News sport : National Championship Preview: Ohio State's secondary

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The first College Football Playoff National Championship Game is finally upon us and Dr. Saturday has your pregame prep covered. Every day leading up to the game, we’ll breakdown a piece of each team and preview its role in the upcoming title game. Previous previews: Ohio State's front 7, Oregon's front 7.


Season highlight: The semifinal game against Alabama was arguably the best performance of the season for the Ohio State secondary. Even though it allowed 237 passing yards and two touchdowns, it held star receiver Amari Cooper to nine catches for 71 yards, which was only the second time Cooper didn’t average 10 or more yards per catch. The Buckeyes held Alabama to a 118.08 pass efficiency rating, which was their third-lowest of the season. And the 10.773 yards per completion were the second-lowest of the season.


Player to Watch: Senior cornerback Doran Grant has been the anchor of an Ohio State secondary that is loaded with young players. Grant, a senior captain, has five interceptions this season, including two that came in the Big Ten title game against Wisconsin. He has 58 tackles and nine pass breakups this year, and was an All-Big Ten first team selection.


Strengths: The Ohio State secondary has specialized in takeaways this year. Of the Buckeyes 24 interceptions, which ranks fourth nationally, 17 have come from players in the secondary. Sophomore safety Vonn Bell leads all Ohio State players with six interceptions and he snagged one off Alabama quarterback Blake Sims in the semifinal.


Weaknesses: Ohio State didn’t face a lot of great passing quarterbacks this season, but against Cincinnati and Michigan State, the two best quarterbacks Ohio State faced this year, the Buckeyes allowed 352 and 358 passing yards respectively. Cincinnati's Gunner Kiel had four passing touchdowns and Michigan State's Connor Cook had two. Oregon’s Marcus Mariota is by far the best quarterback the Buckeyes have faced all season and keeping his numbers down will be a tremendous challenge.


Overview: Ohio State’s secondary has great numbers.


It ranks fourth nationally in interceptions and fourth in passing defense efficiency. It’s only allowing 191.6 passing yards per game and of the 39 offensive touchdowns the Buckeyes have allowed, only 15 have come through the air.


However, the numbers can be misleading.


Only one of Ohio State’s opponents this season ranked in the top 25 in passing offense (No. 13 Cincinnati) and Alabama and Michigan State ranked Nos. 28 and 35 respectively. However, five of the Buckeyes opponents ranked 110th or worse in passing offense and seven of the team’s interceptions came off those offenses. Only one of those offenses threw for more than 181 yards. In fact Michigan’s 251 passing yards was a season-high by 31 yards. The Wolverines ranked 110th in passing offense.


There had been questions about the Ohio State secondary early in the season, especially after it allowed Cincinnati's Chris Moore to have 221 yards and three touchdowns. Moore, the Bearcats third-best receiver, didn’t have a 100-yard game and had three contests where he had no yards.


Many of the concerns about the Ohio State secondary were chalked up to youth. The Buckeyes depth chart has freshmen Eli Apple or Gareon Conley as co-starters at one corner spot and sophomores Tyvis Powell and Bell at the two safety positions. Grant is the only senior. However, playing the youth card doesn’t work when you’re about to play your 15th game of the year.


What Ohio State did against the Alabama passing game was admirable. Even though Cooper was able to have some success, it wasn’t his best game. The Buckeyes forced Sims to use other options. Down the stretch, Sims seemed reluctant to do so, which helped the Ohio State defense read his passes and pick him off. There were a couple instances where there were open receivers available, but Sims was fixated on Cooper and Ohio State capitalized.


Ohio State won’t get so lucky with the Oregon passing game, which is by far the best the Buckeyes have seen all season. Mariota has just three interceptions this year compared to 40 touchdowns and 4,121 yards. But what makes Oregon’s passing game so difficult to defend is its diversity. The Ducks do not have a 1,000-yard receiver this season, but they do have seven different players with at least 300 receiving yards and nine receivers with at least 10 catches.


