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1B Sports Friday November 8, 2013 Raiders coordinator weighs in on Incognito ALAMEDA(AP) — Oakland Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olson is more troubled than he is surprised by the news surrounding suspended Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Richie Incognito. Olson spent two years coaching Incognito when the two were together in St. Louis from 2006-07. Olson was the Rams' offensive coordinator while Incognito, a third-round draft pick in 2005, was still in the infancy of his NFL career. Even then there were signs of potential issues with the 6-foot-3, 320-pound Incognito, whom Olson describes as being very high strung. While Olson didn't have any problems with the player himself, he said Incognito appeared to be a player who ''was going to need help'' after he and former Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo got into a heated confrontation in 2009. ''That wasn't the Richie I knew,'' Olson said Thursday. ''He went over the top there at the end in St. Louis. I thought at that point, 'This guy's going to need help. He'll never play again in the National Football League.' ''Then I had a chance to visit with him when I was in Tampa (and I) just felt like he had turned the corner in terms of maturity and ... being responsible in his actions.'' Incognito was suspended by the Dolphins on Sunday night for conduct detrimental to the team amid accusations he bullied and threatened teammate Jonathan Martin, who has since left the team. The situation has set off a firestorm across the country as fans, team executives, coaches and players have taken sides in the debate over the culture in an NFL locker room. Olson has remained on friendly terms with Incognito and spoke with him by telephone this week. Olson wouldn't go into detail over what the two spoke about but said the lineman believes the situation with Martin has been taken out of context. ''He felt like he had a good relationship in that locker room, not only with the player in question but most of the players in the locker room,'' Olson said. ''It's disappointing the things we're reading and hearing. You just hope it's not true.'' Incognito has had a history of troubling incidents dating back to college. Similar issues followed him into the NFL, as Incognito got into fights with his St. Louis teammates on at least two occasions. The incident with Spagnuolo was the breaking point for the Rams, who released Incognito in December 2009. Olson, who had since left St. Louis and was with Tampa Bay at the time, reached out to Incognito and was convinced his former player had changed. However, Olson was hardly surprised when he first heard news of the Incognito-Martin situation. Incognito's harassment of Martin included text messages that were racist and threatening, two people familiar with the situation have told The Associated Press. The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the Dolphins and NFL haven't disclosed the nature of the misconduct that led to Incognito's suspension. ''It's sad to see how it's played out,'' Olson said. ''(Incognito) brings an element of that's what he is, he's an element of toughness. His personality is high-strung, very high-strung. He was a tough player. But the other things outside of that, I just think it's really sad and you just hope that it's not true what's being said out there.'' Notes: Running back Darren McFadden (hamstring) missed his second straight day of practice. Cornerback D.J. Hayden also missed Thursday's workout because of a sore groin he originally hurt in practice on Wednesday. ''We'll have to evaluate him and see how quickly that thing responds,'' Raiders coach Dennis Allen said. ... PK Sebastian Janikowski (ribs) did some light kicking and was limited but is expected to play Sunday in New York. Youth basketball sign-ups The Cornerstone Youth Basketball League is holding its annual winter sign-ups at Red Bluff Cornerstone Bank now until Nov. 15. The instructional and recreational league is for first graders through sixth graders. First and second graders will learn fundamentals from high school coaches and varsity basketball players, and third through sixth graders will play in games each week after learning new skills. Coaches are also needed. Tehama Tracker Today's Schedule FOOTBALL Red Bluff at Foothill, 7:30 p.m.; Corning at West Valley, 7:30 p.m.; Biggs at Los Molinos, 7:30 p.m. Sports on TV AUTO RACING 9 a.m. FS1 — NASCAR, Nationwide Series, practice for ServiceMaster 200, at Avondale, Ariz. 10:30 a.m. FS1 — NASCAR, Sprint Cup, practice for AdvoCare 500, at Avondale, Ariz. 12:30 p.m. FS1 — NASCAR, Nationwide Series, practice for ServiceMaster 200, at Avondale, Ariz. 5 p.m. FS1 — NASCAR, Truck Series, Lucas Oil 150, at Avondale, Ariz. COLLEGE FOOTBALL 5:30 p.m. ESPN2 — Louisville at UConn GOLF 10 a.m. TGC — PGA Tour, The McGladrey Classic, second round, at St. Simons Island, Ga. 1 a.m. TGC — European PGA Tour, Turkish Airlines Open, third round, at Antalya, Turkey MEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL 2 p.m. FSN — Alabama vs. Oklahoma, at Dallas 3 p.m. FS1 — Boston College at Providence 3:30 p.m. ESPN2 — Maryland vs. UConn, at Brooklyn, N.Y. 4:30 p.m. ESPN — Armed Forces Classic, Oregon vs. Georgetown, at Seoul, South Korea 7 p.m. FSN — Colorado vs. Baylor, at Dallas MEN'S COLLEGE HOCKEY 4:30 p.m. NBCSN — Minnesota at Notre Dame SOCCER 11 p.m. ESPN2 — Youth, FIFA, U-17 World Cup, championship, Nigeria vs. Mexico, at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (delayed tape) TENNIS Noon ESPN2 — ATP World Tour Finals, round robin, at London AP photo San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore (21) breaks the challenge of Jacksonville Jaguars strong safety Johnathan Cyprien (37) on his way to scoring a touchdown against the Jaguars on Oct. 27. 