Hawkins mulls offer
Boise State football coach Dan Hawkins is considering a five-year, $2.6 million offer from the university that could keep him with the school through 2009.
The Idaho State Board of Education on Thursday approved the new contract offer, which would boost Hawkins’ salary more than 30 percent from this year.
Hawkins, who has led the Broncos to 22 straight victories, said he wouldn’t make a decision until Sunday, at the earliest.
“I need to get back and mull it over and talk with my family and powwow,” said Hawkins, who made $50,000 when he joined Boise State as an assistant head coach in 1998.
The offer, which Hawkins helped structure, includes big bonuses and incentives – but penalties if he leaves before the end of the deal. If Hawkins stayed for less than the full five years, it would cost him or his new employer $850,000 to end the agreement.
“This is a package that (Hawkins) consented to,” Boise State president Bob Kustra said. “We’ve discussed this with him over the course of the last few days. He knows everything that’s in it, and he thought it was a very attractive offer for Boise State to make.”
Hawkins’ name has come up as a possible candidate for several high-profile job openings, including Washington.
Hawkins said none of those schools has contacted him and he intends to consider the Boise State offer first.
USC looks to secure No. 1
The top-ranked USC Trojans (11-0, 7-0 Pac-10) are nearly a lock to earn a trip to the Orange Bowl – and a belated appearance in the Bowl Championship Series title game – with a victory over the underdog UCLA Bruins (6-4, 4-3) today.
“It’s a game for all the marbles, with everything on the line, the cross-town rivalry, the chance to go to the big dance,” Trojans defensive lineman Shaun Cody said, ticking off every cliché imaginable.
Riding a 20-game winning streak that is the school’s longest in 70 years, USC is favored by three touchdowns to beat UCLA for the sixth time in a row. The Trojans routed the Bruins 47-22 last season, and have outscored them 126-43 in the three years since Pete Carroll became the USC coach.
Sooners try to not get buffaloed
The Oklahoma Sooners need a win over the Colorado Buffaloes in the Big 12 title game today to get to the Orange Bowl.
“The Orange Bowl is a great venue,” coach Bob Stoops said of the game Oklahoma has been to 17 times. “It’s always a great bowl game and we have an incredible tradition at the Orange Bowl.”
He conceded, of course, that he’d take a national title wherever he could get it.
For it to happen this year, the second-ranked Sooners (11-0) will first have to defeat the Buffaloes (7-4) – 22-point underdogs – in Kansas City, Mo., in a game known for its history of upsets.
The last one came last year when Kansas State swamped Oklahoma 35-7 and denied the Sooners their 39th conference title.
Before that loss, Oklahoma was being hailed as one of the best college teams of all time. That isn’t happening this year, although, in many respects, the Sooners might be better, especially with two serious Heisman Trophy contenders in quarterback Jason White and tailback Adrian Peterson.
“You still have to go out and play and call the plays that help us win and, as players, make the plays when you get the opportunities,” Stoops said.
California playing for Rose Bowl
Southern Mississippi can ruin another late-season visitor’s BCS dreams.
No. 4 California will try to accomplish tonight what TCU couldn’t last year – win in Hattiesburg with a BCS bid on the line.
A win in the hurricane-postponed game could put the Golden Bears (9-1) in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1959. The Holiday Bowl probably awaits if they lose.
The New Orleans Bowl-bound Golden Eagles (6-4) have reason to think upset. They spoiled then-No. 10 TCU’s shot at a BCS game last year with a 40-28 rout — the only home win over a ranked team in school history.
Four BYU players indicted
Four former Brigham Young University football players were indicted on charges of raping a 17-year-old girl at a party last summer.
Two other players were suspended from the team – one for lying to police and the other for dealing harmful material to a minor.
The girl told police she and a cousin met the football players at a Provo, Utah, mall and then rejoined then at an off-campus apartment, where they had drinks and watched a pornographic movie.
She told police she passed out on a bed and awoke as the alleged assaults began.
Utah County prosecutors identified the four charged with aggravated sexual assault as William Terrell Smitty Turner Jr., Karland Brushay Bennett, Ibrahim Amir Rashada and Bryson Anthony Jerrell “B.J.” Mathis.