The Ducks lost third-leading receiver Devon Allen to a knee injury on the first play against Florida State, but six different players caught the ball against the Seminoles as Mariota amassed 338 passing yards and two touchdowns.


The Ohio State secondary likely will need help from its linebackers in coverage, especially with the way Oregon uses its tight ends, but this game is going to be a tremendous challenge for an Ohio State secondary who has nothing which to compare this offense.


For more Ohio State news, visit BuckeyeGrove.com.


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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!


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News sport : Court documents: USC doctor didn't 'agree with' FDA's Toradol warnings

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USC football team doctor James Tibone said in a deposition that he was at odds with the FDA's cardiovascular warnings regarding the painkilling drug Toradol.


The deposition is part of a lawsuit filed by former USC DE Armond Armstead, who says in the suit that he suffered a heart attack in 2011 because of repeated Toradol injections. He filed the suit in 2012 against USC, Tibone and University Park Medical Center.


Documents from the case were obtained by Vice Sports. Armstead received the injections of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory throughout the 2010 season and said he received 10 injections from September to December. And he said neither he nor teammates were told what they were being injected with.


Toradol is a popular painkiller for football and in 2001, 28 of the 30 current NFL teams had said they administered the drug. It can be utilized in both preventative and reactive fashions. The drug's warning says it is for short-term acute pain.


From Vice:



In his deposition, Tibone said he didn't "agree with" FDA warnings about Toradol's cardiovascular risks. He did not provide supporting evidence for his position, admitting that before and during the period he gave the drug to Armstead and other USC players he: (a) conducted no research or surveys on Toradol's adverse effects; (b) read no peer-reviewed journal articles on the matter prior to Armstead's heart attack; (c) did not investigate the drug beyond talking to NFL trainers he knew and having a brief, informal conversation with a friend who is a cardiovascular surgeon.




Tibone also said that he doesn't prescribe Toradol to patients in his private practice, and that he personally had taken the drug once, to treat pain from a kidney stone.



In February of 2011, Armstead went to University Park Medical Center three times and initially diagnosed with costochondritis, which (guess what?) resulted in more Toradol injections. The school didn't comment to Vice for the story. The scheduled trial was delayed last April and, according to Boston.com, is set for March of this year.



By the beginning of March, Armstead's condition worsened. A MRI exam revealed that he had suffered an acute anterior apical myocardial infarction, more commonly known as a heart attack. Myocardial infarctions are specifically mentioned by the FDA as a possible risk of Toradol use, made likelier by repeated off-label use and combining the painkiller with other non-steroidal anti-inflammatories such as Ibuprofen and Naproxen, drugs that Tibone and USC training staff also had administered to Armstead during the season.




Tibone and USC argue they used Toradol properly because they were treating Armstead's acute pain resulting from a single injury. Whether or not the definition of "acute" pain includes an orthopedic injury lasting for months—a highly contested point in the lawsuit—the extended duration of Armstead's treatments seemingly disregarded FDA warnings, which impose a five-day limit on using the drug.




Moreover, the multiple Toradol shots approximately two hours apart alleged by Armstead and indicated by USC athletic records would exceed the FDA's recommended daily dose limit of no more than 60 milligrams, or one such injection.



Tibone also said in his deposition that he didn't follow the NCAA's sports medicine handbook and rather used his own judgment. Per Vice, USC now has student athletes sign a waiver about Toradol injections.


Armstead didn't play in 2011 because of the heart attack and wasn't selected in the 2012 NFL draft. He played in the CFL in 2013 and was signed by the New England Patriots before he retired in July.


