Oregon’s Freeman won’t play in bowl

Star running back could go in draft’s early rounds.

Oregon senior running back Royce Freeman won’t play in the Las Vegas Bowl against Boise State today.

“This is hard for him. This is not an easy decision for a guy who’s invested his heart and soul in this program,” new coach Mario Cristobal said.

Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey and LSU running back Leonard Fournette both sat out bowl games to avoid injury as they prepared for the NFL draft. Freeman, who could be taken in the early rounds of the 2018 draft, set the Pac-12 record with 60 career rushing touchdowns, surpassing Oregon State’s Ken Simonton, who ran for 59 from 1998-01.

He holds Oregon career records for rushing yards (5,621), rushing touchdowns (60), total touchdowns (64) and 100-yard rushing games (31).

Louisiana-Lafayette: The Rajin’ Cajuns hired Arizona State offensive coordinator Billy Napier as football coach Friday. Napier replaced Mark Hudspeth, fired after a 5-7 finish this season. On Thursday, Hudspeth joined Mississippi State as associate head coach and tight ends coach.

Napier spent one season at Arizona State. He was promoted to associate head coach and offensive coordinator last week after Herm Edwards was hired as head coach to replace the fired Todd Graham. Before his season at Arizona State, Napier was the wide receivers coach at Alabama, where he had two stints on Nick Saban’s staff — one in 2011 and another from 2013-16.

Toledo: Coach Jason Candle has signed a six-year contract that runs through the 2023 and will pay him more than $1 million per year.

Candle is 21-6 in two full seasons at Toledo, where he was promoted from offensive coordinator after the 2015 regular season when Matt Campbell left for Iowa State. The Rockets won the Mid-American Conference for the first time since 2004.

NAIA: Southern Oregon quarterback Tanner Trosin and Morningside running back Bubba Jenkins lead The Associated Press NAIA All-America team released Friday.

Trosin led the NAIA this season with 4,516 yards passing. He also has thrown 31 touchdowns. Jenkins leads the NAIA with 2,160 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns on the ground.

St. Francis, Indiana, faces Reinhardt in the NAIA championship game today in Daytona Beach, Florida. St. Francis running back Justin Green was selected to the first team. Reinhardt had three players chosen as All-Americans: offensive linemen Trey Coney (Dublin) and Xavier Carter (Shiloh) and defensive lineman Tevin McCoy (Carrollton).

Duke: Coach David Cutcliffe says William Holmquist probably will take over as both kicker and punter in the Quick Lane Bowl following the dismissal of starter Austin Parker. Holmquist joined the Blue Devils as a graduate transfer this summer after playing both positions at Tufts for three seasons. Parker was kicked off the team and suspended from school last week for a violation of academic policy. Duke (6-6) plays Northern Illinois (8-4) in Detroit on Dec. 26.