Five kicked off UConn football team

Five players were dismissed from the University of Connecticut football team by coach Randy Edsall yesterday for violating team rules. The players are sophomore wide receiver Nollis Dewar, freshman wide receiver Todd Dorcelus, junior safety Ricky McCollum, junior defensive end Harold Stanback, and freshman linebacker Carl Teague. The school would not elaborate on the violations and said it would have no further comment. The Huskies (2-3), who have lost three of their last four games, host Army (3-4) Saturday . . . The University of New Hampshire football team is ranked No. 1 in The Sports Network Division 1-AA Top 25 for the fifth consecutive week while Maine enters the poll for the first time since 2004 at No. 23. The 5-0 Wildcats are off to their best start since 1977. Also ranked are No. 8 Massachusetts and No. 15 Harvard . . . Boston College remains No. 1 in the uscho.com men's hockey poll, while Boston University moved up a slot to No. 3. In the women's uscho.com poll, New Hampshire is at No. 2, behind Wisconsin.

Toledo center Haris Charalambous died after collapsing during a conditioning practice for the basketball team. After Charalambous collapsed, trainers performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, university spokesman Lawrence Burns said. The cause of death was not immediately known. The 21-year-old Charalambous, of Manchester, England, was expected to be a backup this season.

Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut, the No. 1 pick in last year's NBA draft, likely will miss the beginning of the season with a lower left leg sprain that is expected to sideline him 6-8 weeks. Bogut banged his leg into Steve Blake's knee during a team scrimmage Saturday. Bogut, who grew up in Australia and was the 2004-05 National Player of the Year at Utah, averaged 9.4 points and 7.0 rebounds as a rookie last season . . . The Cape Cod Frenzy of the ABA signed former BC guard Jermaine Watson, a Dorchester native.

Joe Girardi, considered a leading candidate for the Chicago Cubs' managerial job, interviewed for the position with general manager Jim Hendry. The Florida Marlins fired Girardi last week after he guided them to a 78-84 record and kept them in contention for a playoff spot until late September despite having the majors' youngest team and lowest payroll. "Joe and I spent the better part of the day together," Hendry said. "I thought it went very well, and I think Joe appreciated coming down to Wrigley Field and seeing a lot of the people he knew from his playing days here." The Cubs chose not to bring back manager Dusty Baker, whose contract expired after this season, in which he went 66-96 . . . Rudy Jaramillo won't be a candidate to manage the Texas Rangers, telling GM Jon Daniels that he prefers to remain the team's hitting coach.

Fourth-seeded David Ferrer beat Andreas Seppi, 6-1, 6-4, in the first round of the Stockholm Open. Sixth-seeded Olivier Rochus and Paradorn Srichaphan also advanced. Rochus topped Vincent Spadea, 6-3, 6-4, while Srichaphan downed Mardy Fish, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-1 . . . Nicole Vaidisova beat fellow teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, 6-3, 6-3, to reach the second round at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Shahar Peer defeated Elena Bovina, 6-0, 6-2, while Elena Likhovtseva won 11 consecutive games to eliminate Maria Elena Camerin, 6-0, 6-1. In the first all-Russia match, Vera Zvonareva beat Vera Dushevina, 6-3, 6-2. US Open champion Maria Sharapova, seeded second, leads a record 15 Russian women in the main draw.

Italian cyclist Michele Gobbi was in a coma with severe head injuries following a fall in the GP Beghelli race in Italy. Blood flowed from Gobbi's head and his helmet was split in two after the accident in Saturday's race. He was airlifted to a Bologna hospital. Gobbi's Milram team said in a statement that he was in stable condition. The 29-year-old Gobbi has four victories in his pro career . . . Australian cyclist Karl Menzies won the second stage of the Herald Sun tour of Victoria state and held the overall lead over German Tobias Erler. Menzies, riding for the US-based HealthNet team, made a decisive break in the last of the three 1.17-mile closing laps to win the 110-mile stage in 4 hours 16 minutes 40 seconds.

Glenn Myernick, an assistant coach for the US men's soccer team and a former head coach of Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids, died in Thornton, Colo., after suffering a heart attack last week. . . . Former Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann has received "serious" coaching offers from Mexico and the US, a Klinsmann adviser said. Roland Eitel told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper it was still unclear whether Klinsmann would return to the sidelines . . . Suspended NFL star Ricky Williams ran for 71 yards on seven carries to help the Toronto Argonauts wrap up a CFL playoff spot with a 28-23 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos in Toronto . . . Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., is beefing up security for driver Brian Vickers after angry race fans called the track to complain that Vickers wrecked Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson on the last lap at Talladega. The Nextel Cup Series is scheduled to race Saturday night at Lowe's, and track owner Bruton Smith felt the need to offer Vickers assistance because of the flood of phone calls the track received yesterday . . . Virgin Atlantic Airways sponsors the second Row Jet Set, Row Transatlantic Sprints on the Charles River Oct. 20 at 7 p.m., featuring teams from Harvard, Northeastern, Cambridge, and Oxford in a 350-meter sprint.