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The NCAA announced on Tuesday that Oklahoma Sooners assistant coach and former star NFL running back DeMarco Murray has been suspended for several recruiting violations.
“Recruiting violations occurred in the Oklahoma football program when assistant coach DeMarco Murray impermissibly contacted prospects and their families prior to the permissible time period, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions,” the NCAA said in a statement.
“Additional violations occurred in the track and field program when former head coach Tim Langford directed a female student-athlete to provide some of her scholarship funds to two student-athletes in the men’s track and field program. As a result of the violations in their respective programs, the parties agreed that football head coach Brent Venables and Langford violated head coach responsibility rules.
“The school, Murray and the enforcement staff agreed that the violations in the football program occurred when Murray impermissibly contacted 17 prospects over 16 months, including 65 impermissible phone calls and 36 impermissible text messages. Murray indicated that he was not aware that a COVID-19 waiver of recruiting contact rules had expired. During the investigation, the enforcement staff determined that the school had properly educated football coaches on the applicable recruiting rules and the timing of changes to them.”
DeMarco Murray currently serves as running backs for the Sooners, a position he has held since 2020. Prior to that he was the running backs coach for one year at the University of Arizona and worked as a college football commentator for Fox Sports for one year.
He holds the Dallas Cowboys’ franchise records for most rushing yards in a game by a rookie: 253; most rushing yards in a season: 1,845; and most all-purpose yards in a season: 2,261. In 2014, he was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
The University of Oklahoma Athletics Department, which was fined $5,000, put on probation for one year, issued a three-week ban on recruiting phone and electronics correspondences this winter, and is not allowed to have any unofficial visitors on campus for Friday’s game with Temple, issued its own statement about DeMarco Murray’s suspension.
“The University discovered the violations through its monitoring systems and investigated, reported, and addressed the matters promptly and appropriately,” the statement read. “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.”