nt quickly, caught behind thin-edging an attempted cut at the spin of Sophie Ecclestone, and Loughboroughs last real chance of getting close to their formidable target seemed to have vanished when Elwiss was unluckily run out, stranded at the non-strikers hand when Jones firm drive was deflected on to

Illinois coach Lovie Smith got a fantastic two-for-one deal when he hired Hardy Nickerson as his defensive coordinator. Once Nickerson arrived in Champaign, his son decided to follow as a graduate transfer from California.Hardy Jr.s impact has been felt immediately. Though he didnt arrive until the start of preseason practice, the linebacker was elected a team captain. In the opener against Murray State, he made a team-leading 11 tackles with a sack.Smith said on the Big Ten coaches call Tuesday that it came as a surprise when Nickerson decided to transfer to Illinois for his final year after being a three-year starter and 2015 captain at Cal.We tried to put together the best possible staff, which we were able to do, and then once you get the dad and later on it works out where we could get a football player in young Hardy Nickerson, just a cherry on top, Smith said.Hardy Sr. was a four-time Pro Bowl linebacker in his 16-year NFL playing career, and he was an assistant under Smith with the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He left a job coaching the San Francisco 49ers linebackers to join Smith at Illinois.The younger Nickerson played in 35 games for California and made a team-leading 112 tackles last season, including 16 against Arizona State in his final game for the Golden Bears.His dad was a student of the game. He knew what he was supposed to do every play and then it was left up to his athletic ability to make plays, Smith said. I see that a lot with young Hardy. Hes the quarterback of our defense. He can get us in and out of better defenses. He sets the tone for everything we do.Other notes from around the Big Ten:HEY, WHAT ABOUT ME?Redshirt freshman K.J. Hill was mistakenly left off Ohio States depth chart the week of the opener against Bowling Green. He made his presence known early in the game, catching a 47-yard touchdown pass from J.T. Barrett to open the scoring in a 77-10 victory .Coach Urban Meyer said he probably should have played Hill last year to get him some experience.His only issue is consistency right now, Meyer said. Were getting him more involved in the special teams as well. Hes a guy who works his tail off, hes showed marked improvement.And about Hills absence from the depth chart?There was no intent last week, Meyer said. I didnt really look at the depth chart. Hes certainly in the rotation.RUTGERS RAGEFirst-year coach Chris Ash is personally involved with Rutgers special teams, and he called it gut-wrenching that Washington scored touchdowns on a 92-yard kick return and 68-yard punt return in the Scarlet Knights 48-13 loss in Seattle.Any time you give up a punt return and a kick return for a touchdown, those things dont happen very often and when you get two of them in one game, its very disappointing, Ash said. The fact we have spent an insane amount of time on special teams, Im involved in coaching special teams, I thought we would go out and perform better than that, and we didnt. I wasnt any happier after watching the tape.EXTRA POINTSThe Big Ten was 12-2 on the seasons opening weekend, the second in three years the conference came out of the first week with 12 wins. ... Four Big Ten teams scored at least 50 points, the first time the conference had four teams top 50 points in the same week since Sept. 1, 2007. ... Michigans point total in a 63-3 win over Hawaii marked the Wolverines highest in an opener since 1905, when Fielding H. Yosts squad defeated Ohio Wesleyan, 65-0. ... Minnesota RB Shannon Brooks (foot) and TE Brandon Lingen (shoulder) were to be re-evaluated Tuesday. Coach Tracy Claeys said he thinks both are getting closer to being ready to play.Utah Jazz Jerseys . Scott won the Australian PGA last week in his first event in Australia since winning the U.S. Masters in April. American Matt Kuchar, ahead by two strokes with four to play and even with Scott with one to go, double-bogeyed the 18th after taking two shots to get out of a bunker. Tony Bradley Jazz Jersey . -- Tony Stewart is 20 pounds lighter and has a titanium rod in his surgically repaired right leg. http://www.jazzauthentic.com/kids-rudy-gobert-jazz-jersey/ . 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Using his superior athleticism, St-Pierre cruised to a five round, unanimous decision victory setting up a much-anticipated title defence against number one contender Johny Hendricks.Lancashire Thunder 164 for 8 (Satterthwaite 52, Dottin 42) beat Loughborough Lightning 158 (Ecclestone 3-23, Matthews 3-25) by six runs Scorecard An unlikely eighth-wicket partnership of 69 between Thea Brookes and Paige Scholfield saw Loughborough Lightning come close to pulling off an amazing comeback before Lancashire Thunder completed their first win in the new Kia Super League.Lightning had looked dead and buried when they collapsed to 88 for 7 in the 13th over, chasing a formidable Thunder total built on a hard-hitting half-century from captain Amy Satterthwaite, made off just 30 balls.But Scholfield, with 38 off 22 balls, and Brookes (30 not out, off 22) gave the home team a real chance of victory before Thunder all-rounder Hayley Matthews (3 for 25) picked up two wickets in two balls to end the innings.Lightning fought back superbly, and credit to them for that, and in the end it was a relief to get over the line, said Satterthwaite. For ourselves, we talked about being positive in our batting, and not panicking if there were a few dot balls. Its the nature of the competition that there will be wins and losses in the group stage, every side has a lot of strengths.Having chosen to bowl first, Loughborough saw seamer Beth Langston pick up the wicket of Matthews in her second over, finding an edge which was well held by Amy Jones diving to her right behind the stumps, but the tall left-hander Satterthwaite hit straight and hard, making the most of the short boundaries and some ragged bowling.Lamb, on 26, went down the wicket to the slow left-arm spin of Rebecca Grundy, missed, and was stumped, but Sattterthwaite hit nine fours and a six before top-edging a cut at the medium pace of Sonia Odedra into the hands of Thea Brookes at short third man.dddddddddddd.The introduction of the leg-spin of South Africas Dane van Niekerk briefly slowed the Thunder charge, but West Indies batter Deandra Dottin accelerated the scoring rate again. A series of sweetly timed pulls and sweeps from outside off-stump saw her hit seven fours and a six before skying Perry into the hands of Lightning captain Georgia Elwiss at extra cover.Lightning picked up just a single off the first over of their reply, bowled by Matthews, and in the second saw van Niekerk, unaccountably neglecting to run her bat into the crease, given run out before scoring.Elwiss lofted Matthews for a straight six, but Devine chipped a simple catch to mid-wicket off Kate Cross. Perry went quickly, caught behind thin-edging an attempted cut at the spin of Sophie Ecclestone, and Loughboroughs last real chance of getting close to their formidable target seemed to have vanished when Elwiss was unluckily run out, stranded at the non-strikers hand when Jones firm drive was deflected on to the stumps by bowler Dottin.Scholfield and Brookes thought otherwise, but Scholfields dismissal off the last ball of the penultimate over, bowled swinging and missing at Dottin, exposed the tail.Im devastated right now, but stepping back, to get within seven from the position we were in says a lot about the spirit and attitude of our team, said Brookes. ' ' '