Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer has been assembling a coaching staff, including some assistants from the college ranks, in case he decides to become the Jacksonville Jaguars' head coach, per league sources.

Meyer and the Jaguars met Friday night on owner Shad Khan's boat in Florida, but it was not the first time the two sides have been together, as there has been regular communication and interaction, according to sources.

A decision from Meyer and the Jaguars is expected this week, per sources.

Meyer won three national championships and compiled a 187-32 college coaching record during stints at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State. He won two of those titles (2006 and 2008) with the Gators, whom he led to a 65-15 record in six seasons. He also led the Buckeyes to the 2014 national title and compiled an 83-9 record in seven seasons in Columbus.

Khan fired Doug Marrone on Monday after the Jaguars finished the worst season in franchise history (1-15). Marrone had a 25-44 record (including playoffs) in four seasons with the Jaguars.

The next Jaguars head coach is tasked with turning around one of the league's worst franchises. The Jaguars lost 15 consecutive games after beating Indianapolis in the season opener.

They gave up a franchise-record 492 points, becoming just the fifth team since the NFL expanded to a 16-game schedule in 1978 to allow at least 20 points in every game, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Offensively, the Jaguars ranked 28th or worse in yards per game, rushing and scoring. They ranked 21st in passing, which is largely a product of falling behind big in games and having to abandon the run.

Information from ESPN's Michael DiRocco was used in this report.

The Philadelphia 76ers' game against the Denver Nuggets will be played Saturday as scheduled, sources tell ESPN, after several Sixers players were part of contact tracing.

The 76ers are expected to have nine eligible players for Saturday's game, including three cleared from protocol: Joel Embiid, Danny Green and Paul Reed, sources tell ESPN.

Clearance from the health and safety protocol does not guarantee that Embiid will play Saturday, just that he counts as an eligible player toward the eight necessary for Philadelphia to avoid postponement.

Several Sixers -- including Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulle, Shake Milton and Vincent Poirier -- remain in health and safety protocols and will continue indefinitely in quarantine, sources said.

Saturday afternoon's game had a chance to be the NBA season's second coronavirus-related game postponement, due to the shared close proximity of some 76ers players to guard Seth Curry, who tested positive for COVID-19, sources told ESPN.

The Sixers also had one staff member test positive Friday, a source told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.

Denver has its own COVID-19 issues. The Nuggets flew into Philadelphia on Friday without talented young forward Michael Porter Jr., who continues to be sidelined under health and safety protocols for an indefinite period, sources said.

Free-agent outfielder Kyle Schwarber, one of the heroes of the 2016 World Series title run for the Chicago Cubs, has signed with the Washington Nationals, a source confirmed to ESPN on Saturday.

A source told ESPN's Jeff Passan that the one-year deal is for $10 million.

Schwarber was non-tendered on Dec. 3, becoming a free agent after six seasons with the Cubs.

He will play left field for the Nationals. The Washington Post was first to report his signing.

The 27-year-old outfielder was in his final year of arbitration, but the Cubs let him go after he hit just .188 with 11 home runs in 59 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Schwarber hit .230 with 121 home runs in 551 regular-season games with the Cubs, but he'll be remembered for his performances in the postseason, during which he compiled a .981 OPS in 24 games.

He hit .412 in five games as the Cubs' designated hitter in the 2016 World Series, which Chicago won in seven games over the Cleveland Indians. That came after he missed all but two games of the 2016 regular season -- and the ensuing playoff rounds -- because of a knee injury.

Manager Joe Maddon made him the Cubs' leadoff hitter the following year, after Dexter Fowler left via free agency. Schwarber flopped in that role, hitting .190 with a .312 on-base percentage before spending time in the minors. He rebounded in 2018 and 2019, hitting 64 home runs.

Schwarber was the fourth overall pick in the 2014 draft.

ESPN's Jesse Rogers contributed to this report.

Britain’s two-time Olympian and four-time AAA champion in the late 1940s and early 1950s passes away aged 95

One of the most popular British athletes of the post-war period, Bill Nankeville, has died aged 95. A two-time Olympian, he finished sixth in the 1500m final in London in 1948 before going on to capture four AAA one-mile titles and a bronze medal at the European Championships in 1950.

During an era when tens of thousands of fans packed into the White City Stadium to watch athletics, Nankeville was one of the biggest names in the sport as he entertained spectators with his elegant style and tactical acumen.

In recent years he has become known to many as “Bobby Davro’s dad”, but for those familiar with his middle-distance running exploits he was one of the legendary figures of British athletics and the comedian Davro was simply “Bill Nankeville’s son”.

