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PITTSBURGH -- There was a time when Ejuan Price wondered if his college career would ever end.Now that its fast approaching after six seasons, three different head coaches, a position change, one college degree earned and another on the way, the Pittsburgh defensive end almost doesnt want to cross the finish line.Almost.I look at it like, a lot of unfortunate things that happened to me were kind of like a blessing in disguise, Price said. I feel me being here right now is where Im supposed to be.Thats understandable. The Panthers are competitive, his NFL draft stock is rising and the 23-year-old is seventh in the country in tackles for loss and 12th in sacks.But he isnt the only late bloomer making an impact across the Atlantic Coast Conference.Well-traveled Syracuse wide receiver Amba Etta-Tawo has turned out to be a perfect fit in head coach Dino Babers uptempo offense. The Maryland graduate transfer leads the ACC and ranks in the top 10 nationally in receiving yards (1,246), receiving yards per game (124.6) and receptions per game (7.9). Hes also second in the league with eight TD receptions and his 79 catches are tied for fifth in the country and he most among Power 5 receivers.Amba has been outstanding, Babers said. Hes been a pleasant surprise. Obviously, we had no idea hed be able to do the things that hes done.North Carolina senior receiver Bug Howard is suddenly in a much larger role since top deep threat Mack Hollins was lost for the season with a broken collarbone. Howard has had some good moments as part of four-receiver sets in 2015 and caught the winning touchdown with 2 seconds left to cap a wild comeback win against Price and Pitt in September.Howard -- now wearing Hollins No. 13 in his teammates honor -- was just getting started. He had 10 catches for 156 yards at Miami in the game Hollins was injured, had seven catches for 109 yards with a score against Virginia then had six catches for 120 yards and another TD against Georgia Tech. His streak of 100-yard receiving games ended at three in last weeks loss at Duke, though he still had a TD catch there, too.The 6-foot-5 target whose pet peeve is being mistaken for a player on the Tar Heel basketball team is finally living up to his massive potential. He already has a career-best 45 receptions with at least three games left to play. The NFL isnt out of reach either. The way Howard boxed out Pitts Ryan Lewis for the clinching score on Sept. 24 showcased the kind of ball skills that would translate well at the next level.Its a destination that might be in reach for Price too, one he doubted would materialize at times during his star-crossed career at Pitt. Hes been around so long he originally signed at Ohio State when Jim Tressel was the Buckeyes coach before flipping to the hometown Panthers when Tressel stepped down that spring.Price is one of the emotional leaders for the surprising Panthers (6-4, 3-3 ACC) heading into their game against Duke on Saturday.Price made an immediate splash with the Panthers, collecting four sacks as a true freshman for Todd Graham in 2011. Then Graham left and a pectoral injury in 2012 forced Price to take a medical redshirt. New coach Paul Chryst moved Price to defensive end in 2013, intrigued by the explosiveness in Prices 6-foot, 255-pound frame. The experiment lasted all of six games before a back issue shelved Price yet again and he didnt play a snap in 2014 after tearing a left pectoral muscle during the offseason that required surgery.He tried to keep his spirits up during the long layoff, it wasnt easy when he was unsure about the payoff at the end.Its easy to be motivated for a couple days, Price said. But do it over and over and over and over, youve got to find a reason to stick with it.So the player teammate Brian ONeill likened to a Steady Eddie because of his relentlessness learned to train his mind as well as his body. Price knew he could be a force if he stuck with it. The reprieve came last fall. Finally healthy and emboldened by new coach Pat Narduzzi -- the programs third coach in four years -- to get to the quarterback, Price picked up 11.5 sacks while earning first-team All-ACC honors even though he hardly fits the mold of prototypical defensive end.He can bull rush you, ONeill said. Hes so low. You see how low he can get, how he gets leverage. Thats how he uses his height to his advantage.In February the NCAA granted Price a rare sixth year of eligibility. He picked up his degree in communications last spring and is currently working on one in administration of justice, fitting for a player whose long journey appears headed for a happy ending.All the blemishes in my past that got kind of looked down upon, Price said, Im thanking god for putting me in that position.---AP Sports Writers John Kekis in Syracuse, New York and Aaron Beard in Raleigh, North Carolina contributed to this report.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org China Shoes Sale . