Boulder, Colo. ? Colorado named assistant Brian Cabral the interim head coach of its beleaguered football program Friday pending an investigation into a recruiting scandal that includes allegations of player rape.

Cabral will step in for Gary Barnett, who was put on paid leave this week after criticizing the athletic ability of a former Colorado player who says she was raped by a teammate in 2000.

The 47-year-old Cabral said he would try to “pull this team together” and “win back the confidence of the university, the community, the alumni (and) former players in our program.”

“I believe our players possess the character we recruited them for,” he said. “We will not just maintain but we will build this program.”

The recruiting investigation is scheduled to be completed by April 30. Cabral made it clear he considered his job a temporary one and that he expected Barnett to be reinstated.

“I have no doubt when all is said and all is done, we’ll find coach Barnett to be a man of character,” he said.

The program is at the center of a scandal that erupted three weeks ago with the disclosure of allegations it used sex and alcohol to entice recruits. The claim was raised in depositions for federal lawsuits filed by three women who say they were raped by football athletes in 2001.

Since then, a player has been suspended for taking a recruit to a strip club and a former recruiting aide admitted he used a university phone to dial up an escort service for his personal use.

Far more damaging are the rape allegations. In all, seven women dating to 1997 say they were assaulted by football players or recruits, though no charges have been filed in any of the cases.

Cabral is a former Colorado player who has been an assistant for 15 years.

He was promoted to assistant head coach in 1999, shortly after Barnett was hired.

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Player claims racial profiling: A lawyer for a Colorado football player said Friday her client was a victim of racial profiling when police investigated him as a suspect in an alleged rape.

The player was a suspect in a 2002 rape allegation, but a DNA test showed he was not connected to the case, his lawyer, Nancy Holton, said.

“My heart goes out to the victim. Rape is a terrible thing, however I feel appalled that all the investigation had as a description of the possible perpetrator is that he was big and black,” Holton said during a news conference.

She said the victim only remembers talking to two black men at a tavern and then waking up in her apartment with evidence that she had been assaulted.

Holton said a Boulder police detective called her and said her client had been cleared through a DNA test.