In Brief: For Cal, it's like starting over again

After a 14-point loss to the Pac-10's worst team nearly two weeks ago, coach Jeff Tedford decided nobody in the Cal program deserved a few days off.

So in a week previously reserved for holiday relaxation and resting for Saturday's 110th Big Game at Stanford, Tedford put the Golden Bears through remedial classes in Football 101.

"It's almost like training camp again," safety Thomas DeCoud said. "It's back to the start, to Square One, and we'll go from there."

The simple drills are Tedford's last-ditch attempt to restore the vigor to a Cal (6-5, 3-5 Pac-10) squad that has plummeted from the heights of the national polls to the lowest abyss of his coaching staff's six seasons in Berkeley. ...

Mississippi will introduce Houston Nutt as its new coach today, ending a whirlwind hiring that began when he resigned at Arkansas on Monday and agreed to become the Rebels' coach about four hours later. Mississippi fired Ed Orgeron on Saturday after three losing seasons. Nutt led Arkansas to an 8-4 record and a likely Cotton Bowl berth while the Rebels stumbled to a 3-9 finish under Orgeron. Nutt was 42-38 in the SEC. One of his biggest wins came Friday when Arkansas beat then-No. 1 LSU 50-48 in triple overtime. ...

Sonny Lubick is out as Colorado State coach and hasn't decided whether to accept the school's offer to stay on as a fund-raiser and goodwill ambassador. The Rams haven't had a winning record since 2003, although Lubick is 108-74 in 15 seasons. ... Connecticut (9-3, 5-2 Big East) accepted a bid to play in the Meineke Bowl on Dec. 29 in Charlotte, N.C., against an Atlantic Coast Conference team.

Baseball

Catcher Jason Kendall will be guaranteed $4.25 million under the one-year contract he and the Milwaukee Brewers intend to finalize today. Kendall hit .270 with 19 RBIs in 57 games with the Cubs following a midseason trade from Oakland. He batted .226 with 33 RBIs for the A's. ... Pitcher Dan Serafini was suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball after failing a test for a performance-enhancing drug. Serafini, 33, played in three games with Colorado last season. He's now a free agent.

Soccer

In the Los Angeles Galaxy's first exhibition outside North America, England midfielder David Beckham bent a trademark free kick into the goal as 80,295 people at Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia, rose to their feet cheering. But the Galaxy lost to Sydney FC 5-3. ...

The soccer stadium in Salvador, Brazil, where seven people died after the stands collapsed Sunday night, wasn't expected to host any 2014 World Cup games, and soccer's governing body said the collapse shouldn't affect Brazil's hosting of the event.

General

Dr. J. Robert Cade, who invented the sports drink Gatorade and launched a multibillion-dollar industry that the beverage continues to dominate, died of kidney failure in Jacksonville, Fla. He was 80.

Horse Racing

Hall-of-Fame jockey Bill Hartack died Monday night in Texas while on a hunting vacation. He was 74. The cause was complications of heart disease, said Dr. Corine Stern, the chief medical examiner for Webb County, Texas.

Hartack and Eddie Arcaro are the only jockeys to win the Kentucky Derby five times. Known for his burning desire to win every race, Hartack won his first Derby with Iron Liege in 1957. He then won with Venetian Way in 1960, Decidedly in 1962, Northern Dancer in 1964 and Majestic Prince in 1969. In winning the '57 Derby, Hartack was the beneficiary of perhaps the greatest goof in racing history -- when Bill Shoemaker misjudged the finish line aboard Gallant Man and Iron Liege won by a nose.

Skiing

World Cup overall champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway crashed during downhill training in Beaver Creek, Colo., and was hospitalized with broken bones in his face and a deep cut on his buttock.

Sailing

A San Francisco yacht club won its court case against America's Cup champion Alinghi, giving its crew the right to race the Swiss in a head-to-head series for the oldest trophy in international sports next July if the sides can't agree to a traditional regatta. New York State Supreme Court Judge Herman J. Cahn ruled that the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which backs BMW Oracle Racing, is the Challenger of Record, meaning it can help negotiate the rules for the next regatta.

Volleyball

The United States defeated Australia 25-17, 25-12, 25-19 at the men's World Cup in Okayama, Japan, improving its chances of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics. William Priddy scored 13 points for the Americans (6-2). The top three teams in the 12-nation tournament will qualify for the 2008 Olympics. The United States is in fourth place and will play Japan, Argentina and Russia in the final round, which begins Friday in Tokyo.

Track and Field

World 400-meter champion Christine Ohuruogu won her appeal against a lifetime Olympic ban for missing doping tests. The British runner was cleared to compete in next year's Beijing Olympics after the ruling by a sports arbitration panel. Ohuruogu, 23, won the 400-meter world title in Japan on Aug. 29, weeks after completing a one-year ban imposed by UK Athletics for missing three out-of-competition drug tests between October 2005 and July 2006.