USF junior tight end Trent Pupello, taking a year off from football as he recovers from injuries from a car accident last fall, was arrested Friday and charged with four felony charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery, as well as a misdemeanor count of discharging a firearm in public.

Here's a link to the full story in Saturday's Times, and here is his arrest at Mugshots.tampabay.com.

"We have not been involved with Trent Pupello since the beginning of the semester," USF coach Jim Leavitt said in a statement issued Friday night. "He was not going to play for us in 2009 because of an injury and academic issues. I am just learning of the situation. However, if the charges were true, we would never allow anyone that is involved in behavior of that nature to be a part of the USF football program."

Pupello was released from county jail on $25,000 bond. He identified himself to police as working at the Tahitian Inn, which his father Joe owns.

Pupello, who transferred to USF last year after two seasons at Florida, emerged as a starter early last season before he was sidelined by a neck injury suffered in a car accident the week of USF's loss at Louisville. Coach Jim Leavitt said this spring that Pupello would take a year off from football and would not be on scholarship this fall, but could return for his final season of eligibility in 2010.

 Pupello was listed on a 2009 football roster released by USF Thursday night but was removed from the roster on USF's official site Friday night.