Inside College Football

Posted: Wednesday October 13, 1999 01:35 PM

Sad Case  

Heisman candidate Peter Warrick's felony charge overshadowed Florida State's sixth win

By Ivan Maisel

Miami's Santana Moss put up Warrick-like stats -- nine receptions for 180 yards and two scores -- but he didn't catch everything thrown his way. Bob Rosato

After a week in which he surrendered himself to Tallahassee police to be charged as a felon and surrendered his position as a Heisman Trophy favorite, Florida State senior flanker Peter Warrick spent last Saturday afternoon on the sideline at the Seminoles' Doak Campbell Stadium dressed in jeans and waving a white towel. It didn't matter that Warrick was waving it to exhort his teammates to a 31-21 defeat of Miami. The imagery was unmistakable.

Through five games Warrick had caught four touchdown passes, rushed for two scores, thrown a touchdown, returned a punt for a touchdown and averaged nearly 15 yards every time he'd touched the ball. Last week's events proved he can be stopped by a double team. It's just that no one figured it would be Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren. On Sept. 29, Warrick and the Seminoles' third-leading receiver, Laveranues Coles, walked into the Dillard's department store at Tallahassee Mall and paid $10.70 apiece to a willing sales clerk for a combined $412.38 of Hilfiger and Polo clothes. The store's surveillance system recorded the transaction, and the state attorney based in Tallahassee chose to pursue the case as third-degree felony grand theft. Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden threw Coles, who had had a previous run-in with the law, off the team and suspended Warrick indefinitely.

Though some Florida State fans failed to take the scam seriously -- a message printed on the window of a car headed for the stadium on Saturday read FREE THE DILLARD'S 2 -- Bowden and Seminoles athletic director Dave Hart acted quickly. They had decided to suspend Warrick even before the police pressed felony charges. At a team meeting last Thursday, Bowden told his players, "This is what I've been warning you guys about. Anybody that can give you something for nothing is no good. Something's wrong. You can't accept it." He then turned his attention to the receivers, some of whom had groused that too many of the Seminoles' passes were aimed at Warrick. "Hey," Bowden said, "it's a chance for another star to be born."

Saturday's game suggested that if Florida State could afford to lose two starters at any position, it was at wide receiver. Quarterback Chris Weinke threw for 332 yards and two touchdowns, completing 23 passes to 11 players, seven of them wideouts. "Everybody has been complaining about not getting his at bats," senior Ron Dugans said after he led the Seminoles with five catches for 80 yards. "Now's the time. A lot of guys make plays in practice. They just want to show the nation they can make them in games."

Before the game Warrick, who won't be allowed to play until the charge is dropped or lowered to a misdemeanor, stood before his teammates and apologized. "Pete is a guy who doesn't show a lot of emotion," Weinke said after the victory. "I know he felt as low as he has ever felt. He knows he let the team down." As Warrick stood before the team, freshman flanker Greg Moore spoke up from the rear of the locker room. "We got your back, Pete," he said. "We got your back."

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