Making the morning rounds.• He's OK, folks. Arizona State running back Deantre Lewis, second on the team last year with 909 total yards and six touchdowns as a true freshman, is recovering after being – in the words of a famous man – shot in the buttocks Saturday while visiting his family in Los Angeles. The bullet was an apparent stray from elsewhere in the neighborhood, and hit Lewis while he was celebrating the birth of his niece; it was removed at a local hospital. Coach Dennis Erickson said he's spoken to the family and expects Lewis to make "a full recovery," but no word on arrests, charges or other injuries related to the shooting. [Arizona Republic]
• The Rap Sheet. Tennessee sophomore Brent Brewer was suspended indefinitely Sunday after being charged with domestic assault, putting both of the Vols' starting safeties in doubt for the season in a little under a week. Last week, it was All-SEC pick Janzen Jackson, who withdrew from school for personal issues and will miss at least the rest of the semester; Brewer, who gradually earned a starting job last year over the course of his freshman campaign, is likely out through at least spring practice, too, pending the results of his case. (Details of the incident that led to his arrest aren't yet available.) He was released Sunday on $1,500 bond. [Knoxville News-Sentinel]
In other legal news, Washington State cornerback Tracy Clark was suspended last week after being charged with residential burglary and second-degree theft, both felonies, for allegedly stealing a laptop computer from a dorm room. Campus police ID'd Clark, a true freshman who redshirted last year, by tracking his Internet use on the computer. Hope he kept it clean for the court records. [Spokane Spokesman-Review, KXLY TV]
• The Rap Sheet, Coach Edition. Short-lived Pittsburgh head coach Mike Haywood has entered a court diversion program in Indiana in an effort to expunge the domestic battery charge that cost him his new gig after just 17 days on the job. The original charge, for allegedly choking and throwing the mother of his young son in an argument on New Year's Eve, was a Class D felony, carrying possible jail time with a conviction. Instead, the deal will require Haywood to undergo a psychological evaluation and perform 60 hours of community service in exchange for having the charge dropped after a year. [Associated Press]
• Lawyerin' up. The Fiesta Bowl has retained a defense attorney, Nathan J. Hochman – a former federal prosecutor and one time head of the U.S. Department of Justice's Tax Division – apparently in response to an Arizona attorney general's probe into illegal campaign contributions by Fiesta Bowl employees. The state AG's office launched an investigation last year in response to an Arizona Republic article that claimed bowl employees contributed $38,000 to various politicians between 2000 and 2009 that were later reimbursed by the Fiesta Bowl – a drop in the bucket compared to the millions the bowl spent over the same period to (legally) wine, dine and otherwise fete the same power brokers, but still a potential violation of campaign-finance laws that prohibit contributions by "non-profit" organizations. (When your CEO makes $592,000 a year, you get square quotes around "non-profit," and that's not even counting the zero-interest loans.) The anti-playoff crusaders at Playoff PAC called on the IRS to enter the investigation last year, but (as always) the Tax Man will neither confirm nor deny its involvement. [Arizona Republic]
• What, that insulting letter? Bygones! UConn has patched things up with Robert Burton, the rogue booster who fired off an angry, six-page letter last month demanding the athletic department return millions of dollars in donations and take Burton's name off the football complex after failing to consult with him in the process of hiring Paul Pasqualoni as the Huskies' new head coach. Burton said in a statement he was angry because of "unmet expectations and displeasure with the process," but "came to the conclusion that I'm not going to let one experience change the relationship my family and I have with UConn." No word on whether he would still like to fire "unqualified" athletic director Jeff Hathaway. [Hartford Courant]
• Happy trails. The Pac-10's transition to the Pac-12 will include a "restructuring" of its officiating hierarchy: Longtime Pac-10 ref Dave Cutaia is out as the league's officiating coordinator (reportedly at his request), and former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira is in on an interim basis. If you don't know Cutaia's name, you almost certainly do know his work as the head official of the most unfathomably bad call I've ever seen, the botched onside kick/review that enabled Oregon's late victory over Oklahoma in September 2006:
Cutaia and his entire crew were suspended by the conference in the aftermath of the Sooners' loss, and if this blog existed (and it should), Cutaia's decision to award Oregon a loose ball that a) Had been illegally touched before traveling the requisite 10 yards and b) Was clearly recovered by Oklahoma anyway would be on the masthead. Respect. [Los Angeles Times]
Quickly… Houston Nutt says he didn't cut nobody. … Kyle Prater's comeback will be slowed by a villain to at least half of his home state.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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