Davro, who achieved fame as a television comedian in the 1980s before later appearing in EastEnders, broke the news of his father’s death on social media on Friday (January 10) with an emotional message that read: “Today I lost my best friend and my hero. The most wonderful human being I have ever known. I’m so proud of him. He was GB mile champion and represented his country in two Olympic games but to me he was just “Dad”. I will miss him so very much and I will love him forever.”

Today I lost my best friend and my hero.The most wonderful human being I have ever known.
I'm so proud of him.
He was GB mile champion and represented his country in two Olympic games but to me he was just "Dad". I will miss him so very much and I will love him forever ? pic.twitter.com/TkpaJasnSL

— Bobby Davro (@BobbyDavro1) January 8, 2021

Born on March 24, 1925, Nankeville’s early career was interrupted by World War II. He joined the army himself when he was 19 in April 1944 and made parachute containers and petrol tanks before being posted overseas to Brussels, Hamburg and to the concentration camp at Belsen shortly after it was liberated in 1945.

Running for the army in Belgium rekindled the athletics ability he had shown as a child and he soon began to make an impact. His rise was swift and in 1948 he won the first of a quartet of AAA one-mile titles and reached the Olympic 1500m final in London.

The Olympic final was run on a rain-soaked track with Swedish duo Henry Eriksson and Lennart Strand finishing one-two with Nankeville just over a couple of seconds behind the winner in sixth place.

Two years later at the European Championships in Brussels he won a bronze medal in a race won by Wim Slijkhuis of the Netherlands.

When the next Olympics took place, however, in Helsinki in 1952, Nankeville finished ninth in his semi-final as the leading British runner was Roger Bannister, who finished fourth in a final won by Josy Barthel of Luxembourg.

Bannister was one of Nankeville’s big rivals during the period. On the track there was little to separate them whereas off the track they were very different characters with Bannister being part of the Oxbridge elite and Nankeville more of a working-class runner who had grown up as the son of a milkman.

Bannister interrupted Nankeville’s streak of AAA one-mile victories by taking the 1951 title. However, Nankeville won the race in 1948-50 (smashing the championship record in 1949 with 4:08.8) and in 1952 with his latter victory in front of the Queen and a crowd of 46,000 at the White City.

Nankeville and Bannister teamed up with Chris Chataway and Don Seaman to break the world 4 x one-mile record with 16:41.0 in 1953. In addition, Nankeville was part of teams that broke relay world records for the 4 x 880 yards (7:30.6) in 1951 and 4 x 1500m (15:27.2) in 1953.

Bannister achieved more notoriety than Nankeville courtesy of his sub-four-minute mile achievements and is also pictured leading Nankeville on the cover of Nankeville’s autobiography The Miracle of the Mile. Yet despite this they got on well off the track and they would speak on the phone up until Bannister’s death in 2018.

Indeed, Nankeville rubbed shoulders with many of the athletics greats during that period. On one occasion, for example, he was part of a Walton AC team in the London to Brighton road relay with Chataway and Alan Turing – the computer pioneer and wartime code-breaking genius who was also, at the time, an Olympic hopeful in the marathon.

It was a very different era to the one that top athletes experience today and in an interview with the Mail on Sunday on the eve of the London Olympics in 2012, Nankeville said: “We ate stodge, ran on grass that became mud, didn’t do it for money – and went home on the bus when our races were done.”

He added: “If I needed building up a bit, my coach would give me a cup of sherry, egg and sugar, the old tonic. We never had drugs. We just had Horlicks … and the tonic.”

After his athletics career ended, Nankeville worked for a sports manufacturing company and earned a reputation as a ‘Del boy’ figure due to his sharp business sense and likability.

He was also known for his immense charm and his friend and fellow middle-distance runner Mike Fleet told AW: “He was a super character. A very funny man.”

Lead photo by Mike Fleet

Britain's Kyle Edmund will miss next month's Australian Open because of a persistent knee injury.

However, the British number two had to end his 2018 season early after a scan revealed fluid behind his knee and then retired from his second-round match at the 2019 French Open with a knee issue.

"Unfortunately, my knee is not quite ready to compete in the upcoming Australia swing," said the 26-year-old.

"I hope to be back competing soon."

Since the sport returned after lockdown, Edmund has won only one of his seven matches, beating Alexander Bublik of Kazahkstan in the opening round of the US Open before losing to top seed Novak Djokovic.

