LARAMIE — Wyoming assistant coach Willie Mack Garza has been suspended indefinitely from the football team after being charged with driving under the influence, head coach Craig Bohl announced Friday.
Garza was booked into the Albany County Detention Center on Thursday night on DUI alcohol and speeding charges, according to the jail log. In a statement, UW said the athletic department would have no further comment.
Garza has pleaded not guilty to both misdemeanor charges, according to court documents. A circuit court clerk said Garza’s next court date is scheduled for Nov. 14.
Garza is in his first season as the Cowboys’ safeties coach after being hired as the final on-field assistant in May. It’s his first job back at the Football Bowl Subdivision level since 2011, when he resigned as Southern California’s secondary coach amid his involvement in an NCAA investigation into recruiting violations when he was an assistant at Tennessee.
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The NCAA issued him a two-year show-cause penalty. Garza, who also coached under Bohl at North Dakota State from 2005-09, spent the previous two seasons as an assistant at Dixie State.
“We have a reputation of holding ourselves to high ethical standards here at the University of Wyoming, and I expect Coach Garza to follow those high standards,” Bohl said in a statement when Garza was hired.