Manny Diaz decided someone else needed to call Miami’s defensive plays. He chose himself.

The Hurricanes’ head coach – and former defensive coordinator – will call the plays on that side of the football in 2021, he said Thursday, while announcing a slew of other changes including the return of Jess Simpson to coach defensive line. Simpson had that role at Miami in 2018 before leaving for the Atlanta Falcons; after two NFL seasons, he returns to Coral Gables.

Blake Baker will remain as defensive coordinator, though Diaz will assume the bigger role for games.

”Blake will continue to run our defense and I will call the defensive plays on game days, which we feel is our best path to maximizing our strengths on that side of the ball,” Diaz said.

Diaz also has promoted former Miami standout and NFL veteran DeMarcus Van Dyke to cornerbacks coach. He was on Diaz’s staff the last two years as the Hurricanes’ assistant director of recruiting.

Diaz started the defensive-staff shakeup over the weekend with the hiring of Miami native Travaris Robinson as the Hurricanes’ defensive backs coach. The Hurricanes were 67th in total defense and 51st in scoring defense out of 127 teams at the FBS level nationally this past season.

”We are excited to announce these staff hires as we work to improve all facets of our program on and off the field,” Diaz said. ”Jess is a proven defensive line coach at all levels who had great success with our defensive line in 2018 and we are thrilled to have him back at UM. DeMarcus is eager to take the next step in his coaching career and work in tandem with Travaris with our defensive backs.”

Baker will also coach inside linebackers and Jonathan Patke returns as special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach to complete Miami’s defensive staff. Former assistant head coach and defensive line coach Todd Stroud will now become Miami’s senior football advisor and former cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph is going to the Hurricanes’ recruiting department.

The Hurricanes (8-3) finished this season ranked No. 22 and are scheduled to open next season against reigning national champion Alabama.

”We can’t wait to hit the ground running with our offseason program,” Diaz said.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has added four people to his coaching staff, a group including Justin Lustig from Syracuse as his assistant head coach, special teams coordinator and tight ends coach.

Lea announced the additions Thursday. The new assistants include Inoke Breckterfield coaching defensive tackles, Barton Simmons as the Commodores’ general manager and director of personnel and Nik Valdiserri as the recruiting coordinator.

Jovan Haye, who played at Vanderbilt before seven seasons in the NFL, will remain on staff coaching defensive ends.

Lustig spent the past four seasons at Syracuse as special teams coordinator. He also coached running backs in 2017 and wide receivers from 2018 to 2020. He also was assistant head coach the past two seasons. Syracuse led the Atlantic Coast Conference in net punting each of his first three seasons.

Breckterfield spent the past six seasons at Wisconsin. The Badgers went 56-19 with three Big Ten West Division titles and five bowl victories while allowing just 16.6 points and 107.7 yards rushing per game during his tenure.

Simmons played high school football with Lea at Montgomery Bell Academy and started four seasons at Yale as a defensive back. He worked at Rivals.com as a national analyst before going to 247Sports in 2010 working in the scouting department.

He oversaw 247Sports’ rankings over the past five recruiting cycles. Some of the prospects he ranked higher than the rest of the industry included Tyrann Matthieu, Henry Ruggs, DeVonta Smith and Ja’Marr Chase.

Valdiserri spent the 2020 season with Bowling Green. He worked with Notre Dame between 2017 and 2019 starting as a student assistant before working in recruiting, operations and player personnel.

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Four stars from Alabama’s national championship team, including Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback Mac Jones, are leaving early to enter the NFL draft.

Jones, wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, cornerback Patrick Surtain II and defensive lineman Christian Barmore announced their intentions to leave on Thursday – all are considered potential first-round picks.

Jones arrived as a skinny recruit along with much more heralded prospect Tua Tagovailoa, a No. 5 overall pick by the Miami Dolphins last season. Both played behind young quarterback Jalen Hurts, now with the Philadelphia Eagles.

”It’s just been a great journey,” said Jones, who finished third in the Heisman voting.

There also are several Alabama seniors considered first-round picks, including Heisman Trophy-winning wide receiver DeVonta Smith, All-America tailback Najee Harris and Outland Trophy winner left tackle Alex Leatherwood.

Jones put together the most prolific season of any Tide quarterback in his only full season as starter. He was college football’s most efficient passer and also led the nation with 4,500 passing yards and a 77.4% completion rate.

He said he is ready for the next step.

”Coach (Nick) Saban’s been educating all of us since we stepped on campus so we’re very aware of how the draft works and things like that,” Jones said. ”And we all want to play in the NFL.”

