40 Acres Sports

Defensive tackle Derek Johnson is a big dude. Can he play as good as he looks? (Image: MBTF)

After nearly two whole months without Texas football, Friday was finally the first day of Spring practice. No tidbits yet (practices are closed to the public) but the official site does have a short video to watch and a nice photo gallery as well.

Update: Download named rosters for NCAA Football 10. (7/23/2009)

NCAA Football 09 is less than a month away, the demo is up on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network, and player ratings are starting to make their way on to the Internet. EA Sports released the team top 25 and player ratings for all those teams.

I went through the list and put the players’ real names in where possible. I had trouble with a lot of the true freshmen in the game so if you know who any of the blank names are or if I made any mistakes please let me know in the comments. It really looks like EA did a poor job this year on the roster and depth chart. Hopefully it’s a little more accurate when the game is released.

You can download Excel files of the player ratings at the bottom of this post or check out the overall ratings for the Texas team below:

Downloads

• Texas player ratings
• Full top 25 player ratings

The big one got away today (under suspicious circumstances) but the 2008 Texas recruiting class is still a good one. Mack Brown and the Horns signed 20 young athletes to letters of intent, nine of which are already on campus for the spring semester.

The class is headlined by defensive backs Aaron Williams and DJ Monroe, who along with safety Nolan Brewster, should anchor the Texas defensive backfield for the next four or five years. On the offensive side WR/RB DeSean Hales is electric with the football in his hands and wide receiver Dan Buckner is huge and will catch anything thrown in his general direction.

Here’s the full list of signees:

Name	Position	Rating	Hometown
	LB		Dallas
	DB		Denver, CO
	OL		Austin
	WR		Allen
	RB		Giddings
	DB		Leander
	WR		Austin
	RB		Klein
	ATH		Mansfield
	RB		Alief
	DT		Cedar Hill
	LB		Nederland
	DB		Angleton
	RB		Southlake
	OL		Brenham
	DT		Beaumont
	RB		Brenham
	OL		Gilmer
	K		Austin
	DB		Round Rock

Congratulations to the newest Texas Longhorns!

5A Texas Football.com has released their awards for the 2007 season and several future Longhorns have made their list. Just like last year, Leander safety is receiving state accolades and 5A Texas Football.com has named him their Defensive MVP. The kid may not be highly rated recruit but he just makes plays and he’s been one of the best players in the state’s highest classification the last two years.

Here’s the rest of the future Horns who made their list:

For some reason the inaugural Under Armour All-America High School Football Game is going up head to head with the US Army game on ABC. I know there’s a limited window when these kids are out of school, but this game should have been last night when there were other college or NFL games to compete with. Definitely looks lower rent than the other game but there’s still some very good talent in the game including several future Longhorns. The game started at 1 pm but since I’ll have to save any comments till later when I watch the game off the DVR.

Not sure how the teams were determined, there’s Longhorns on both the Silver and Red team. ESPN doesn’t provide jersey numbers, but here’s the guys to watch in this one:

Team SILVER

Name	Position	Commit?	Ranking
	Offensive tackle	Yes
Rodrick Davis	Defensive tackle	No
	Wide receiver	Yes
	Wide receiver	Yes

Team RED

Name	Position	Commit?	Ranking
	Wide receiver	Yes
	Defensive tackle	Yes

An incredible video of future Longhorn of Klein Oak breaking off a ridiculous 71-yard touchdown run against Klein Forest from last night.

Wow.

Hales has been recruited by everyone to be a wide receiver in college but after seeing that maybe he needs a shot at running back. Somehow you have to get the ball in his hands in open spaces and give him a chance to make plays. I’m not sure Texas has had a receiver that could make plays like that in a long, long time.

(via)

Chevrolet’s PrepTicket has some good video up on their profile of future Longhorn wide receiver :

Hales is a running back and receiver for Klein Oak High School and is just flat out fun to watch. Kid is going to bring some much needed elite speed to the offense when he gets on campus. He might be able to really have a big impact on kick returns starting as early as his true freshman year.

(via)

Some impressive video of possible future Longhorn receiver :

DeSean is a running back/wide receiver for Klein Oak High School and the number four overall prospect in the state of Texas. Texas (finally) offered DeSean when he came to Austin for an unofficial visit last weekend. Hales is down to Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech with the Horns and Sooners believed to be out in front. Wherever he ends up, the kid could be extremely dangerous in the kick return game and as a slot receiver. Just a remarkable athlete and you have to find a way to get the ball in his hands.