College Notes: Kentucky considers choices

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

C.M. Newton will have a select group of advisers to help him find the right person to run Kentucky's beleaguered football program.

Bill Curry, who has a 23-51 record in seven seasons, was told by Newton on Sunday that he would not be returning after this season to coach the Wildcats.

"We're going to pretty much go by the way we did in hiring coach (Rick) Pitino and hiring coach Curry," Newton, the school's athletics director, told the University of Kentucky Athletics Association board of directors Tuesday.

"You pick the brains of the people that you respect in the football community and listen to anybody that has recommendations," he said.

And a day after the firing, Newton has already received some recommendations for the job.

"We're getting plenty of those, both in and out of the media," he said. "We hope to make our own detailed study on who is out there and who might fit into this program."

UK president Charles T. Wethington Jr. will name an advisory committee to screen applicants and recommend the person to replace Curry to the UKAA directors.

* ALVAREZ GETS APOLOGY: Sorry, Barry. That was the message to Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez from ESPN's Brad Nessler, who apologized Tuesday for critical remarks made during the telecast of the Badgers' 34-30 loss to Northwestern. "Anything we did that caused the Wisconsin coaching staff any undue criticism, on behalf of ESPN, if we blew it, we apologize, or at least I do," Nessler told Alvarez during the weekly Big Ten coaches conference call. "... because I am part of that team and that's why you're coaching and we're in the booth. It's pretty easy up here." Nessler, along with Gary Danielson, called Saturday's game, and both questioned Alvarez's decision to run plays instead of instructing quarterback Mike Samuel to kneel three times and run out the clock with Wisconsin ahead 30-27 in the final minute.

* DARNELL AUTRY TO PLAY: Running back Darnell Autry said his sprained shoulder will not keep him from playing when No. 11 Northwestern takes on Illinois on Saturday. Autry injured his right shoulder in the second quarter of last Saturday's final-minute 34-30 victory over Wisconsin, ending his string of 19 consecutive 100-yard rushing games. The team first feared the shoulder was separated, but X-rays and a magnetic resonance imaging scan were negative. "It feels fine," Autry said after Tuesday's practice, which was closed to reporters. "It's sore, but I'll play. I'll be playing, definitely."

* MIAMI IN TROUBLE: The Miami Hurricanes face a quarterback emergency, and the solution could be a freshman who has yet to play a down. Starter Ryan Clement, recovering from a shoulder separation, took just one snap in practice Tuesday and fumbled the ball in obvious pain. Backup Scott Covington sat out the workout after spending the previous night in the hospital with a stubborn virus and a partially collapsed lung. If neither can play Saturday night at unbeaten West Virginia, the Hurricanes will turn to 18-year-old freshman Steve Kelly. "Of course I'm a little nervous," Kelly said. "But I try to block that out and just take advantage of the situation. It's an opportunity you get once in a lifetime. This may be it."