WSU Football | Top JC recruit leaves team

PULLMAN — The highest ranked junior-college recruit in the Washington State recruiting class has quit the team.

Terry Mixon, a defensive back from Grossmont Community College near San Diego, wasn't at practice Wednesday and coach Bill Doba said he's "no longer on the team."

Mixon, 6 feet 1, 190 pounds, had been ranked by JCFootball.com as the No. 1 safety in the nation. He had been expected to contend for a starting position immediately but arrived for fall camp at WSU recovering from a foot fracture that had required surgery and was being held together with a screw. He also arrived overweight — "about one Big Mac from being a linebacker," Doba said on the first day of camp.

He was cleared to practice but suffered a hamstring injury early in camp. He wasn't taken on the trip to Wisconsin for the opener.

Mixon had participated in Tuesday's padded practice. It was only about his fifth practice of the season.

Mixon is expected to transfer but there is no word of a destination. He asked to be released from his WSU scholarship, and Doba said the request was granted.

Mixon was a quarterback and defensive back at Dominguez High School in Compton, Calif.

Notes

• Starting cornerback Chima Nwachukwu (thigh bruise) participated in most of Wednesday's practice after watching in street clothes Tuesday.

• The status of San Diego State starting right guard Brandyn Dombrowski remains in limbo for Saturday's 4 p.m. game at Qwest Field. The senior is dealing with what school officials have called an "academic issue."

• The 37-34 Cougars victory over UCLA in the 1997 season opener will be shown tonight on FSN at 7:30. The Cougars scored 27 unanswered points in the second quarter and Ryan Leaf threw for 381 yards and three touchdowns.

• All the toilets in Martin Stadium were flushed at the same time Wednesday afternoon in a test of stadium plumbing for the season. Student volunteers who flushed the toilets received "royal flush" T-shirts.

• San Diego State has been picked, by the media in the Mountain West Conference, to finish eighth in the nine-team league.

• The past four times the Cougars have lost to Big Ten opponents, they have rebounded to win their next game. The most recent occurrence was in 2002, when WSU lost at Ohio State, then came home and beat Montana State.

• The Cougars were a perfect 3 for 3 in red-zone conversions at Wisconsin, with all three trips inside the 20 resulting in touchdowns.

• Saturday's game will mark the fourth time in the past six years that the Cougars' first "home" game has been at Qwest Field.