Two Illinois players plead guilty

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Two University of Illinois football players will serve eight-day jail sentences when the season ends after pleading guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor battery charges stemming from a barroom brawl, prosecutors said.

Defensive players Matt Sinclair, 22, and Ryan Matha, 21, were accused of tackling and punching Jamaal L. Applewhite of Champaign this summer. The players had been charged with felony aggravated battery but pleaded to lesser charges.

A Champaign County judge sentenced Sinclair and Matha to eight days in county jail, beginning Nov. 21.

Applewhite, who was 19 at the time of the incident, also was charged with aggravated battery for allegedly hitting Sinclair on the head with a beer bottle. His court case is pending, Piland said.

Illini coach Ron Turner declined to comment Wednesday.

"(I) haven't even talked to them (Sinclair and Matha)," he said. "They got back just in time for practice. I'm going to sit down and talk to them before I have any kind of statement at all."

Turner also said he would wait until he knows more information before deciding whether to discipline the two defensive players.

"I'll wait until I find out exactly what's going on," he said. "We've done quite a bit with them, so I'll wait and find out. I anticipate them playing this week. I anticipate them starting."

Both Sinclair and Matha did not start Saturday's game against Michigan after starting the first six games of the season.

Sinclair, a 6-3, 245-pound senior from St. Louis, leads the Illini with 59 tackles in seven games this season. He also has two sacks.

Matha, a 6-3, 300-pound junior from Dixon, has had 23 tackles this season.

The Illini (2-5) will take on Minnesota this Saturday in Minneapolis.