UConn to play Tennessee in football
STORRS, Conn. -- Connecticut and Tennessee's rivalry is moving from the basketball court to the football field.
Connecticut announced Thursday that Tennessee will visit Rentschler Field in East Hartford in 2015, and the Huskies will travel to Neyland Stadium in Knoxville the following year.
The two women's basketball powers had met annually, until Tennessee canceled the series a year ago. The schools' football teams don't have quite the same pedigree.
Tennessee won the 1998 national championship in football and has 13 Southeastern Conference titles to its credit. UConn is beginning its sixth season in the Bowl Championship subdivision, and is coming off a 9-4 season and its first Big East co-championship.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
McMackin considered favorite to replace June Jones at Hawaii
HONOLULU (AP) -- Hawaii was expected to announce a new football coach to replace June Jones as early as Wednesday, with defensive coordinator Greg McMackin considered the front-runner to land the job.
McMackin has been endorsed by Jones and the remaining assistant coaches. Defensive line coach Jeff Reinebold said he would be "shocked" if McMackin was not hired.
Continuity is so important in a program where a culture has already been developed and there's already a winning attitude and belief system," he said. "There's a proven way of doing things and that would continue with Greg."
Reinebold and defensive backs coach Rich Miano considered the job until McMackin, who initially was to join Jones at SMU, decided to apply.
"I don't think there's any question that every single guy here feels that's the best direction to go," Reinebold said.
A phone message for McMackin was not immediately returned.
Jones, who left Hawaii after leading the Warriors to a 12-1 season, on Sunday said he supported a bid by McMackin to succeed him because that would be the best way to build on the team's successes.
McMackin has years of NFL and college experience. He just completed his second tour as the Warriors' defensive coordinator, having also served in 1999. Hawaii won Western Athletic Conference titles in both seasons.
This past season, McMackin installed an aggressive 4-3 scheme with Hawaii finishing ranked 34th in the nation in total defense, allowing 347.8 yards, the best in Jones' nine seasons at Hawaii.
The Warriors were 93rd the previous season under Jerry Glanville, despite having a team that finished 11-3 record and featured two defensive lineman who were drafted by the NFL. The Warriors were 102nd in 2005 and 116th in 2004.
McMackin also served as the San Francisco 49ers' linebackers coach from 2003-05. Before that, he was the defensive coordinator for three seasons at Texas Tech.
He was also the defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks from 1995-98 and at several colleges, including Miami.
His last head coaching position was at Oregon Tech from 1986-89, where he had four winning seasons.
A nine-member selection committee, headed by acting athletics director Carl Clapp and Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw, was scheduled to interview McMackin and the other candidates late Tuesday.
"The selection process is moving along as swiftly as possible. However, it's important that the necessary time is taken to make the correct decision," said John McNamara, associate athletics director. "I think in every search for a head coach, I think you want to reach a decision as quickly as possible."
A day after Jones accepted the SMU job, athletics director Herman Frazier was fired after receiving widespread criticism about failing to re-sign the coach.
The Warriors have several key defensive players returning next season, but will have to rebuild the offense. The team has lost quarterback Colt Brennan and all four starting receivers, including Davone Bess and Ryan Grice-Mullen, who have decided to skip their senior season and enter the NFL draft.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Florida State's athletic acadamic support program director leaves amid scandal
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- The director of Florida State's athletic academic support program is the latest casualty of the cheating scandal that stripped the football team of two dozen key players in last month's bowl loss to Kentucky.
Mark Meleney was told his contract would not be renewed, although he will be kept on the payroll until its expiration this summer to help with the transition.
Meleney was not fired," Florida State President T.K. Wetherell said Wednesday. "He's got the option to apply for anything."
Meleney, who was informed of his dismissal Tuesday, did not immediately respond to a phone message Wednesday for comment. He was head of the program for nine years.
Wetherell said he thought the personnel changes were largely completed.
Two of Meleney's employees were dismissed last year after it became known that answers were called out to students taking a music history class last spring. Many of those in the class were scholarship athletes.
"It's not physiology, it's a music course. Open book, online," football coach Bobby Bowden fumed last month during a preparation for the team's Dec. 31 Music City Bowl game. "Anybody could pass an open book test, gee whiz."
Athletic director Dave Hart Jr., and several of his assistants have also left in recent months, although those changes weren't directly related to the present investigation of academic wrongdoing by the school and NCAA.
Florida State is finalizing its report to the NCAA that involves nearly four dozen athletes in several sports who had answers provided to them on the exam in the three-credit hour class.
"We'd like to do it sooner than later, but that's up to the NCAA," Wetherell said. "We want to make sure we've got everything in it that they want."
He thought the report would be on its way by the end of the month. The university reported its initial findings in a letter to the NCAA in September after a six-month investigation by the school.
Wetherell has put interim athletic director Bill Proctor in charge of reshaping the academic support program.
"The president has high expectations about athletes attendance in class," Proctor said. "We are working on restructuring our academic support system. We want to make sure it functions."
The players forced to sit out the bowl game will also be suspended for the first three games of the 2008 season.
Federal privacy laws prohibit the school from releasing names of the suspended athletes.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Illini offensive coordinator Locksley denies interviewing at West Virginia
CARSON, Calif. -- Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley emphatically denied a report that he interviewed for West Virginia's head coaching job.
"That's crack media at it's best," Locksley said on Thursday. "I don't know where the story came from."
The Sporting News, citing sources, reported he interviewed with West Virginia on Wednesday.
Locksley is considered a top coordinator and one of the key figures in Illinois' recruiting efforts the past three seasons, but he insisted he has not had any contact with the Mountaineers. West Virginia has been looking for a coach since Rich Rodriguez left for Michigan on Dec. 16.