Jones passed for 41 touchdowns and had just four interceptions. Th quarterback, who has a master’s degree in sports hospitality, had one of his best performances in the national championship game win over Ohio State.

He competed 36 of 45 passes for 464 yards and five touchdowns in the 52-24 win. Jones won both the Davey O’Brien Award and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.

Surtain was a unanimous All-American, Jim Thorpe Award winner and Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year. A shutdown cornerback, he allowed 25 receiving yards or fewer nine times entering the championship game.

”Since I was a kid, my lifelong dream was to play in the NFL,” said Surtain, whose father Patrick Surtain Sr. is a former NFL player.

”I leaned on him a lot,” Surtain said of his father. ”He’s been through this before. I asked him a lot of questions leading up to this process. He’s guided me the right way.”

Barmore was the defensive MVP of the national title game, where he had a sack and a pair of tackles for loss. Barmore led the team with eight sacks and had three pass breakups and three forced fumbles.

”This was a very difficult decision for me because I love my brothers, the fans and I love playing football at Alabama,” he said.

Waddle returned in a limited capacity in the title game after missing much of the season with an ankle injury that required surgery. But he had been one of the Tide’s most dynamic players as a receiver and punt returner.

Waddle had 28 catches for 592 yards and four touchdowns in six games. He caught three passes for 34 yards against Ohio State, despite clearly not being 100%.

”It was a great experience,” Waddle said. ”To be honest, when they told me I was going to have a chance to play, I already had it in my mind to play.

”It was great to get back out there with the team and just do it one more time and go out the right way. That was what it was all about.”

Saban said the players who are leaving school without degrees promised they would complete the remaining requirements.

”I’m really proud of each one of these guys,” the coach said, ”and they’re always going to be part of the University of Alabama and the program here.”

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) Florida is rebuilding its defensive line with help from the transfer portal.

The Gators officially welcomed former Auburn defensive tackle Daquan Newkirk to the program Thursday, a little more than a week after landing ex-Penn State defensive tackle Antonio Shelton.

The duo should help replace two-year starters Kyree Campbell and Tedarrell Slaton, both seniors who opted to move on to the NFL.

Newkirk entered the NCAA transfer portal Monday after spending three years with the Tigers. The 6-foot-3, 317-pound Orlando native started every regular-season game for Auburn in 2020. He skipped the team’s bowl game.

Newkirk notched 28 tackles, including 1 + sacks, last season. He will be a graduate transfer for the Gators in 2021 after playing sparingly in 2018 and ’19.

Shelton enrolled at Florida last week for his sixth year of eligibility. He’s continuing his collegiate career thanks to an NCAA blanket waiver that gives athletes an extra year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Shelton started 20 games at Penn State. The 6-foot-2, 327-pound Columbus, Ohio native finished the 2020 season with 14 tackles, including 3 + sacks, one forced fumble and one pass defended. He was honorable mention on the All-Big Ten teams.

Florida is revamping its defense after the team’s worst season on that side of the ball in more than a hundred years. Coach Dan Mullen fired secondary coaches Ron English and Torrian Gray earlier this month and replaced them with former Auburn assistant Wesley McGriff, who surely helped land Newkirk.

The Gators (8-4), who ended the season ranked No. 13, allowed 30.8 points a game in 2020. It was their most since giving up an average of 41.2 points over six games in 1917.

Florida’s line was one of the defense’s few strengths, though. The Gators led the Southeastern Conference in sacks, averaging nearly three a game.

Outside linebacker Jeremiah Moon and defensive end Zach Carter, who led the team with five sacks, already announced plans to stay in school and play another season. Between them, the two transfers and another year of development for Brenton Cox and Gervon Dexter, Florida should have another formidable front in 2021.

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Manny Diaz decided someone else needed to call Miami’s defensive plays. He chose himself.

The Hurricanes’ head coach – and former defensive coordinator – will call the plays on that side of the football in 2021, he said Thursday, while announcing a slew of other changes including the return of Jess Simpson to coach defensive line. Simpson had that role at Miami in 2018 before leaving for the Atlanta Falcons; after two NFL seasons, he returns to Coral Gables.

Blake Baker will remain as defensive coordinator, though Diaz will assume the bigger role for games.

”Blake will continue to run our defense and I will call the defensive plays on game days, which we feel is our best path to maximizing our strengths on that side of the ball,” Diaz said.

Diaz also has promoted former Miami standout and NFL veteran DeMarcus Van Dyke to cornerbacks coach. He was on Diaz’s staff the last two years as the Hurricanes’ assistant director of recruiting.

Diaz started the defensive-staff shakeup over the weekend with the hiring of Miami native Travaris Robinson as the Hurricanes’ defensive backs coach. The Hurricanes were 67th in total defense and 51st in scoring defense out of 127 teams at the FBS level nationally this past season.

