NDSU's Purcell leaves program for personal reasons

By Jeff Kolpack

October 26, 2008 11:00 PM

FARGO -- Darius Purcell's year of upheaval continued last week. He left the North Dakota State football team for personal reasons, said head coach Craig Bohl.

The backup freshman strong safety, who was thrust into immediate action because of injuries to the Bison secondary, played in six games making 12 tackles and recovering one fumble.

Also leaving the team last week was offensive lineman J.J. Manowske. The 6-foot-3, 290-pound redshirt freshman from Fond du Lac, Wis., also left for personal reasons, Bohl said.

Purcell transferred to NDSU over the summer from the University of Illinois. Bison coaches say a death in the family may have contributed to his decision to go back home to Chicago.

"It's tough anytime a guy leaves the program and it's not the best decision he could make," said defensive coordinator Willie Mack Garza. "We did everything we could to help him see it was not the best decision but you can't make it for him."

For more, see tomorrow's Forum.

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.