FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
B3
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • FrIday, JaNUary 15, 2021
NFL
Jacksonville hires
Meyer as coach
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
— Urban Meyer has won
everywhere he’s coached.
Small colleges. Big-time
programs. He’s been a
difference maker at each
stop during his storied
career.
He’s ready to try some-
thing new: the NFL.
Meyer agreed to be-
come head coach of the
Jacksonville Jaguars on
Thursday, leaving the
broadcast booth and re-
turning to the sidelines
after a two-year absence
that followed another
health scare.
The 56-year-old Meyer
was team owner Sha-
hid Khan’s top target
for weeks, maybe even
months, and the deal was
finalized after their third
and final meeting in seven
days.
Hiring the longtime col-
lege coach with three na-
tional championships sig-
nifies a new direction for a
franchise that has lost 105
of 144 games since Khan
took over in 2012.
“This is a great day for
Jacksonville and Jaguars
fans everywhere,” Khan
said in a statement.
Jacksonville was the
most attractive open-
ing. The Jaguars have 11
picks in the 2021 draft,
including five in the top
65 and No. 1 overall, and
are nearly $100 million
under the projected salary
cap. Adding to the appeal:
Khan, a billionaire busi-
nessman, has shown a
penchant for patience and
a willingness to spend big.
Meyer replaces Doug
Marrone, who was fired
after losing the final 15
games in 2020.
Meyer spent the last
two years in an analyst
role for Fox Sports, ap-
pearing weekly on the
network’s college football
pregame show.
— Associated Press
Jets hire 49ers DC
Saleh as coach
NEW YORK — The
New York Jets reached an
agreement in principle
with San Francisco 49ers
defensive coordinator
Robert Saleh on Thursday
night to hire him as their
head coach.
Saleh replaces Adam
Gase, who was fired by on
Jan. 3 after going 9-23 in
two seasons.
The 41-year-old Saleh
emerged as the favor-
ite for the Jets job when
he was brought in for a
second — and this time,
in-person — interview
Tuesday night, and those
discussions extended into
Wednesday. He was the
first of the nine known
candidates New York in-
terviewed remotely to
meet with chairman and
CEO Christopher Johnson,
team president Hymie El-
hai and general manager
Joe Douglas at its facility in
Florham Park, New Jersey.
Saleh, recognized as
an energetic leader who
is well liked by his players,
had been the 49ers’ de-
fensive coordinator under
Kyle Shanahan since 2017,
overseeing San Francisco’s
defense that ranked No. 2
overall on the way to the
Super Bowl last season.
The 49ers ranked fifth
in overall defense this sea-
son despite season-end-
ing injuries to pass rushers
Nick Bosa — the 2019 AP
NFL Defensive Rookie of
the Year — and Dee Ford,
as well as defensive line-
men Solomon Thomas
and Ezekiel Ansah. While
San Francisco missed the
playoffs, Saleh’s work with
a banged-up and short-
handed defense made
him a popular candidate
among the teams looking
for a coach.
— Associated Press
bendbulletin.com/sports
COLLEGE FOOTBALL COMMENTARY
Pac-12 woes begin and end with a dollar sign
BY JOHN CANZANO
The Oregonian
I saw a report Thursday that
the University of Texas sniped
Alabama’s special teams co-
ordinator. Jeff Banks will join
Steve Sarkisian’s staff and will
be paid $1 million to coordi-
nate the kickoffs, punts, re-
turns and such.
The Pac-12’s highest paid as-
sistant?
Washington defensive co-
ordinator Pete Kwiatkowski,
who made $1,000,008 last sea-
son. Next is Oregon offensive
coordinator Joe Moorhead at
$900,000 a year. Same for Andy
Ludwig, who calls the offense
at Utah for $900,000 a year.
We all know the Pac-12
Conference has been lapped
by its peers in major college
football. Being left out of the
College Football Playoff four
straight seasons is a symptom,
though. Not the cause. Be-
cause if we’re being real — and
this conference needs a reality
check — the problems begin
and end with dollars.
Six coordinators in the Big
Ten made more than $1 mil-
lion in base salary this season.
In the SEC, 15 offensive and
defensive coordinators made
$1 million or more. And the
offensive and defensive coordi-
nators at Clemson earned a re-
spective $2.4 million and $1.6
million each this season.
We can talk facilities, be-
cause those matter. We can talk
recruiting expenditures, be-
cause that counts. But before
all that, doesn’t the disparity in
pay for assistant coaches un-
derscore the financial disad-
vantage the Pac-12 finds itself
operating at?
The conference’s media
rights earnings are paltry by
comparison with Power Five
Conference peers. That’s well
documented. But the trick-
le-down effect here is the real
killer. The Pac-12’s highest paid
assistant football coach ranks
No. 26 nationally. Attracting
and retaining top assistants is
an ongoing issue.
