BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana State University has reported a 'mistake in judgment' by an assistant football coach to the NCAA as a possible violation of league rules.
The LSU athletic department investigated an apparently prohibited practice session after learning of it Saturday, then referred the incident to the NCAA, new athletic director Robert Brodhead revealed Monday.
Assistant coach Darrell Moody met June 26 with incoming freshmen running backs Karl Bernard of Baton Rouge and Garry James of Gretna. The three viewed films and ran pass patterns at the LSU stadium.
'It appears that coach Moody made a mistake in judgment by having a meeting, a film session and a short field practice with these two student athletes,' coach Jerry Stovall said.
Stovall denied Bernard, James and backup quarterback Donald Polk also practiced with Moody in early July.
However, he said another meeting Friday with James, Moody and West Jefferson High School coach Henry Crosby was scheduled not as a practice but as a strategy session.
'(Moody) and Henry Crosby and an assistant met to put in part of our throwing game with Henry,' Stovall explained. 'Gary was only there to work out with weights.'
Officials said NCAA out-of-season regulations may have been violated each time Moody met with prospective players.
'Any time a player and a coach are involved in a session related to football or the coach acts in a supervisory capacity or participates in the session it is considered practice,' said NCAA spokesman David Berst.
'Our rules prohibit these kind of out-of-season practices.'
The NCAA by-law in question states: 'Engaging in any or all of the following activities on any day (other than specified practice periods) constitutes'practice': field or floor practice, chalk talk, lecture or the discussion or showing of motion pictures.'
Stovall refused to comment on possible disciplinary action against Moody.
Bernard, who rushed for 1,564 yards his senior year in high school, said in a meeting with Moody at LSU, the coach showed football films and diagrammed plays.
The coach then took James, Bernard and Polk to LSU stadium, where Polk threw passes and Moody stood in as a linebacker, he said. The NCAA in the past has treated illegal practice violations as minor offenses.
