Temple coach Bobby Wallace announced Monday he will not coach the team next season.
The Owls have started 0-6 and have been outscored 297-63. The team has not won more than four games in a season since Wallace took over in 1998.
“Losing will wear on you, and we’ve lost a lot of games,” said Wallace, who has a 19-66 record in his eighth season with Temple.
The Owls last posted a winning record in 1990 and have not played a bowl game since 1979. During the Wallace era, Temple was forced out of the Big East, switched home stadiums and will join the Mid-American Conference in 2007.
“What we’ve been through, the transition we’ve been through, has taken a toll on me and my family,” Wallace said. “It hasn’t been easy.”
Wallace’s contract expires at the end of this season. He said he made his decision now to give Temple a head start on finding a new coach.
Low Blow
Virginia suspended offensive lineman Brad Butler for one game for throwing a chop-block during Saturday’s 28-17 loss to Boston College. Butler will miss this week’s matchup against Florida State. The senior offensive tackle had started 31 straight games.
The play came after the whistle in the third quarter when Butler hit Boston College’s Mathias Kiwanuka in the back of the knees. Kiwanuka, the reigning Big East Defensive Player of the Year, already was nursing a sore ankle.
“I’ve never been one to play outside of the rules,” Butler said in a statement released by the university on Monday. “I was not trying to hurt Mathias Kiwanuka. I was engaged in blocking him because he is the type of player who makes plays all over the field. I regret this event occurred and have put the incident behind me.”
Eagles defensive lineman Al Washington retaliated immediately after the play and was ejected. Linebacker Brian Toal hit Butler one play later and drew a personal foul. Kiwanuka was ejected later in the quarter for retaliation.
Boston College coach Tom O’Brien said Kiwanuka and Washington will be allowed to play Saturday against Wake Forest.
That settles it
Texas-El Paso coach Mike Price reached a settlement with Time Inc. over a Sports Illustrated article about his actions during a night of drinking at a strip club in Florida.
Price sued the magazine for $20 million, claiming he was slandered by a story that recounted the night he visited a topless bar in Pensacola, Fla., in 2003 while Alabama’s coach. Price said he could not discuss details of the settlement.
“I’m one happy man right now,” Price said on Monday. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciated my wife, Joyce, and my family’s loyalty and love. Without their strength, encouragement and support I don’t know if I would have made it.”
Price admitted being heavily intoxicated, but denied the allegations of sex at his hotel with strippers. Alabama fired him a before the article was published.
Time Inc. released a statement that said the suit was “amicably resolved.”
“Mr. Price asserts that certain events were falsely reported in the story. Sports Illustrated continues to stand behind its story,” the Time Inc. statement said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reach Gerald Tang at [email protected].
