After gaining 172 all-purpose yards against Tennessee on Saturday, De’Anthony Thomas was named to Week Three’s Paul Hornung Award Honor Roll. The award, given annually at the end of the season, honors the most versatile player in major college football. Thomas was one of five players named to this week’s honor roll, which included 2012 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M) and running backs Jeff Scott (Ole Miss), Trey Watts (Tulsa) and Marion Grice (Arizona State).

This is the first Paul Hornung Award Honor Roll selection of the season Thomas has earned, but he was one of 44 players to make the preseason watch list for the award. Against Tennessee, Thomas rushed for 86 yards, caught one pass for 28 yards and had 58 yards on two kickoff returns.

***

The Oregon men’s golf team tees off it’s 2013-14 season on Monday at the Kikkor Golf Husky Invitational at Golf Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash. The tournament  features 14 other teams, including six from the Pac-12: Arizona State, Oregon State, USC, Utah, Washington and Washington State. The Ducks played in this invitational last year, finishing tied for sixth place with a three-round score of 35-over par. Oregon hopes to improve on its successful 2012-13 season in which it made the NCAA Regionals, missing the NCAA Championships by two strokes.

***

Saturday night’s game between Arizona State and Wisconsin ended in mass confusion, and Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott is not happy with the role the officials played in the hectic final play. Scott reprimanded and issued additional sanctions against the group of officials — a Pac-12 crew — on Sunday for failing to act with enough urgency or administering the situation properly, the Pac-12 wrote in their release today. Wisconsin had the ball at the Arizona State 13-yard line with 18 seconds left in the game, trailing 32-30 with no timeouts.

Quarterback Joel Stave — in an attempt to improve the position for Wisconsin’s ensuing field goal — took a short rush to his left, took a knee, and set the ball down. However, the officials and Arizona State’s defenders were not sure if Stave’s knee actually touched the ground. Arizona State, thinking it was a fumble, jumped on the ball delaying Wisconsin’s chance to spike the ball and stop the clock. By the time the Badgers got up to the ball, the clock had run out. Through all this, the referees didn’t officially rule if Stave was down, had given himself up, or fumbled the ball. Scott said Monday, “After a thorough review, we have determined that the officials fell short of the high standard in which Pac-12 games should be managed.”

The 12th-ranked Oregon volleyball team couldn’t overcome Michigan on Saturday, but they did see one of their players make history. Senior setter Lauren Plum set the career Oregon assists record on Saturday, breaking it late in the third set with an assist to Liz Brenner. Plum went into the match needing 33 assists to tie the previous record of 4,400 set by Nevena Djordjevic, but the senior beat that mark by two.

The Ducks were swept in three sets by the 7th-ranked Wolverines in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Saturday, losing the first two sets 22-25 and the last one 21-25. This loss came just a day after losing to another Michigan team, the Spartans of Michigan State.

***

The Oregon football team brought 76 players to their game against Virginia on Saturday. Fourteen of those players were linebackers, which was the largest number of players at any position. During Pac-12 play, the maximum number of players the Ducks will be able to bring on the road is 70, but there is no limit during nonconference road games.

***

Serena Williams continued her dominant 2013 season on Sunday by winning the U.S. Open. This is the fifth Open title Williams has won in her career. After splitting the first two sets against No. 2-seeded Victoria Azarenka, top-seeded Williams blew out her opponent in the third and final set, winning it by a score of 6-1. This Open victory is a Williams’ ninth title of 2013, which is the most victories she’s ever had in a single year. She’s also won four of the last six Grand Slam titles and now has 17 career Grand Slam trophies.

Freshman running back Thomas Tyner did not play against Nicholls State on Saturday due to an ankle injury, but health doesn’t appear to be an issue for him going into the Virginia game on September 7. Running backs coach Gary Campbell says Tyner is close to full strength, although he didn’t say whether or not Tyner will play on Saturday. “I want him to be completely healthy, which I think he is now,” Campbell said. “We are just going to wait until next week.’’

Tyner will be joining a crowded backfield once he’s cleared to play. The first and second backs on the depth chart are De’Anthony Thomas and Byron Marshall, respectively, who both ran for over 100 yards against Nicholls State.