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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Relax, folks, there's no anti-Detroit conspiracy (podcast)

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Welcome to the latest Shutdown Corner podcast! On today's postseason-ready episode, we have:


• A thorough breakdown of the Dallas-Detroit game, except for That Play (0:41 mark)


• Frank loses his mind on the supposed "conspiracy theories" surrounding the pass interference call that wasn't (8:30 mark)


• The sad, painful end to the Cardinals' season (23:21 mark)


• The Lightning Round: Cam Newton's prospects? Where will Ndamukong Suh end up? Can the Ravens beat New England? And why does anyone want to hire Mike Shanahan? (32:55 mark)


All this and more as part of the Shutdown Corner Podcast. Listen below, and while you're listening, we would love it if you'd check out the following ...


Subscribe via iTunes right here.


Non-iTunes subscription link here.


Leave us a nice review here.


The Shutdown Corner podcast is the product of Kevin Kaduk (@KevinKaduk), Frank Schwab (@YahooSchwab) and Jay Busbee (@JayBusbee). New episodes every Tuesday and Friday, with bonus episodes when you least expect it. Enjoy!


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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.



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News sport : Dion Waiters dances his way to Oklahoma City with the help of pal Meek Mill

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Dion Waiters turns up. (David Richard-USA TODAY Sports) There was a touch of cold-world reality to the way things went down for Dion Waiters on Monday. With the Cleveland Cavaliers missing injured wing stars LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, the South Philadelphia native was expected to make his first start since Nov. 4 in a return trip to his hometown to take on the Philadelphia 76ers in front of "countless" family and friends in attendance at Wells Fargo Center. But just before the two teams' starters were about to be announced — "roughly 90 seconds before tip-off," according to Michael Lee of the Washington Post — Waiters was yanked from the lineup, pulled to the side and plopped into a three-team trade that included six players and two future draft picks.


When the dust was settled, guards J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert had landed in Ohio, frontcourt reserves/nonguaranteed contracts Alex Kirk, Lou Amundson and Lance Thomas were headed to the New York Knicks, and Waiters — the No. 4 overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft — was on his way to join the Oklahoma City Thunder. Things happen pretty fast in the NBA, and sometimes you don't get to go home again, even when you're already in the neighborhood. (What a difference 4 1/2 months makes.)


[Follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]


But even with his head spinning from the trade that sent him south to a Thunder squad hopeful he'll fill the off-the-bench scoring and playmaking hole they've had ever since shipping out James Harden back in the fall of 2012, and with his arrival in Oklahoma City to take a physical expected Tuesday, the 23-year-old Syracuse product took a few free moments to find his center and celebrate the good life with Philly pal, mentoring partner and name-dropping rapper Meek Mill following Cleveland's disappointing loss to the 76ers on Monday:



It can't be easy to get traded for the first time, to experience the sensation of the team that drafted you deciding they no longer want you, and to have it all happen just moments before you were set to take flight in your hometown. So it's nice to see Waiters' spirits buoyed by some loud music, the company of friends and an opportunity to dance, dance, dance:



It ought to be fascinating to see how many opportunities Waiters gets to bust a move in Oklahoma City. After all, there wouldn't seem to be many more shots available behind Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Reggie Jackson than there were behind James, Irving and Kevin Love; Dion would seem to need to check his displeasure with watching an MVP work and ramp up his willingness to feed tall, wide-open rocket-launchers for things to turn out smoothly during his time with Scott Brooks' crew. (It'd also seem critical that he show an increased inclination to accept the role he's been asked to fill rather than, as he told Lee of the Post, suggest he "just [didn't] know" what was being asked of him.)


It's a high-risk, high-reward gamble, to be sure. As CBS Sports' Matt Moore notes, Waiters could be the tough on-ball defender and engaged shot-creator that can help keep the Thunder from stalling out when Durant and Westbrook hit the bench ... or he could continue his rock-pounding, shot-jacking-despite-posting-career-low-shooting-percentages, potentially disruptive ways and wind up being the last thing in the world a Thunder team clawing for its postseason life needs at this stage.


