SPORTS N STUFF

Former UT player apologizes for Obama slur.
Former Texas backup lineman Buck Burnette apologized Thursday for posting a racial slur on his Facebook page about Barack Obama being elected president.

Burnette, a sophomore who played in seven games this season, left the No. 5 Longhorns on Wednesday. The team said Burnette violated team rules but would not elaborate.

His Facebook page had been deleted Thursday.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, Burnette said he “made a terrible decision” to post a text message he received about Obama’s victory that contained a racial slur.

“That lack of judgment on my part has had devastating consequences,” the statement read. “Those that know me understand that this is not a true reflection of my character. I sincerely apologize to everyone that I have offended. I have had the opportunity to apologize to my teammates and coaches and have received support from many of them in return.”

Burnette started one game at center in 2007 as a redshirt freshman and was a high school star at Wimberley High School, near Austin.

Tennessee facing unusual task of coaching search. A nationwide search for head football coach? It’s almost a foreign concept at Tennessee.

Now that coach Phillip Fulmer has announced he’s stepping down at the university’s request at the end of this season, it’s reality for Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton. And Hamilton wrote in an e-mail late Monday night after Fulmer’s public announcement that the school is starting a national search immediately.

“We have a great university, world-class student-athletes, tremendous fans and first-class facilities,” he wrote. “As a result, we will attract some of the nation’s best candidates. We will introduce a new coach to you over the next several weeks.”

For the first time in decades, that coach may truly be new to the Tennessee program.

Since beloved Volunteers coach Gen. Robert R. Neyland retired in 1952 because of declining health, Tennessee coaches have had strong ties to the school or were hand-picked by athletic directors.

It was true for Fulmer, who filled in for then-coach Johnny Majors for three games in 1992 while Majors recovered from heart surgery. Majors was forced out later that season after losing three straight, and Fulmer was in place as the head coach by the time Tennessee played in the Hall of Fame Bowl on Jan. 1.

Majors, a Tennessee tailback who finished second in the 1956 Heisman Trophy voting, had just coached Pittsburgh to a national championship. Harvey Robinson and Bowden Wyatt – both coaches in the ’50s – were former Vols players.

Doug Dickey, who later served as athletic director, was a rare foray outside the Vol family as a Florida player. But he was the top pick for the job in 1964, and his successor in 1970, Bill Battle, was one of his assistants.

The most senior Tennessee assistant right now is defensive coordinator John Chavis. The defensive mastermind and former Vols defensive lineman has declined other job offers received through his 20-year career at Tennessee.

Chavis, 52, on Tuesday dodged most questions about his interest in the job, but said he doesn’t plan to throw his name into the mix of candidates.

“I want the rest of the season to be about what we need to get done. I’ve been here 20 years. People know who I am. I’ll just leave it at that,” Chavis said.

Another coach with strong ties to the program – Duke coach David Cutcliffe – said Tuesday he has no plans of returning to Tennessee, the school where he spent eight years as Vols offensive coordinator.

Tennessee fans may not even be interested in seeing someone with ties to the program land in the head coaching spot, thanks in part to the success of the basketball program in recent years.

Hamilton, Tennessee’s athletic director for just over five years, made his best-known hire after firing basketball coach Buzz Peterson.

He used a search firm to help identify candidates and make initial contacts with prospective coaches, but did not use a search committee as previous ADs had done.

That search landed Bruce Pearl, the energetic coach now credited with turning the program around and taking it to uncharted levels of success.

On message boards and radio shows, fans have listed a number of young coaches with no Tennessee ties as their dream candidate: former Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, Boise State coach Chris Peterson and Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, to name a few.

Hamilton is being mum for now on how he plans to handle this coaching search or what exactly he’s looking for in the next coach.

“I don’t want to get into all of that today. This is more about Phillip,” he said.

Fulmer said he would help Tennessee in any way if he’s asked to while the program makes the transition.

He also said he and his staff would continue to “do a good job” of recruiting in his last few weeks. Tennessee has a 2009 recruiting class currently ranked No. 6 nationally by Rivals.com and No. 9 by Scout.com.

“It’s a great place to be. Great fans and facilities and tradition and opportunities are aplenty. They’ll be able to see that,” Fulmer said. “A number of them have been on campus already and even through a very tough season have committed and stayed with us. Hopefully a lot of those guys will do that.”

Stanford a favorite for a change against Huskies. Stanford isn’t quite used to being a commanding favorite.

On Saturday against Washington State, Stanford is expected to win by 30 against a Cougars team that has given up over 60 points in four of its five Pac-10 games – including the worst defeat in school history, 69-0 to Southern California in its last game two weeks ago.

