Joe Paterno fired by Penn State Board of Trustees

Joe Paterno, one of most successful coaches in college football history, was fired Wednesday night by the Penn State Board of Trustees amid an ongoing child-abuse scandal involving one of his former assistant coaches.

University president Graham Spanier was also fired.

Paterno, who announced earlier Wednesday his intention to retire at the end of his 46th season with the Nittany Lions, has been the center of criticism for failing to contact authorities in 2002 after being told a graduate assistant saw former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky assaulting a boy in a school shower.

Sandusky was arrested Saturday and has been accused of molesting eight boys over a 15-year period. He has denied the accusations.

Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley will serve as interim coach.

In a statement released before his firing on Wednesday, Paterno expressed remorse for the victims and regretted not doing more to stop the alleged incidents.

"This is a tragedy," Paterno said. "It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."

RELATED:

Full coverage: Penn State scandal

Scandal will ruin Penn State's program for years to come

Bill Plaschke: Forget sympathy, what Joe Paterno deserves is to be fired immediately

-- Austin Knoblauch

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: Penn State President Graham Spanier, left, and Coach Joe Paterno talk prior to a game against Iowa on Oct. 8. Credit: Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press

Testing Times: The campaign to save Test cricket

Australia captain Michael Clarke's lonely display of defiance against South Africa at Cape Town made for gripping viewing on Wednesday, giving the Test game a shot in the arm. West Indies' battling display against India in the first Test of that series also hinted at a welcome revival. Otherwise, however, the perception is that the five-day game is like South Africa's lions, leopards and giraffes – an endangered species, its territory being continually encroached upon by the Twenty20 game.

Australia captain Michael Clarke battles back against South Africa

Frustratingly, this series between South Africa and Australia is comprised of only two Tests. Next summer's clash between England and South Africa – effectively the world No1 title decider – is to be played over just three, even though England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke gave meetings between the two countries 'icon' (five-match) status in 2008. Pakistan are being forced to play their 'home' matches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah (they have just beaten Sri Lanka 1-0 in a series at those venues). And crowds outside matches in England and Australia are dwindling.

A hotel receptionist called Rebecca Duffy, from Hastings, and her friends want to do their bit for their cause, though. The group, which also includes James Corrigan, Lawrence Epps, Libby Leonard and Mat Richards, have initiated a campaign called 'Testing Times'. "Our aim," says Duffy, "is to find 28,000 people – the number of people who would fill Lord’s Cricket Ground – to sign our petition to show that people care about Test cricket.

"Our long term-goal is to persuade boards to ensure the protection of Test cricket by granting it greater emphasis in global schedules. However, our interim goal is to persuade the ECB to add an extra Test to next summer’s key clash between the world’s top two nations, England and South Africa."

In a short space of time, 'Testing Times' has recruited nearly 1,400 (at the last count) Twitter followers, and the cause seems to be taking off. They have been 'retweeted' by Jimmy Anderson, Ben Stokes, Jonathan Agnew, Henry Blofeld and Lalit Modi among others. "We were especially pleased with the Modi one. I suspect he didn't read it properly before retweeting, bless his cottons," Duffy said.

The 32 year-old says she fell in love with the game at the age of three. "I remember cheering for the wonderful, late Graham Dilley at Canterbury at that age."

Not to do the boards – who are responsible for how many matches there are in a series – a disservice, it is obvious why they make these decisions. The majority of cricket fanatics on the subcontinent prefer it short and sweet. I love Test cricket more than the abbreviated forms of the game, but that doesn't mean to say everyone should.

I would love the iconic old England Test jumper with a single lion in the middle to return. I hate the new whiter-than-white fleeces. I loathe the sponsor’s logo. I despise back-to-back Tests. I think matches should start on alternate Thursdays throughout the summer. And there should only be five or six. Not seven. As Rebecca teased me on Twitter: "Aaaah . . . and everyone sips lemonade on the village green whilst the Vicar's wife prepares the tea . . . if only!!"

