Associated Press
The college notebook …
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ó The Gator Bowl is adding extra seats for Bobby Bowden’s finale.
Two days after the bowl announced a sellout for its Jan. 1 game between Florida State and No. 18 West Virginia, organizers decided to add temporary bleachers ó much like the city does for the annual Florida-Georgia game at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.
The bleachers will provide an extra 6,000 seats, with the tickets getting split evenly between the schools.
The extra seats will increase stadium capacity to 83,500. The Gator Bowl sold every ticket to the game in less than two hours Sunday.
Bowden announced last week that the bowl game would be his last. The Gator Bowl passed up Clemson, Miami and Boston College to select the Seminoles and give Bowden an alluring matchup in his finale.
SEMINOLE COACHES RELEASED
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ó Former Florida State star tailback Dexter Carter is among four Bobby Bowden assistant coaches not being retained after the Gator Bowl.
Incoming head coach Jimbo Fisher is cleaning house after the Jan. 1 game.
Carter, the Seminoles’ running backs coach the last three seasons, is out along with longtime Bowden assistant and former North Carolina State coach Chuck Amato, strength coach Todd Stroud and defensive ends coach Jody Allen.Amato, 63, spent 21 seasons with Bowden, including the last three after being fired by as head coach by his North Carolina State alma mater after a 3-9 season in 2006.The raspy-voiced, barrel-chested Amato had a 49-37 record coaching the Wolfpack.
LOMBARDI AWARD
HOUSTON ó Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has won the Rotary Lombardi Award as the nation’s top lineman.
Suh also won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy this week as the nation’s top defensive player, and is a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.
Suh finished the regular season with 82 tackles, 23 tackles for losses and 12 sacks. In Nebraska’s 13-12 loss to Texas in the Big 12 championship game, he has a career-high 12 tackles, including a school-record seven tackles for losses and 41/2 sacks.
Alabama’s Terrence Cody, TCU’s Jerry Hughes and Oklahoma’s Gerald McCoy also were finalists for the award given annually since 1970.
BROYLES AWARD
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ó Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant.
BUTKIS AWARD
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ó No. 1 Alabama’s Rolando McClain won the Butkus Award as college football’s top linebacker.
HALL OF FAME
NEW YORK ó Former Ohio State linebacker Chris Spielman was one of a group of 16 players and two coaches to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Among the others were Heisman Trophy winners Gino Torretta of Miami and Tim Brown of Notre Dame and coaches Dick MacPherson and John Robinson.
PORTLAND STATE
PORTLAND, Ore. ó Portland State hired Nevada defensive coordinator Nigel Burton as its new head coach. Burton replaced Jerry Glanville, who resigned last month after going 9-24 over three seasons.
MICHIGAN STATE
LANSING, Mich. ó Authorities charged nine Michigan State football players with misdemeanor assault and conspiracy Wednesday following a dormitory brawl last month that has left the team short-handed for its Jan. 2 bowl game.
NOTES
– Louisville’s hiring of Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong gives major college football 13 minority head coaches among its 120 schools.
– Texas Rep. Joe Barton, trying to push legislation that would prohibit the BCS from calling its championship game a national title game, whatever that would prove, complains lowly Baylor has made more money playing in the Big 12 than powerhouse Texas Christian has by playing in the Mountain West. The reason, though, is free enterprise: Networks pay more money to televise Big 12 games than Mountain West games.
– Coach Mack Brown on Texas’ earning a BCS title shot: “The system put us in the game, so who are we to question?”
– Early Rose Bowl scouting report on Oregon from Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel, who was impressed by the Ducks’ speed. “We’d better get in shape.”
– Don’t expect to see Alabama players elbowing each other for interviews between now and the BCS title game. “We try to insulate our players from what we call `the clutter’ out there,” Crimson Tide Coach Nick Saban said.
– What insight can anyone have on a Dec. 31 Insight Bowl featuring 6-6 Iowa State against 6-6 Minnesota?