40 Acres Sports

Texas fans get only one chance each spring to see their football team on television, but this year many will have to pony up for the sports package if they want to watch the annual spring game. Unlike previous years where the game was live on FSN Southwest, this Sunday’s game will air tape delayed on ESPN’s college sports network ESPNU.

The scrimmage will begin at 2:30pm and at that time will be televised on ESPN360.com. Then tune in at 8:30pm to catch the game on ESPNU. The FSN telecasts were pretty bare bones and also missed a lot of the plays, hopefully this change means better coverage because it cost me $12.

Schedule of Events

Noon — Fan Fest opens in the Red McCombs Red Zone. Enter through Gates 14 and 16 off 23rd St.
12:15 p.m. — Players walk through the Tom and Cinda Hicks North Gate
1:30 p.m. — Gates to the stadium open
2:30 p.m. — Scrimmage begins
6 p.m. — Sod sale concludes

More details.

Two of my favorite things about Sports Illustrated growing up were the weekly “Sign of the Apocalypse” and “They Said It” bits in ever issue. They were a glimpse at the weird and interesting side of sports that we didn’t get to see much before we had access to the the ubiquitous freak show we call the Internet.

In this week’s issue (with “Up For Grabs” cover) two former Texas defensive linemen were featured, just another sign of the tons of Horns now playing throughout the NFL. Defensive end [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag] had an awkward quote about he’ll fit in NFL defenses, “a versatile guy is a guy who can be very versatile.” Very well put Brian. Meanwhile, in this week’s “Sign of the Apocalypse”:

The Browns’ [tag]Shaun Rogers[/tag] reportedly wants to be traded, in part because new coach Eric Mangini didn’t say hello to at the team’s practice facility in January.

I’m sure more there’s more to the Rogers/Mangini story, judging by his quick and unceremonious exit from New York he definitely appears to be a tough person to like. You don’t have to be friends with your coaches or teammates, but someone small and petty enough to intentionally walk past you without saying high doesn’t exactly earn much respect.

Over the last several days Texas football players [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag], [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag], and [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] have brought in several All-American honors. Orakpo in particular has brought in four such honors including a first team AP All-American award today. Check out the list of honors below:

[tag]Colt McCoy[/tag]

• Second team AP All-American
• First team Football Writers (FWAA) All-American
• First team Walter Camp All-American

[tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag]

• First team AP All-American
• First team Football Writers (FWAA) All-American
• First team Walter Camp All-American
• AFCA Coaches’ All-America

[tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag]

• Third team AP All-American

From last week before the Heisman presentation but I missed it, [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] on the Jim Rome Show:

For the first time in a few weekends there are lots of good games for our viewing pleasure. A few have National Championship implications, and a few are just good rivalry match-ups. Of course the big one is tonight and all Texas fans will be glued to the match-up in Stillwater. Most Texas fans rooted for OU last week and they one, I think they owe us a favor now and need to lose against Okie State.

Another solid 2-1 last weekend and I am planning on going undefeated today. Let’s see what’s going on:

#22 Georgia Tech at #11 Georgia (-7.5) – 12:00 PM EST on CBS. Georgia doesn’t have a shot at going to the National Championship, but they probably don’t care much about that this Saturday as all they want to do is kill Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech, and the whole ACC for that matter, has been very up and down this season. Since Georgia Tech played so well last weekend, they are due to get blown out this weekend. Take Georgia and the easy win.

Auburn at #1 Alabama (-14.5) – 3:30 PM EST on CBS. Even Auburn had ANY semblance of a real quarterback, I would probably take them in this game. Even though this is a heated rivalry game, since Alabama already has the SEC West wrapped up, I feel they may be looking ahead to Florida. But that won’t really matter much since they will jump out early and dominate this game from the beginning. Take Alabama, but buy the half point just in case.

#4 Florida at #20 Florida State (+16.5) – 3:30 PM EST on ABC. The same thing applies in this game. Florida already has the SEC East wrapped up and all anyone can talk about it their matchup against Alabama. Florida State actually has the athletes that can keep up with Florida and won’t be too surprised by their speed. Now that won’t help them win, but I do think it will help them cover. I am thinking Florida State covers this one.

Baylor at #7 Texas Tech (-23) – 3:30 PM EST. The big question in this one is whether or not Texas Tech will have a letdown game after getting drubbed in Norman. Baylor has played pretty well this season and I think this 23 points might be a tad high. Yeah Tech can score some points, but I bet a lot of them think their season is over. Baylor might even win this one. Take the Bears and the points.

#3 Oklahoma at #12 Oklahoma State (+8) – 8:00 PM EST on ABC. Obviously the biggest game of the day for Texas fans. Luckily this weekend we actually get to root against OU. As much as I would like to think Oklahoma State can hang with OU, I just can’t make myself believe it. Oklahoma State does have the extra week to prepare for this one, but if OU plays up to their potential that doesn’t matter. I expect Stoops to have Oklahoma extra ready for this one and they probably plan to make another statement this weekend. Take Oklahoma and give the points, and say goodbye to our National Championship dreams.

Finally. The best source for college sports coverage on the Web Rivals.com has upgraded their video player to allow embedding of video on other websites. They’re only allowing other sites to post non-premium videos so it doesn’t look like there will be a ton of free recruit videos but their features and highlight packages are also good and much of that content available.

Some of the better recent Texas videos are below…

A video breakdown of Colt McCoy’s day versus [tag]Kansas[/tag]:

Rivals Minute’s Ashley Russell discusses [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag]:

Feel free to have your own opinion of what Buck Burnette’s punishment should have been and whether a mistake that destroys a team is worse than other criminal offenses, but at least don’t base it on “facts” that you made up yourself.