The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, is due to start on 8 February after being delayed for three weeks because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Analysis

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller

The first evidence of what has become a chronic knee problem was when Edmund pulled out of the 2018 Paris Masters following a scan which revealed fluid behind his left knee.

The timing could not have been worse, as earlier that year Edmund has reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open, won his first ATP tournament in Antwerp, and climbed to 14 in the world.

The injury also affected him in the summer of 2019, when he had to retire from his second-round match at Roland Garros. He would go on later that year to lose eight matches in a row.

He did win a second title in New York early last year, just before the tour went into hibernation, but the going has been tough ever since.

The frustration must be immense given that, at 26, Edmund should now be entering the best years of his career.

CONCORD, N.C. — Legacies are funny things.

Consider this: The 2016 Daytona 500, won by Denny Hamlin, was a typical season opener for the NAS­CAR Cup Series. Martin Truex Jr. Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five finishers.

Since then, at least 17 of the 40 drivers have either retired (Edwards, Kenseth twice, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brian Scott, Bobby Labonte, Casey Mears, Greg Biffle, Regan Smith, David Ragan, Danica Patrick and Clint Bowyer) or are competing in other NASCAR series (Michael Annett and A.J. Allmendinger — NASCAR Xfinity Series, Trevor Bayne  — NASCAR Trucks).

Jimmie Johnson, who finished 16th that day, recently retired from NAS­CAR competition and will race road-course events in the NTT IndyCar Series. He left with a record-tying seven NASCAR Cup Series titles, 83 victories and a legacy of being the best of the best for a long, long time.

The NASCAR Cup Series season begins at Daytona Int’l Speedway in mid-February without Johnson.

The other seven-time champions, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, have left lasting memories on the whole of NASCAR. Petty is still active as a car owner in his 80s and Earnhardt left the sport tragically in 2001. There are no bigger names in NASCAR to this day, though Johnson now joins them on the same tier if not at the top of the fandom scale.

What will his legacy be?

For me, it’s pretty simple. Petty was a machine, riding the best equipment in the garage to 200 victories, seven titles and a record number of Daytona 500 triumphs (also seven). He’s the Babe Ruth of the sport, if you want to cross-pollinate.

Earnhardt was The Intimidator, racing harder than anyone else for longer than anyone else, and while he was far short of Petty’s 200-win mark, he did face more cars capable of victory on any given Sunday than Petty did. He won his seven crowns with an iron hand, a deft touch and the reputation that if it came to brass tacks, he would always — or far more often than not — come out on top.

Johnson, the California kid who turned an opportunity into the golden parachute, won his seven titles in a style far more reminiscent of Petty than Earnhardt. He was fast and made very few mistakes — at least that anyone can remember. I’m sure there were some, but they didn’t wind up derailing him all that much.

While Petty had Dale Inman and Earnhardt had Kirk Shelmerdine, Larry McReynolds and others atop his pit box, Johnson had Chad Knaus, and that was a big difference-maker. Now in charge of competition at Hendrick Motorsports, Knaus was the strategist and the shot-caller, providing Johnson with that “unfair advantage” that Roger Penske has lived by for so many years.

The combination was so much more than the sum of its parts. It worked because both driver and crew chief bought in, and both played the game as hard as it could be played.

Jimmie Johnson’s legacy is still being formulated, but to me, he will be remembered as the fusion between Petty’s precision and Earnhardt’s fire, with a couple of elements all his own to temper them together.

It will be strange to see the No. 48 with a different driver this year, just as it was for the No. 43 and the No. 3. Alex Bowman will take over the number with a different sponsor and life at Daytona will resume as normal.

Five years ago, the starting field at Daytona for the 500 had 40 drivers. In 2021, nearly half of them will be doing something other than racing at Daytona. Just like Petty and Earnhardt, Johnson will be absent in truth, but his legacy will get started with a bang, unless I’m much mistaken.

KWINANA BEACH, Australia – Brock Zearfoss swept a pair of 410 sprint car features Saturday at Perth Motorplex to lock up the Western Australia Sprint Speedweek title.

Driving the Sean Carren-owned No. 95w, Zearfoss took the lead on lap 17 of the first 30-lap affair and led the remaining distance to win by 1.25 seconds over Dayne Kingshott.

Daniel Harding, Kaiden Manders and Scott Bogucki completed the top five in that affair.

The second feature saw Zearfoss take even less time to get to the front of the field. He found his way to the race lead on lap 11 of 30 in the nightcap and bested Bogucki by 1.74 seconds in the end.

