College football notebook: UNLV OC Cotton resigns, needs heart transplant

UNLV offensive coordinator Barney Cotton resigned after learning he needs a heart transplant, Rebels coach Tony Sanchez announced on Thursday.

Cotton, who turns 63 in September, served in the role for the last four seasons. The school said that Cotton is currently in his hometown of Omaha, Neb. He is a former player and assistant coach for Nebraska and was interim coach for the 2014 Holiday Bowl -- a 45-42 loss to USC -- after Bo Pelini was fired.

Cotton, an offensive lineman, was a third-round draft pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1979. He started 11 of 45 NFL games played for the Bengals (1979) and St. Louis Cardinals (1980-81).

Garin Justice will step into the offensive coordinator role. Justice is in his second year on the UNLV staff. He has five seasons of head-coaching experience at Division II Concord University (W.Va.), where he went 40-17 from 2011-15.

--Colorado split with linebacker Santino Marchiol, a local product who had hoped to resurrect his college football career with the Buffaloes, after his arrest last month.

Marchiol, 21, was arrested on June 24 in Pueblo, Colo., on suspicion of second-degree assault bodily injury, a felony, in an alleged domestic violence incident. He also faces two misdemeanor assault charges and a violation for contempt of a protection order, the Denver Post reported.

Marchiol was set to join the Buffaloes next month as a walk-on but has been told by first-year coach Mel Tucker not to show up. He has previously been at Texas A&M and Arizona but has yet to play a down of college football.

--Former Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill and the NCAA reached agreement in a longstanding lawsuit filed in 2004.

The settlement, reached on the third day of a trial in Madison County, Miss., was confidential. Sherrill's attorney, Wayne Ferrell, revealed only that there was a financial settlement and that the agreement also cleared him to work at any NCAA school.

Sherrill resigned from Mississippi State in 2003 amid an NCAA investigation into alleged promises of unallowed benefits to one recruit and to the family of another. The NCAA's Committee on Infractions found insufficient evidence to punish Sherrill but did place Mississippi State on probation. Sherrill, 75, contended in his lawsuit that the NCAA investigation harmed his reputation and kept him from getting another job.

--Coveted quarterback prospect Drake Maye committed to Alabama, spurning his home-state school and family legacy at North Carolina.

His brother, Luke, was a second-team All-ACC selection in basketball for the Tar Heels last season, and father, Mark, was UNC's starting quarterback in 1986-87.

Drake Maye (6-foot-4, 205 pounds) is a four-star recruit and the nation's No. 7 pro-style quarterback in the Class of 2021, according to the 247Sports composite. A rising junior at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, he chose the Crimson Tide over offers from a number of schools, including North Carolina, Georgia, Clemson, Michigan and Ohio State.

--Field Level Media