Auburn dumps Malzahn after 8 years
AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn fired football coach Gus Malzahn, ending an eight-year run that began with a trip to the national championship game.
Athletic director Allen Greene announced the firing Sunday, a day after the Tigers finished the regular season with a 24-10 victory over Mississippi State. Auburn is 6-4 in a pandemic-shortened season of all Southeastern Conference opponents, losing by double digits to highly ranked teams Alabama, Georgia and Texas A&M.
The Tigers also were upset by a struggling South Carolina, which wound up firing coach Will Muschamp during the season.
UH to face Hawaii in New Mexico Bowl
The University of Houston accepted an invitation Sunday to the New Mexico Bowl and will play Hawaii.
The game will be played at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 24 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, a suburb of Dallas. COVID-19 guidelines forced the bowl to relocate from Albuquerque, N.M.
This will be the first appearance for Houston (3-4) and Hawaii (4-4) in the New Mexico Bowl.
Illinois fires Smith after 9th losing mark
Illinois fired coach Lovie Smith on Sunday with a game left in its ninth consecutive losing season.
Smith became Illinois’ first Black head football coach when he was hired by athletic director Josh Whitman in March 2016. The longtime NFL coach went 17-39 in five seasons at the
school.
Smith’s original deal was for six years and $21 million, but he received a two-year extension through 2023 after Illinois went 4-8 in his third season.
Coastal Carolina cracks AP top 10
The first top-10 shakeup in more than a month pushed Coastal Carolina to No. 9 in The Associated Press college football poll on Sunday.
Alabama was a unanimous No.
1, followed by Notre Dame, Ohio State, Clemson and Texas A&M as those teams held their spots for a sixth straight week.
Surprising losses by Florida and Miami shuffled the rest of the top 10. No. 6 Cincinnati and No. 7 Indiana each moved up one spot and No. 8 Iowa State jumped two.
Then come the unbeaten Chanticleers (11-0), the first Sun Belt Conference team to crack the AP’s top 10.
Georgia landed at No. 10 ahead of Florida at 11. The Gators
dropped five spots after losing in dramatic fashion to LSU.
App. St., North Texas to battle in bowl game
Appalachian State and North Texas will play in the first Myrtle Beach Bowl on Dec. 21.
The Mountaineers (8-2) and the Mean Green (4-5) will play at the campus of Coastal Carolina in the first NCAA-sanctioned bowl game in the state of South Carolina.