Robbie Farr filled out the podium in that race ahead of Callum Williamson and Kris Coyle.

Zearfoss banked $5,000 for his win in the first feature, with the final feature paying $10,000 to win. After adding another $7,500 payday for the Speedweek championship, Zearfoss left Perth Motorplex Saturday with more than $22,000 in winnings.

In total, Zearfoss won three times during Western Australia Sprint Speedweek. He’ll return to the United States next month to kick off his rookie season with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars Series, driving his own Brock Zearfoss Racing No. 3z.

The finishes:

Feature #1 (30 laps): Brock Zearfoss, Dayne Kingshott, Daniel Harding, Kaiden Manders, Scott Bogucki, Robbie Farr, David Priolo, Callum Williamson, Kris Coyle, Jason Kendrick, Jamie Oldfield, Taylor Milling, Jason Pryde, Andrew Priolo, Ben Butcher, James Inglis, Lynton Jeffrey, Jaydee Dack, Trevor Jolly, Bradley Maiolo, Ryan Lancaste, Todd Davis, A.J. Nash.

Feature #2 (30 laps): Brock Zearfoss, Scott Bogucki, Robbie Farr, Callum Williamson, Kris Coyle, Jason Pryde, Jamie Oldfield, James Inglis, Taylor Milling, Ryan Lancaster, Andrew Priolo, Trevor Jolly, Kaiden Manders, David Priolo, Daniel Harding, A.J. Nash, Dayne Kingshott, Lynton Jeffrey, Jason Kendrick, Jaydee Dack, Ben Butcher, Todd Davis, Bradley Maiolo.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – In a season that included incredible obstacles, IndyCar was able to navigate the challenges and successfully complete a 14-race schedule.

It started and ended on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. As the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread its grip throughout the United States, the NTT IndyCar Series had convened on Florida’s Gulf Coast to kick off the season. The teams were in place as well as the series officials, media and spectators, many of whom had come from around the United States to watch the opening race of the season.

In a matter of two days, it became obvious the season could not start because of public health concerns. IndyCar and Green Savoree Promotions, the promoters of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, along with government and public health officials in Florida, halted the weekend on March 13 before an Indy car ever got on track.

The first four races of the season were also canceled, including popular events at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

As the United States went into a near-nationwide lockdown, Indy car teams were unable to work in their shops because of rules in Indiana, North Carolina and Illinois where the teams are located.

“Once we had the postponement of St. Pete, I don’t think any of us knew what we were dealing with; we just knew it was pretty big,” IndyCar President Jay Frye said. “When the NBA postponed its season, and different things started to happen, over the next several months there were hundreds of times we planned something then went home at night and the next day, you would have to completely redo it because something changed in the interim.”

A few weeks into the pandemic, the cornerstone event of the series, the famed Indianapolis 500, moved from Memorial Day weekend on May 24 to Aug. 23 in the hopes the virus would subside and fans would be allowed to attend the world’s biggest race.

A new schedule was created, but that had to be revised when the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix was canceled.

If there was going to be an IndyCar season, it needed to get started somewhere, anywhere, and in a hurry as May turned into June.

IndyCar owner Roger Penske, IndyCar President Frye and Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles were able to successfully negotiate an arrangement with Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage to hold the season-opening race without spectators on June 8. Television partner NBC agreed to make it a prime time telecast on the network instead of NBCSN.

The first race was held in a bubble. Teams underwent medical checks before boarding charter flights in Indianapolis for the majority of teams and Statesville, N.C., for Team Penske. Once those flights arrived at Alliance Airport, a shipping and cargo airport near Texas Motor Speedway, more medical checks were given before teams were allowed inside of the facility.

Practice, qualifications and the race were held in one day. Shortly after Scott Dixon scored the season-opening victory, the teams left Texas Motor Speedway for private charters back to Indianapolis and North Carolina.

For those on the flights, by the time they had returned home, they had been awake for more than 24-straight hours.

The season was officially underway.

“The Governor of Texas was great, and Texas Motor Speedway was great and once we got going, we showed we could do it and managed the process in a really good way,” Frye told SPEED SPORT. “We got going and that certainly helped.

“Once we got to Texas and launched our season on a one-day show, we flew in, practiced and qualified and then raced, we learned a lot from that first event. Then, throughout the season we learned even more.”

Another schedule revision was completed by moving the GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway from May to July 4. It was part of an IndyCar-NASCAR doubleheader that also included the NASCAR Xfinity Series on the IMS road course on July 4 and NASCAR Cup Series on the oval on July 5.