***

Kyle Long didn’t have to wait long in his pro career to be named a starter. The former Oregon offensive lineman will be starting at right guard for the Chicago Bears in the first regular season game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, September 8. Long was a highly-touted NFL prospect going into the 2013 draft, highlighted by the 4.93 second 40-yard dash he ran at the NFL Combine (fastest among guards and third-fastest among all offensive lineman). His performance helped him get selected 20th overall in the draft.

Long — son of Hall of Famer Howie and brother of St. Louis Rams defensive end Chris Long — only started five games for the Ducks in his career, all during last season. The five starts all came at the end of the season, including the Fiesta Bowl win over Kansas State.

***

All-Pro defensive tackle Geno Atkins signed a five-year, $55 million contract extension with the Bengals on Monday. The only defensive tackle who has signed a larger contract in NFL history was former Oregon star Haloti Ngata. Ngata signed an extension with the Ravens in 2011 worth $61 million over five years.

Atkins, 25, was due to become a free agent after the season, and the Bengals were reportedly negotiating a contract with him for several months. Last year, Atkins had 12.5 sacks and forced four fumbles for the Wild Card-winning Bengals.

Former Oregon basketball star E.J. Singler may get a chance to play in the NBA, and he gets to stay in his home state to do so.

On Friday, Yahoo! Sports reported that the Portland Trail Blazers signed the former Oregon forward to a training camp contract.

Iowa State's Chris Babb (Boston Celtics) and Oregon's E.J. Singler (Portland Trail Blazers) have agreed to training camp deals.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 30, 2013

The deal, which makes Singler a non-roster invitee, is not guaranteed.

During the summer, Singler participated in pre-draft workouts for the Trail Blazers but was not selected during June’s NBA draft. He did get to play for the Detroit Pistons’ summer league squad, albeit in limited action.

Singler was born in Medford, Ore. and attended South Medford High School. He played for the Ducks the past four years, averaging 10.9 points per game, 5.1 rebounds per game, and 44.7 percent shooting from the field in his career. Last season, Singler helped the Ducks reach the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2007.

With five days left before the season opener against Nicholls State, the Oregon football team released its first depth chart. While most of the starting and backup roles are set, a couple of position battles are still being fought. Daryle Hawkins and Bralon Addison are both listed as the potential starter at wide receiver. The same goes for the jobs as placekicker (between Matt Wogan and Alejandro Maldonad0) and kick returner (De’Anthony Thomas and Keanon Lowe).

One area that isn’t in question anymore is inside linebacker. Derrick Malone (weak-side linebacker) and Rodney Hardrick (middle linebacker) were named the starters, filling holes left by Kiko Alonso and Michael Clay.

***

The Ducks basketball team just keeps on adding transfers. According to several reports, Oregon added Jason Calliste on Sunday. The 6-foot-2-inch senior shooting guard was previously enrolled at the University of Detroit, where he averaged 14.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game as a junior.

Calliste is the fourth transfer the Ducks have acquired this season. The others are redshirt senior forward Mike Moser (UNLV), forward Richard Amardi (Indian Hills Community College), and junior guard Joseph Young (Houston). Young, however, still has to get his immediate eligibility waiver approved before he can become a Duck.

***

After suffering his third career concussion on Saturday, Buffalo’s Kevin Kolb might never see an NFL field again. The Buffalo New’s Tim Graham reported on Sunday that the Bills are “concerned Kevin Kolb’s concussion may be career-ending and they’re proceeding with that in mind.” The 29 year-old quarterback will undergo several tests this week, which will determine when or if he will be able to return. Kolb was drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2007. He played there for four years before getting traded to Arizona, where he spent the last two seasons.

The Bills signed former USC star Matt Leinart and traded for Thaddeus Lewis immediately following the news about Kolb in order to provide some depth behind Jeff Tuel and rookie EJ Manuel, who is also out with an injury. With the uncertainty surrounding Manuel’s return, Tuel was named the team’s Week 1 starter.

Oregon has sold out 89 straight games at Autzen Stadium, but that streak could end in merely 12 days when the Ducks take on Nicholls State. About 3,500 tickets for the Ducks’ first game of 2013 were still up for sale as of August 16, according to Rob Moseley of GoDucks.com. Anyone worried about the streak getting snapped can at least take solace in the fact that, at this time last year, a sellout looked even more unlikely. Two weeks before Oregon’s 2012 opener versus Arkansas State, 5,000 tickets were still available, but thanks to a Groupon deal and some late student ticket sales, the sellout streak remained intact.

