Hawaii hires McMackin as coach
IGreg McMackin's first head coaching job was with Warriors of Aloha High School in Oregon. Now, 40 years later in the land of aloha, he has come full circle.
McMackin was hired as Hawaii's football coach Wednesday after serving as its defensive coordinator last season on a team that went undefeated until losing in the Sugar Bowl.
He replaces June Jones, who left the Warriors to coach SMU less than a week after they were routed by Georgia. McMackin agreed to a five-year deal that will pay him $1.1 million a season, making him the highest paid coach in school history. He will earn 10 times his 2007 salary.
The 58-year-old former assistant with the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks said the Warriors will not change their wide-open offense that flourished last season behind NFL-bound quarterback Colt Brennan.
"What we have to do is build on what we have now," he said at a news conference in Honolulu. "We're going to keep what June has built. There's no reason to fix something that isn't broken."
The Warriors finished the regular season 12-0, then lost 41-10 in the Sugar Bowl. After Jones bolted for SMU, athletic director Herman Frazier was fired amid widespread criticism about failing to re-sign the coach.
Two Penn State football players were ordered to stand trial on refiled felony assault charges in connection with a campus fight last year.
Police said defensive tackle Chris Baker and linebacker Navorro Bowman beat up a man
during a party in October.
Baker, 20, of Windsor, Conn., and Bowman, 19, of District Heights, Md., were suspended the last two games because of their legal trouble.
Former Texas quarterback Major Applewhite is rejoining the Longhorns as an assistant coach, leaving his current job as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Alabama.
Applewhite, 29, was a fan favorite as a player from 1998-2001.
BOXING
Former Golden Gloves champion Sadam Ali's Olympic future is in jeopardy while he awaits the backup "B" sample results from a doping test that came back positive for cathine, a banned stimulant found in some cold medicines.
Ali, 19, a lightweight who won the 2006 national Golden Gloves, tested positive at an exhibition in China in November. He's on a voluntary suspension awaiting the results.
HORSE RACING
Santa Anita is changing its racing surface, hoping the additions will make the track easier on horses and hold up better in different weather. The changes were prompted by the hardening and poor drainage of the synthetic surface.
Track president Ron Charles said it will take up to 12 days to produce a stabilizing binder that will be mixed into the surface without having to remove or displace the track.
SOCCER
Four months ago, Hope Solo was kicked off the U.S. women's soccer team for trashing the coach.
On Wednesday, the goalie was not only back on the squad but she also played the entire game — making two saves — as the Americans routed Canada 4-0 in the Four Nation Tournament, a warm-up for the Olympic qualifiers this spring, in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
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