Briefly: Panthers fire Reich after a 1-10 start
The Frank Reich era in Carolina is over after only 11 games.
The Carolina Panthers fired their coach on Monday following the team’s NFL-worst 1-10 start in his first year at the helm.
Panthers owner David Tepper announced the move hours after several news outlets reported that he used a profanity as he was leaving the locker room following a 17-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
Tepper hired Reich to fix one of the league’s worst offenses over the past few seasons and develop Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall pick whom he gave up four draft picks and top wide receiver D.J. Moore to acquire this past offseason in the hopes of winning multiple Super Bowls.
Instead, the Panthers are assured a franchise-record sixth straight losing season.
The Panthers are 30-63 since Tepper bought the team from Jerry Richardson in 2018 for $2.275 billion and have never made the playoffs.
Special teams coordinator Chris Tabor will take over as interim head coach. Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will become the team’s play caller, with senior assistant Jim Caldwell serving as his special adviser.
• Texas A&M hired Duke coach Mike Elko to lead the Aggies on Monday, replacing Jimbo Fisher with his former defensive coordinator for four years in College Station.
Elko left the Aggies to take his first head coaching job at Duke after the 2021 season and went 16-9 in two seasons. The Blue Devils had won just 10 games combined the three previous years.
Texas A&M fired Fisher earlier this month, paying a record buyout of more than $75 million to move on from him with two games left in his sixth season with the Aggies.
• Middle Tennessee fired coach Rick Stockstill on Monday after 18 seasons, capped by a 4-8 record and an ugly road loss in the Blue Raiders' regular-season finale.
Stockstill was hired in December 2005. He had a 113-111 record at Middle Tennessee, with his win total ranked third all-time in program history. He had been the fourth-longest tenured coach nationally and third-longest with the Blue Raiders.
Middle Tennessee is starting a national search for a new coach immediately.
• Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders missed the season finale at Utah on Saturday due to a fracture in his back, according to a YouTube video posted by “Well Off Media.”
The site is run by one of coach Deion Sanders' children and has been tracking the Buffaloes with behind-the-scenes footage throughout the season. The title of the video was, “Colorado Ends Their Season 4-8 With Loss To Utah: PAC 12 Refs Are TERRIBLE: Shedeur’s Injury.”
It's unclear when Shedeur Sanders suffered the injury. He was sacked 52 times this season behind a struggling offensive line that Deion Sanders has pledged to bolster before next season. Shedeur Sanders needed at least two pain-numbing injections this season to get through games and a few days off from practice every so often to recover from hits.
Sanders threw for 3,230 yards to break the program's single-season record of 3,200 set by Sefo Liufau in 2014. Sanders also finished with 27 touchdown passes, just one shy of tying the mark held by Liufau. Sanders also completed 69.3% of his passes, another top mark.
Shota Imanaga, who got the win for Japan in this year's World Baseball Classic final against the United States, will become a free agent today and major league teams can sign him through 5 p.m. on Jan. 11.
Imanaga, a 30-year-old left-hander, was 7-4 with a 2.80 ERA in 22 starts this year for the Yokohama BayStars of Japan's Central League. He struck out 174 and walked 24 in 148 innings.
Imanaga is 64-50 with a 3.18 ERA in eight season with Yokohama, striking out 1,021 and walking 280 in 1,002 2/3 innings. His fastball averaged 93.5 mph in the WBC final, when he allowed one run and four hits in two innings, giving up a home run to Trea Turner.
Under the MLB-NPB agreement, the posting fee will be 20% of the first $25 million of a major league contract, including earned bonuses and options. The percentage drops to 17.5% of the next $25 million and 15% of any amount over $50 million. There would be a supplemental fee of 15% of any earned bonuses, salary escalators and exercised options.
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