The Associated Press

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The lawyer for a former Miami University assistant football coach charged with knocking down a Marshall fan after a game asked Thursday for the case to be moved.

Jon Wauford, a former defensive coordinator, has pleaded innocent to a misdemeanor battery charge for the incident after Marshall's last-second 36-34 win over Miami Nov. 12.

Cabell County Magistrate Patty Verbage-Spence rescheduled Thursday's pretrial hearing to May 28 to consider the request.

Wauford was not in court Thursday.

Lawyer Paul Farrell said Wauford's trial should be moved because the publicity of the case would make it difficult to seat an impartial jury in the town where Marshall is located.

Verbage-Spence could move the trial or request a jury from another county.

Wauford is accused of knocking Robert A. Flaugher of Pickerington, Ohio, to the ground as he made his way through the crowd at the end of the game.

Flaugher hit his head on artificial turf and was taken on a stretcher to a hospital with a concussion.

Wauford was led off the field in handcuffs. He remains free on $5,000 bond.

Miami suspended Wauford, and he announced his resignation in January.

Miami also suspended assistant coach Taver Johnson, who admitted he had damaged Marshall's visiting coaches' box following the loss.