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Kansas State says Prince won't return as football coach
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Published: November 6, 2008
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Coach Ron Prince of Kansas State will not return for the 2009 season, pushed out after failing to rebuild the Wildcats into a Big 12 contender.
Prince took over for Bill Snyder in 2006, his first head-coaching job after 14 years at six different schools. He never lived up to the standard Snyder set, going 16-18 in 2½ seasons in Manhattan, including 4-5 this year.
Snyder was a consistent winner in 17 years as Kansas State's coach, turning a team that won one game from 1987 through '89 to one that won at least 10 games seven times and reached bowl games in 12 straight seasons from 1992 through 2003.
He retired after a 5-6 season in 2006, handing the program off to Prince, Virginia's offensive coordinator the previous three years.
Kansas State was 7-6 and went to a bowl game in his first season, but has regressed since, going 5-7 last season and losing four of five Big 12 games this year.
More college football
■ Ryan Leaf, a former NFL quarterback, was put on administrative leave from West Texas A&M, where he is quarterbacks coach and men's golf coach for the Division II school.
Athletics Director Michael McBroom said yesterday that he met with Leaf on Sunday to "go through some options, and we agreed that a leave is the best option."
He said he couldn't comment on what prompted the decision and said he wouldn't speculate on when or whether Leaf would return.
Leaf was in his third season as quarterbacks coach at West Texas A&M, which is 9-1 heading into its final regular-season game. Quarterback Keith Null has completed nearly 68 percent of his passes and has 36 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
West Texas A&M is in Canyon, less than 20 miles southwest of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.
■ Tennessee cornerback Brent Vinson was cited by police for possession of marijuana and a violation of the state's open-container law last week, prompting his one-game suspension.
According to a Knoxville police report, Vinson was issued five citations after being pulled over for speeding around 10 p.m. Oct. 29.
Police say that Vinson, a 21-year-old sophomore, didn't have his driver's license with him and was found with a plastic bag of marijuana in his right shoe and an open container of alcohol in his vehicle.
He was issued citations for speeding, driving without a license and driving without insurance.
The next day, Coach Phillip Fulmer said that Vinson would serve a suspension for the Vols' game at South Carolina, which they lost 27-6.
Fulmer said that Vinson, who served an academic-related suspension in the Vols' season opener at UCLA, will be available Saturday when Tennessee faces Wyoming for homecoming.
Also, Tennessee tailback Montario Hardesty has a stress fracture in his leg.
Hardesty, a 6-foot, 210-pound junior, likely won't play against Wyoming on Saturday, which, coupled with the Vols' (3-6) off week will give him two weeks to rest.
Hardesty, from New Bern, is the team's second-best rusher with 211 yards on the ground this season for an average 23.4 per game. He leads the team with five touchdowns.
■ Coach Stanley Conner of Benedict is out of the hospital and is expected to be at the Tigers' game Saturday, although as a spectator and not a coach.
Athletics spokesman Derrick Johnson said yesterday that Conner had been released from Providence Hospital in Columbia, S.C., and is doing well.
Conner began feeling ill just before halftime of Saturday's home game with Kentucky State and was taken to the locker room and then to the hospital. Assistant Brian Wajert coached the team in the second half of Benedict's 42-35 victory.
■ The Mountain West Conference has reprimanded Wyoming's coach and quarterback for criticizing a TCU player's hit.
Quarterback Karsten Sween had a concussion from the Oct. 25 hit by TCU linebacker Robert Henson, who was flagged for a personal foul. After the game, Coach Joe Glenn said he thought the hit was a "cheap shot," and Sween said it was a "dirty hit."
The conference issued a statement saying the comments violated the conference's sportsmanship rules.
College basketball
■ Connecticut grabbed the No. 1 ranking in the USA Today/ESPN preseason poll for women's basketball, pulling down 30 first-place votes and finishing with 772 points. Stanford was No. 2 (676), and Rutgers (639), North Carolina (629) and Maryland (624) completed the top five.
Other ACC teams in the rankings were: No. 8 Duke (508), No. 15 Virginia (279) and No. 24 Florida State (101).
■ The Winston Lake Lakers AAU Basketball Association is accepting applications from coaches for its 9-under and 11-under boys teams through Dec. 1. Interested candidates can pick up an application at the Winston Lake YMCA or can contact Ed Plowden at 336-416-0077 or plowdened@yahoo.com.
Baseball
■ Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn signed a three-year contract to remain the baseball coach at San Diego State, his alma mater.
Gwynn, a former San Diego Padres star, is 173-190 in six seasons at SDSU.
Gwynn has taken two of his teams to the title game of the Mountain West Conference Tournament, and was the conference coach of the year in 2004 after leading the Aztecs to a first-place finish.
■ Brad Penny's $9.25 million option was declined yesterday by the Los Angeles Dodgers, making Penny, a 30-year-old right-hander, eligible to become a free agent.
Penny, who receives a $2 million buyout, was 6-9 with a 6.27 ERA in 17 starts and two relief appearances last season.
He was bothered by shoulder problems for much of the year and went on the disabled list three times: from June 17 to Aug. 8, Aug. 14 to Sept. 10 and Sept. 24 through the end of the season.
He was acquired by the Dodgers from Florida in July 2004 and won 16 games in both 2006 and 2007.
■ Pitcher Greg Maddux, 42, won his record 18th Gold Glove yesterday while outfielder Shane Victorino of the World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies was among five first-time winners in the National League.
Slick shortstop Jimmy Rollins joined Victorino from the Phillies, winning for the second consecutive season.
The New York Mets also had two winners: outfielder Carlos Beltran and third baseman David Wright, both of whom repeated.
Other first-time honorees for defensive excellence were St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina, San Diego first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, Cincinnati second baseman Brandon Phillips and Pittsburgh outfielder Nate McLouth.
The Houston Astros, who committed 16 fewer errors than any other major league team, did not have a winner.
ACC
■ Wake Forest's Jennifer Averill won the ACC's coach-of-the-year award in field hockey for the sixth time in her career, including the fifth time in the last seven seasons, and Wake Forest players Michelle Kasold, Raisa Schiller, Minou Gimbrere and Aileen Davis were named All-ACC selections yesterday.
Maryland's Katie O'Donnell and Susie Rowe were the offensive and defensive players of the year, and Illse Davids, Katelyn Falgowski and Britt Van Beek (North Carolina); Bob Dirks (Boston College); Alicia Grater and Alexis Pappas (Maryland); Rhian Jones, Lauren Miller and Laura Sucholski (Duke); and Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn and Paige Selenski (Virginia) completed the all-conference team.
Tennis
■ Defending champion Roger Federer will face Andy Roddick and Andy Murray in group play at the season-ending Masters Cup next week in Shanghai, China.
The draw yesterday of the top eight players -- using numbered fortune cookies -- put Federer in the Red Group with Gilles Simon.
Federer became the top seed when No. 1 Rafael Nadal withdrew because of tendinitis in his right knee.
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