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. Cheap Supra Shoes China .com) - The women will also have a new champion at the Australian Open. http://www.cheapshoeschinaonline.com/cheap-salomon-shoes-china-253a.html . While hell be dialed in to that tournament on a course he loves, you can forgive him if his eyes glance down the calendar just a bit, towards April. Cheap Nike Shoes China . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. Cheap New Balance Shoes China . Halladay signed a one-day contract with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday that allowed the veteran right-hander to retire as a member of team with which he broke into the majors and spent the bulk of his distinguished 16-year career. The NFL is pledging $100 million to player safety as concerns about concussions shadow the game.NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote a letter announcing the funding and outlining a new initiative called Play Safe, Play Smart on the programs website.Goodell wrote that the goal of the initiative is to drive progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of head injuries, enhance medical protocols and further improve the way the game is taught and played by all who love it.The NFL has a troubled history around the topic of brain research and concussions.For nearly two decades, the league ran a series of scientific experiments, formed its own research arm and published 16 papers about football and head injuries. The central conclusion -- that NFL players dont get brain damage -- led to public criticism, Congressional hearings and, in 2009, the abandonment of the project.More recently, in May, congressional investigators concluded that at least a half-dozen top NFL health officials waged an improper, behind-the-scenes campaign last year to influence a major U.S. government research study on football and brain disease.The 91-page congressional report described how the NFL pressured the National Institutes of Health to strip a $16 million project from a prominent Boston University researcher and tried to redirect the money to members of the leagues committee on brain injuries. The study was to have been funded out of a $30 million unrestricted gift the NFL gave the NIH in 2012.After the NIH rebuffed the NFLs campaign to remove Robert Stern, an expert in neurodegenerative disease who has criticized the league, the NFL backed out of a signed agreement to pay for the study, the report shows. Taxpayers ended up bearing the cost instead.The NFLs actions violated policies that prohibit private donors from interfering in the NIH peer-review process, the report concludes, and were part of a long-standing pattern of attempts by the league to shape concussion research for its own purposes.In the letter posted Wednesday, the commissioner said that the league can and will do better in this area and acknowledged that some might think the leagues motives are not pure.We know there is skepticism about our work in this area, he wrote. Thats why both the process and the results of our work will be sshared with the medical community and the public at large.ddddddddddddThe program will have four pillars, according to the website: protecting players, advanced technology, medical research and sharing progress.The league will take a hard look at any aspect of the rules that can make the game safer for our players, Goodell wrote. But the letter also says that $60 million of the total funding will go toward exploring technological solutions to player safety. That could include new helmets.Another of our goals is to explore the concept of position-specific helmets, Goodell wrote. After all, we know from tracking game and injury data that linemen experience different impacts than a wide receiver or a defensive back. Yet their protective equipment is the same.Goodell wrote that more than $40 million will be allotted to medical research.?The goal is to pursue scientific research to examine the long-term effects of concussion, the incidence and prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and what can be done to improve long-term player health, Goodell wrote.As professional athletes question whether they would allow their own kids to play football, Goodell wrote that the new program plans to share information with sports families.Our goal will be to equip parents with the best available information to make decisions about their childrens participation in football and other contact sports, he wrote, adding that the league will expand its athletic trainer program.Talk of head injuries has become a major topic in the NFL. The NFL and NFLPA said that they will look into hits that league MVP Cam Newton took this weekend to see if correct protocols were followed.?All of the talk takes leads to the question of whether the risk of playing football is worth the reward. Goodell thinks it is.Long ago, before I was NFL Commissioner, I was a high school football player, he wrote. I played safety for the Bronxville High School Broncos. Those were among the happiest days of my life.The values I gained from that experience -- grit, commitment to team, hard work and how to conduct oneself in both victory and defeat -- are values Ive applied throughout my adult life. ' ' '