Three players out for No. 19 Penn St., 4th booted
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- A Penn State football player has been kicked off the team for an undisclosed violation of team rules, and three others will miss this weekend's game against Oregon State because of a separate, off-field issue coach Joe Paterno said Thursday.
Reserve defensive back Willie Harriott is off the squad, Paterno said Thursday night on his weekly radio show. 0 In November, Harriott, of New Haven, Conn., was arrested for driving under the influence and speeding.
Paterno also said Thursday that defensive linemen Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma, and tight end Andrew Quarless will sit out Saturday's game against Oregon State. Paterno said he's still gathering information on a recent off-field incident.
Evans, Koroma and Quarless, along with cornerback A.J. Wallace, had been held out of Wednesday's practice for unspecified reasons. But Paterno said Thursday that Wallace would be available for the Oregon State game.
Of the three players who will sit out, Evans' absence might affect the Nittany Lions the most. The junior emerged as a pass-rushing force last season with 12½ sacks.
No. 19 Penn State has had to deal with a string of off-field issues over the last couple seasons.
Earlier this year, receiver Chris Bell was kicked off the team after police said he threatened a teammate with a knife in a dining hall. Bell had already been suspended at the time for another off-field issue.
Defensive tackles Chris Baker and Phil Taylor got the boot last month for other off-field reasons.
Two separate fights in 2007 involving players also became distractions for the Nittany Lions.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
QB Ryan Mallett transfers to Arkansas after 1 season at Michigan
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Bobby Petrino has already landed a major recruit for Arkansas -- former Michigan quarterback Ryan Mallett.
Mallett has transferred to Arkansas and will have three years of eligibility after sitting out the 2008 season. The 6-foot-7 freshman played in 11 games for the Wolverines before leaving after Rich Rodriguez replaced retiring coach Lloyd Carr.
Although he went to high school on the Texas side of Texarkana, Mallett lived on the Arkansas side. Now he returns to his home state.
"He's happy to be there," Jim Mallett said Thursday night. "He says, 'Dad, I'm back at home."'
Arkansas spokesman Kevin Trainor said Thursday that Ryan Mallett was in the process of enrolling.
Petrino was hired to replace Razorbacks coach Houston Nutt last month, and he faces a rebuilding project now that star tailbacks Darren McFadden and Felix Jones have decided to skip their senior seasons and go to the NFL.
Mallett figures to provide a boost once he's eligible. He was 61-of-141 for 892 yards with seven touchdown passes and five interceptions last season while filling in for Chad Henne when he was injured.
Jim Mallett said his son had a great experience at Michigan. However, Rodriguez runs a spread offense that works well with mobile quarterbacks. Ryan Mallett is best suited for a pro-style offense.
"Different system -- can't do anything about that," Jim Mallett said. "Had to find somewhere Ryan would fit in."
When Mallett was coming out of high school, Arkansas already had quarterback Mitch Mustain, who signed with the Razorbacks in 2006 as a highly touted recruit. Mustain transferred to Southern California after one year at Arkansas, leaving Casey Dick as the Razorbacks' starter this past season. Dick will be a senior next season, and after that Mallett will have a chance to step in.
Jim Mallett said his son considered Tennessee, Texas A&M and UCLA, but after visiting Arkansas, Ryan Mallett didn't make any trips to visit the other schools.
"Arkansas has always been a favorite of his," Jim Mallett said. "Because he grew up a Razorback."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Oklahoma WR Malcolm Kelly entering NFL draft
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Wide receiver Malcolm Kelly will skip his senior season at Oklahoma and enter the NFL draft.
Kelly was the team's second-leading receiver this season with 49 receptions for 821 yards and nine touchdowns, helping the No. 8 Sooners finish 11-3. His 21 career touchdown catches rank second in school history behind Mark Clayton's 30.
We're excited for Malcolm and his family," coach Bob Stoops said in a statement Thursday. "He was an outstanding player in our program and we appreciate all of his efforts."