”We are excited to announce these staff hires as we work to improve all facets of our program on and off the field,” Diaz said. ”Jess is a proven defensive line coach at all levels who had great success with our defensive line in 2018 and we are thrilled to have him back at UM. DeMarcus is eager to take the next step in his coaching career and work in tandem with Travaris with our defensive backs.”

Baker will also coach inside linebackers and Jonathan Patke returns as special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach to complete Miami’s defensive staff. Former assistant head coach and defensive line coach Todd Stroud will now become Miami’s senior football advisor and former cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph is going to the Hurricanes’ recruiting department.

The Hurricanes (8-3) finished this season ranked No. 22 and are scheduled to open next season against reigning national champion Alabama.

”We can’t wait to hit the ground running with our offseason program,” Diaz said.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) Alcorn State and Southern are the favorites to repeat as division champions in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in a season that was moved to spring because of the pandemic.

The league announced its preseason picks during the virtual media day on Thursday.

Alcorn State is the favorite to win its seventh consecutive East Division title. The Braves won their fourth SWAC title in six seasons with a 39-24 win over Southern in 2019.

Alabama A&M was picked to finish second in the division followed by Alabama State, Jackson State, and Mississippi Valley State.

Southern is seeking to win its third consecutive West Division title and capture its first SWAC title since 2013.

Grambling State, which claimed league titles in 2016 and 2017 was tabbed to finish second followed by Prairie View A&M, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and Texas Southern.

The season kicks off in February, with each team facing a six-game league schedule. They’ll face four division opponents and two teams from the other division.

The SWAC title game is scheduled for Saturday, May 1.

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(Stats Perform) – The gap between emotions seemed more considerable Thursday than the distance between the Western Athletic Conference’s announcement in Houston of a football rebirth and where the Southland Conference is headquartered about a four-hour’s drive north in Frisco, Texas.

Four schools that will become a part of the WAC on July 1 will be departing the Southland – Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin. Their decisions to move on are jarring to a conference that has been one of the leaders on the FCS level, and it could occur again with Central Arkansas rumored to be planning a move to the Atlantic Sun Conference.

If and when UCA is added to the scenario, a Southland that has 13 schools, including 11 football members, would drop to eight and six, respectively.

While excitement filled the schools introduced by the WAC at NRG Stadium, including Southern Utah – which will depart the Big Sky Conference in 2022 and play in the new FCS league – disappointment was felt in Frisco and by the remaining Southland schools in Texas and Louisiana.

Still, it’s not the first time the Southland has undergone realignment, nor surely the last time. To move forward, the remaining schools have hired Plano-based Eastman & Beaudine Inc., an executive search and athletics consulting service, to help determine their conference’s direction, including attracting new membership.

“Really where our focus has been is on turning the page, getting on with the plans that we have,” said Tom Burnett, the Southland commissioner since 2002 and a driving force in the FCS.

His conference, he added is undergoing “a process through the spring that allows us some opportunity to kind of gauge what might be possible in our region of the country. That is where all of our focus has gone, and what’s been very heartening is the level of support, unanimity on getting behind a plan and moving forward, working on the next chapter of the Southland Conference. That chapter’s not written yet.”

While conference realignment has slowed in recent years, the FCS level has still seen the Big South Conference hurt considerably by the loss of schools, only to bounce back with new membership, and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference is still working to overcome losses. It may have been hard to anticipate the Southland situation considering its schools’ success on a national level, the development of the conference’s broadcast package and the conference thriving as the host of national championship week since 2010 (the title game is played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco).

The Southland sponsors 18 sports – 10 for women and eight for men – and barring a change of heart by Central Arkansas, it will have football members in Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word, McNeese, Nicholls, Northwestern State and Southeastern Louisiana, plus New Orleans and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in other sports.

Burnett said he’s heard talk about departing schools questioning the athletic commitment of others, but feels the remaining schools would push back at it.

Said Burnett: “Who’s not committed – Nicholls? Nicholls has won our last two championships. Who’s not committed – UIW? UIW went to the playoffs a couple years ago and shared a championship. So when people point those fingers about not being committed, what are they really talking about? Everybody in this conference is committed to a championship expectation.

“If you don’t think they’re committed, bring your football team to one of our stadiums. We’ll take our chances.”

Burnett wished success to the departing schools, adding, “But just like they’re doing, we have to move forward.”

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) Duke head coach David Cutcliffe is giving up play-calling duties amid multiple changes in responsibilities for the Blue Devils coaching staff following a two-win season.

