Burr-Kirven named All-America
Washington senior linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven, a two-time Mercury News player of the year from Sacred Heart Prep in Atherton, was named first-team AP All-America on Monday.
Last week, Burr-Kirven was named the Pat Tillman Defensive Player of the Year by the Pac-12. The senior leads the FBS with 165 tackles. Burr-Kirven was also named first team on the Football Writers Association of America All-America team.
Joining Burr-Kirven on the AP first-team were 10 players from College Football Payoff semifinalist teams, including a high of four from No. 1 Alabama. The Crimson Tide had six players chosen to the three All-America teams, more than any other school. No. 2 Clemson has three firstteamers, No. 4 Oklahoma has two, including quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray, and No. 3 Notre Dame had one. K-STATE HIRES KLIEMAN >> Kansas State hired Chris Klieman of North Dakota State to lead its football program, passing the reins from retired Hall of Fame coach Bill Snyder to someone with three Football Championship Subdivision titles but little Big 12 experience.
Klieman, 51, was hired to lead the Bison by current Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor, and was seen as one of the front-runners for the Wildcats’ job ever since Snyder announced his retirement. Klieman agreed to a six-year contract with a base salary of $2.3 million next season, increasing by $200,000 each subsequent season. The deal includes a number of other incentives.
Taylor initially targeted North Texas coach Seth Littrell, but he announced last week that he would remain with the Mean Green. Attention quickly shifted to Klieman, who has the Bison in the FCS semifinals against South Dakota State on Friday night as they seek a fourth title in five seasons.
Klieman will be allowed to coach the Bison in that game. Whether he would remain with the school for the championship game should North Dakota State advance is still under discussion.
Klieman is only the third coach to lead the Wildcats since 1988, when Snyder was hired off Hayden Fry’s staff at Iowa. Snyder has dealt with health problems in recent years, though, including a bout with throat cancer, and he announced after a 5-7 season that he was retiring again. He won 215 games in 27 seasons.
“I’m so happy and thrilled to follow a legend,” Klieman said in a statement. “The opportunity to follow in an icon’s footsteps is something I don’t take for granted and don’t take lightly. I know I have huge shoes to fill and I’m excited to carry on his legacy.” MACINTYRE JOINS OLE MISS >> Mississippi has hired former Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre to be its new defensive coordinator.
The 53-year-old MacIntyre arrives at Ole Miss after six seasons as Colorado’s coach after a successful run at San Jose State. Colorado fired MacIntyre in November.
Baseball
HAMILTON, ROSS FIND NEW TEAMS >> The baseball winter meetings began in earnest along the Vegas Strip on Monday, and clubs slowly started to show their cards.
A couple of moves got done — speedy outfielder Billy Hamilton sprinted to the Kansas City Royals, former Cal (and A’s) pitcher Tyson Ross went to Detroit.
Hamilton is considered the fastest player in the majors and stole at least 50 bases four straight seasons before dipping to 34 last season.
Ross went a combined 8-9 with a 4.15 ERA for San Diego and St. Louis last season. Ross is 43-65 with a 3.95 ERA in nine seasons. The 31-year-old made his debut with Oakland in 2010 and was an All-Star with San Diego in 2014.
The Seattle Mariners made an interesting move, claiming infielder Kaleb Cowart on waivers from the Los Angeles Angels and also announcing him as a right-handed pitcher. A prep star on the mound and at the plate, the 26-yearold Cowart has not pitched since the Angels drafted in the first round in 2010. He hit .134 with 10 RBIs in 47 games with Los Angeles last season.
NEW TIME FOR SUNDAY NIGHT GAMES >> Baseball players might get a little more sleep when traveling after Sunday night games next year. ESPN announced it is moving up the starting time of the nationally televised game by one hour, with the first pitch planned for shortly after 4 p.m. Pacific.
Olympics
USOC FIRES PERFORMANCE CHIEF >> The U.S. Olympic Committee fired chief of sport performance Alan Ashley in the wake of an independent report released Monday that said neither he nor former CEO Scott Blackmun elevated concerns about the Larry Nassar sexual abuse allegations when they were first reported to them.
The 233-page independent report detailed an overall lack of response when the USOC leaders first heard about the Nassar allegations from the then-president of USA Gymnastics, Steve Penny.
Blackmun resigned in February because of health concerns.
The report says the USOC took no action between first hearing of the allegations in July 2015 and September 2016, when the Indianapolis Star published an account of Nassar’s sex abuse. The report concludes that lack of action allowed Nassar to abuse dozens more girls over the 14 months of silence.
Nassar is serving decades in prison on charges of child pornography and for molesting young women and girls under the guise of medical treatment; many of his accusers testified in heart-wrenching detail at his sentencing hearing.
Though Ashley was the only one to get fired in the immediate aftermath of its release, the report paints a harsh picture of leadership of the entire U.S. Olympic movement, from the offices of the USOC to what it portrays as an essentially rogue, unchecked operation at the Karolyi Ranch in Texas the training center run by Bela and Martha Karolyi where some of the abuse occurred.
The report concludes that one of Penny’s key objectives was to keep the allegations under wraps, to avoid “sending shockwaves through the community,” as he said in a conversation with an FBI agent.
NBA
FORMER WARRIOR JOINS NUGGETS >> The bangedup Denver Nuggets have signed former Warriors reserve Nick Young under the injury hardship relief exception granted by the NBA. Young appeared in 80 games with the Warriors last season and averaged 7.3 points. He also has played for the Lakers, Clippers, Philadelphia and Washington over his 11-year career.