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The Ottawa Senators fired coach D.J. Smith and assistant Davis Payne on Monday, continuing a season of change for the team.

Smith will be replaced by interim coach Jacques Martin. Earlier this month, the Senators hired Martin, who had coached the Senators from the 1995-96 season through the 2003-04 campaign, as a senior adviser to the coaching staff.

The Senators said Martin, who has coached nearly 1,300 NHL games, will be on the bench Tuesday when the Senators face the Arizona Coyotes. Joining Martin will be former Senators captain and franchise career points leader Daniel Alfredsson, who will serve as an assistant coach.

Questions surrounding Smith’s future with the Senators had been building since last season. Since then, the Senators came under new ownership, with Canadian businessman Michael Andlauer becoming the majority owner in September.

Andlauer’s first few months have proved challenging. The club’s struggle to find consistency was further amplified by restricted free agent forward Shane Pinto receiving a 41-game suspension for violating the NHL’s rules on sports wagering.

Less than a week later, the club fired general manager Pierre Dorion on the same day the Senators lost a first-round draft pick for their role in an invalidated trade back in 2022 involving Evgenii Dadonov and the Anaheim Ducks.

Dorion’s departure led to the Senators turning to president of hockey operations Steve Staios to serve as the club’s interim GM.

“A lot of our issues in our team play are the strengths of Jacques Martin: detailed, structured, organized, disciplined,” Staios said Monday on a video call with reporters from Arizona. “To me, in theory, he’s the perfect fit for everything that we had been lacking in those areas.”

Staios said at the time he consulted with Smith on the decision to bring on Martin as a senior adviser.

As for Smith, he was hired by the Senators in 2019 to take over a team in the midst of a rebuild. The Senators missed the playoffs in each of his four full seasons, with their strongest finish coming last season when they went 39-35-8 but finished six points behind the Florida Panthers for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.

The firing came in the fifth and final year of Smith’s contract. He’s the fifth NHL coach to be replaced this season.

“It was a difficult day for him, a difficult day for me,” Staios said. “It’s a difficult day for our players because I think we all feel a sense of responsibility in it, including D.J., so he was disappointed in himself and handled it like a true pro.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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USC QB pulls off fake punt wearing No. 80 jersey

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USC QB pulls off fake punt wearing No. 80 jersey

LOS ANGELES — No. 20 USC pulled off a remarkable fake punt against Northwestern in Friday night’s 38-17 win by sending out third-string quarterback Sam Huard in the same uniform number as the Trojans’ punter.

Wearing a No. 80 jersey, Huard came on the field with the punt team in the second quarter and completed a 10-yard pass to Tanook Hines. The first down extended the Trojans’ second drive, which ended with a TD run by Jayden Maiava.

This bit of trickery was quite legal, apparently: Huard wore No. 7 earlier this season for the Trojans, but he is listed as No. 80 on the USC roster for this week after Lincoln Riley’s team quietly made the change.

USC punter Sam Johnson also wears No. 80. College football teams frequently feature two players wearing the same number.

Huard, who is a couple of inches shorter than the 6-foot-3 Johnson, grinned widely as he high-fived teammates on the way off the field. He is a former five-star recruit who began his college career at Washington.

Bowling Green pulled off a similar stunt in last season’s 68 Ventures Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.

Third-string Falcons quarterback Baron May switched his uniform number before the game from 8 to 18 — very similar to punter John Henderson‘s No. 19 jersey.

Late in the first quarter, May came on the field instead of Henderson and threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Johnson Jr. — although Arkansas State overcame it for a 38-31 victory.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Missouri’s Norfleet (shoulder) ruled out vs. A&M

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Missouri's Norfleet (shoulder) ruled out vs. A&M

No. 22 Missouri will be without star tight end Brett Norfleet (shoulder) when the Tigers host undefeated No. 3 Texas A&M on Saturday in Columbia.

Norfleet, a junior from O’Fallon, Missouri, has started in each of the Tigers’ eight games this fall and enters Week 11 leading all SEC tight ends with five touchdown receptions. His 26 catches on the season rank third-most among Missouri pass catchers, trailing only wide receivers Kevin Coleman Jr. and Marquis Johnson.

Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz told reporters that Norflett sustained a separated shoulder in Missouri’s 17-10 loss at Vanderbilt on Oct. 25. Drinkwitz later described Norfleet as “day-to-day” during the Tigers’ bye in Week 10, and the veteran tight end was listed as questionable in Missouri’s student-athlete availability report Thursday night.

Norfleet’s absence comes with Drinkwitz and the two-loss Tigers essentially facing a playoff elimination game against the Aggies on Saturday. Missouri will also be without starting quarterback Beau Pribula in Week 11 after the Penn State transfer dislocated his ankle at Vanderbilt. Freshman Matt Zollers, ESPN’s No. 6 pocket passer in the 2025 class, is set to make his first career start Saturday, facing Texas A&M coach Mike Elko and an Aggies defense that ranks 18th nationally in defensive pressures (137), per ESPN Research.

“For our team, it’s really about us focusing on helping Matt execute at the highest level possible,” Drinkwitz said this week. “We’re excited about Matt’s opportunity and what he’s earned. He has done a really good job in practice of leadership, stepping up, embracing the moment, embracing the opportunity.”

Missouri (6-2) kicks off against Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.

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Sources: Kansas State RB Edwards leaves team

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Sources: Kansas State RB Edwards leaves team

Kansas State running back Dylan Edwards has left the Wildcats and is expected to enter the transfer portal, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Edwards has been hampered by injuries this season and has played in just four games. He has only 34 carries for 205 yards.

In 2024, Edwards finished with 546 rushing yards while averaging 7.4 yards per carry with seven total touchdowns.

He began his career in 2023 at Colorado before transferring to K-State.

The Wildcats (4-5, 3-3 Big 12) are off this weekend.

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