September 18, 1999 against Nevada was the last football game at Autzen that wasn’t sold out. The Ducks own the fourth-longest active sellout streak, behind Nebraska (325 straight sellouts), Notre Dame (231), and Virginia Tech (99).

***

The Eugene Emeralds failed to maintain a streak of their own on Sunday, albeit a much shorter one than Autzen’s. The Ems lost to the Everett AquaSox 6-2, snapping their brief two-game winning streak. Eugene took the first two games of their series at Everett by the scores of 5-1 and 8-7, and they took an early 1-0 lead. However, the AquaSox answered immediately, scoring two runs in the bottom of the second inning and never relinquishing the lead after that.

The Ems continue their series on Monday night and will wrap it up on Tuesday.

***

Denver Broncos star linebacker Von Miller is expected to be suspended for at least six games this upcoming season, according to reports. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen tweeted the news earlier today, saying Miller’s likely suspension is due to a “violation of the league’s substance policy,” although it isn’t exactly clear how Miller violated the policy. The Denver Post reported in July that Miller hasn’t failed a drug test. Whatever the case may be, it doesn’t appear that Miller will be able to avoid a suspension. His camp and the NFL have been in discussions about lowering the suspension to four games, according to ESPN’s Adam Shefter, but Shefter says six games is still the most likely punishment.

Miller is going into his third NFL season. He won the 2011 Defensive Rookie of the Year award and has compiled 30 career sacks, including 18.5 last season.

Nick Symmonds was out to prove he could win a medal. He was confident he could complete the 800 meters in 1 minute and 43 seconds, flat. He didn’t quite reach his intended mark during the 800-meter finals on Tuesday, but he did finally win that medal he’s come so painfully close to winning the past few years.

Symmonds took silver on Tuesday at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, but late in the race, he wasn’t thinking about finishing second.

“At 750 (meters) I was pretty sure I was going to be the next world champion,” Symmonds told The Register-Guard. “But (race winner Mohammed Aman of Ethiopia) is tough.”

The Oregon Track Club Elite member couldn’t quite hold Aman off, finishing .24 seconds behind the gold-medalist. Despite the near-victory, Symmonds was more than happy with the effort he gave in what was one of the best, if not the best races he’s ever ran.

“I feel like I really raced for gold tonight,” he said. “I wasn’t content to sit in the back and hang on for dear life and be content to race for a bronze. I really raced for a gold and there is no shame in finishing second.”

Brianne Theisen-Eaton knows the feeling. The Oregon grad won silver in the heptathlon on Tuesday, finishing behind Ukraine’s Ganna Melnichenko. And unlike most athletes who win silver medals, Theisen-Eaton can’t say she’s a more accomplished track star than her husband. A month ago to the day, she and Ashton Eaton got married. Eaton, of course, is a former Oregon star himself, and has won two gold medals — first in the decathlon at the London Olympics, then this past Sunday in these same world championships.

“I’ve always watched him get his medals and think, ‘I wonder what that feels like?’” Theisen-Eaton told The Register-Guard. “Now I’m getting a little taste of it.”

Theisen-Eaton had to run in the 800 meters for her final event, which she characterized as, “the worst 800 I’ve ever run in my entire life.” She was happy with silver, though, and she got encouragement from her husband after it was all over.

“He said, ‘Good job. Enjoy your victory lap,’” Theisen-Eaton said. “He just wanted me to have my moment.”

Fans who come into Autzen Stadium this year will certainly notice the changes made to the football program — namely new head coach Mark Helfrich — but they’ll also notice a slight difference when they get to their seats. On Friday, some new rules were put in place that expanded the limited dimensions for stadium seats, stadium chairs, and any seat cushions brought in by fans.

The new rules require that seats be no more than 17.5 inches wide and 13.5 inches deep. The originally proposed dimension for seat width was 17 inches, so the new rule in this area is only minor. However, the initial dimension for seat depth was 10 inches, which, of course, was 3.5 inches less than the new depth limit.

Senior Associate Athletic Director Craig Pintens told the Emerald that the new seat adjustments were almost entirely based on input from fans.

