January 3, 2012
NBA Tuesday Night Schedule
January 3, 2012
Seahawks finish (7-9)
The Seattle Seahawks are 7-9 again after a heartbreaker in the desert.
Last year, that record was good enough to win the weak NFC West. This year, it just means the season is over.
Despite the 23-20 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, the Seahawks believe they are a better team than they were a year ago, and are headed in the right direction.
”Regardless of what happened today, I’m very clear and very charged about where we are going, without question,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said.
The Seahawks will be a tough, run-oriented team, he said, but that approach wasn’t enough to derail the Cardinals in a matchup of teams that had experienced turnarounds after awful starts to the season. Arizona began 1-6, then finished 7-2 to go 8-8. Seattle started 2-6 and won five of its final eight.
”We know we have a better team this year,” Seattle safety Earl Thomas said. ”We are young, but the experience that we got this year and all the plays we made we can build on that next year.”
Seattle trailed 20-10 early in the fourth quarter, then rallied to tie it and send it into overtime. The Seahawks had the first chance after winning the OT coin toss, but they couldn’t move the ball, then Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald made a pair of spectacular catches to set up the 28-yard field goal that gave Arizona the win.
”This game was kind of typical of our overall season,” said quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, who completed his first year at the controls for Seattle. ”We kind of got off to a slow start and picked it up during the second half.”….While Carroll said the Seahawks are a running team, they can look to a future with a talented young receiver in rookie Ricardo Lockette, whose 61-yard TD catch tied it at 20 midway through the fourth quarter.
”His upside is through the roof,” Jackson said. ”He can run, he can catch. He has ball skills to make a bunch of big-time catches. It’s just about getting him to understand the NFL game.”
The Seahawks played their first overtime game since the second week of the 2008 season. Arizona played its fourth in the last nine weeks. All four were at home, and the Cardinals won every one of them.
Fitzgerald made a leaping grab against two defenders early in the winning drive for a 26-yard gain, but he saved the best for last, a diving, one-handed catch for 8 yards that got the team within field-goal range and eventually set up the deciding score.
”I actually thought it was too far,” quarterback John Skelton said of his throw. ”I just saw his arm stick out, stick it, and stick the landing. We come to expect that from Larry. It’s almost like it’s not even a shocker anymore because he does it so often.”
Skelton didn’t mention it, but he fainted in the locker room before the game after getting fluid drained from a knee.
”Pregame, he scared us all. He fell out and he had a little fainting issue in the locker room,” Fitzgerald said. ”We were all nervous about him being able to play today and he fought through that and was able to go out there and perform and get our team a win. That shows the kind of toughness he has.”
Seattle (7-9) had rallied to tie it after trailing 20-10 early in the fourth quarter.
Fitzgerald caught nine passes for 149 yards after one reception for 2 yards in the first half. It was his 32nd career 100-yard receiving game, sixth this season.
January 3, 2012
Huskies look to the SEC for new Defense
Tennessee defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox and linebackers coach Peter Sirmon have accepted jobs on Washington coach Steve Sarkisian’s staff, a person familiar with the situation said Monday.
The person told The Associated Press about the departures on condition of anonymity because the moves have not been announced by either school. The moves come two days after Sarkisian fired defensive coordinator Nick Holt, linebackers coach Mike Cox and safeties coach Jeff Mills…Wilcox is expected to replace Holt, who was fired on Saturday, just two days after Washington gave up 777 total yards and 67 points against Baylor in the Alamo Bowl. It was the most yards allowed in school history and second-most points surrendered.
Washington officials had no comment on Monday morning.
Wilcox and Sirmon are the latest in a string of departures from Tennessee, which is still struggling to rebuild after back-to-back coaching turnovers following the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Wide receivers coach Charlie Baggett and tight ends and special teams coach Eric Russell also have left the staff of Volunteers coach Derek Dooley.
Wilcox’s defense was one of the bright spots in a disappointing 5-7 season for Tennessee. The Vols allowed 340.5 yards and 22.6 points per game, ranking them among the top 35 teams in the nation in both categories.
Wilcox, 35, was set to earn $700,000 at Tennessee in 2012. He and Sirmon were teammates and roommates Oregon, though Wilcox first made a name for himself in four seasons as defensive coordinator at Boise State, where his players lead the Western Athletic Conference in total defense and scoring defense from 2006-2009 and compiled a 49-4 overall record.
Sirmon, 34, a veteran NFL linebacker, spent the 2010 season as a graduate assistant for the Vols and was promoted to linebackers coach for 2011. He was set to earn $175,000 in 2012.
The pair will be stepping in to lead a defense with ongoing troubles. The Huskies gave up 65 points, 446 yards rushing and 615 total yards to Stanford this season, then another 40 points and 426 yards to Southern California. Even when the Huskies held Oregon to under 400 total yards, it came in a 34-17 defeat….Only four times in 13 games this season did Washington hold an opponent under 400 total yards, and just 11 times in Holt’s 38 games in charge of the Huskies defense. Washington’s 2011 defense set school records for most points allowed, total touchdowns, yards passing allowed and total yards allowed.
Holt’s firing came almost three years to the day after he was introduced as the defensive answer to Washington’s woes. He was wooed from Southern California by a contract that trumped that of some other head coaches in the conference and the autonomy to run the defense as he wanted.
January 3, 2012
Chris Polk to enter NFL Draft
Chris Polk wanted to own all of Washington’s records for running backs by the time he left school.
He doesn’t have every one, but he’s got plenty of accolades to put on his resume for NFL teams…Washington made the expected announcement on Monday that Polk will forgo his senior season and enter the NFL draft, leaving the Huskies as the No. 2 rusher all-time in school history trailing only Napoleon Kaufman.
Polk’s career ended last Thursday night in the Alamo Bowl when he posted his 21st 100-yard rushing game, one of his many school records. Polk ran for 147 yards on 30 carries and one touchdown in the Huskies’ 67-56 loss to Baylor.
”Chris had a terrific career at Washington and deserves the opportunity to move on to the next level,” Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said in a statement. ”We wish him nothing but the best in what I’m sure will be a great professional career.”
Polk finished with 4,049 yards rushing, barely behind Kaufman’s 4,106 set in the 1990s. Polk also holds the career school records for carries (799) and average per game (101.2). He had the second-best rushing game in school history in the 2010 Apple Cup against Washington State when he ran for 284 yards.
Polk had said last week before the Alamo Bowl that he was still trying to decide to return for a fifth year at Washington – he received a medical redshirt after a shoulder injury in his freshman year. But Polk already has turned 22 and earned his bachelor’s degree in American ethnic studies.
He ran for 1,488 yards as a junior, the second-best single-season in Washington history. He went for 1,415 yards as a sophomore and 1,113 as a redshirt freshman in 2009.
The decision to come out early might also have to do with a thin draft class at running back. Polk is considered among the top tier of running back potentially available in the draft, and is projected to likely be selected on the second day in the second or third rounds.
The departure of Polk means Washington will turn to either Jesse Callier or freshman Bishop Sankey as its main ball carrier next season. Callier ran for 260 yards and averaged 5.5 yards per carry this season, while Sankey in spot duty ran for 187 yards and averaged 6.7 yards per rush. The Huskies also may get back Johri Fogerson, who missed most of this season with a knee injury and Deontae Cooper, a highly regarded recruit who has yet to play in two seasons on campus due to a pair of knee injuries.