For now, though, Durant sounds eager to make Waiters "feel wanted," and the Thunder are betting that Waiters' physical tools and unquestionable competitive streak will do more for them now — and, if they let restricted free agent Jackson walk this summer, perhaps in the future — than the protected first-rounder they're now on the hook to send Cleveland. It's not like either the Cavaliers' ongoing attempt to live up to lofty preseason expectations or the Thunder's efforts to climb back to the top of the conference after their injury-plagued start needed any more intrigue, but, well, here we are. Let's dance, everybody.


Hat-tip to Ananth Pandian at Triangle Offense.


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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!



Stay connected with Ball Don't Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, "Like" BDL on Facebook and follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.






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News sport : Oklahoma WR Dorial Green-Beckham to enter NFL Draft

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Dorial Green-Beckham will never play a down of football for Oklahoma.


Sooners head coach Bob Stoops announced Tuesday that Green-Beckham, the receiver who was dismissed from Missouri last April and transferred to Oklahoma in August, will enter the 2015 NFL Draft.



Green-Beckham was the No. 1 recruit in the nation in the 2012 class and caught 87 passes for 1,278 yards and 17 touchdowns in two seasons for Mizzou before being dismissed from Gary Pinkel’s program after several run-ins with the law.


Green-Beckham was arrested twice for marijuana and then was investigated for a “physical altercation” in April in which he allegedly forced his way into an apartment and pushed a woman down several stairs. The woman declined to press charges and Green-Beckham was never arrested in the incident, but it did lead to his dismissal.


Oklahoma hoped the 6-foot-6, 225-pound Green-Beckham would be able to suit up this season and filed a waiver request with the NCAA. The school learned on Aug. 22 that the request had been denied. Green-Beckham would have been eligible for the 2015 season with the Sooners but decided to enter the NFL Draft instead.


Oklahoma went 8-5 this season.


For more Oklahoma news, visit SoonerScoop.com.


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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Charlotte asks banks to write off nearly $18 million in loans to NASCAR HOF

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The city of Charlotte has made a request to banks to write off a significant portion of construction loans for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.


The city, according to the Charlotte Observer, wants to make a $5 million payment to Bank of America and Wells Fargo as part of a proposal to take care of debt from the Hall of Fame. In turn, the banks would then write off the rest of the loans, which tally $17.6 million after principal and interest.


From the Observer:



The proposal is part of a city plan to get out of about $22.8 million of NASCAR hall obligations. If the deal is approved, the hall would also be given a break from future payments owed to NASCAR.




“The whole goal is to bring the hall into a break-even position,” said Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble.




The City Council, which heard the proposal Monday, will vote on the loan modifications next week. But even if the agreement is approved, the hall is still estimated to lose between $200,000 and $500,000 a year in the future.



In the proposal, NASCAR would also waive royalties that it was supposed to receive from the Hall of Fame. The two loans were part of funding for the museum that also included a hotel and motel tax. One of the loans was backed by the sale of commemorative bricks and sponsorships.


The NASCAR Hall of Fame lost $1.4 million in the previous fiscal year, down from $1.6 million the year before. So the quoted estimates are significantly below those numbers. However, lofty and unachievable goals have been touted for the Hall of Fame before. The original attendance goals for the museum were 850,000 people a year. From June 2013-2014, the Hall of Fame had approximately 170,000 paid admissions.


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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Bob Osborne to crew chief for Trevor Bayne in 2015

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Trevor Bayne will have a crew chief familiar to many NASCAR fans atop his pit box in 2015.


Roush Fenway Racing announced Tuesday that Bob Osborne would serve as Bayne's crew chief. Osborne was Carl Edwards' long-time crew chief and was the crew chief when Edwards finished second in the Sprint Cup standings to Tony Stewart in 2011. In mid-2012, he stepped down because of medical reasons. Until stepping down, Osborne had served as Edwards' crew chief for all but 27 races of Edwards' career.


Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, will drive full-time in the Sprint Cup Series in 2015. He has driven a part-time schedule in the Cup Series over the past four seasons for the Wood Brothers.


Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will also have a new crew chief. Mike Kelley served as Stenhouse's crew chief in 2013 after the two won Xfinity Series titles together in 2011 and 2012. Kelley will continue with the team as Stenhouse's car chief but Nick Sandler, the head engineer for Edwards in 2014, will be Stenhouse's crew chief.


Greg Biffle will continue to work with crew chief Matt Puccia. With the addition of Bayne to the No. 6 car, Roush Fenway is staying at three cars in 2015 after Edwards left to join Joe Gibbs Racing.


Jimmy Fennig, Edwards' crew chief for the past two seasons, is now Roush's R&D coordinator.


Phil Gould will crew chief for Elliott Sadler in the Xfinity Series. Gould moves over from Richard Childress Racing to join Sadler, who joins Roush from Joe Gibbs Racing. Darrell Wallace, who will also drive for Roush in 2015 after leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, will have Chad Norris as his crew chief. Norris was named Edwards' crew chief in 2012 after Osborne's departure and served as Bayne's Xfinity Series crew chief in 2014.


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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Coaches linked to Jim Harbaugh's staff appear in Michigan directory (Photos)

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Since Jim Harbaugh was formally introduced as Michigan’s head coach last week, he has not formally hired any assistants. Several names have been linked to his staff however, and on Monday the names of three assistants linked to his staff were added to the school directory.


Per the Detroit Free Press, Tim Drevno, D.J. Durkin and John Morton all now have official Michigan email addresses.



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Drevno, the current offensive line coach at USC, has been linked by multiple reports to the offensive coordinator job under Harbaugh. Drevno has been a part of several Harbaugh staffs. He was his offensive coordinator at San Diego from 2003-06, his tight ends and offensive line coach at Stanford from 2007-10, and then his offensive line coach with the San Francisco 49ers for three seasons.



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Durkin was Florida’s defensive coordinator under Will Muschamp for the past two seasons and served as interim coach in the team’s bowl game over the weekend. He was linked to the defensive coordinator opening at Texas A&M as well, but the Aggies came to an agreement with LSU’s John Chavis, so Durkin seems to be Harbaugh’s man.


Durkin was an assistant under Harbaugh at Stanford from 2007-09



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Finally, Morton was the wide receivers coach under Harbaugh with the 49ers since 2011 and also spent a year with Harbaugh at San Diego in 2005. Morton is a Michigan native who played collegiately at Western Michigan. He was the wide receivers coach at USC from 2007-2008 and then was elevated to offensive coordinator from 2009-2011.


For more Michigan news, visit TheWolverine.com.


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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Tomas Hertl takes puck to face while on bench, resumes smiling soon after (Video)

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Early in the third period of Monday night’s 3-2 San Jose Sharks victory over the Winnipeg Jets, Logan Couture cleared the puck out of the defensize zone and nailed Tomas Hertl in the face. The only thing here was that Hertl was on the bench at the time:



After being tended to, Hertl left the ice and did not return to the game, so he was left to watch and celebrate Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s game-winner by himself in the dressing room.


According to Sharks play-by-play man Randy Hahn, Hertl was fine, and only suffered a cut lip, as seen on CSN Bay Area, which also caught the fact that he’s never without a smile:



Fun must be always, as Hertl once said, even when taking a puck to the chops. How can anyone not love this kid?


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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!


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News sport : 2014 Driver Reviews: No. 11 Jimmie Johnson

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After doing exit interviews for Sprint Cup Series drivers in 2013, we're turning the tables. We want the drivers to sell themselves. So here are the resumés for all full-time Sprint Cup Series drivers in 2014. Then, at the end, we'll provide a summation of the driver's season in 150 words or less.


Name: Jimmie Johnson


NASCAR Experience: Six Sprint Cup titles. Speaks for itself, doesn't it?


