College Football -- Dan Major Quits Team At Colorado

BOULDER, Colo. - Colorado's 1999 football recruiting class, already limited because of a coaching change in January, just got smaller.

Freshman offensive lineman Dan Major, citing a loss of interest in the sport, quit the team yesterday and returned to his parents' home in Redmond, Wash.

"He said football wasn't fun anymore," Coach Gary Barnett said. "I don't think three freshman practices is a good indication. But we've left the door open for him to come back."

Barnett said the 6-foot-6, 280-pound Major, who wavered between CU and Washington before February's signing day, did not ask to be released from his scholarship to transfer.

But if Major has a change of heart about playing and wants to transfer to Washington, that school might have second thoughts about accepting him.

In the wake of tampering charges leveled by CU against former coach Rick Neuheisel and recruiting violations that resulted in Pac-10 sanctions against Neuheisel and his new school, Washington placed restrictions on any transfers involving CU athletes "to avoid the perception of a recruiting advantage."

Colorado's recruiting class, which lost 10 committed prospects after Neuheisel's exit, now stands at 14 scholarship freshmen and two junior college transfers - one of whom, Anwawn Jones, still is waiting to be admitted to school.

NOTES

-- Two more UCLA football players have been suspended for the team's first two games of the season for allegedly obtaining and using disabled parking placards unlawfully, the school announced.

Senior running back Keith Brown and senior safety Eric Whitfield will sit out the Boise State game Sept. 4 at the Rose Bowl and the game at Ohio State on Sept. 11 for "breaking team rules."

Seven of their teammates pleaded no contest to criminal charges in the matter last month and two are to be arraigned Aug. 25. Neither Brown nor Whitfield have been charged.

-- North Carolina defensive tackle Brian Norwood was arrested and charged with raping an 11-year-old girl.

A grand jury indicted Norwood, 19, and nine other men on sex charges resulting from a series of incidents alleged to have occurred two years ago.

North Carolina Coach Carl Torbush said he has suspended Norwood from the team.

-- Arizona tailback Leo Mills suffered a shoulder separation during the first practice in full gear, suggesting there might be such a thing as building too much intensity.

"He made a great run, a nice aggressive run," Coach Dick Tomey said. "He will be OK. He said he did it in high school and he was out a week. I would suspect he wouldn't be back quite that quick."

-- A Cal State Northridge investigation into alleged violations triggered by an anonymous letter that already resulted in the firing of the school's football coach has been completed, a school spokesman said.

"What we've recommended to the NCAA is that our football program be on probation for a two-year period and that we take various internal steps to resolve the issues the audit identified," spokesman John Chandler said.

Ron Ponciano was fired as head coach July 16 and succeeded six days later by Jeff Kearin, an assistant to Ponciano last season who left the school in the spring to be an assistant to John Robinson at UNLV.

The school received the anonymous letter in May, and began its investigation shortly thereafter.

-- Middle linebacker Chris Ramseur was kicked off the Tennessee football team by Coach Phillip Fulmer for violating team rules.