2011 November at LinesMaker

Del Rio ‘disappointed’ Jags Didn’t Deliver on Weaver’s Ultimatum

Jack Del Rio never bought into the idea that this would be his last sea­son as coach of the Jack­sonville Jaguars. Not when the team switched to rookie quar­ter­back Blaine Gab­bert. Not when they lost five con­sec­u­tive games. Not even Tues­day, when owner Wayne Weaver fired him after eight-plus seasons. “I never gave into that,” Del Rio told WJXT-TV when asked if his fir­ing was inevitable. “There was cer­tainly plenty of that kind of spec­u­la­tion,” Del Rio added. “Any time an owner makes a state­ment like, ‘You bet­ter be in the play­offs or else,’ and then... 

WSU Fires Wulff After 9 Wins in 4 Years

PULLMAN, Wash. — Wash­ing­ton State foot­ball coach Paul Wulff was fired Tues­day after four years dur­ing which his teams won only nine games. “I appre­ci­ate all that Paul has done for Wash­ing­ton State foot­ball,” ath­letic direc­tor Bill Moos said in a state­ment announc­ing the fir­ing. “He was hired with the objec­tive of rebuild­ing this pro­gram and estab­lish­ing a solid foun­da­tion. For that I thank him.” Moos said he hoped to hire Wulff’s suc­ces­sor in two or three weeks. He said he had a list with a half-dozen names, includ­ing for­mer Texas... 

Small in Stature, Atkinson Coming Up Big on the Ice

It’s easy to spot Cam Atkin­son on the ice. The small­est of the Spring­field Fal­cons, the 5-foot-8 winger is rec­og­niz­able as the blur reg­u­larly weav­ing through defense­men twice his size and beat­ing out goal­tenders with twice his experience. At 22 years old, the Colum­bus Blue Jack­ets’ prospect is ranked eighth among AHL rook­ies in scor­ing with 9 goals and 15 points in 18 games this season. Though some would sug­gest his size could be a hin­drance in his bud­ding pro­fes­sional career, Atkin­son disagrees. “I see it as a pos­i­tive and use it to my advan­tage,... 

The Dodgers Are Talking to Adam Kennedy

The Dodgers are talk­ing to Adam Kennedy Craig Cal­caterra Nov 29, 2011, 3:10 PM EST 1 Comment Feel the off­sea­son excite­ment, Dodgers fans: Accord­ing to Ben Nicholson-Smith of MLB Trade Rumors, the Dodgers are talk­ing to Adam Kennedy. What? Super-utility play­ers don’t turn you on? Would it help if I told you that he played DH and bat­ted cleanup last year? Not that says any­thing as use­ful about him as it does the 2011 Mariners, but it’s some­thing right? OK, fine, it’s not any­thing. Kennedy hit .234/.277/.355 and he turns 36 in Jan­u­ary. He ha a glove still,... 

Head to End Direct F1 Involvement at Williams

Williams co-founder and engi­neer­ing direc­tor Patrick Head will play no active role in the team next sea­son, he has con­firmed. Head will instead switch his atten­tions to the team’s suc­cess­ful hybrid tech­nolo­gies business. “I am not going to be directly part of the Williams For­mula One pro­gramme next year,” Head told news agency , after the team com­pleted their worst-ever sea­son in F1 at Sunday’s Brazil­ian Grand Prix. Head, 65, set up Williams Grand Prix Engi­neer­ing with team prin­ci­pal Frank Williams back in 1977, but has delib­er­ately reduced his... 

Lions’ Suh Reportedly Apologizes to Goodell for on-Field Actions

Ndamukong Suh report­edly took his apolo­gies to the top of the NFL food chain. The defen­sive tackle called NFL Com­mis­sioner Roger Good­ell on Sun­day night to apol­o­gize for his behav­ior dur­ing the Detroit Lions’ Thanks­giv­ing Day loss to the Green Bay Pack­ers, a league source told ESPN.com. One day after he was ejected for stomp­ing on Pack­ers guard Evan Dietrich-Smith, Suh called his reac­tion “unac­cept­able.” The Lions also con­demned his actions, and the league has said it would look at poten­tial dis­ci­pline once all the Week 12 games are completed. As... 

Jaguars Fire Coach Del Rio After Eight-Plus Seasons

The Jack­sonville Jaguars have fired long­time head coach Jack Del Rio, a team source told NFL Net­work insider Jason La Canfora. Del Rio informed his coach­ing staff of the deci­sion on Tues­day, accord­ing to the source. He told them that Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver has ideas about how to pro­ceed, but Del Rio was uncer­tain who would replace him. A source told NFL Network’s Albert Breer that defen­sive coor­di­na­tor Mel Tucker will take over as interim head coach. Tucker joined the Jaguars in 2009 fol­low­ing four sea­sons as an assis­tant with the Cleve­land Browns. The... 

Hearings for Penn St. Admin Delayed

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Court hear­ings have been delayed for two Penn State admin­is­tra­tors charged with lying to a grand jury inves­ti­gat­ing child sex abuse alle­ga­tions against for­mer assis­tant coach Jerry Sandusky. Ath­letic direc­tor Tim Cur­ley is on admin­is­tra­tive leave, while Gary Schultz has retired as a vice pres­i­dent. They also each face a count of fail­ing to report an alle­ga­tion involv­ing San­dusky in 2002 to authorities. The Dauphin County Court Administrator’s office said Tues­day their pre­lim­i­nary hear­ings have been pushed back 10... 

Carolina Opportunity Has Muller Raring to Go

As he fielded ques­tions dur­ing his first press con­fer­ence as coach of the Car­olina Hur­ri­canes, Kirk Muller dis­played all the excite­ment of a man who had just won a lot­tery jackpot. His new job promised to be “excit­ing” and “fun” — words he leaned on over and over again. Each answer gave him a new rea­son to smile. It wasn’t just a new job for Muller, it was his first as an NHL head coach. Car­olina named the 45-year-old to suc­ceed Paul Mau­rice, who was fired Mon­day morn­ing. After more than 1,100 regular-season games as a player, Muller had put in his... 

Chris Leben Nailed Again for Banned Substances, Dana White to Stick by Him During One-Year Suspension

Chris Leben has bat­tled demons his entire career. Now he’s got another fight on his hands fac­ing a one-year sus­pen­sion after test­ing pos­i­tive for two banned sub­stances fol­low­ing UFC 138. For shows in the U.K., the UFC over­sees drug testing: Zuffa, LLC, owner of the Ulti­mate Fight­ing Cham­pi­onship® (“the UFC®”), today released infor­ma­tion stat­ing that mid­dleweight fighter Chris Leben tested pos­i­tive for Oxy­codone and Oxy­mor­phone fol­low­ing his Nov. 5 loss to Mark Munoz in the main event of UFC® 138 in Birm­ing­ham, England. Leben,...