Marcus Whalen arrived at BYU in summer 2000, a highly touted high school running back. In the first game of the season, Whalen entered in overtime and scampered 16 yards, setting up a field goal that would win the game.

"That was a huge run," Coach LaVell Edwards said after the game. "He's going to be a good back." Edwards was right, but few remember Whalen for his accomplishments on the field.

Instead, he is mostly remembered for what he did when he wasn't playing.

In a span of a few months in 2001, Whalen was arrested twice, once for shoplifting beer and sandwiches and once for underage drinking. He withdrew from BYU, but the Honor Code Office allowed him to come back a year later.

In fall 2002, Whalen said his troubles were behind him. His mother moved to Orem to support him, and he had recently married. That year, he led the team in rushing.

At the outset of the 2003 season, he was injured and did not see much playing time.

This would have been Whalen's last year of eligibility, a final year to prove himself to NFL scouts. Instead, he has spent much of the fall in court, fighting charges of assault and robbery. Last week, he reached a plea deal with Utah County prosecutors who say he and another player, Breyon Jones, assaulted and robbed a man in April.

The incident was the proverbial last straw for BYU. Whalen was kicked out of school in June, effectively ending his collegiate career. Jones was suspended for a year.

Whalen says he was treated unfairly largely because of his race. There were second chances, yes, but he says he was also accused of things he never did.

"It's not hard to see that we definitely are targeted," he says. "There are white guys that do things, too, but I guess we're just cursed that way or pursued a lot harder."

Whalen and other players say they have known of white, Latter-day Saint athletes who regularly violated parts of the Honor Code, which prohibits sex outside of marriage, drinking alcohol and smoking, but were never disciplined.

He says white players are given the benefit of the doubt by police officers and BYU officials.

"I think it's hard for them not to give (white players) the benefit of the doubt. They're all white guys, and they're Mormon," Whalen says, referring to Provo's police department and BYU's Honor Code Office.

"It always comes in consideration that they went on an (LDS) mission. Like, 'We're not going to investigate this,' " he says. "When (black players) come in, instead of asking what happened, they say, 'We know what happened. We know you did this.' And no matter what you tell them, they try to get you to admit something."