“Fan experience is very important to us,” Pintens said. “It was a direct result of fan feedback that we instituted the new rules.”

Pintens added that when the seat dimension issues were being discussed, fans were clamoring for one thing, in particular, more than the others.

“The width of seats was very important to them,” he said, “but depth was the biggest issue according to multiple fans we received feedback from.”

The cushion limitations were especially important to the University because of fan issues in the past. Several people with seats on Autzen’s long benches would bring in cushions that were larger than the spaces designated for individual people. While fans might be disappointed that they can’t bring extra-large seat cushions, the new rules will at least give them a little more space than they’ve ever had before.

Oregon football kicks off in under three weeks, and its first opponent, Nicholls State, will be getting paid a healthy sum of money to come into Autzen Stadium and take on the Ducks. According to an article in The Register-Guard by Emerald editor-in-chief Sam Stites, the Colonels will be paid $450,000 when they roll into Eugene on August 31.

This will be the second year in a row a Pac-12 school from Oregon has paid Nicholls State to play against them during the opening week. Oregon State paid the Colonels $400,000 in 2012, although the two teams didn’t actually get to square off on September 1 like they scheduled. Hurricane Isaac prevented Nicholls State (located in Thibodaux, LA) from traveling to Corvallis in week 1, and they didn’t re-schedule the make-up game until three months after the originally intended date. In retrospect, the Colonels might have preferred simply canceling the game considering how they ended up performing against the Beavers: OSU won 77-3.

Craig Pintens, the University of Oregon’s Senior Associate Athletic Director, told The Register-Guard it’s merely a coincidence that both OSU and UO have scheduled Nicholls State in back-to-back years.

“We want to continue to schedule one major conference opponent each season, and two other nonconference opponents,” Pintens said. “College football scheduling is very difficult, as there are a number of variables such as availability, willingness to play one of the top teams in college football, and cost.”

The figure Oregon is paying Nicholls is less than half of what they gave to their week 1 opponent last year. That opponent, Arkansas State, received $950,000 to play the Ducks. Another 2012 opponent, Tennessee Tech, was paid $500,000. The Ducks beat both teams by a combined score of 120-48.

Eugene didn’t get the nickname “Track Town USA” without good reason, as evidenced by the World Track and Field Championships currently being held in Moscow.

On Sunday, Nick Symmonds (a member of Eugene’s Oregon Track Club Elite) finished second in the 800-meter semifinals, easily getting him into the finals. Although qualifying for the finals was undoubtedly Symmonds’ biggest goal, he was still unbelievably close to winning the semifinal. His time of 1:45:00 was just 0:01 seconds behind the leading time posted by Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman. Despite the photo finish, Symmonds didn’t seem too upset over the outcome.

“I am so ecstatic the way it is shaping up,” Symmonds told reporters after the race. “Today I felt really smooth going through the gears there. … I feel like I am ready to run 1:43. I need to prove I can win a medal.”

Symmonds, 29, has finished fifth in both the 2011 world championships and the 2012 Olympics, so winning a medal in these 2013 world championships would be a tremendous breakthrough considering how close he is come to attaining it. He will get his chance on Tuesday when the 800-meter final is scheduled to take place.

A pair of Oregon-based runners competed in the finals of the women’s 10,000 meters on Sunday, but they didn’t finish as well as they were hoping. Shalane Flanagan (from Portland) finished in eighth place after leading the first 3,00o meters, and former Oregon runner Jordan Hasay finished in 12th.

“I felt like I tried to stay with that main pack,” Hasay said after the race, “but then every lap I was just kind of on the edge, and it made me relax a little bit, maybe a little too much.”

Another female runner from Oregon didn’t experience nearly as much disappointment during her event. English Gardner, a former UO sprinter, ran the fastest 100 meters of any woman in the preliminary round. In fact, she was the only runner to break 11 seconds, with a time of 10.94. She told reporters how great she felt, something she hasn’t experienced in quite some time.

“Finally … the lion got let out of the cage and I went out there and had some fun,” she said.

Gardner went on to run in the 100-meter finals — held on Monday — and was fractions of a second away from earning a spot on the medal stand. She ended up in fourth place, just .03 seconds away from winning bronze.