decker might need surgery to fix the arch he sprained last week against Ohio State. If he doesn't need surgery, he might be able to play in a bowl game.