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Freshman defensive tackle Jarvis Humphrey has been forced to leave school due to a kidney condition. There is no word on the seriousness of his condition or if there is any chance Jarvis will return to UT. The young man’s health is obviously the primary concern.

From the official UT site:

Longhorn redshirt freshman defensive tackle Jarvis Humphrey has withdrawn from classes at The University of Texas due to the continuation of a medical condition. Doctors identified a concern with his kidney during a pre-participating physical last year which sidelined him for much of his time at Texas, including all of 2009 spring drills.

“Jarvis is a great young man,” said head coach Mack Brown. “His health is our number one priority and has been since his condition was identified when he arrived at Texas. We will continue to help him any way we can.”

We’ll keep Jarvis in our thoughts and hope for a speedy recovery for him.

Source

Former second string quarterback John Chiles made the switch to wide receiver today.

Football season never really ends in the state of Texas, but the start of spring drills is one of the biggest days for every die hard fan. The team hits the field for their first practice tomorrow and several big pieces of news came out today. Injuries and a huge position switch have Longhorn fans buzzing.

The biggest and most surprising news is that second string quarterback John Chiles went to the Texas coaches today and requested he be moved to wide receiver. This is a move many Internet coaches fans have been calling for for over a year, but not one expected to happen before he gave it at least one more shot during spring practices. Despite struggles, the Texas coaching staff felt Chiles was good enough to be the team’s clear number two quarterback but if he was going to have an NFL future it is clearly as a wide receiver. His position change leaves the Longhorns with only two scholarship players at QB and likely means incoming freshman Garrett Gilbert will not be redshirting for the 2009 season.

It was also announced that 9 players would be missing spring practices due to injury. Sadly, safety ishie Oduegwu has been forced to give up football after several serious injuries and surgeries. He made several starts as a sophomore and missed all of last season with a shoulder injury. Oduegwu, a former academic All-Big 12 selection, is on set to graduate on schedule with a Youth & Community Studies major.

Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Jarvis Humphrey will also miss practices with what appears to be a serious kidney ailment. Team trainers said “that Humphrey’s condition would be watched.” Defensive tackle is one of the team’s greatest depth concerns, but with this news a young man’s health definitely takes primary concern.

The other players that will miss spring drills are P Trevor Gerland, TE Blaine Irby, DE Dominique Jones, DE Eddie Jones, WR Jordan Shipley, DB Kenny Vaccaro, and Alex Zumberge.

Related Links

• MBTF - Chiles to move to wide receiver
• 9 Longhorns to miss spring drills

After getting bad news on Christmas, Texas fans awoke to more bad news on the first day of 2009. Three redshirting freshmen did not make the trip to Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl due to various reasons. The three players are defensive tackle Jarvis Humphrey, linebacker Dravannti Johnson and wide receiver DJ Monroe, all of which are important four-star 2008 recruits. The Statesman reports that each of the players was left behind for a different reason and that none were “serious”.

Unsubstantiated (and hopefully untrue) rumors on Orangebloods are that Monroe is a grade casualty and “don’t expect him back.” That of course would be counter to what the Statesman is reporting that none of the three issues were serious and if true would cost the Horns a possible future dynamic playmaker. Losing Humphrey for the spring or longer would also be a huge blow at one of the team’s least deep positions.

While they obviously would not be playing in next Monday’s game against Ohio State, bowl practices are a time when young players gain a great deal experience during the extra practice time and these guys are missing reps. Hopefully all three players are still in school and back on the practice field for spring football.

Position Rating: B-
Starter: Lamarr Houston, Roy Miller
Reserves: Ben Alexander, Aaron Lewis, Michael Wilcoxon, ???

Defensive tackle is one of the most exciting positions on the Texas defense going into 2008 but also the spot where depth is the biggest concern. Roy Miller and Lamarr Houston are the starters and might be the best pair of interior defenders in the conference. The complete lack of both proven depth and warm bodies behind them could mean big trouble if either of the top two goes down.

Miller saw significant playing time as the third member of the tackle rotation last season and was one of the defense’s most consistent performers. This year the big run-stopping DT out of Killeen will be leaned on to be more of a playmaker while also holding down blockers to allow the defensive ends to get after the quarterback. Next to Miller will be the former defensive end Houston, who might be the player that has Texas fans the most excited. It’s been a long time since the team has had a pass-rushing presence on the interior, but the noise coming from insiders is that Houston is going to be a force on the interior. Both players have incredible upside and could be early round NFL draft picks soon.

Behind the starters things get a lot murkier as both on and off field issues have left the cupboard pretty bare at the position. Andre Jones, Brian Ellis, and Tyrell Higgins were all going to be relied on this season and now all are out of the program. The first player off the bench might be another former defensive end in Aaron Lewis who will probably continue to play both positions. The biggest key to the position will be the development of Ben Alexander and Michael Wilcoxon. The team desparately needs two guys to step up from that second group to be able to spell the starters or else promising true freshmen Jarvis Humphrey and Kheeston Randall better be ready in a hurry.

Update: In surprising news, Tyrell Higgins is back on the roster as a walk-on.

Related Links

• Quarterbacks preview
• Running backs preview
• Wide Receivers preview
• Tight ends preview
• Offensive line preview
• Defensive ends preview
• Linebackers preview
• Cornerbacks preview
• Safeties preview

Update: Bevo Sports is giving away NCAA Football 09, enter to win!

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
Emmanuel Acho	LB		Dallas
Nolan Brewster	DB		Denver, CO
Mark Buchanan	OL		Austin
Dan Buckner	WR		Allen
Brock Fitzhenry	RB		Giddings
Blake Gideon	DB		Leander
DJ Grant	WR		Austin
DeSean Hales	RB		Klein
Antoine Hicks	ATH		Mansfield
Jeremy Hills	RB		Alief
Jarvis Humphrey	DT		Cedar Hill
Dravannti Johnson	LB		Nederland
DJ Monroe	DB		Angleton
Tre Newton	RB		Southlake
Luke Poehlmann	OL		Brenham
Kheeston Randall	DT		Beaumont
Ryan Roberson	RB		Brenham
David Snow	OL		Gilmer
Justin Tucker	K		Austin
Aaron Williams	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 Blake Gideon 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
Mark Buchanan	Offensive tackle	Yes
Rodrick Davis	Defensive tackle	No
DJ Grant	Wide receiver	Yes
Antoine Hicks	Wide receiver	Yes

Team RED

Name	Position	Commit?	Ranking
DeSean Hales	Wide receiver	Yes
Jarvis Humphrey	Defensive tackle	Yes