Most recent team: Hendrick Motorsports


Most recent season finish: 11th


2014 accomplishments: Four wins, 11 top fives, 20 top 10 finishes and a Chase berth. And was the defending 2013 champion.


Most memorable moment: Because six titles overwhelms everything else, there will be a positive and a negative category. In the positive, it's the win at Michigan, which was a third win in four races and the first career win there.



In the negative, it's what happened at Kansas Speedway in the fall.



Strengths: Everything


2015 goals: Tie Richard Petty


FTM's Take: Even more than a month after the fact, it's jarring to see Jimmie Johnson this low in the standings, isn't it? Entering 2014, Johnson's lowest finish in the Cup standings had been sixth. Sixth!


But don't start with the "Jimmie-proofing" stuff when it comes to this Chase. Johnson's Chase was abysmal under any circumstances and he would have been near the bottom of a 10-race cumulative Chase. After finishing 40th at Kansas (and basically ending his Chase), he was 24th at Talladega two weeks later and then 32nd at Martinsville. He was 39th at Phoenix, too. Under the old Chase format Johnson would have finished 11th as well.


Are Johnson and the No. 48 team mortal? Of course they are. But we knew that, right? To borrow from the other sport in our coverage realm, there are a lot of similarities between Johnson and Florida State. Sometimes when the bad luck happens, it happens all at once and you can't do much to stop the slide.


Previous reviews: No. 12 Kurt Busch, No. 13 AJ Allmendinger, No. 14 Greg Biffle, No. 15 Kasey Kahne, No. 16 Aric Almirola, No. 17 Kyle Larson, No. 18, Jamie McMurray, No. 19 Clint Bowyer, No. 20, Austin Dillon, No. 21 Paul Menard, No. 22 Brian Vickers, No. 23 Marcos Ambrose, No. 24 Martin Truex Jr., No. 25 Tony Stewart, No. 26 Casey Mears, No. 27 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 28, Danica Patrick, No. 29, Justin Allgaier, No. 30, David Gilliland, No. 31 Cole Whitt, No. 32 David Ragan, No. 33 Michael Annett, No. 34 Reed Sorenson, No. 35 Alex Bowman


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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Snoop Dogg on NFL's return to Los Angeles: 'We need it. We deserve it.'

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Sep 14, 2014; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Music artist Snoop Dogg performs during the halftime show of the San Francisco 49erss vs Chicago Bears game at Levi's Stadium. (Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports) The NFL's return to Los Angeles is looking more likely now than at any time in the past two decades thanks to a new stadium deal. And according to at least one Los Angeles ambassador, that return is long overdue.


Snoop Dogg is making the promotional rounds for his new ESPN documentary "Snoop & Son," a story of his son's pursuit of high school football glory. On Monday night Snoop attended the premiere of the documentary at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, and addressed the possibility of finally getting an NFL team back to L.A.


"We need it," Snoop told Yahoo Sports. "We need a football team. We're one of the biggest markets for football. We deserve it. Hopefully we'll get a great team to come and restore the feeling. All we've got right now is USC and UCLA."


The two likeliest candidates for relocation to Los Angeles are the Rams, whose owner is developing the stadium property, and the Raiders, who have flitted back and forth between Oakland and Los Angeles over their existence. Snoop's preference? Whichever one arrives.


"The Rams are rebuilding right now, so they might be the better bet," Snoop said. "The Raiders have been here before and it didn't work out. Either/or, it don't matter."


There you have it. The D-O-double-G has spoken. We'll have to wait a year or so to see how prophetic he is, however.


____

Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.



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News sport : Oklahoma reportedly dismisses OC Josh Heupel

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Oklahoma is making staff changes after a disappointing 8-5 season.


The changes reportedly include offensive coordinator Josh Heupel, who will be fired according to SI.com and confirmed by the Tulsa World.



