Newsmakers

Died Former college football coach Homer Smith, who served three stints as a UCLA assistant coach and may have been college’s most intellectually gifted offensive mind, died Sunday in Tuscaloosa, Ala., after a long battle with cancer. He was 79. Smith, who spent 37 of his 39 coaching seasons at the collegiate level, never received the acclaim of the headliners he served – UCLA’s Pepper Rodgers and Terry Donahue and Alabama’s Gene Stallings. He was an assistant coach at Stanford, the Air Force Academy, UCLA, Alabama, Arizona and the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. He was head coach at Davidson, Pacific and Army.

Declared Former pro football star Lawrence Taylor, who pleaded guilty in January to sexual misconduct and patronizing an underage prostitute, was declared a low-risk sex offender.

Fired The Dallas Stars fired coach Marc Crawford after missing the playoffs in each of his two seasons, extending their postseason drought to three years. Crawford went 79-60-25 in Dallas, but couldn’t get the Stars over the hump in the Western Conference.

Leaving Florida’s Billy Donovan says assistant Richard Pitino is leaving to become the head coach in waiting at Louisville. Donovan says Pitino, son of Louisville’s Rick Pitino, will be named associate head coach for the Cardinals.

Rewarded The New York Islanders rewarded Jack Capuano, removing the interim tag from their head coach after he led a second-half improvement in an otherwise disappointing season. But under Capuano, who took over for fired coach Scott Gordon on Nov. 15, the Islanders went 26-29-10, including a 25-21-8 mark over the final 54 games.

Hired Miami has hired Shawn Eichorst as its new athletic director. Eichorst was Wisconsin’s deputy athletic director since 2009. Eichorst replaces Kirby Hocutt, who left for Texas Tech.

Transferring Former Utah standout Will Clyburn is transferring to Iowa State. The 6-foot-7 swingman will have to sit out next season under transfer rules, and he’ll be eligible for only the 2012-13 season. Clyburn led the Utes in scoring (17.1) and rebounding (7.8) last season.