A $60 handshake with a would-be agent, a few slices of pizza and the fact that it took Forrest Conoly a long time to come clean will cost Florida State’s lineman a four-game suspension.

Florida State President Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte on Thursday finally put a number to Conoly’s time off the football field, stunning Conoly and satisfying FSU coach Bobby Bowden.

The penalty was the harshest of the five D’Alemberte has handed out in connection with the players’ involvement with would-be agents last year.

D’Alemberte received a fourth update of FSU’s internal investigation by attorneys Michael Glazier and Rick Evrard, and the probe shows Conoly last year accepted three $20 bills during a handshake with one of three agent representatives he twice met at the Tallahassee Sheraton Hotel.

In addition, Conoly, a 6-foot-7, 325-pound offensive tackle, admitted eating pizza on one or both nights that he talked to Nate Cebrun, Raul Bey and Paul Williams.

Cebrun, who pleaded no contest to a third-degree felony of failing to register with the state of Florida as a sports agent, told investigators Conoly called him before the Orange Bowl and asked for more money to buy clothes.

Investigators recommended a threeor four-game suspension.

“I believe this closes the chapter on game suspensions for our players,” said D’Alemberte, who on July 29 put Conoly on indefinite suspension until his status was clarified.

One of the reasons for the four-game suspension is that it took more than three months for Conoly and his attorney to agree to follow-up interviews with investigators.

They reported to D’Alemberte that Conoly admitted his role in the affair only recently.

“The important thing is that in the end he told the truth,” Bowden said. “I’m sorry it happened, but I’m sure we learned a heck of a lesson from it. We’re just keeping our fingers crossed that this is the end of it.”

Derrick Brooks, Tiger McMillion and Marcus Long will serve a two-game suspension, and Patrick McNeil will serve three games on the sideline.

All the penalties begin with fourth-ranked FSU’s season-opener Saturday against Virginia.

Conoly, a redshirt junior from Berlin, Conn., did not wish to discuss the issue Thursday after practice.

“I just can’t talk about it,” Conoly told an FSU spokesman, who described the offensive lineman as disbelieving of his sanctions.

Bentley is the kicker

The battle for place-kicking duties has been won by Scott Bentley, Bowden said, but the race was extremely close. Even so, Bentley now will have to kick his way out of the lineup in a game situation… A nagging neck burner might prevent starting guard Lewis Tyre from playing much against Virginia.

FSu won’t miss Brooks

The absence of FSU All-America linebacker Derrick Brooks, who will serve the first game of a two-game suspension, will not be a factor Saturday, according to Virginia coach George Welsh.

“They didn’t have Brooks last year and they only beat us by 26,” Welsh said. “What you’d like to do is run the ball on them and block them like Notre Dame did, but probably nobody in the country has a line like Notre Dame’s. You can’t block them. They’re too good.”