Road America was moved from the third week in June to the second weekend in July. The highly anticipated return to Richmond Raceway was canceled due to the State of Virginia’s restrictions on crowds.

Many of the teams needed a 14-race schedule to honor sponsorship agreements and IndyCar needed that number of races to fulfill its schedule with NBC.

So, IndyCar created doubleheaders at Road America, Iowa Speedway, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The series also created a new event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Harvest GP, which was held on the first weekend of October.

A limited numbers of spectators were allowed at Road America, Mid-Ohio, Gateway, Mid-Ohio and the Harvest GP at IMS. Unfortunately, there were no spectators allowed to attend the 104th Indianapolis 500 on Aug. 23 when track owner Penske came to the conclusion there was simply too much risk because of the pandemic.

The true comeback story of the season was the revival of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. It went from being the season-opening race, to being canceled, to suddenly being revived when Kevin Savoree and Kim Green were able to successfully negotiate a new date with the City of St. Petersburg.

Instead of kicking off the season, it was the championship finale on Oct. 25. The State of Florida allowed 20,000 fans to attend the final race of the season and they saw Josef Newgarden win the race and Scott Dixon win his sixth NTT IndyCar Series championship.

IndyCar had overcome the obstacles and made it to the finish line of a 14-race season.
Frye was able to succinctly sum up one of the most challenging seasons in IndyCar history.

“We ran 14 races and it felt like we ran 50 with the number of times we redid things and did them over again,” Frye said. “There were times on Tuesday of race week, it wasn’t 100 percent sure we were going that week.

“It was coming down to the wire working with government officials.”

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who has been listed as questionable with an oblique injury, will play in Saturday's AFC wild-card game against the Indianapolis Colts, a source told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.

Diggs was named an All-Pro for the first time after recording league highs with 127 catches and 1,535 yards in his first season in Buffalo. He also had eight touchdowns.

He suffered the injury late in Buffalo's Week 16 victory over New England and missed the team's regular-season finale against Miami.

Diggs was limited in the Bills' walk-through Tuesday before missing practice Wednesday. Both he and receiver Cole Beasley, who is also listed as questionable, participated in limited fashion for the team's final practice of the week Thursday.

Receivers John Brown, Gabriel Davis and Isaiah McKenzie also are available for the Bills.

ESPN's Marcel Louis-Jacques contributed to this report.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Former Washington Football Team quarterback Dwayne Haskins will visit with the Carolina Panthers on Monday, a league source confirmed on Saturday.

Haskins was released by Washington after a Week 16 loss to the Panthers and a week after being photographed without a mask at his girlfriend's birthday party following a loss to Seattle Seahawks.

Haskins was fined $40,000 for his second breach of the COVID-19 protocols and lost his captaincy, but made his second straight start in the loss to Carolina.

The Panthers' current interest in Haskins should not come as a surprise.

Panthers head coach Matt Rhule recruited Haskins, 23, when he was the head coach at Temple. Asked about that after Haskins was released, Rhule said players that highly recruited "didn't spend too much time talking to us.''

Haskins ended up at Ohio State and set several school passing records while running an attack guided by then-offensive coordinator Ryan Day. Day, now the Buckeyes' head coach, worked with Rhule at Temple when both were assistants in 2006.

Haskins was the 15th pick by Washington in 2019 and could be a good fit in Carolina's quarterback friendly offense.

That Rhule didn't give Teddy Bridgewater a vote of confidence as his starter heading into 2021 and said Bridgewater needed to have a "tremendous offseason'' leaves some uncertainty to the Panthers' quarterback position.

Behind Bridgwater is former XFL star P.J. Walker and 2019 third-round pick Will Grier.

Other teams reportedly have expressed interest in Haskins. While his visit to Carolina has been described as exploratory, that doesn't mean it couldn't turn into signing.

When such a signing could occur remains to be seen. The Panthers also are in the process of interviewing general manager candidates. They already have interviewed at least 13, including two in-house.

NFL Network earlier reported of the Panthers' planned interview with Haskins.

Haskins was 3-10 as Washington's starter the past two seasons. He completed 60.1 percent of his passes and threw 12 touchdowns to 14 interceptions.

The Panthers are also are in the process of replacing quarterbacks coach Jake Peetz, recently named the offensive coordinator at LSU, and could lose offensive coordinator Joe Brady.

Brady has interviewed with Houston, Atlanta and the Los Angeles Chargers for their head coaching vacancies.