Cutcliffe took over play-calling last season as the Blue Devils sought an offensive spark, but said Thursday he needed to return to taking a broader program overview.

”I increased the (difficulty) for me, and I don’t think that it allowed me to be everything that I needed to be for our team,” Cutcliffe said Thursday in a video call with reporters.

Duke improved its total offense (379.4) last year from 2019, but still ranked near the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Blue Devils also saw their scoring dip slightly (24.8) while losing a national-worst 39 turnovers.

The school said Jeff Faris would shift from coaching tight ends to quarterbacks while taking over as primary in-game play-caller. Faris was named co-offensive coordinator along with Re’quan Boyette, who is moving from coaching running backs to receivers.

Cutcliffe said he decided to shuffle responsibilities after cornerbacks coach Chris Hampton left to become Tulane’s defensive coordinator, saying that ”realigning” the staff would create ”new energy.”

Other changes included adding Calvin Magee as running backs coach, deputy head coach Zac Roper overseeing tight ends after four seasons coaching quarterbacks, and receivers coach Trooper Taylor moving to cornerbacks coach.

Duke (2-9, 1-9 ACC) missed a bowl for the second straight season after going to six in seven years.

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(Stats Perform) – If Alabama A&M coach Connell Maynor had looked up to his TV, he might have seen the SWAC’s newest coach commanding the spotlight.

Actually, it happens everywhere with Deion Sanders.

“Of course, Jackson (State) is getting most of the attention right now,” Maynor said during the first of the SWAC’s two virtual media days on Wednesday. “I mean, every commercial I see, I see Deion eating subs, in the jacuzzi, out the window, on top of the car. I think it’s great because every time they show him, it brings up the SWAC.”

Jackson State’s hiring of the 53-year-old Pro and College Football Hall of Famer for his first head coaching job is as big as they come on the FCS level. It may be company line for everybody from Montgomery, Alabama, to Grambling, Louisiana, to Prairie View, Texas, and points in between to be crediting the national attention created by Sanders.

But will it get old at the nine other campuses?

Coach Prime, as Sanders prefers, tends to hold court wherever he goes, and he’s surely going to continue overshadowing everybody else in the conference. If Jackson State, which last had a winning record in 2013, wins big during the upcoming spring season, he’ll be the story. If Jackson State doesn’t win big, he’ll also be the story considering all the excitement and expectations that have built around the program for nearly four months.

“We’re measured by wins and losses, that’s how we’re measured, so that’s what it’s about,” Sanders said. “As long as they keep score, we gotta win. When they stop keeping score, it won’t be a problem. But they keep score; we gotta win.”

Jackson State had a young nucleus while going 4-8 in the 2019 season, led by linebacker and SWAC defensive player of the year Keonte Hampton, who, not surprisingly, enters his junior season with the same preseason honor. Add in Sanders’ sensational first recruiting class, which includes 12 FBS transfers, and there’s reason beyond his flamboyant style for him to not downplay expectations.

Of course, the East Division has the makings of one of its more competitive seasons. Alcorn State has captured the last six division titles and the two most recent conference titles, and though it returns reigning SWAC offensive player of the year Felix Harper behind center, it lost over half its starting lineup after beating Southern in the 2019 conference championship game and losing to North Carolina A&T in the Celebration Bowl. Meanwhile, Alabama A&M, which had the most SWAC preseason selections with nine, and Alabama State also had good vibes like Jackson State heading into the offseason after the 2019 campaign, which seems so long ago. The COVID-19 pandemic eliminated most football activities last year.

Alcorn State coach Fred McNair agreed Sanders being hired at the Braves’ closest rival is important for “what it means to the conference.”

But, he added, “We have to go out and coach our butts off every Saturday. It’s a competitive nature. He’s a competitive coach. It just goes in step with what we have here.”

Speaking of getting the competitive juices flowing, the SWAC preseason team must have motivated longtime power Grambling State. Although the Tigers nominated players for consideration, none made the 49-member team. All nine other teams had selections, with Prairie View A&M’s eight the most in the West Division.

The preseason poll will be released Thursday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) UCLA has promoted Jerry Neuheisel to wide receivers coach.

Neuheisel played for the Bruins from 2012 to 2015 and has been a graduate assistant with the program during Chip Kelly’s three years as head coach.

Neuheisel has worked primarily with the receivers and quarterbacks during his three seasons back in Westwood. He began his coaching career with Texas A&M as an offensive quality control coach in 2017.

Neuheisel replaces Jimmie Dougherty, who left UCLA after four seasons to join Arizona’s staff as quarterbacks coach.

Neuheisel is the son of former UCLA quarterback and coach Rick Neuheisel.

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