Asked if he's interested in the opening, Locksley said he would like to become a head coach, but "all my energy's geared toward" the Rose Bowl, where Illinois meets Southern California.
He did, however, say this about the West Virginia opening: "I think it's a great opportunity, a great job being a BCS conference school that's had success. It's a great opportunity for whoever they do hire, but having not been contacted, there's no need for me to even comment on it."
Locksley, who followed Illinois coach Ron Zook to Champaign from Florida, recently signed a contract extension through 2012.
"I'm very proud of him and what he's done," Zook said. "That's going to happen when you get a guy who's done a good job ... but he hasn't talked with them. I'm sure there have been some inquiries. I'm sure they're doing their research, and they want to hire the best possible guy. Obviously, Locksley's been awfully good."
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
Vols LB Shane Reveiz to need surgery for heart condition
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee reserve linebacker Shane Reveiz, son of former NFL kicker Fuad Reveiz, will need surgery to treat an unspecified heart condition.
"Our prayers go out to him," Volunteers coach Phillip Fulmer said Wednesday. "Our prayers go out to his family, the doctors. He'll require some surgery. To what degree, we're not sure just yet."
Reveiz, a Farragut native whose older brother Nick also plays linebacker for the Vols, is the second Tennessee athlete to have a heart condition discovered this month during a round of free echocardiogram tests provided by the school for all athletes. Basketball player Duke Crews was benched indefinitely on Friday with an unspecified heart condition.
"Here we are doing something proactively for the health of our young men, and we find something very significant that could be saving a young man's life," Fulmer said. "I'm really proud of our medical staff for getting that done."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
LSU's Dorsey wins Lombardi Award
HOUSTON (Ticker) - Louisiana State senior defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey continued his run on major postseason awards Wednesday night.
Dorsey was named the winner of the 38th Lombardi Award, which goes to the nation's top interior lineman.
It comes just two nights after Dorsey won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, which is emblematic of the nation's top defensive player.
Dorsey was selected over Ohio State's James Laurinaitis, Virginia defensive end Chris Long and Michigan offensive lineman Jake Long for the Lombardi Award.
"It's a huge honor to be named the best lineman in the country," Dorsey said. "There are a lot of guys out there that work as hard as I do and are just as deserving of this award. I am humbled to think I would be chosen, especially considering the quality of players I am surrounded by tonight."
Behind the play of Dorsey, the Tigers posted an 11-2 overall mark and will play Ohio State in the Bowl Championship Series national title game January 7 in New Orleans.
Dorsey is also a finalist for the Outland, Lott and Bednarik awards. He is the first LSU player to win a national award since Rudy Niswanger won both the Draddy Trophy and the Wuerffel Award following the 2005 season.
"I'm so proud of Glenn and what's he accomplished, not only this year, but throughout his career," LSU coach Les Miles said. "I've said it before, but Glenn represents all that is good about college football."
Dorsey, a native of Gonzales, Louisiana, is the leader of a defense that ranks third in the country in total defense. LSU allowed 283.8 yards and 19.6 points per game this season.
Through 13 games this year, Dorsey ranks as the Tigers' third-leading tackler with 64 stops to his credit. He is also responsible for six sacks, 11.5 tackles for a loss, four quarterback hurries and three passes defended.
"He epitomizes what it means to be an LSU football player," Miles said. "He's a quality player, one of the best I've ever been around, but he's an ever better person. He decided to hold off on the NFL for a year to come back to LSU to have a special senior season and he's done just that."
Copyright 2007 PA SportsTicker. All Rights Reserved
Old pals Erickson, Brown finally get to square off, in Holiday Bowl
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- More than two decades after they first met, Dennis Erickson and Mack Brown finally get to coach against each other.
They've crossed paths for years at coaching clinics and on junkets. Erickson has won two national championships and Brown has one.
They can't say enough nice things about each other, and probably will right up until kickoff of the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27, when Erickson's 12th-ranked Arizona State Sun Devils play Brown's No. 17 Texas Longhorns. It will also be the first meeting between the schools.
"Mack and I go back so many years, he's as gray as I am," Erickson joked at a news conference on Wednesday.
It's clear the two genuinely like each other.
"What you want to do in a bowl game is play somebody that you have great respect for," Brown said. "That doesn't always happen. You want to play a team that's played great and is well-coached and has great respect.
"I've known Dennis since even before Miami, going way, way back, and have great respect for him. He's won everywhere he's ever been. He knows how to coach football."
Brown certainly knows that Texas fans remember when Erickson's Miami Hurricanes routed the Longhorns 46-3 in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1991.
Erickson led the Sun Devils to a 10-2 record in his first season in Tempe. Texas, two seasons removed from winning the national championship with a Rose Bowl victory over Southern California, is 9-3.
Both coaches are looking forward to the challenge.
"We feel like we're very, very fortunate," Brown said. "We're going to be playing a BCS-caliber football team in the Holiday Bowl and it can't get any better than that. It will be fun for both teams to compete.
"We were inconsistent this year," said Brown, whose Longhorns are coming off a 38-30 loss to Texas A&M. "We played up and down. We didn't play to our standard all the time. Our guys needed a really good opponent to get a challenge to get excited about. We got it. We got all we wanted. It's an exciting challenge for us," Brown said.
Erickson said the Sun Devils, who lost to Oregon and USC, are excited to play the Longhorns.
"When you think about college football, I mean, you think about 'SC, you think of Ohio State, you think of Texas," he said. "That's a perennial power. That's what college football is all about. It's unbelievable. So for our guys to have the opportunity to play a storied program like that is great. Our guys are really, really excited about it."
Texas will be making its fourth Holiday Bowl appearance in eight seasons. It will be the third trip to San Diego for the Sun Devils.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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