Fast Break
College football
Whittingham coach of year
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham may have been the only coach to cast a No. 1 vote for his team. On Tuesday, his fellow coaches gave him a consolation prize by naming him the American Football Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year award in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Whittingham’s Utes went 13-0 and beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl for the best record in the school’s 115-year history. Utah also has the longest current bowl winning streak at eight, with Whittingham winning the past four. But Utah finished No. 2 in the Associated Press poll and fourth in the coaches’ final poll.
Coaches voted for the top coach in each division during the AFCA convention in Nashville, Tenn., and the winners were announced before the AFCA’s annual awards dinner.
The other coaches of the year included Mike London of Richmond in the Football Championship Subdivision, Mel Tjeerdsma of Northwest Missouri State in Division II, Larry Kehres of Mount Union in Division III and Kalen DeBoer of Sioux Falls in NAIA.
NFL
Dying mom saw Cards in NFC title game
Terrelle Smith thought his dying mother was delusional. Turns out she was prophetic.
The Arizona Cardinals fullback said that in April, when her cancer had spread to the brain, Smith’s mom said she had a vision of him playing in the NFC championship game. Nine months later, the Cardinals are hosting the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday for the conference title.
“Doctors say sometimes they get delusional and, at times, we thought she was,” Smith said on Tuesday. “But now it lines up. It makes sense, and it tells me what to fight for every week.”
His mother died in December.
On the tube
KHQ will add sports station
KHQ Television will launch a new local network: Sports and Weather Right Now, or SWX.
This latest addition to the KHQ broadcast family is a 24-hour sports and weather channel with an emphasis on live, local and regional sports broadcasts.
KHQ has partnered with Northern Quest Casino for a new studio inside the new Northern Quest Resort and Casino expansion. KHQ will extend its regional sports reach, having acquired television rights to even more local high school, college, and professional sporting events. Also available on SWX will be live sports specialty in-studio shows.
SWX, Sports and Weather Right Now, can be viewed over the air in Spokane on KHQ digital channel 6.2 and Comcast Digital Cable channel 115. SWX can also be viewed in the Pullman/Moscow area on Time Warner Cable channel 86.