The college football notebook …

RALEIGH — New North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren has hired Wisconsin assistant Eddie Faulkner to coach tight ends and fullbacks, and also serve as special teams coordinator.

Faulkner coached tight ends for the Badgers this season and spent the 2011 season on Doeren’s staff at Northern Illinois as the running backs coach and special teams coordinator.

Before working with Doeren at NIU, Faulkner had spent eight seasons at Ball State, including two years as offensive coordinator and a stint as the program’s interim head coach at the end of the 2010 season.

Doeren described Faulkner as “a very detailed, ultra-organized, connected recruiter.”

CLEMSON SELLOUT
ATLANTA — The Chick-fil-A Bowl is a sellout for the 16th consecutive year.

The bowl said Monday it has sold all its tickets for the Dec. 31 game between No. 9 Louisiana State and No. 14 Clemson at the Georgia Dome.

The game annually matches teams from the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference.

The streak of sellouts is second only to the Rose Bowl. During the span of sellouts, the average attendance has been 72,126.

OBAMA TWEET
FLORENCE, Ala. — The University of North Alabama says a walk-on football player is off the team after sending a racist tweet about President Barack Obama.

The university said coaches made the move after Patterson described Obama with a racial slur while complaining that the president’s speech about the Connecticut school massacre pre-empted an NFL game Sunday night.

Sports publicist Jeff Hodges said the school found that there’s no question the tweet was issued by Patterson. Patterson couldn’t be reached by The Associated Press for comment Monday.

Hodges says Patterson joined the team as a walk-on after the fourth game of this season.

HOLTZ DEGREE
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Longtime former college football coach and ESPN broadcaster Lou Holtz received an honorary doctorate of education as featured speaker at the University of South Carolina’s commencement ceremonies Monday.

Holtz coached the Gamecocks for six seasons from 1999-2004. He had the only winless season of his career while at South Carolina, going 0-11 in 1999 before the team rebounded with a 17-7 record and win twostraight Outback Bowls.

ARKANSAS
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.— The contract for new University of Arkansas defensive line coach Charlie Partridge will be $350,000

RETURNING
CINCINNATI — The NCAA has granted Cincinnati senior quarterback Brendon Kay an extra season of eligibility, giving the Bearcats a proven passer heading into their first year under coach Tommy Tuberville.

• SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame nose guard Louis Nix III and offensive tackle Zack Martin will return to school next year and skip the NFL draft.