40 Acres Sports

WTH?! (What the Heck?) moments are attempts to find the memorable and the off-beat perspective on Longhorns sports. Here are some interesting moments from the Texas’ game against the Cowboys.

Texas was a half step away from a game changing defensive TD by Blake Gideon.

Pre-Game (15:00) WTH Fans?! The Longhorns are 4-1 and need some support after the Oklahoma beat down, and the UT fans struggle to get to the game. Announced attendance was 100,101 but there were clearly tons of empty seats.

1st Quarter (9:49) WTH Ash?! We now know who the QB is for the moment. David Ash played the entire game. The freshmen mistakes keep coming with an interception driving into OSU territory. The best bet for the Horns is one signal caller. Hope the turnover bug will get flushed out of Ash soon.

2nd Quarter (14:46) WTH Brown?! Great day by Malcolm Brown with the first of his two touchdowns to start the second quarter. Brown finished with his first century day of his career (135 yards) with many more to come.

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We have completed a quarter of the season and it’s time to start looking at conference match ups for the Horns. But before we get back to football, I want to look back at Realignment Armageddon 2.0. We can surmise that the Big 12 is back together and everything is back to normal. (Who believes that?) I do think we need to take a look at what was lost. Here is what I believe the PAC 16 would have looked like if Larry Scott and the rest of the universities on the left coast would have opened the door to the 4 schools in the East.

The pod system would have played out by having the schools in the East only having to travel to the western time zone twice a year for football. The teams would play a home and away series for two years and switch to the other remaining teams in that pod. The travel schedule for most of the other university sports would be quite different due to the size of this conference, but we all know that football pays the bills. The media markets that this league would boast would cover 12 of the major 28 markets including the biggies such as LA, SF, Houston, & DFW.

Here is a look at the possible football schedule using the pod system for the Longhorns for the 2012 and 2014 season. The odd years would result in the teams switching destinations to accommodate the home and away series. The OU game would still be played at the Cotton Bowl every year. The remaining 3 non-conference games of the season would be a host of cupcake teams to offset a brutal but highly entertaining regular season (goodbye A&M)!

2012 – Pac 16 conference games

@ Oregon
Washington St
@ Standford
UCLA
@ Colorado
Arizona
@ Texas Tech
OU
@ OK State

2014 – Pac 16 conference games

Oregon St.
@ Washington
USC
@ California
Utah
@ Arizona St.
@ Texas Tech
OU
@ OK State

The Pac 16 games would provide better match ups and great destinations over the Big 12. The conference titles games would be the former Pac 8 schools (NW/West) against the Mountain/East division schools in locales such as Pasadena, Tempe or maybe even at Cowboy Stadium. Texas wants to play in large television markets for exposure and to play in mostly southern climates to recruit elite high school talent. The cons to this new frontier is that it would be much more difficult to reach a BCS bowl game or even the National Title game under the PAC 16 scenario. It looks like the Big 12 will allow the Longhorn Network to exist as long as the Tier 1 and Tier 2 television rights are shared among all schools in the league. There are probably some hurt feelings and back room deals that still need to be ironed out and another team needs to be added for this Big 12 conference to work. I just thought you might want to see what was lost last week when the Pac 12 was said that their full right now. I did enjoy DeLoss Dodds assessment of Texas during this entire upheaval. “We are who we are.”

Thanks for following my WTH articles throughout the season. I appreciate the opportunity to rant about the greatest University sports program in the country. You can continue to follow comments on all of UT sports on twitter @40AcresSports or follow me @Horns1991. HOOK EM!!

WTH?! (What the Heck?) moments are attempts to find the memorable and the off-beat perspective on Longhorns sports. Here are some interesting moments from the Texas’ game against the Oklahoma State.

Curtis Brown and Earl Thomas both returned interceptions for TDs Saturday night. (Image: Statesman)

Pregame WTH Poke Fans?! Wow, the biggest crowd in football history. You packed it in on Halloween night. You recorded 58,516 fans?! You did renovate the stadium with Boone Pickens money, didn’t you?

1st Qt. (5:56) WTH Burks?! Referee Greg Burks and his staff got a few calls wrong at the beginning of the game. The calls did benefit the Longhorns, but the personal foul call on OSU Lucien Antoine for hitting UT going across the middle was a good hard play. I wish the NCAA would get rid of the helmet to helmet hit when it does not involve the quarterback. The officials also missed it (1:19 – 2nd Qt.) when UT was stripped of the ball when they assumed his momentum was stopped but never blew the whistle. Glad that the Horns blasted the Pokes on Halloween like a blue armadillo to make sure that these calls were not an issue.

1st Quarter (3:37) WTH PVC Man?! Oklahoma State degrades one of their own by having him hold a large PVC pipe flash card stand. A player, #23, for the Pokes holds an elaborate flip card that shows a heart, a number and an image on it for the OSU offensive package. The Poke player is auditioning for holding the leader board for the next round at the Masters.

