LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Rams promoted assistant Nate Scheelhaase to offensive coordinator, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Friday.

Scheelhaase replaces Mike LaFleur, who became the Arizona Cardinals’ head coach this month.

The 35-year-old Scheelhaase became a rising star in NFL coaching circles last season. He interviewed for at least five head coaching vacancies in the past two months. He spent the previous two years as a top offensive assistant to McVay and LaFleur, receiving the title of pass game coordinator last season while the Rams went 14-6 and reached the NFC title game.

The 35-year-old Scheelhaase is a former Illinois quarterback who was on Matt Campbell’s staff at Iowa State from 2018 to 2023, eventually becoming the Cyclones’ offensive coordinator in his final season and leading a dramatic improvement that caught McVay’s attention.

Vols QB has his bid denied

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar’s bid for an injunction that would have enabled him to continue playing for the Volunteers this fall was denied on Friday by a Knox County Chancery Court judge.

Aguilar was arguing that he should be allowed a fourth year of playing Divisional I football rather than having the years he spent in junior college count against his eligibility. Chancellor Christopher D. Heagerty instead dissolved the temporary restraining order he had granted in the case on Feb. 4 and denied Aguilar’s request for an injunction.

Aguilar played at Diablo Valley (California) Community College from 2021-22 before transferring to Appalachian State, where he spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Aguilar then transferred to Tennessee and completed 67.3% of his passes for 3,565 yards with 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions this past season.

Although Aguilar has been invited to next week’s NFL draft scouting combine, he had filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in an attempt to return to Tennessee to play one more season.

Thirteen MLB calls changed

Just over half the ball/strike challenges were successful on the first day of spring training games Friday as Major League Baseball prepared for the first regular-season use of the automated ball-strike system — the so-called robot umpires.

Thirteen of 23 calls were overturned during the five games, MLB said, which came to 56.5%.

There were an average of 4.6 challenges per game and 2.6 overturned calls per game.

Seven challenges were made of plate umpire Alex MacKay’s calls during Arizona’s 3-2 win over Colorado, and six were successful. The Diamondbacks had four of five decisions reversed and the Rockies were 2 for 2 in challenges.

MLB experimented with the ABS system during spring training last year and teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182) challenges.

Each team has the ability to challenge two calls per game. Teams that waste their challenges get one additional challenge in each extra inning.

A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for big league teams with video reviews, which were first used for home run calls in August 2008 and widely expanded to many calls for the 2014 season.