NCAA may give Penn St. more time in inquiry

With a Friday deadline looming, the NCAA signaled it would give Penn State more time to respond to its inquiry over the university's handling of child sex-abuse accusations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

Penn State general counsel Cynthia Baldwin said in a letter to NCAA president Mark Emmert released Thursday that answers to the NCAA's questions about the Sandusky case might come from other, separate probes already in progress. Among them is a university trustees investigation spearheaded by former FBI director Louis Freeh.

Baldwin spoke to Emmert and other NCAA staff by phone Nov. 23 about the concurrent inquiries, according to the letter dated Dec. 12.

"The university understands that the NCAA will continue to monitor these investigations and will have access to the report" from Freeh and the trustees, Baldwin said.

"At that time, the NCAA will determine if further response from the university is necessary," she wrote before requesting more time.

Both the NCAA and Penn State indicated in recent weeks that the school may not make the Friday deadline to provide complete answers to several questions posed last month by Emmert.

The NCAA is examining whether Penn State violated bylaws covering institutional control and ethical conduct in the case.

Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy has been honored as the national coach of the year by the Football Writers Association of America.

Gundy was chosen Thursday as the winner of the Eddie Robinson Award. The other finalists were Michigan's Brady Hoke, LSU's Les Miles, Kansas State's Bill Snyder, and Clemson's Dabo Swinney. Gundy will be presented with a bust of Eddie Robinson at a Jan. 8 ceremony in New Orleans.

The Associated Press will announce its national coach of the year Tuesday.

Gundy led the third-ranked Cowboys to an 11-1 regular season, their first Big 12 championship, and their first BCS bowl berth. They will face No. 4 Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2.

Texas coach Mack Brown said defensive assistant coach Duane Akina will interview for the head coaching job at Hawaii. Akina is a Hawaii native. Brown says he would like Akina to stay but would support the move.

Hawaii coach Greg McMackin retired after a 6-7 season.

Akina has spent the last 11 seasons at Texas coaching the secondary. His players have included Thorpe Award winners Michael Huff and Aaron Ross. Since 2004, four Texas defensive assistants have left the Longhorns for head coaching jobs.

Fordham hired Connecticut quarterbacks coach and former Rams player Joe Moorhead to be its new football coach.

The school will introduce Moorhead at a news conference at its Bronx campus on Friday.

Moorhead played quarterback and wide receiver for Fordham and graduated in 1996.

He has been with UConn since 2009. Before that, he was an assistant at Akron from 2004 to '08.