ESPN College Football

DETROIT -- A former Central Michigan football player awaiting sentencing in a 2004 beating death already is serving jail time in an effort to get back on the field as soon as possible.

"His objective is to get all this behind him so that he can re-enter school and continue with his football career, if at all possible," said his lawyer, Jeffrey Edison.

Jerry Seymour, 21, of Miramar, Fla., had been on trial for second-degree murder and other charges in the beating of Demarcus Graham outside a Mount Pleasant bar.

Seymour pleaded no contest to attempted assault with a dangerous weapon July 18. The charge is a high-court misdemeanor, a category of crime that falls between a misdemeanor and a felony. A no contest plea isn't an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing, which is scheduled for Aug. 21.

Seymour will remain at the Isabella County jail until his sentencing. Two years in prison is the maximum penalty, but a more likely sentence would range from probation to six months in prison, officials have said.

Out of school for two years, Seymour wants to enroll at Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant for the start of the fall semester, which begins in late August, Edison said.

"He wants to do all he can do to make sure that he complies with whatever the court decides and to finish it, so he submitted himself to the custody of jail," Edison said.

The month Seymour will spend in jail before sentencing will be deducted if he is sentenced to time, Edison said.

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press