The changes are set to be announced at a press conference on Tuesday at 11 a.m. According to SoonerScoop, Stoops came back from vacation early to finalize changes and make the announcement.


Earlier in the week, co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Jay Norvell was reportedly let go.


Heupel has served as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator for the past four seasons. The Sooners were 20th in points per game in 2014 and 23rd in yards per game. The Sooners scored just over 36 points per game and had nearly 465 yards per game at 6.41 yards per play.


The offense struggled in the final game of the season, a 40-6 loss in the Russell Athletic Bowl to Clemson. In all five losses in 2014, Oklahoma gave up at least 31 points. In three of those losses, the Sooners scored at least 30 points.


Heupel was Oklahoma's quarterback when the Sooners beat Florida State for the 2000 BCS Championship and finished second in the Heisman voting to the Seminoles' Chris Weinke that year. He served as Oklahoma's quarterbacks coach for seven seasons before becoming the offensive coordinator.


For more Oklahoma news, visit SoonerScoop.com.


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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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News sport : Dantonio: Michigan has hired coaches 'a number of times' since 2007

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Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio made an observation while talking about Michigan's hire of Jim Harbaugh.


And yes, you could construe Dantonio's observation as a poke towards the Spartans' in-state rivals even as he complimented Harbaugh's ability.


On Monday, Dantonio was asked about the arrival of the former San Francisco 49ers coach.


"That's occurred a number of times since I've been here, so yeah, it's going to be a challenge every time there's somebody new, everybody time there's somebody new in the Big Ten," Dantonio said via SpartanMag.com. "Nobody hires bad coaches. There are no bad coaches out there. Very, very good coaches coach in this conference, including Coach Hoke and Coach Rodriguez, so it's a challenge. Inevitably the top players play on the field. Coach Harbaugh is an excellent coach. He's got a tremendous track record, we all understand that. It will be the next challenge for us. But we compete against Michigan regardless of who's there on a daily basis, we understand that here."


Harbaugh is the third coaching hire that Michigan has made since Dantonio arrived in East Lansing in 2007. His first year was Michigan coach Lloyd Carr's final year, and he's been around for the hires (and fires) of Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke.


After a comeback against Baylor in the Cotton Bowl to give Michigan State three-straight bowl wins, Dantonio is 75-31 in his career with the Spartans and Michigan State has been to a bowl game in every single year. In that timeframe, Michigan is 55-46, though it stands to reason the Wolverines' record will improve with Harbaugh at the helm. And in turn, give Dantonio a challenge just like he says.


For more Michigan State news, visit SpartanMag.com.


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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!







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Fifa VP to stand against Blatter

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Fifa vice president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan will stand for election in a bid to oust Sepp Blatter.


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Geneva – Fifa vice president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan will stand for election in a bid to oust Sepp Blatter as leader of football's scandal-hit world governing body.


The 39-year-old Prince Ali declared his intention Tuesday to stand as a candidate in the Fifa presidential election on May 29 in Zurich, where Blatter has pledged to seek a fifth mandate at age 79.


“This was not an easy decision,” the prince said in a single-page statement in which he pledged to run a positive campaign and did not specifically mention Blatter. “It came after careful consideration and many discussions with respected Fifa colleagues over the last few months.”


“The message I heard, over and over, was that it is time for a change,” said Prince Ali, who has been encouraged to run by European football governing body Uefa and its President Michel Platini.


During Blatter's 17-year leadership, Fifa has been rocked by bribery allegations in presidential and World Cup hosting elections, kickbacks paid to senior officials and World Cup ticket scams.


Fifa's image sank further last month when ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia resigned with a parting shot at Blatter's leadership style and the organisation's seeming unwillingness to reform itself.


Prince Ali said in his statement Tuesday that “it is time to shift the focus away from administrative controversy and back to sport.”