Read the story below from SI.com, no link because they don’t deserve it:

Crime and punishment at Texas
Bill Trocchi

Sorry if I’m late on this topic, but let me get this straight.

Texas linebacker [tag]Sergio Kindle[/tag] was arrested for driving while intoxicated in the summer of 2007 and got a three-game suspension.

Texas defensive end [tag]Henry Melton[/tag] was arrested for driving while intoxicated in the summer of 2007 and got a three-game suspension.

Texas defensive tackle [tag]Lamarr Houston[/tag] was arrested for driving while intoxicated in September and got a one-game suspension. Here’s a link on all three arrests.

Texas center Buck Burnette posted a text message he received from a friend that contained a racial slur directed at Barack Obama on his Facebook page and was dismissed from the team.

Huh?

Ah, now I see. Look at the depth chart. Kindle, Melton and Houston all start. Burnette was a backup. Hmmmm.

Clearly, discipline needed to be handed out in all four cases. But the Facebook incident is by far the least punishable. Offensive? Yes. Stupid? Yes. Endangering the lives of others? No.

You can’t suspend a guy for one game after a DWI arrest and dismiss another for a Facebook racial slur. It is an insincere attempt to show you run such a clean and virtuous a program that you boot (backup) players when they post stupid, racially insensitive remarks on a Facebook page.

And then you hope nobody notices you start three drunk drivers on defense.

Let’s review those facts…

• Melton, Kindle, and Houston received lighter punishments because they’re starters. – Actually only Houston was a starter at the time of his arrest. Kindle was a second stringer who mainly saw time on special teams while Melton was buried on the depth chart after switching to defense from running back.
• “The Facebook incident is by far the least punishable.” – Actually, threatening the life of the President is a federal offense, but it doesn’t sound like he knew what Burnette actually said. Just today a Spring man was sentenced to 30 months in jail for threatening George W. Bush and another man faces up to 35 years in jail for threats he made on Internet message boards. Sounds pretty serious to me. The first DWI offense in Texas is punishable with up to 180 days in jail.
• Backups don’t matter so it’s okay to punish them. – With the injury this week to starting center [tag]Chris Hall[/tag] the importance of backups is even more clear. Texas will be starting a true freshman at center against [tag]Kansas[/tag] instead of Burnette.

I can see that he’s easily confused.

I’m not sure what fact checking Sports Illustrated does of their FanNation blog, but this article should have never gone up. Despite repeated corrections to the article being posted by commenters the original story still hasn’t been updated or corrected.

For the third time in four weeks the number one Texas Longhorns will be playing a game with the ESPN College Gameday crew on hand. Not too many people voluntarily go to Lubbock but Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso will head to West Texas to see the Horns clash with number seven [tag]Texas Tech[/tag].

Gameday airs from the campus of the biggest match-up of the week. Tune in at 10 a.m. Saturday to see Red Raiders fans in action. The last time the Gameday crew took in a Texas/Texas Tech game the Horns rolled the Red Raider 52 – 17 back in 2005 on the way to a national championship. Let’s hope we’re headed to similar outcomes both for this Saturday and the season.

Some really good match-ups this weekend, especially in the Big 12. You get to start off the day with Texas Tech playing on the road in Kansas, and then get to watch the #1 Texas Longhorns play Oklahoma State in the afternoon. Then you get to finish on the day with Penn State playing at Ohio State in the late game on ABC. Overall not a bad Saturday, not bad at all.

Now I did only go 2-2 last week, but I am still around 70% for the season. This weekend should be good.

#8 Texas Tech vs. #23 Kansas (PK) – 12:00 PM EST on ESPN. Texas Tech is 7-0 for the first time since 1976, but their undefeated is in serious jeopardy this weekend playing at Kansas. Kansas has proven they can score and Texas Tech’s defense has been looking pretty week in the last 2 weeks. The over/under in this one is around 68, which is not nearly enough for these two teams. Look for this one to be in the 80s as Kansas pulls out the victory in the end.

#6 Oklahoma State vs. #1 Texas (-12.5) – 3:30 PM EST on ABC. Texas doesn’t get a break as they face another top ranked team for the 3rd straight week. I think Texas has proven they can handle the pressure of being #1 in the nation by demolishing Mizzou last weekend. Even though Texas has won 10 straight in this match-up, Oklahoma State has been a trouble spot for Texas in recent years, needing many a miracle 2nd half comeback to pull out the victory. I think this year Texas will jump out early at home and continue to apply pressure throughout the game. Give the points in this one.

#7 Georgia vs. #13 LSU (-1.5) – 3:30 PM EST on CBS. To me this one seems pretty simple. LSU has nothing at the quarterback position, and that will kill you with the SEC defenses. LSU’s defense struggled mightily against Florida’s speed, and it will probably be more of the same against Georgia. I really hate to go against LSU, but my gut tells me they don’t have a shot in this one.

#3 Penn State vs. #9 Ohio State (+2) – 8:00 PM EST on ABC. This one might be the toughest on the board. You can make pretty good arguments both ways. Ohio State has been playing much better since getting blown out by USC, but Penn State has just been dominating every opponent. To me this one just comes down to offense. Ohio State struggles to score points, and Penn State averages 45 points per game. Even though this one is at OSU, take Penn State minus the points.

Last week, Texas quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] graced the cover of Sports Illustrated and then avoided the jinx when he went out and walloped the Missouri Tigers. The NBA preview edition is out and on the one of the regional covers of the magazine is former Longhorn basketball star [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag].

No big article on Durant or the OKC Thunder but he is of course the main feature on the team preview. Another form Horn [tag]LaMarcus Aldridge[/tag] is also the focus of the Blazers’ preview, but of course the overrated Greg Oden gets an eight-page story. Whoever the real star is, the experts expect another big improvement this season for Portland.

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