Kelly said he discussed his options with his family and several friends who are playing in the NFL before making the decision.
"OU and the coaches there gave me the best opportunity to reach the pro level," Kelly said. "Going to OU was really the thing that put me in the position to be able to make this decision."
As a sophomore last season, the 6-foot-4, 219-pound Kelly had 62 catches for 992 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
North Dakota officials announce Dale Lennon's resignation
GRAND FORKS, N.D -- University of North Dakota officials have announced the resignation of football coach Dale Lennon, who's expected to be named head coach at Southern Illinois.
Steve Brekke, UND's acting co-athletic director, made the announcement at a UND news conference Friday morning. He thanked Lennon and said he was leaving for a "career opportunity."
Brekke said a new UND coach could be named as early as Friday.
"This football program is not built on one individual alone. This football program is built on tradition," Brekke said.
He said UND would begin an internal search first in seeking a coach.
"We feel these individuals deserve that opportunity to lead our program into the next stage of Division I," Brekke said.
"The success of this program isn't only a result of Dale Lennon. The assistant coaches are a very important part of the puzzle that we have here," Brekke said.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
The real reason for college football's '$illy $eason'
If you thought the PGA Tour was greedy for tacking on a few unofficial paydays at the end of the real season, get a load of college football's "silly season."
It kicked off Thursday night with the Poinsettia Bowl and stretches all the way to the BCS National Championship on Jan. 7.
That's 32 games in all and somehow the folks at the Bowl Championship Series, their Chamber of Commerce pals and the college presidents who unlocked the door to all that postseason loot still have the chutzpah to say that each and every one is being played "for the kids."
They tell us that all the kids who have been working hard in the classroom and on the practice field deserve a break -- not just the ones on teams that would be going to a playoff.
They tell us the kids are stressed out with exams as it is, and the last thing they want is for the season to spill over into next semester.
They tell us a few days in the sun spent soaking up the sights and playing one final game is their reward. That, and the Nintendo Wii those same kids will be digging out from the bottom of a gift bag even before their suitcases hit the bed.
Please.
It would be easier to believe if just once the kids were pocketing some of the cash being handed over by sponsors whose names are slapped on, wedged in or embedded in the bowls' names in every way imaginable. And if some of those bowls weren't being played in sun-drenched garden spots like Detroit, Toronto and Boise, Idaho.
And the talk about a playoff being tougher on academics might be the silliest excuse of all.
No less an old-school authority than Penn State coach Joe Paterno shot holes in that alibi a while back.
"Whenever the talk turns to having some kind of a playoff, they say you can't miss classes and yet we've already got NCAA playoffs and everything else. I mean, who's kidding who?" he said. "They've got to try to figure out a way to get rid of it and the hypocrisy of money, money, money."
Now we're getting somewhere.
The real student-athletes in college football's lower divisions have been competing in playoffs for years. For all the hype you're about to be fed in the coming weeks, the truth is the best story of this college football season has already been written.
It's about little Appalachian State, which beat Michigan to begin it and last week beat Delaware to notch its third straight 1-AA national championship. The bus the Mountaineers rode from their campus in Boone, N.C. to the championship game in Chattanooga broke down on the way back, but coach Jerry Moore didn't let it ruin the celebration.
Maybe that's because Moore knows a thing or two about adversity and how much sweat equity went into each and every one of those titles. He was hired at Appalachian State in 1989, survived some lean years and leaner budgets, and still managed to graduate kids and put a first-class product on the field almost every time.
And even with the bus breakdown, the Mountaineers made it back in time for exams -- and without enough cash, despite winning the whole thing, to cover the cost of the stadium expansion the school approved earlier this year. But all those obstacles were exactly what made the winning so sweet.
Remember that.
By the time we get to the end of the New Year's Day marathon -- an even dozen bowls kick off on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1 -- you'll be watching schools with athletic budgets that rival emerging nations but graduation rates that are meager at best.
