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Old vs new for UCLA’s Chip Kelly

UCLA coach Chip Kelly is facing his former school this weekend. Never have the stakes been this high. No. 9 UCLA plays at No. 10 Oregon this Saturday in a game that will likely narrow the Pac-12’s College Football Playoff chances to two teams. Kelly lost the first two games against Oregon, the team he led to the 2011 BCS national championship game, but takes a much better team with him to Autzen Stadium this year. “It’s always special going back there, it’s a special place in my life and there’s a lot of great people there that had a profound impact on my life,” said ...

Sports Mailbag: Ciarrocca dealt bad hand at Penn State

If PSU stumbles against Minnesota, it should bring a bit of satisfaction to the Gophers’ offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca. I thought that Franklin was awfully quick to kick his former OC to the curb. Ciarrocca was faced with the shortened, fragmented 2020 pandemic season with no spring practice and having to coach via Zoom. By the second offensive play of the opening game, he would have lost both of his starting running backs, leaving Sean Clifford to carry the team on his back, and we all know how that went. Clifford was ultimately benched. So, with only nine games on ...

Mailbag

Protecting NFL’s QBs is coming from top We all need to get off the NFL refs. Do you listen to your boss on most occasions? Probably, if you want to keep your job you do. The NFL likes money. A huge chunk of it comes from advertising.They can sell Aaron Rodgers vs. Tom Brady a heck of a lot easier than Jordan Love vs. Blaine Gabbert. The directives on what to call and not call are coming from Roger Goodell and his cronies. Any of us who grew up watching Jack Lambert and Jack Tatum cringe watching where the game is now, but obviously changes needed to be made so we ...

Big 12’s gloom-and-doom on its way out

By Ralph D. Russo The Associated Press NEW YORK — Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark spent part of this week in Manhattan, at ESPN’s South Street Seaport studios and also hunkered down in the midtown offices of one of the top public relations firms in the country, trying to “set the narrative” for a conference that has come back from the brink. Two and half months into his tenure, Yormark is grinding to deliver on his top priorities: Creating new revenue streams and making the Big 12’s brand more relevant to both high school recruits and potential business ...

Wembanyama … NBA teams might tank for him

By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press Victor Wembanyama already has command of the English language, including some terms that don’t exactly show up in the 18-year-old’s French dictionary. Among them: tanking. The worst-kept secret in the NBA this season is that some teams aren’t exactly going to be trying their best to win as many games as possible. Instead, they’ll be using this season to develop their young players, get them some experience, while hoping to be bad enough — and then lucky enough — to win the draft lottery and the chance to select the 7-foot-3 ...

Name brands losing their clout

By Jim Caltagirone For the Mirror That crashing sound you heard at the beginning of September was the shattered dreams of Dallas Cowboys and Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans. Once again, it’s apparent that the branding of those football teams possesses more clout than the on-field product. Decades have passed since the Cowboys and Fighting Irish last claimed a championship, but their fan bases have adopted the tendency to view each new season as the one that will fulfill their championship aspirations. Powerhouses tend to generate a feeling of entitlement among their loyalists ...