I'm also glass-half-empty when it comes to England walloping India 4-0 in the Tests this summer. One of my colleagues told me to revel in it; it wasn't so long ago we could not beat 'flippin' Zimbabwe, or New Zealand, he said. But all I can think of is, if India are trounced, that is going to put even more of their fans off the Test game. And so on.

It is good to know there are plenty of others like me.

As the Stones used to sing, 'You can't always get what you want'. But you can try …

Sam Farmer on the decline of Philip Rivers [video]

 

 

Times NFL columnist Sam Farmer talks about the importance of the Raiders-Chargers game, and the story behind uneven quarterback play throughout the NFL. Among Sam's comments:

--Why the Raiders-Chargers game is so pivotal in deciding who wins the AFC West.

--His thoughts on the decline of Philip Rivers.

--How injuries have made Rivers' job harder.

--The up-and-down season of Joe Flacco.

--Tony Romo's journey from goat to hero to goat to hero.

--Whether the shortened preseason has had an impact on quarterbacks.

ALSO:

For one week, some NFL quarterbacks catch a break

Giants have bridge to cross with trip to San Francisco

--Houston Mitchell

 

 

 

USC signs two, including guard rated No. 1 junior-college player

On Wednesdsay, the first day of the fall signing period, the USC men's basketball team received letters of intent for its 2012 signing class from two players, one of whom has been rated the top junior-college player in the nation.

Guard J.T. Terrell, a Wake Forest transfer who is playing at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Wash., verbally committed to USC last month and is rated the No. 1 junior-college player in the country by Swanny's Roundball Review. He will have two seasons of eligibility remaining beginning in 2012-13.

At Wake Forest in 2010-11, the 6-foot-3, 175-pound Terrell played in all 32 games as a freshman and was second on the team in scoring (11.1 points per game). Terrell scored in double figures in 16 games, including three games of at least 20 points. His 32 points Nov. 11 against Iowa, a game in which he made seven of 11 three-point shots, were a season high for an Atlantic Coast Conference freshman. 

Terrell will be reunited with another Wake Forest player who transferred to USC, Ari Stewart. Both will be eligible next season.

"He's an NBA talent," Peninsula Coach Lance Von Vogt said of Terrell. He added that Terrell scored 29 points in an exhibition game this weekend.

In a statement, USC Coach Kevin O'Neill said, "J.T. is a dynamic scorer that will be able to impact our team offensively next year. He comes in with the experience of playing in the ACC, which will allow him to have an immediate impact in the conference. He's an exceptional athlete that can score in a number of ways. He's as talented a perimeter player as I've coached in college."

Boxing needs a brilliant Manny Pacquiao now

Boxing's greatest hits of the last three months.

Aug. 13, Las Vegas: Abner Mares punches Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko square in the groin in the 12th round of their world bantamweight title tournament final -- an unquestionable low blow worthy of a point deduction.

Referee Russell Mora instead awards Mares a knockdown, inciting outrage among fans inside the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, and Mares wins a decision. A sanctioning body is so flabbergasted by the horrific call that it orders a rematch Dec. 3 at Honda Center in Anaheim.

Sept. 17, Las Vegas: World welterweight champion Victor Ortiz, failing to establish a plan to penetrate Floyd Mayweather's defense, head butts the unbeaten fighter. Mayweather, visibly angered, waits for referee Joe Cortez's first indication that fighting can resume and unloads two punches to a distracted Ortiz that knock him out and end the fight in the fourth round.

Oct. 15, Staples Center: Chad Dawson lifts Bernard Hopkins off the canvas, and Hopkins slams backward, suffering a separated shoulder that ends the world light-heavyweight championship fight in the second round, sparking massive jeering in the arena. The WBC later refuses to install Dawson as the new champion, even though he was named the winner in the ring.

This leaves boxing's top performer, Manny Pacquiao, to end the carnage of bad big fights Saturday when he and Juan Manuel Marquez renew their rivalry in Las Vegas with their third fight.

