QB Maguire returns to team drills for No. 4 Florida State
Two weeks after breaking a bone in his right foot, Sean Maguire returned to preseason practices for No. 4 Florida State.
The redshirt senior quarterback did team and individual drills during Friday’s session. When Maguire was hurt Aug. 11, coach Jimbo Fisher said he expected Maguire to miss 3-4 weeks.
Maguire, who had a screw placed in his foot on Aug. 15, started five games of the final six games last season as he completed 59.3 percent of his passes with 11 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Redshirt freshman Deondre Francois is still expected to start the Sept. 5 opener in Orlando against 11th-ranked Ole Miss, but if Maguire is available for that game, it could ease Fisher’s mind. Currently backing up Francois are sophomore J.J. Cosentino and freshman walk-on Jake Rizzo.
Freshman Malik Henry remains indefinitely suspended for what Fisher called a violation of team rules.
Henry, who enrolled early and took part in spring practices, was with the team during Friday’s kickoff luncheon but has not practiced since last week.
DeveLoPmenTs
Montana State graduate transfer Dakota Prukop is Oregon’s starting quarterback for the season opener.
The No. 24 Ducks released the depth chart for the first week of the season Friday. Prukop was listed ahead of freshman Justin Herbert on the two-deep chart for the home game against UC Davis on Sept. 3.
Prukop passed for 3,025 yards and 28 touchdowns with 10 interceptions at Montana State last year. He also rushed for 774 yards and 11 touchdowns for the Big Sky team that finished 5-6.
Last year’s Oregon starter was Vernon Adams, who transferred came to Eugene after an outstanding career at Eastern Washington.
Oregon went 9-4 last season, the first time the Ducks finished with fewer than 10 wins since 2007. The season ended with a triple-overtime loss to TCU in the Alamo Bowl.
East Carolina has dismissed starting defensive lineman Darius Commissiong from the football team after his arrest in Greenville, North Carolina, on a felony animal cruelty charge. Witnesses said Commissiong beat a 1-year-old Shih Tzu to death.
Coach Scottie Montgomery said he won’t tolerate “unacceptable behavior” that “clearly crosses the line of humanity.”
Michigan hosts Hawaii next week. That’s about when the Wolverines quarterbacks expect to find out who will start.
All three candidates for the top job — Wilton Speight, John O’Korn and Shane Morris — met with reporters Friday, and no clarity was given. They said they have no idea.
“You think back to last year, and they didn’t tell us anything until Jake (Rudock) ran on the field (at Utah),” Speight said. “We knew. Guys kind of get a sense, based on practice and stuff like that. But I don’t think (coach Jim Harbaugh is) planning on announcing it or saying anything.
“So we’ll see who he throws out there first rep. It’s out of my hands, it’s out of their hands.”
O’Korn also said he’s not sure.
“There’s so much backand-forth, honestly, that you’d like to think that you know,” O’Korn said. “There’s honestly been times that I thought that I knew (it was me), and there’s times that (Speight) and Shane thought that they knew.”
The only thing Speight feels confident in is that whoever gets the job for Hawaii will keep it. There won’t be rotating QBs each game.
“It don’t think that’s a thing,” Speight said.
Quarterback Richard Lagow will start for Indiana on Thursday night at Florida International. Coach Kevin Wilson announced Friday that the junior college transfer beat out junior Zander Diamont, who had more experience in the Hoosiers’ system . ... Junior Mike White has been named Western Kentucky’s starting quarterback for the Hilltoppers’ Sept. 1 opener against visiting Rice. Western Kentucky coach Jeff Brohm announced Friday that he chose the South Florida transfer from competition that included senior Tyler Ferguson and sophomore Drew Eckels . ... Duke quarterback Thomas Sirk is expected to miss the season after reinjuring the Achilles tendon he tore in February. Sirk led Duke in rushing and passing last season and was the coMVP of the Blue Devils’ Pinstripe Bowl victory over Indiana. Coach David Cutcliffe said earlier this week that redshirt freshman Daniel Jones was taking most of the first-team snaps during practice.