College Football
UConn hires the ’12 Broyles winner as its head coach
STORRS, Conn. – Connecticut hired Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco as its football head coach.
The 40-year-old Diaco takes over a team that went 3-9 this season. UConn fired Paul Pasqualoni after an 0-4 start and a 10-18 record in just more than two years at the school.
Diaco, who spent four seasons at Notre Dame, won the 2012 Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach, becoming the first Fighting Irish assistant to receive the honor.
Earlier on Wednesday, Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, the 2013 Broyles winner, said he withdrew from consideration.
MLB
Rangers draft Russell Wilson from the Rockies’ minors
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Yes, Russell Wilson loves baseball. But, for now, the Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback is thinking about getting his team to the Super Bowl.
Wilson was selected by the Texas Rangers from the Colorado Rockies on Thursday in the Triple-A portion of baseball’s winter meeting Rule V draft.
Wilson, who played minor league baseball for parts of two seasons before becoming an NFL star, will be placed on Texas’ restricted list.
Wilson was drafted as a second baseman by the Rockies in the fourth round of the 2010 amateur draft out of North Carolina State, where he excelled at both baseball and football. In two seasons at the Class A level he hit .229 with five homers and 26 runs batted in.
In 2011, he left the Rockies for football at the University of Wisconsin. He was required to return to the Rockies as part of his $200,000 signing bonus.
The 25-year-old Wilson was taken in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft. He led Seattle to the playoffs in his rookie year, and the Seahawks are 11-2 this season.
NHL
Calgary Flames’ famine leads to Jay Feaster’s firing
CALGARY, Alberta – Jay Feaster was fired as general manager of the Calgary Flames on Thursday, with the team in next-to-last place in the Western Conference. Assistant GM John Weisbrod also was let go.
Brian Burke, the team’s president of hockey operations, will serve as acting general manager.
Soccer
Americans extend Klinsmann for four more years
Even before leading the United States in a difficult first-round group at next year’s World Cup, Jurgen Klinsmann was signed to stay on as the American coach for the 2018 World Cup.
The U.S. Soccer Federation said Thursday that Klinsmann agreed to a four-year contract extension through 2018.
Klinsmann replaced Bob Bradley as the American national team coach in July 2011, and his new deal gives him the additional title of USSF technical director.
The U.S. is 27-10-7 under Klinsmann, qualified for its seventh consecutive World Cup and won this year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean. The Americans set team records this year for wins (16), winning percentage (.761) and winning streak (12).
Portland and MLS All-Stars will host Bayern Munich
PORTLAND, Ore. – The 2014 Major League Soccer All-Star game will be against legendary German club Bayern Munich, the reigning European and Bundesliga champions.
The All-Star game will be played in August at Jeld-Wen Field, home of the Portland Timbers. The MLS All-Star game has pitted league stars against top-flight foreign clubs for the last 10 years.
The match will conclude a weeklong tour of North America, Bayern’s first trip to the region in a decade. Also the reigning German Cup champion, Munich currently is ranked atop the Bundesliga and hasn’t dropped a league match.
Associated Press
