40 Acres Sports

ESPN.com’s Tim Griffin catches up with James Brown. He’s currently playing for the CenTex Barracudas in the IFL.

Five-star future Texas quarterback received another honor last week when he was named as one of the invitees to the prestigious Elite 11 quarterback camp. The invite-only camp is the top quarterback instructional camp in the country and only the best of the best attend. Previous Elite 11 QB’s include Vince Young, Matt Leinart, and JaMarcus Russell. Our own will be one of the counselors this year along with other top college players.

Here’s the writeup on Gilbert from the ESPN story:

A record-setting Texan with tremendous pocket-passing ability and deceptive athleticism. He emerged as a rising junior when he threw for 2,859 yards and 30 touchdowns and impressed on the Nike Camp and EA SPORTS Elite 11 regional tour. He’s showed not only great skill but also intangibles and toughness last fall, leading his team to a state title despite suffering a shoulder early in the season that required surgery in the off-season. Despite not even turning 17 yet, is a confident, versatile and productive performer who set Texas state records last fall and should only get better as he matures. Son of former NFL quarterback Gale Gilbert. Committed to Texas way back in February over Texas A&M, Nebraska and a host of others.

In his latest blog entry ESPN’s Bruce Feldman shows some love to the Big 12 and Texas quarterback . Feldman is ranking his top quarterback conferences for the 2008 season and puts the Big 12 conference at the top.

Feldman loves the conference’s depth at the position and believes four QB’s have a legitimate shot to win the Heisman Trophy, including McCoy. It is surprising (and sad) to see the Pac-10 and ACC so far down in the rankings. The Pac-10 will bounce back quickly (especially if USC would share some of their QB talent) but I’m not sure what it will take for the ACC to rebound.

Check out his conference quarterback rankings below:

1. Big 12: This is a clear top choice thanks to a lot of heady leaders who make smart decisions and have proven to be very accurate with the ball. The league has four guys with legit Heisman hopes in Chase Daniel, Sam Bradford, Graham Harrell and Colt McCoy. A fifth, Todd Reesing of Kansas, is as tough and as sharp as they come, although I expect KU to backslide some this year. Behind those five is plenty more talent that probably could merit all-conference consideration in any other league save for the SEC. In fact, 10 of the league’s top 11 passers return. Depth-wise, this is better than it’s ever been for the Big 12.
2. Big Ten
3. SEC
4. Big East
5. MAC
6. Pac-10
7. WAC
8. ACC
9. MWC
10. C-USA
11. Sun Belt

Be ready for play action, protect the QB, and stay warm.