40 Acres Sports

ScoutingOhio.com has posted video of Jordan Hicks’ commitment announcement from earlier today. You can see Jordan’s coach heaping praise on the young man and then watch as he pulls a Texas Longhorn cap from under the table. He then answers questions from reporters, including an idiotic one asking him about turning his back on Ohio State. Watch…

Congratulations to what appears to be a level-headed young man on choosing the good guys. Welcome to the 40 Acres.

For the second time today, a 5-star defender has chosen the Texas Longhorns. Stud Ohio linebacker Jordan Hicks has announced he’s headed to Texas. He chose the Horns over Ohio State and Florida.

Add another one to the incredible 2010 Texas commit list.

Follow along live with 40 Acres Sports on Twitter and below for beat by beat coverage of the two big recruits making their commitments today. We’ll have breaking news and our thoughts during today’s [tag]Jackson Jeffcoat[/tag] and [tag]Jordan Hicks[/tag] press conferences. Things start early with Jeffcoat’s announcement from Plano West High School at 10am. We’ll be live here and on Twitter so join us to discuss the next Longhorn greats.

Feel free to leave comments and questions using the live tool, but not all comments will be published. Read below for more notes on comments and how the live blog will work. Hook ’em!

(Live threads from Jeffcoat & Hicks commits after the jump.)

Jordan Hicks is a talented, polished linebacker from Ohio. (Image: WLWT.com)

Top linebacker recruit [tag]Jordan Hicks[/tag] out of Ohio will finally make his college decision known on Friday morning. Hicks, a top 5-star stud out of Lakota West High School in Ohio, will announce his choice of college football programs at a press conference at his high school at 11:30am CST Friday.

Hicks is down to Texas, Florida, and Ohio State. He grew up a Longhorn fan and was long thought to be a Texas lean, but then recent rumors had him headed to Florida before the Urban Meyer waffling. Now, as things have drawn out longer than expected, people think the nearby Buckeyes may have pulled back in front. Hicks has handled the entire process very maturely and no one knows where he’s headed for sure. It may just be bias, but my money is on the good guys.

Can other candidates such as Tim Tebow, Mark Ingram, Toby Gerhart, and Ndamukong Suh catch Texas QB [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] in the Heisman race? Nah….

(via The Sporting Blog)

Thanksgiving night, the Heisman race looked like it might be over with after Texas quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] put up an incredible show passing and running to a primetime win over Texas A&M. But there were still games to play on a long, wonderful rivalry weekend of college football. Friday and Saturday’s games saw one candidate fall out of the race (Alabama’s Mark Ingram) and two others (Stanford’s Toby Gerhart and Florida’s Tim Tebow) put up buzzworthy performances.

So what does it all mean? Well there’s still one weekend of football remaining, but the Heisman Pundit has almost called the race for the good guy:

The weekend’s games are done and here’s how I think the Heisman race looks right now:

1. With one week to go, Colt McCoy is the current front runner and likely winner. Pending a status report on the health of Mark Ingram, I am close to calling the race in his favor.

2. With his monster game against Notre Dame, Stanford’s Toby Gerhart has assured himself of a trip to New York and he has a shot to finish a strong second in the race.

3. Ingram is fading fast, but he could rebound with a heroic performance against the Gators. As it stands, he had his least-productive game of the season at the worst possible time: When Heisman ballots had gone out and many voters were seeing him up close for the first time.

4. With his emotionally-driven performance against Florida State, Tim Tebow might’ve solidified his place at the Heisman ceremony. He won’t win, but he’ll get one last go-around in the Big Apple.
He won’t win, but he’ll get one last go-around in the Big Apple.

If Colt goes out and puts up his typical performance and the Horns win the Big 12 title, the trophy is likely his. Tim Tebow would have to put up incredible numbers (300+ yards, 3 TDs) in an exciting SEC Championship game to win his second Heisman. Colt is likely to get a lot of first places votes across the country, but more importantly he’ll probably snag no worst than second place on most ballots and those votes should carry him over the other competitors.

During an interview this week, Texas head coach [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] clearly states that there should not be a distinction between BCS and non-BCS schools and that all schools should be treated equally. Somehow, ESPN spend the next 36 hours claiming Mack had said non-BCS schools didn’t belong in the national title game. Say what? Watch for yourself below:

Check out this pretty incriminating video of Florida’s linebacker Brandon Spikes sticking his hands into the face mask of a Georgia player. It is of course impossible to discern intent from a video, but to me it is pretty clear that Spikes is trying to gouge the Georgia player’s eyes. Watch and judge for yourself:

(via Barking Carnival)

The BCS standings for the week have been released and the Texas Longhorns are still sitting at number 3. The team’s impressive win over Missouri did earn the Horns a few first place votes and overall points in the human polls, and that gain allowed the Horns to gain ground on both [tag]Florida[/tag] and [tag]Alabama[/tag] in the BCS standings.

Iowa and TCU made big jumps in the rankings but Texas should still control their own destiny. As we see every Saturday, anything can happen so just worry about what you can control between the lines. Keep winning and the rest should take care of itself.

SI.com is predicting the second half of the 2009 season and they don’t foresee good things for the Texas Longhorns. Only one out of six of their experts thinks the Horns will end up in the BCS title game and even worse that would mean some awful “no win” matchups in the Fiesta Bowl. Texas better keep winning, because a bowl game against [tag]Boise State[/tag], [tag]Cincinnati[/tag], or [tag]TCU[/tag] does not sound fun.

Link: SI.com’s 2009 midseason Crystal Ball