“I think they’re really searching right now to find their identity and how to win games,” said Stanford quarterback Tavita Pritchard, whose uncle Jack Thompson was a star quarterback for the Cougars and cousin Tony is a tight end for WSU. “I’m sure people are asking what’s wrong. You can’t really put a finger on it, because if you could you’d win more.”

The Cardinal (4-4, 3-2) are 3-0 at home and have a four-game winning streak in Stanford Stadium dating to last season. They know they need two victories in their last four games to become bowl eligible in coach Jim Harbaugh’s second season. Washington State has won the last four meetings at Stanford dating to 1999.

Both teams are coming off their bye weeks at a time when they each wanted to put their past games behind them. Stanford suffered a demoralizing 23-20 loss to UCLA on Oct. 18 and has had too much time to think about it, while the Cougars are still stinging from the blowout to the Trojans.

Everybody is eager to get back on the field.

In fact, it could be freshman J.T. Levenseller’s first chance all season. The backup quarterback, who was being held out as a redshirt, will get a chance to play down the stretch for Washington State (1-7, 0-5).

Kevin Lopina will start, but coach Paul Wulff plans to use Levenseller. He would be the fifth quarterback to play this season for the Cougars, who have been beat up at the position.

First, the Cougars’ defense will have to make plays and get off the field. Wulff points to his team’s offensive problems for a good chunk of the points the Cougars have surrendered. Mistakes, turnovers, punts.

“We’ve tried to continue to work really hard and hold them accountable to be where they need to be exactly and play with a little bit more energy,” Wulff said. “Our defense has had their backs against the wall all year long because of our inability on offense to have a lot of success. We haven’t been strong enough against really good football teams to hold up.

“It is disappointing that we’ve lost some energy and confidence and faith in each other to step up and make plays. The offense will turn the ball over or punt after a three-and-out and the defense doesn’t have enough fight in them to keep battling.”

The big task for the Cougars’ defense will be slowing down running back Toby Gerhart, who has five 100-yard rushing games this year. Gerhard needs 221 yards in the final four contests to become the Cardinal’s first player to reach 1,000 in a season since Tommy Vardell ran for a school-record 1,084 yards in 1991.

Gerhart realizes reaching the milestone Saturday would be a big day – especially if it’s raining as is expected this weekend.

“That’s my goal,” he said, chuckling. “The win’s more important than anything. That’d be nice.”

Harbaugh focused on improving the passing game as well as pass defense during the bye week, getting more aggressive on both sides of the ball by running stronger routes and being more physical.

Cleaner play, period.

“The first thing is to understand the kind of team we are – a physical team,” Harbaugh said. “What the goal is, is zero turnovers, zero missed assignments, zero penalties. That’s thinking more as a football team.”

USC Ellison sidelined with injured knee. Starting Southern California safety Kevin Ellison will have arthroscopic surgery early next week to repair torn cartilage in his right knee, and is expected to be sidelined two to four weeks.

Ellison was injured Thursday in practice. Will Harris will start in Ellison’s place Saturday when the seventh-ranked Trojans face winless Washington at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

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Seahawks Mora declares he’s not a UW candidate.

Forget Jim Mora and the Washington Huskies.
The Seahawks’ head coach in waiting said he is not interested in the coaching position at Washington, ending both his silence and rampant speculation.

“I am not a candidate for the University of Washington coaching vacancy,” Mora said in a written statement handed out by a Seahawks spokesman on Friday afternoon. “I wish the university well with their search and the program nothing but sustained success in the future.”

Mora is a former Huskies linebacker who began his coaching career at the UW as a graduate assistant under Don James in 1984. He has already signed a contract to succeed Mike Holmgren as Seahawks coach beginning in 2009. The deal is believed to be worth almost $5 million annually.

Washington (0-7), one of two winless teams in major college football, fired coach Tyrone Willingham on Monday effective at the end of this season for being 11-32 in three-plus seasons.

Speculation on a replacement immediately centered on Mora because of his ties – and because of a radio interview a few years ago with a friend, former Huskies quarterback Hugh Millen, in which Mora made an offhand remark about Washington being his dream job. But he made that statement before becoming Holmgren’s heir apparent and before Washington sank to historic lows.

The Seahawks stayed silent, wanting Mora’s signed contract to replace Holmgren to speak for itself.

Mora, 46, sent back-channel messages to the UW that he was not interested, according to a source with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because of Mora’s close ties to the university.

Yet Washington officials, inadvertently or not, were fueling the rumors by not declaring Mora was off-limits. University president Dr. Mark Emmert and athletic director Scott Woodward would only say they would not talk about who they may be pursuing.

Friday’s statement came a day after Mora, for now the Seahawks’ defensive backs coach, continued his eight-month silence on his deal to replace Holmgren. The Seahawks issued his quote to quell the uncertainty around Seattle over why the coach or the NFL team would not talk.