Mayfield nets top Big 12 honor
IRVING — Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield is the Big 12’s Offensive Player of the Year for the second time in three years, and Sooners defensive end Ogbonnia Okoronkwo shared the defensive honor with Texas linebacker Malik Jefferson.
Mayfield also was the Big 12’s top offensive player in 2015. Oklahoma receiver Dede Westbrook got the honor last year.
The Big 12 awards announced Thursday were based on the votes of the league’s 10 coaches, who couldn’t pick their own players.
Second-year Iowa State coach Matt Campbell was tabbed the top coach. The Cyclones (7-5) will finish with their first winning season since 2009 and make their first bowl appearance since 2012. They had wins over No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 10 TCU, teams that meet in the Big 12 championship game on Saturday.
UT junior punter Michael Dickson was named the conference’s top special teams player.
Baylor quarterback Charlie Brewer and TCU receiver Jalen Reagor share the freshman of the year honor.
TSU cuts ties with 2 coaches
Texas Southern offensive coordinator Greg Gregory and defensive line coach Walter Moreham will not be retained for next season, the school announced Thursday.
Both coaches joined the TSU staff in 2016.
“Decisions of this nature are never easy and always require a lot of due diligence on our behalf, but we feel these changes are necessary for us to continue to move the program forward and headed in the right direction,” TSU coach Michael Haywood said.
Rudolph wins Unitas award
Oklahoma State quarterback Mason Rudolph is the winner of the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which goes to college football’s top senior or fourth-year senior quarterback.
Rudolph leads the nation in yards passing with 4,553 and has thrown 35 touchdown passes for the 18th-ranked Cowboys. Rudolph was one of 10 finalists for the award, including Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett.
Those three are also finalists for the Davey O’Brien award.
Doeren, N.C. State reach new deal
North Carolina State has announced that it has agreed to a new contract with football coach Dave Doeren.
A person familiar with the situation says the five-year deal came after Doeren talked with Tennessee officials about their coaching vacancy. The person spoke to the Associated Press on Thursday on condition of anonymity because neither Tennessee nor N.C. State had publicly discussed details of the Volunteers’ coaching search.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t immediately available and it is unclear if Doeren was formally offered the Tennessee job to replace fired coach Butch Jones.
N.C. State officials announced the new agreement with Doeren on Thursday, pending approval from the school’s Board of Trustees on Friday.
The coach, who turns 46 on Sunday, is 33-30 in five seasons at North Carolina State. He is preparing the team for its fourth straight bowl appearance.
Doeren’s decision to stay in Raleigh continues Tennessee’s frustrating search for a coach following the Nov. 12 firing of Jones, who went 34-27 in five seasons.
Florida’s Mullen hires Grantham
Florida coach Dan Mullen has hired Todd Grantham as the team’s defensive coordinator, bringing a third assistant with him from Mississippi State.
Grantham, a Broyles Award nominee as the nation’s top college assistant, has 31 years of coaching experience, including defensive line duties with the Texans (2002-04) and Dallas Cowboys (2008-09).
Odds and ends
San Diego State unveiled details of a $250 million stadium it wants to build at the site of aging SDCCU Stadium.
The stadium would be built in conjunction with a proposed campus expansion that supporters hope to place on the November 2018 ballot. It would seat 35,000 for SDSU football and a possible pro soccer team, and would be expandable to 55,000 if the city were to ever attract another NFL team following the relocation of the Chargers to the Los Angeles area earlier this year. …
Clemson starting linebacker Tre Lamar will miss the top-ranked Tigers’ Atlantic Coast Conference championship game with No. 7 Miami because of continuing shoulder problems.