“The world's game deserves a world-class governing body - an international federation that is a service organization and a model of ethics, transparency and good governance,” said the prince, whose reputation is untainted since joining Fifa's executive committee on the day of Blatter's most recent re-election in June 2011.


Blatter has survived by avoiding personal scandal and deft political mastery of an often secretive organization he joined in 1975, before Prince Ali was born. The veteran Swiss official has said his mission to lead world football is unfinished.


Fifa member federations - which elect the president in a secret ballot -have also shown little desire to remove Blatter as they receive increasing shares of billion-dollar annual income from commercial deals tied to the world's most-watched sports event.


Prince Ali did not specify which five of Fifa's 209 members will nominate him for the presidency, as required before a January 29


deadline. He was expected to travel to Australia for the Asian Cup, which kicks off Friday in Melbourne.


He is likely to get support from much of Europe and parts of the Asian Football Confederation. However, he is far from certain to get a majority of support from the Asian confederation, which is led by Sheik Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain.


The AFC did not immediately reply to calls or emails seeking comment.


AFC president Sheik Salman pledged his support for Blatter at the confederation's 60th anniversary celebrations at Manila in November, confirming earlier support from the AFC congress in June.


“It was a unanimous decision,” Salman said at the time. “After making the decision, we have to support it. We never go back on our words and commitments, that's how we are.”


Prince Ali has led Jordan's football federation since 1999 and the following year founded the West Asian Football Federation.


At Fifa, he led the successful campaign to lift a ban on female Islamic players wearing headscarves in its competitions.


Prince Ali's work in international sport, focusing on youth and women's football, follow a tradition of Jordan's royal family. He is the son of the late King Hussein and the late Queen Alia, who died in a helicopter crash in 1977


His sister, Princess Haya, stepped down last month as an International Olympic Committee member after eight years as president of equestrian's governing body, and their half-brother Prince Faisal remains an IOC member.


Educated at schools in England and the United States, Prince Ali graduated from Salisbury School in Connecticut. He attended the elite Sandhurst military academy in England before joining his country's armed forces.


He is married to Rym Brahimi, a former CNN journalist from Algeria, whose father Lakhdar Brahimi has served as a United Nations envoy to Syria during the current conflict.


In an interview with The Associated Press on his first official day as a Fifa board member in 2011, Prince Ali lamented Fifa's focus on internal politics.


“I didn't play a part in and I don't want to play a part in it in the future,” he said, days after Blatter's last election rival, Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar, was implicated in a bribery scandal.


Now, Prince Ali has committed to seeking votes against a battle-hardened incumbent and a possible third candidate, Jerome Champagne of France, a former Fifa staffer and longtime ally of Blatter.


Fifa election rules in the first-round ballot require two-thirds of the votes of present and eligible member federations for victory. A simple majority of valid votes is needed in subsequent rounds. – Sapa-AP






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United not good enough - Van Gaal

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Louis Van Gaal admits his half-term verdict on his team’s progress reads ‘still not good enough’.


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Louis Van Gaal has promised there is more to come from his Manchester United side — and admits his half-term verdict on his team’s progress reads ‘still not good enough’.


The Dutchman has just completed his first six months in charge at Old Trafford by steering the club to third place in the Premier League and safely to the fourth round of the FA Cup.


But Van Gaal told MUTV: ‘We are in the process. That is still not good enough, in my opinion, but I hope we shall improve.’


United’s boss paid tribute to the club’s fans for their patience as his revamped side suffered a poor start to the season.


He said: ‘The first feeling I had was especially after 11 matches, when we had 13 points and I came into the stadium walking and I thought now the fans shall not be pleased. But they were rising up and clapping their hands when I entered the stadium.


‘I felt not so happy myself because I was responsible and guilty for the results so I am very happy we then won a number of matches in a row.


‘I have had the time to know all my players and they are very good. It’s an exciting time and it’s why I became a manager — because I want to work with young people; it keeps you young and you can make a team out of it.’ – Daily Mail






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