College football | Florida State president lays out plan to improve athlete behavior

Florida State president John Thrasher has outlined a plan to help athletes avoid more off-field issues that have put the university in the national spotlight.

Thrasher, who is in his first year as the school's president, is taking a proactive approach to correcting what has become a public-relations nightmare in Tallahassee. Two FSU football players -- freshman quarterback De'Andre Johnson and sophomore running back Dalvin Cook -- were charged with misdemeanor battery on back-to-back nights in late-June after each allegedly struck separate women at separate bars. Johnson, 19, was dismissed from the team after video of the incident was released earlier this month, while Cook, 19, remains suspended indefinitely.

"When you have two things like this happen and you get national attention, you have to pay attention to it," Thrasher said during a meeting with the Tallahassee Democrat's editorial board Thursday.

Thrasher said FSU wants its athletes to be required to take a course in social responsibility and will bring in outside speakers to talk with the team about living up to high standards on and off the field.

FSU will also add another member to its compliance department to focus specifically on "student-athlete development," Thrasher told the Democrat.

Perhaps most noteworthy is Thrasher's decision to dig deeper into the background of prospective athletes when they are recruits. Thrasher noted coaches already do this, but an extra emphasis will be placed on this area.

FSU has become the subject of scrutiny among various national media outlets in recent years following several other incidents involving football players who were accused of coming acts of violence against women. Most notably, star quarterback Jameis Winston, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was accused of raping a former student in December 2012. Winston was not charged by the state attorney's office and was not found responsible of any university rule violations following a code-of-conduct hearing supervised by retired Florida Supreme Court justice Major Harding.

Thrasher, who took office in November, met with the football team last week and has released various statements indicating that he is committed to making changes.

"As I've said before, the vast majority of our student-athletes are good students and positive role models who contribute to their university and their communities," Thrasher said in an open letter last week. "But the actions of a very few are tarnishing the reputation of our outstanding institution. We need to do better, and I want to assure you changes will be made to address these concerns."

MIAMI'S INSIGHT -- Like millions of other Americans, Shannon McCarthy and Ronnie Johnson watched the Women's World Cup semifinal on TV recently and cringed when they saw the head collision between U.S. midfielder Morgan Brian and German forward Alexandra Popp as they leaped for the ball. Both ended up on the ground, Popp with a bloody gash.

Four minutes later, both were back in the game after quick sideline examinations by doctors. Brian said she was asked to touch her finger to her nose, follow a moving finger, and to repeat the words "car," "apple," "elbow," "ball" and "house" three times.

McCarthy and Johnson watched with greater concern than the average fan because they play soccer for the University of Miami.

That is why Wednesday morning, McCarthy and Johnson were at the UM Hecht Athletic Center, along with Miami football players, testing concussion-detection goggles being developed by UM doctors and a Pittsburgh-based software company called Neuro Kinetics. The project is being largely funded by a $500,000 grant from the NFL, Under Armour and GE. The U.S. Department of Defense has also been involved, as the goggles can be used on the battlefield for soldiers with head trauma.

The goggles feature imbedded eye tracking and stimulus display and can detect brain injury by measuring eye movement and speed and symmetry of pupil dilation. This data helps determine at the site of injury whether an athlete is clear to return to the game or whether further medical attention is needed.

"Everything with technology is so much more innovative now, so to have computerized, concrete findings on the spot that seem super accurate can only make us athletes safer and better off in the long run," McCarthy said.

"And it can fit in a backpack, so we can take it on road games, so there would never be an excuse for putting in a player who doesn't belong on the field. I think it's great. Rather than just doing a manual test, to be able to go into the locker room, put on these goggles and know for sure -- not 50-50, not someone's opinion -- that's going to help a lot of athletes."

Johnson agreed.

When she was in high school, a club teammate suffered a concussion, was out for more than a year and eventually quit.

"She was stuck in a dark room for months, and when she came back out, she had to wear sunglasses and ear plugs, so it was really bad," Johnson said. "She had gotten a concussion and then she kept playing and got hit again. People weren't really monitoring it. When something happens, you have to make sure you're OK before you go back in, which is why these goggles are really cool."

UM researchers will spend the next 18 months developing the goggles, then make a production model and hope for FDA approval. Their aim is three types of devices -- a simple red light-green light version under $200 that could be used in youth sports, a more sophisticated model for college and pro sports and the most complex device to be used by physicians to aid with concussion treatment and clearance.

"Eye movement is one of the best ways to assess vestibular imbalance dysfunction, and that is what we are trying to achieve with these goggles," Szczupak said. "We want to get objective data, hard numbers, so we can determine if athletes can return to play or not. We want to take the guesswork out of it, and so far, the athletes we have tested seem very enthusiastic about it."

This story was originally published July 19, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "College football | Florida State president lays out plan to improve athlete behavior ."