USC receiver Robert Woods gets Pac-10 honor

USC’s Robert Woods was voted freshman offensive player of the year in the Pacific 10 Conference, it was announced Tuesday.

Three players from USC and two from UCLA were voted first-team All-Pac-10 by league coaches.

Woods, a receiver from Carson, was selected as a kick returner after averaging 25.6 yards a return. He also caught 64 passes for 786 yards and six touchdowns.

Trojans offensive lineman Tyron Smith and defensive lineman Jurrell Casey and UCLA linebacker Akeem Ayers and safety Rahim Moore joined Woods on the first team.

Moore also was all-conference in 2009.

Smith, Casey, Ayers and Moore, all juniors, are expected to consider making themselves available for the NFL draft.

Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck was offensive player of the year, Oregon State tackle Stephen Paea defensive player of the year and Arizona State end Junior Onyeali freshman defensive player of the year.

Oregon’s Chip Kelly was coach of the year.

USC safety T.J. McDonald and punt returner Ronald Johnson and UCLA running back Johnathan Franklin, kicker Kai Forbath and punter Jeff Locke were voted to the second team.

— Gary Klein

Wannstedt quits

Dave Wannstedt is out as Pitt football coach following a disappointing season in which the Panthers were big favorites to win a weak Big East Conference, only to finish 7-5 and qualify for a minor bowl.

Wannstedt resigned under pressure Tuesday, three days after Pitt (7-5) salvaged its regular season by beating Cincinnati, 28-10. The former Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins coach, highly respected by Pitt’s administration, will remain at the school as a special assistant to Athletic Director Steve Pederson.

Pitt apparently chose to change coaches now, rather than after the Jan. 8 Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., because most top candidates would have been hired by then. Also, the national letter-of-intent signing day would be less than a month away.

Wannstedt’s tenure was marked by upset losses to teams such as Ohio University and Bowling Green and a failure to play in a BCS bowl — something the Panthers did under lame-duck coach Walt Harris before Wannstedt took over in 2005. Wannstedt went 42-31 in six seasons, including a 26-12 mark from 2008 through 2010 that is Pitt’s best for a three-season stretch since 1981-83.

BCS glitch

Boise State President Bob Kustra is taking another swing at the Bowl Championship Series, this time condemning the system that determines the national championship and other postseason games for being allowed to operate under a shroud of secrecy.

Kustra dashed off an e-mail to fellow university presidents and conference commissioners Tuesday, one day after analysts discovered an error in the final BCS rankings. The glitch caused BCS officials to revise the computer rankings, moving Boise State up one spot to No. 10 and dropping LSU to No. 11.

The adjustment didn’t have any impact on the Broncos’ postseason date in the MAACO Bowl in Las Vegas with No. 20 Utah. But it gave Kustra, a vocal and persistent BCS critic, an opportunity to blast officials from the BCS and the NCAA for the system’s lack of public accountability.

“How many times have we heard calls for transparency on our campuses and how many times have we shared our governance and communicated with our faculties and other constituencies in transparent fashion,” Kustra wrote in an e-mail obtained by the Associated Press. “Yet, in intercollegiate athletics, with the NCAA standing silently on the sidelines, we allow the BCS to work its magic with no idea of how accurate its rankings are on a week to week basis.”

Etc.

Indiana gave new Coach Kevin Wilson a seven-year contract worth $1.2 million a year. Wilson has been the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma since 2006. … Army Coach Rich Ellerson, who will guide the Black Knights to their first bowl game in 14 years, has been given a two-year contract extension through 2015.