49ers make ground gains SANTA CLARA (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers have gone from one of the NFL's worst rushing teams in September to the league's best in November, and it's easy for offensive coordinator Greg Roman to identify the players on his unit who have made it happen. Everybody. From the play up front of a physical line, to the lead blocking of fullback Bruce Miller, to the spirited running of halfback Frank Gore, the ground game has carried a San Francisco offense that ranks No. 1 in the NFL in rushing but is last in the league in passing. Roman said quarterback Colin Kaepernick, with his fakes at the line of scrimmage, and tight ends and wide receivers, with their blocking down the field, also have played significant roles in a rushing attack that has averaged 183.8 yards per game during a five-game winning streak that has San Francisco 6-2 at midseason. ''It's a lot of different things,'' Roman said Thursday. ''Frank, specifically, is just getting better and better, and there's cohesion out there with our offensive line. They're doing a great job. With all our guys, if you're not carrying the ball, you're blocking somebody.'' The 49ers rushed for a season-high 221 yards during a 42-10 rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 27 that took San Francisco to its bye week. The Niners and their resurgent run game return this week to face a stiff challenge against the Carolina Panthers and the NFL's second-ranked run defense. The Panthers (5-3) may present the 49ers with a unique look. Most San Francisco opponents this season have been loading the box with eight and sometimes nine defenders. Carolina's defense, ranked third overall in the NFL, comes at opponents a different way. ''Carolina's an interesting team because I really believe they think they can stop the run with a sevenman front and they've been doing that quite well,'' Roman said. ''From a football perspective, you are living large and playing with house money if you can do that. It's going to be a challenge, because they're the best team we've seen that plays the run in seven-man spacing.'' Nobody has stopped the 49ers on the ground since the first two weeks of the season, when San Francisco failed to surpass 100 yards rushing each time and Gore was limited to just 60 yards rushing on 30 carries in the two games. Gore has since climbed to seventh in the NFL with 618 yards rushing and is back on track toward the second-most productive season of his career. And the line in front of him, which also was slow to get in gear during September, is back to its trademark bruising style. With all five starters earning recognition last season as either a Pro Bowl starter or alternate, the 49ers were confident it was just a matter of time before that unit was playing back to its high standards. ''With the talent we have and as hard as we work, I think it's kind of expected of us,'' right tackle Anthony Davis said. ''We just kept after it, doing the same things we've been doing, sticking to our techniques and stuff like that. If we work as hard as we do with the coaching we have and the talent we have, that's what's going to happen.'' In the pass-happy NFL, the 49ers have finished with more rushing yards than passing yards in three of their past six games. And they've done it with opponents increasingly committing more defenders to stopping the run. The Niners, who finished last season fourth in the NFL in rushing, just keep on churning out yardage on the ground anyway. ''We definitely have seen a lot more guys in the box,'' Miller said. ''But that's going to happen with the way we've run the ball in the past. We still have good number counts to get body on body. Our guys are just doing a good job of winning individual battles up front and making lanes for Frank.'' Gore, San Francisco's all-time leading rusher, needs 543 yards rushing over the second half of the season to become the 28th player in NFL history to rush for 10,000 career yards. NOTES: Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said Thursday he expects outside linebacker Aldon Smith to play against the Panthers. Smith has been practicing with the team all week after returning to the 49ers following an excused six-week layoff during which he attended to personal matters. ''I'm sure he'll play some,'' Fangio said. ''If nothing happens between now and then, I'm anticipating that. He's a little rusty, obviously, but I expect him to get it back very quickly.'' Curry has bruised left ankle, is day-to-day OAKLAND (AP) — The Golden State Warriors say an MRI on point guard Stephen Curry's left ankle shows a bone bruise and his status is officially day to day. Curry was injured in the third quarter of Golden State's 106-93 victory at the Minnesota Timber- wolves on Wednesday night. He said after the game he will ''probably'' play at San Antonio on Friday night when the Warriors visit the Spurs in a rematch of last season's second-round playoff series. Curry had just five points on 2for-8 shooting with seven assists in 24 minutes against Minnesota. He walked gingerly after getting tangled up with Ricky Rubio and did not play in the fourth quarter. Curry had repeated problems with his left ankle during the playoffs. He has had two surgeries on his right ankle. Olympic torch blasts into space ahead of games MOSCOW (AP) — A rocket carrying the Olympic flame successfully blasted off Thursday from earth ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. NASA Live TV showed the rocket, emblazoned with the pale blue Sochi 2014 logo, launching from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome on a clear morning in Kazakhstan. The torch will make its way to the International Space Station before being taken into space itself — making it the Olympic flame's first spacewalk in history. Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan beamed at the crowd as they carried the lit torch aboard the Soyuz rocket. For safety reasons, the torch will not burn when it's onboard the space outpost. Lighting it would consume precious oxygen and pose a threat to the crew. The crew will carry the unlit torch around the station's numerous modules before taking it out on a spacewalk. The Olympic torch has flown into space once before — in 1996 aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis for the Atlanta Summer Olympics — but will be taken outside the spacecraft for the first time in history. ''It's a great pleasure and responsibility getting to work with this symbol of peace,'' Tyurin told journalists on Wednesday ahead of the launch. The torch will remain in space for five days. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy, who are currently manning the International Space Station, will take the flame for a spacewalk on Saturday, before it is returned to earth by three astronauts on Monday. The four-month Sochi torch relay, which started in Moscow on Oct. 7, is the longest in the history of the Olympics. For most of the 65,000-kilometer (39,000mile) route, the flame will travel by plane, train, car and even reindeer sleigh, but 14,000 torch bearers are taking part in the relay that stops at more than 130 cities and towns. Last month, the Olympic flame traveled to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker. Later this month it will sink to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, and in February it will reach the peak of Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 meters (18,510 feet) the highest mountain in Russia and Europe. The torch will be used to light the Olympic flame at Sochi's stadium on Feb. 7, marking the start of the 2014 Winter Games that run until Feb. 23.