Quack attack: Oregon football coach Chip Kelly told The (Portland) Oregonian his team is in excellent physical shape for their season opening game Saturday against LSU. “Right now we’re relatively healthy, minus, probably, Curtis (White, a tight end and key backup),” Kelly told the newspaper today. “But besides that, we’re healthy.” White may miss the season with an Achilles tendon injury. The Ducks are expected to leave for Dallas on Friday. LSU, ranked fourth in the country, takes on No. 3 ranked Oregon at 7 p.m. in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The game will be televised by ABC in primetime. The Ducks are a four-point favorite against LSU, according to online sports books. But Chris Low and Edward Aschoff, two college football writers for ESPN, are both picking the Tigers. Low says LSU will win 28-24, because the team is “fast, deep and nasty on defense.” Aschoff is forecasting a 23-18 Tiger victory. “The Tigers have too much speed and power along the defensive line and enough weapons on offense to get the job done,” he says. Read the predictions here.
Easy victory: After putting on a clinic during the match, Roger Federer gave another one afterward. Prompted in the on-court interview after his 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 US Open victory over Israel’s Dudi Sela today to give the tennis players in the stands a few quick pointers about how to dial in their serve, Federer offered this advice. “It all starts with a good ball toss,” he says, after moving easily to the third round.
Contract extension ends holdout: The Titans and Chris Johnson have agreed to terms on a four-year contract extension ending the three-time Pro Bowl running back’s holdout. Tennessee confirmed today the team had agreed to terms on the revised deal. Johnson tweeted Wednesday night that he had dinner in Orlando with his agent Joel Segal “talking business” on the 34th day of his holdout. Johnson has led the NFL in yards rushing the past three seasons and refused to report to the camp without a new deal. The 24th pick overall in the 2008 draft out of East Carolina, Johnson became only the sixth man in NFL history to run for 2,000 yards in 2009 when he ran for 2,006 yards. The Titans revised his contract a year ago, moving some money up in his contract, but he still was set to earn $1.065 million for this season. Now the running back will be under contract for the next six years through 2016, and the revised deal is worth $53.5 million with $30 million guaranteed, according to a person familiar with the contract.
