NORMAN — OU running backs coach DeMarco Murray will serve a one-game suspension for impermissibly contacting prospects and their families, the NCAA announced Tuesday .
Murray is expected to miss Friday's season opener against Temple .
Additional violations were found within the Sooners ’ track and field program when former head coach Tim Langford directed a female student-athlete to provide some of her scholarship funds to two male student-athletes.
Murray’s violations — agreed to by the school, Murray and the NCAA enforcement staff — involved impermissible contact with 17 prospects over 16 months, including 65 impermissible phone calls and 36 impermissible text messages.
Murray told enforcement staff he was not aware that a COVID-19 waiver of recruiting contact rules had expired.
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“The University discovered the violations through its monitoring systems and investigated, reported, and addressed the matters promptly and appropriately,” an athletics department spokesperson said in a statement. “The violations in question were limited to the actions of a coach who is no longer employed by the University and a current assistant coach.
“OU worked with the NCAA to manage the review and reach a conclusion, and penalties imposed by the University are already in effect.”
Murray is entering his fifth season as the Sooners' running backs coach, and was a hot commodity in the offseason, turning down an offer from Ohio State and deciding to remain at his alma mater.
The investigation found that the school had properly educated football coaches on the applicable recruiting rules and the timing of changes, though Brent Venables was found to have violated head coach responsibility rules due to Murray’s behavior.
Some of the violations occurred before a rules change in January 2023 that made head coach responsibility automatic. Previously, such responsibility could be rebutted.
Because Venables was found to have promoted an atmosphere of compliance, the sides agreed no suspension was warranted.
The track violations by Langford, whose departure was announced in November, occurred in April 2023.
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Langford directed a student-athlete to redistribute a total of $2,020 of her cost-of-attendance increase equally to two male athletes to help them pay rent.
The athletes competed in four and five competitions while ineligible due to the program exceeding scholarship limits.
After his departure from the school, Langford denied involvement in the violations in an interview with enforcement staff, though each of the involved student-athletes said they heard Langford on speakerphone directing the female student-athlete to transfer the funds and that athlete’s account reflected the two transfers.
The sanctions agreed to include the one-game suspension for Murray, a four-year show-cause order for Langford, a $5,000 fine, one year of probation, a prohibition against football staff calling the involved prospects during the May 29-June 11, 2022 and April 15-May 31 recruiting periods, a 20% reduction in football recruiting days in spring 2023, another prohibition against football staff corresponding with involved prospects in August 2023, a limitation of Murray’s recruiting days to eight in 2023, down from an average of 16.4 per coach, a prohibition in off-campus recruiting for Murray during the 2023 fall evaluation period, a three-week ban on recruiting phone and electronic correspondence from Dec. 8, 2024 to March 31, 2025, a prohibition against unofficial recruiting visits for Friday’s season opener vs. Temple, the vacation of all team track and field athletes in which the student-athletes competed while ineligible, and a reduction in men’s track and field scholarships by 0.1 during the 2023-24 season.
Many of the sanctions, including the limiting of recruiting contact and scholarship reduction, were self-imposed by the school.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football assistant coach DeMarco Murray suspended one game for NCAA rules violation
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