Rivers, Manning and Interception Follies

San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers insists there is nothing wrong with him. He has a league-high 14 interceptions; the most he has ever thrown in a season is 15. “I’m not hurt,” Rivers told reporters. “I’ve thrown a handful of picks that I normally don’t throw, and I’ll probably throw some more throughout my career. There won’t always be a reason why.”

That attitude won’t win over critics, but statistical studies back him up.

The number of interceptions thrown by a quarterback one year has been shown to have no predictive value for how many he will throw the next year. The ability to avoid sacks can be projected fairly well with past statistics, even if a quarterback changes teams, but the randomness of interceptions makes forecasting them a fool’s errand.

One example comes from the Giants’ Eli Manning. Last season, Manning had a career-high 25 interceptions, which was more than his 2008 and 2009 seasons combined (24). If he keeps up his pace this season — six interceptions in eight games — he will have less than half his interception total of last season.

In August, Jason Lisk of the Big Lead wrote:

If you want to have a fun bet with your buddy at the bar, bet him that you’ll take Eli Manning, and he can pick three other starting quarterbacks, anyone he wants, who he predicts will have a better interception percentage than Eli in 2011. All three must beat Eli for him to win. It’s not a fair bet, because of the randomness of interceptions, but I suspect he’ll jump at the chance to go with Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan against your mistake-prone choice.

As it turns out, Brady, who had four interceptions last season, is among the league leaders this season.
Most interceptions this season
Philip Rivers SD 14
Drew Brees NO 11
Tom Brady NE 10
Josh Freeman TB 10

Getting back to Rivers:
1) Michael Silver of Yahoo Sports says the Chargers’ general manager has a big hand in Rivers’s troubles: “Has anyone done more swinging and missing lately than general manager A.J. Smith, and isn’t it time someone held him accountable for his declining batting average?”

2) Rivers spoke with Clark Judge of CBSSports.com, and seems to have the right mental approach.

Q: You’re certainly not the first one to go through something like this. Eli Manning had 25 interceptions last year. Drew Brees had a career-high 22 last season. Have you sought out anyone who’s been through this for advice?

Rivers: I haven’t, but, like you said, you’re never going to play at the same level forever, even though you want to. Again, I just think we have an eight-game season here. We were 2-5 last year, and we were 4-8 two years ago. Who’s to say the second half of this season might not be the best eight games I’ve ever played? I think it’s just that confidence and … why not? Why can’t we get on that kind of roll? Because we have in previous years. We’ve also been 13-3 and gotten knocked out [of the playoffs] in the first round.

Thursday Matchup: Raiders at Chargers

Raiders (4-4) at Chargers (4-4), Thursday, 8:20 p.m. Eastern, NFL Network
Line: Chargers by 6.

Norv Turner takes a lot of criticism from folks who expect a team to improve over the course of a coach’s tenure. Watching Hue Jackson go from a fashionable coach of the year candidate to the league’s latest petty autocrat in just a few weeks offers a new appreciation for Turner.

Jackson has used Jason Campbell’s injury as an excuse to relive his glory days as an assistant coach for the 2006 Bengals. Jackson scrapped a successful running game Sunday, leaving tight end Kevin Boss on the bench so Carson Palmer and T.J. Houshmandzadeh (both acquired in the last month) could try to re-create some pre-recession magic. Meanwhile, the Raiders’ run defense allowed 299 yards, in part because Aaron Curry (yet another late arrival) still does not know his gap responsibilities. By contrast, Turner’s happy tortoise approach to personnel decisions looks like patient wisdom.



Turner is dealing with a three-game losing streak of his own, and he is wrestling with two confounding questions. First, what in the world is wrong with Philip Rivers, who has thrown seven interceptions in the last three games? Rivers has no apparent injury; he is just missing receivers he connected with easily for the last three years. Second, why has San Diego been forced to play three games in 10 days? If someone in the Chargers’ organization angered the league office, it certainly was not Turner. Jackson will be on Plan C or D in a few weeks (Terrelle Pryor? Chad Ochocinco?). Turner will still be calmly, infuriatingly waiting for Rivers to come around.

Pick: Chargers
(Pick does not reflect the betting line)