1st Quarter (1:44) WTH Hubert?! Come on Hubert Anyiam from Oklahoma State. You had a gift touchdown pass that was perfectly placed to you by Zac Robinson on 4th down. (14:25 – 2nd Qt.) Then you got the ball ripped out by UT which led to the first touchdown for the Horns. Oh yeah, great job ABC for cutting away and missing most of the play.

2nd Qt. & 3rd Qt. WTH Goonies?! The Longhorn defense played an incredible game especially the secondary which returned two interceptions for the touchdowns ( – 2nd Qt. & – 3rd Qt.). But you need to slow down with all the nicknames. comes up with the defensive nickname the Goonies because they like to goon it up with the opposing offense (Like that one). This week comes up with the name “Texas Swagger” to get the team motivated to close the deal against the Cowboys. Coach got into the act early in the year with giving out T-shirts with the logo .0128 which is the margin that they lost to OU for the Big XII championship. I guess I do not care what ploy is implemented as long as the Horns win.

3rd Quarter (10:27) WTH Case?! is standing next to the lovely Rachel Glandorf (Colt’s girlfriend) and proceeds to spit on the floor right next to her. I guess the upcoming UT commit at quarterback is affecting his better judgment.

Next up for the Longhorn’s is a trip home to face Central Florida at DKR Memorial at 11am November 7th.

Watch highlights of Texas taking care of business against #14 below:

Follow along live with 40 Acres Sports on Twitter and below for our thoughts and analysis during tonight’s Texas game versus on ABC. We’ll be live right around kickoff so join us to discuss the game right around 7:00pm tonight.

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!

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Can Colt McCoy play mistake-free football for the first time this season? (Image: Austin Chronicle)

Texas and . On Halloween. Night.

Expect craziness.

The Horns and Cowboys always play exciting, heart attack inducing games but there should be no excuse for overlooking a very good Oklahoma State team this year. If the Longhorns show up and play well, the path to a possible national title shot only gets clearer from here.

Spooky things happen on All Hallows’ Eve, read on to discover to find out if the editors of 40 Acres Sports think the Horns will receive King Size Butterfingers or if Greg Davis will end up with his house covered in toilet paper…

Brian - Finally Texas comes out strong against Oklahoma State, but the Cowboys are too good for the Horns to run away with this thing and keep things relatively close. and the offense will click again but things won’t be as easy as they were against . The Texas defense will come up with 3 turnovers but give up offensive turnovers and a couple big plays will allow OSU to stay within striking defense until the 4th quarter. Texas 31, Oklahoma State 16

Ross - Well, some one in orange will be happy tonight. Wow, I was not expecting the offense output last week. Colt McCoy and the offense line was solid versus the tigers last week. I expect the same offense tenacity against the cowboys no matter what type of defense that the pokes throw at us. Remember that good guys wear white. Texas 38, Oklahoma State 17

Longhorns have struggled and fallen behind huge seemingly every year against Oklahoma State, this year they’re playing on Halloween so things could be even scarier.

Link: Any Candy For Pokes?

Roddrick Muckelroy and the Texas D will try to shut down Zac Robinson's arm and legs. (Image: InsideTexas)

This week Texas faces possibly their toughest remaining test against on the road. The Cowboys have rebounded from an early season loss and are sitting at 6-1 and ranked number 14. In years past the Longhorns have let the Cowboys get out to leads and had to stage remarkable comebacks, what must the Horns do tonight to keep that from happening again?

1. Try not to fall behind by 28 points.

This is a simple one. Cut it out. I know it’s Oklahoma State, but that doesn’t mean you have to fall behind big early and then stage a giant comeback. Seriously. It’s bad for my health.

2. Don’t be surprised by Zac Robinson’s mobility.

Zac Robinson is easily the best quarterback the Longhorns have faced this season (eight plays from an 80% strength Sam Bradford doesn’t count) and he’s also the most mobile. In a lot of ways the Cowboys’ QB is similar to Texas’ , efficient throwing the football and the ability to beat you with his feet. He might not have the top end speed McCoy does, but he certainly can scramble to make plays throwing and beat you with repeated 5-10 yard runs after avoiding a sack. loves to bring the blitz, especially early in the game, but can’t sell out or Robinson could run wild in the open secondary.

3. Throw it deep to Malcolm Williams.

The move to insert receivers and into the starting lineup last week against worked perfectly. They combined for 9 catches and the moves allowed to have a huge day back in his old spot inside. This week against the Cowboys the Horns should open things up even more and take at least three deep shots to Williams. Making opposing defenses respect a deep threat will make it easy for McCoy to find open guys underneath and for the run game to find big running lanes.

Oklahoma State running back Kendall Hunter will be able to play against Texas this Saturday. He’s only played in two games so far this season and is still not 100%, but head coach Mike Gundy says he could get 8 – 10 touches during the game.

Link: According to sources, Hunter to play Saturday

I am assuming this is probably agent/money related, probably similar to the whole Reggie Bush thing. Except it doesn’t look like Oklahoma State will get the pass that USC did. The path through the Big 12 South may have gotten just a little easier.

Update: This rumor is now confirmed.

Links: Dez Bryant ruled ineligible, OSU’s Dez Bryant rule ineligible