Quote:Former Florida State University quarterback Adrian McPherson fights a gambling charge this week in a case that has the Seminoles' athletic department trying to avoid looking as sneaky as a Bobby Bowden puntrooskie.

Neither FSU President T.K. Wetherell nor the NCAA have said whether they plan to take disciplinary action based on a 976-page investigators' report that suggested FSU coaches and athletic administrators changed their stories, claimed faulty memories, avoided keeping records and otherwise tried to cover up evidence of gambling and theft.

The fuzzy memory of football coach Bowden is just one startling passage in the report.

Bowden said former FSU players told him they heard McPherson threw last season's game against North Carolina State because a bookie was after him. But Bowden couldn't remember who gave him the information.

"I don't even remember who I talked to, " Bowden told investigators. "You know, occasionally a former pro will call me. Occasionally, they will happen to come by to see a ballgame. And we talk in the office. But no, I cannot . . . uh . . . I . . . I cannot recall any . . . I cannot recall anybody specifically that we talked like that."

Believe that if you want, said Grady Irvin, McPherson's attorney.

"I know you can read more into it than that," Irvin said.

Irvin's own troubles add to what should be an intriguing trial; he was detained by Georgia police a week ago in a domestic dispute.

Bowden is on the defense's subpoena list, meaning it is possible he could be called to testify in the courtroom, said Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman, whose father, Bill Cappleman, was FSU's quarterback in 1968-69.

For its purposes, the prosecution has no plans to call anyone from the athletic department, she said. She hopes to present her case in a day and have the whole trial concluded by Friday.

A six-person jury takes its seats in Tallahassee on Wednesday to hear evidence that McPherson, for a time FSU's starting quarterback last year as a sophomore, placed illegal bets through a campus bookie. If convicted, he faces up to 60 days in jail or a $500 fine. A more important issue for the defense may be keeping alive hopes for his eligibility at another school. A gambling conviction or plea on his record would effectively end his career.

Prosecutors say computer records, cellphone records and testimony leave little doubt McPherson gambled big.

McPherson quickly fell $8,000 into debt by laying $100, $500 or $1,000 per game on college basketball, and even betting on football, including his own team's games, equipment managers and players told police.

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