PSU’s versatile Barkley wins Hornung award
Penn State running back Saquon Barkley won the Paul Hornung Award as the most versatile player in college football.
Barkley ranked second in FBS with an average of 179.5 yards per game this season. He put up 200 or more allpurpose yards in five of the Nittany Lions’ 12 games.
He led Penn State with 1,134 net rushing yards and had 47 receptions, just four fewer than team leader Mike Gesicki.
Barkley also returned two kickoffs for touchdowns, and scored 21 touchdowns overall, the fifth most in Football Bowl Subdivision.
“In my 22 years of coaching, I have never coached or seen a player who can affect the game the way Saquon Barkley does,” Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said, in a statement released by the school.
Barkley, a junior who routinely has deflected credit for his accomplishments throughout his career, did so again.
“I have to give a lot of the credit to my teammates and coaches,” he said. “They are the reason that I am in position to win this award and I could not have done it without them.”
Barkley, who will be honored at a banquet in Louisville, Ky. on March 7, is the first Penn State player to win the Hornung.
He also is a finalist for three other national awards: The Maxwell, the Doak Walker and the Walter Camp player of the year.
Arkansas
Arkansas had its best back-to-back seasons in the Southeastern Conference when Bobby Petrino was leading a high-powered offensive attack during the 2010-11 seasons. The Razorbacks have turned to an uptempo, offensive-minded coach — albeit one without the Petrino’s scandalous baggage — to try to rekindle that level of success. Arkansas hired SMU’s Chad Morris on Wednesday, ending nearly two weeks of uncertainty after Bret Bielema’s firing moments after the season ended. Morris, 49, inherits a program in disarray, though his arrival — along with the hiring earlier in the week of new athletic director Hunter Yurachek — represents a fresh start for a program desperately in need of it.
Morris agreed to a sixyear contract worth $3.5 million annually. His contract also calls for incentives to be established that could net Morris up to an additional $1.2 million annually. He’ll also receive retention bonuses of $500,000 in 2019, 2021 and 2023 if he’s still employed at Arkansas — and there have been no major NCAA rules violations.
Rice
Mike Bloomgren has been hired as the coach at Rice. The school announced Wednesday that Bloomgren agreed to a five-year contract with the Owls after spending last season as the associate head coach and offensive coordinator at Stanford. He takes over for David Bailiff, who was fired Nov. 27 after Rice finished 1-11 in his 11th season. Bloomgren worked at Stanford for the past seven seasons. He was the offensive line coach from 2011-12 before taking over as offensive coordinator in 2013.