Two starting linemen for Stanford, defensive tackle...

Two starting linemen for Stanford, defensive tackle Tony Leiker and offensive tackle John Zentner, were left home for unexplained reasons as the football team prepared for Saturday’s Gator Bowl matchup with the Clemson Tigers.

School officials refused to say whether their absence was due to drug tests, which were administered to 36 Stanford players Dec. 9 in compliance with NCAA policy.

Neither Leiker, a 6-5, 250-pound senior from Silver Lake, Kan., nor Zentner, a 6-5, 265-pound sophomore from Woodland Hills, would comment.

But Zentner’s father told the Los Angeles Daily News Monday that for 3 1/2 weeks last summer, his son experimented with steroids “for the first time.” He said his son stopped in July. “It absolutely devastated us,” the elder Zentner said of the positive test result.

Cardinal Coach Jack Elway refused comment here about the absence of the players and Donald Kennedy, president of the university, issued a statement reaffirming a Stanford decision to uphold the privacy of any student drug test results.