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Of JoePa's glasses, Jags' lost job and Yale history

January 8, 12:37 PMCollege Football ExaminerTony Guadagnoli
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Catching up quickly on some recent news before tonight's BCS national championship game.

Jeff Jagodzinski lost his job, Joe Paterno lost his glasses and Yale made history.

• Jagodzinksi was fired by Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo after Jagodzinski interviewed with the New York Jets against his boss' wishes. The Eagles were 20-8 under Jagodzinski and ranked as high as No. 2 in 2007. Jagodzinski probably won't get the Jets job, but he might get another position in the NFL.

A Penn State fan shows her support for coach Joe Paterno and the team before Penn State's Rose Bowl NCAA college football game against Southern California in Pasadena, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009. (AP Photo/Mark Avery)• JoePa just can't catch a break. Not only were the 82-year-old coach's Penn State Nittany Lions soundly beaten by USC in the Rose Bowl, vandals removed the bronze glasses from Paterno's statue outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., during the weekend. Paterno's trademark thick glasses were apparently cut above the ears. School officials say they will be replaced. No truth to the rumors that Rich Rodriguez was seen leaving Beaver Stadium early Saturday or that Joe plans Lasik surgery any time soon.

 • Pete Carroll replaced defensive coordinator Nick Holt, who joined new Washington coach Steve Sarkisian's staff, with Rocky Seto. Seto had coached defensive backs and linebackers for Carroll. Linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. also was promoted to assistant head coach, where he will have more say in the overall defense.
 

The Trojans also rehired Jethro Franklin as defensive line coach, a position he had under Carroll in 2005. Franklin worked for the Houston Texans but was fired after the season.

Tom Williams poses for a photograph with the Yale bulldog mascot Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, in New Haven, Conn. Williams, a defensive assistant for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, was introduced as football coach at Yale. (AP Photo/Douglas Healey)• Yale has played football since the 1870s, and made Tom Williams the first African-American coach in school history Wednesday. Williams was a defensive assistant coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Yale has lost seven of the last eight games to Harvard, and Williams made it clear he wants to change that.

"We’re going to beat Harvard,” Williams said. “We’ve got to turn The Game back into a rivalry. A rivalry is only a rivalry when there’s some give-and-take. In the last few years, there’s been too much take.” Williams was a Rhodes Scholar candidate at Stanford and legendary Yale coach Carm Cozza said Williams' race could play a factor.  "We’ve had problems getting black athletes,” Cozza told the Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American. “That might help him. He’s an example.”

 

• Signs that college football bowl games are still somewhat popular. ESPN and ESPN2 combined to televise 23 bowl games and averaged 2,810,000 homes (based on a 2.5 U.S. rating), an increase of eight percent over last season.  In 2007-08, the networks combined for an average of 2,596,000 homes for 21 bowl games (based on a 2.3 U.S. rating).

 
On Saturday, Dec. 27, the Champs Sports Bowl delivered ESPN’s second-largest bowl audience ever.  Florida State’s 42-13 victory over Wisconsin averaged 5,098,000 homes, based on a 5.2 rating.  (ESPN’s most-watched bowl game ever was the Alamo Bowl on December, 30, 2006, between Iowa and Texas.  It was watched by an average of 5,521,000 homes, based on a 6.0 rating.)
 
• Fox Sports and Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. are showing tonight's BCS title game in a live 3-D broadcast at 80 theaters in 35 states nationwide. The technology, used successfully for an NFL game, offers more vivid colors.
 
• South Florida and Florida State have finalized a home-and-home series. The Seminoles and Bulls have never played each other, but will meet in Tallahassee on Sept. 26 and in Tampa on Sept. 29, 2012.
 
• The Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Southeastern, Big 12 and Pacific-10 conferences each placed four players on the 27-man Football Writers Association of Amnerica all-freshman team. Redshirt freshmen also were considered and the quarterback was Boise State's  Kellen Moore. 
 

 Tony Guadagnoli is the National College Football Examiner. You can e-mail him at tonyguad@yahoo.com.

 

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