Oregon defensive coordi-
nator Andy Avalos left last
week to become head coach
at Boise State. It was a dream
head-coaching job at his alma
mater. So maybe it wasn’t to-
tally about money for Avalos,
who made $815,000 this year
with the Ducks. But I couldn’t
help but look at the $1.4 mil-
lion he’ll be paid in his first
season in the Mountain West
Conference and wonder what
chance Oregon had to make
leaving more difficult.
Also, where will they turn to
replace him?
Avalos’ salary in Eugene
made him the 59th-highest
paid assistant in college foot-
ball.
We can talk about wanting
USC, Oregon, Washington,
Utah and ASU to emerge and
make a run at the playoffs. But
what nobody at Pac-12 head-
quarters wants to discuss is
how difficult it will be to rise
to the top while dragging this
anchor of a conference along
with it.
Every dollar counts for the
Pac-12.
See Pac-12 / B5
NFL MEDIA
Expanding the audience
Wild-card playoff games
show potential for
alternate broadcasts
BY JOE REEDY • Associated Press
LOS ANGELES —
B
rian Robbins directed
“Varsity Blues” and
was the producer
of “Coach Carter,” but both of
those might have been eclipsed
last Sunday with Nickelodeon’s
successful kids-oriented broadcast
of an NFL playoff game.
Even a couple days after last
Sunday’s game, the president of
Nickelodeon as well as everyone
associated with the broadcast are
still receiving accolades.
“I felt good going into the game
about our ideas to make the day
watchable for kids and families to-
gether. I felt good about the talent,”
Robbins, president of Nickelodeon,
said. “The thing that surprised me
was the enthusiasm from all over the
planet about what a great thing it was.
I think it was a breath of fresh air at
the right time.”
The New Orleans Saints’ 21-9 vic-
tory over the Chicago Bears was the
most-watched game of wild card
weekend, averaging 30.65 million
viewers. In an age when even discus-
sions about favorite foods draw de-
CBS/Viacom via AP
Virtual slime cannons go off in the end zone after a touchdown during Nickelodeon’s kid-focused broadcast of the wild-card game
between the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints in New Orleans on Sunday. The positive reviews for the broadcast show the
potential of alternate broadcasts of sporting events. The success of that broadcast has led to many wondering what other sports it
could expand to and when we might see it again in the NFL.
“I felt good going into the game about our ideas to make the day
watchable for kids and families together. I felt good about the talent. The
thing that surprised me was the enthusiasm from all over the planet
about what a great thing it was. I think it was a breath of fresh air at the
right time.”
— Brian Robbins, president of Nickelodeon
bate, the two billion impressions on
social media was overwhelmingly
positive. Nickelodeon was Twitter’s
No. 1 trending topic during the game,
and #NickWildCard and Spongebob
were in the top 10.
The Nickelodeon presentation not
only provided a template on doing al-
ternate broadcasts. It is also likely to
usher in more additional broadcasts
to the same event.
CBS and Nickelodeon weren’t the
only ones to use multiple networks
during Sunday’s playoff games. ESPN
deployed its MegaCast treatment
for an NFL postseason game for the
first time and NBC used the Peacock
streaming service that included a ded-
icated postgame show.
“I applaud everyone’s creativity,”
CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus
said. “We’re all trying to reach and ex-
pand our audiences. You have to work
hard to reach them and use as many
platforms to accomplish that. There is
a lot of competition whether it is news
or sports.”
See Audience / B4
TENNIS | AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Players make their way Down Under
BY DENNIS PASSA
Associated Press
Tennys Sandgren forced
an early clarification of the
COVID-19 rules as the first of
15 charter flights began flying
Down Under to deliver players
for the Australian Open.
The two-time Australian
Open quarterfinalist was given
a special clearance to board
one of the flights from Los
Angeles to Melbourne despite
testing positive to COVID-19
in November and again on
Monday.
The first of about 1,200 play-
ers, coaches, entourage and
officials landed late Thurs-
day. The players were met by
airport staff and biosecurity
officials wearing personal pro-
tective equipment including
masks and face shields, before
being taken to hotel quaran-
tine.
Under tournament protocols
agreed with Australian gov-
ernment authorities, all players
had to to return a negative test
before boarding their flights to
Australia and would be sub-
jected to further testing on ar-
rival and daily during a 14-day
period of quarantine.
The No. 50-ranked Sand-
gren received an exemption
after Australian health officials
assessed his case history.
The American player posted
on social media to say he
wasn’t contagious and was al-
lowed to join a delayed flight.
“My two tests were less than
8 weeks apart. I was sick in No-
vember, totally healthy now,”
Sandgren tweeted.
See Tennis / B4
Lee Jin-man/AP file
Tennys Sandgren reacts after losing a point to Roger Federer during
their quarterfinal match at the 2020 Australian Open in Melbourne,
Australia. Sandgren has reportedly been allowed on an Austra-
lia-bound flight despite testing positive for coronavirus in November.