Plus, some of the games will be shown on channels too few people get or they'll shoehorned into time slots only a TiVo could love.
Fans of long-suffering Indiana will have to find a bar with the NFL Network to watch their Hoosiers kick off against Oklahoma State at the Insight Bowl -- and try doing that in any bar on New Year's Eve. And anybody who wants to catch Missouri playing Arkansas in the AT&T Cotton Bowl should forget going out on New Year's Eve altogether. That game kicks off at 11 a.m., EST, which is about the time most people on the West Coast will just be coming home.
Worst of all, at the end of the whole "silly season," we could still be left with a half-dozen, two-loss teams jabbing their index fingers into the air -- "We're No. 1" -- and a computer could wind up picking among them. If that doesn't sound like a scam somebody cooked up to make money, well
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Miles denies Michigan rumors
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA (TICKER) -- Les Miles once again had to publicly state his loyalty to Louisiana State and deny any interest in a return to Michigan.
Miles issued a statement Tuesday admitting that he was contacted by Michigan, his alma mater, to discuss the school's coaching vacancy.
But Miles also claimed he simply was helping Michigan with its coaching search, confirming for the third time in the last two weeks that he plans to remain at LSU.
"I had a conversation with Michigan last week that covered a wide range of topics," Miles said. "I was doing nothing more than helping them with their search for a football coach, just as any loyal alumnus might do. It was nothing more than that.
"I'm not a candidate for that job and I will not be a candidate for the job. I was only assisting them in their search for a coach. I have a great job at a wonderful place, a place that my family calls home. It's time that Michigan goes on with their search for a football coach. I'll say it again, I'm going to be the coach at LSU next season."
The statement was released the same day that the Detroit Free Press reported Miles still was a candidate at Michigan, which has been searching for a coach since Lloyd Carr announced his retirement November 19.
Miles seemingly secured his future at LSU last Thursday, when he signed a contract extension to remain at the school through the 2012 season.
Miles, 54, announced his intent to stay at LSU in unofficial yet angry fashion five days earlier during an impromptu news conference prior to the Southeastern Conference championship game.
Addressing an erroneous report from ESPN earlier that day, Miles claimed that he did not attempt to interview with Michigan.
LSU (11-2) defeated Tennessee to win the SEC championship and jumped to No. 2 in the BCS standings the following day, locking up a spot opposite Ohio State (11-1) in the national title game on January 7.
Miles played for two seasons at Michigan under the late Bo Schembechler in 1974-75, then later served as an assistant coach for the Wolverines before moving on to Colorado in 1982.
Since replacing Nick Saban in 2005, Miles has a 33-6 record at LSU while guiding the Tigers to consecutive double-digit wins for the first time in school history.
Prior to his stint at LSU, Miles compiled a 28-21 record at Oklahoma State from 2001-04. He also was the tight ends coach for the Dallas Cowboys from 1998-2000.
Copyright 2007 PA SportsTicker. All Rights Reserved
Oklahoma CB Smith out for Fiesta Bowl with broken toe
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Oklahoma cornerback Reggie Smith has a broken big toe on his right foot and will not be play when the third-ranked Sooners face No. 11 West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl.
Trainer Scott Anderson said Thursday that Smith, an all-conference selection as a defensive back, would not be healed in time to play in the Jan. 2 game.
Smith, a junior, has played in all 39 of Oklahoma's games since arriving on campus as a highly-touted recruit from Edmond Santa Fe High School. He ranks fourth on the Sooners (11-2) with 78 tackles and also has three interceptions. He returned his lone fumble recovery of the season 61 yards for a touchdown against Miami.
However, Smith is more than just a cornerback. He is also Oklahoma's top punt returner, and he has returned one punt for a touchdown in his college career.
Fellow cornerback Dominique Franks replaced Smith on defense and as the Sooners' punt returner after Smith was injured in the victory against Missouri in the Big 12 championship game.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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