Sports briefs

WVU hires Holgorsen

as 'coach in waiting'

Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen has been hired for the same position at West Virginia next season, and the Mountaineers plan to make him head coach in 2012.

In the deal announced Wednesday, Holgorsen will replace Jeff Mullen as offensive coordinator and become "head coach in waiting" in 2011.

He will replace head coach Bill Stewart for the 2012 season. The university said Stewart will take an administrative role after the 2011 season.

Johnson named

Driver of the Year

Five-time defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson has been named Driver of the Year.

It's the fourth time Johnson has received the honor, tying him with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for most wins in the award's 44-year history.

Johnson received 10 votes to beat NHRA Funny Car Champion John Force. He received seven votes and NASCAR driver Kyle Busch received one.

Jets' assistant coach

in more trouble

The New York Jets suspended assistant coach Sal Alosi indefinitely after they discovered he ordered five inactive players to form a wall along the sideline for a punt return, during which he tripped a Miami Dolphins player.

General manager Mike Tannenbaum said that Alosi, the team's strength and conditioning coach, did not initially acknowledge that he ordered players to stand that way during the investigation Monday.

Tannenbaum did not rule out the possibility that Alosi will be fired.

Bob Feller dies

Bob Feller, the Iowa farm boy whose powerful right arm earned him the nickname "Rapid Robert" and made him one of baseball's greatest pitchers during a Hall of Fame career with the Cleveland Indians, has died. He was 92.

Feller died at 9:15 p.m. of acute leukemia at a hospice, said Bob DiBiasio, the Indians vice president of public relations.

Feller was part of the rotation the last time the Indians won it all - in 1948.

Fiercely proud and patriotic, Feller was an American original. He won 266 games during 18 seasons - all with the Indians, who brought him up to the majors as a 17-year old.