40 Acres Sports

With [tag]Vince Young[/tag] injured it wasn’t a very exciting week for ex-Longhorns in the NFL. Quentin Jammer and Selvin Young probably had the best weeks, while the complete absence of Jermichael Finley and Limas Sweed continues. Here’s how all the former Horns did in week two of the NFL season:

[tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] – Less busy after a good week one, only three carries for seven yards. The Chiefs only rushed the ball 19 times all game as a team. Charles also had a 15 yard catch and hurt Larry Johnson’s feelings.

[tag]Phil Dawson[/tag] – Two of two on field goals with a long of 38 yards in a loss.

[tag]Jermichael Finley[/tag] – Still looking for his first career catch. I’m not sure if he’s getting any snaps at all.

[tag]Cedric Griffin[/tag] – Six tackles and one pass breakup against Peyton Manning and the Colts.

[tag]Michael Griffin[/tag] – Picked up his first interception of the year off a tipped pass. Also added six tackles from his safety spot.

[tag]Ahmard Hall[/tag] – Three carries for nine yards.

[tag]Casey Hampton[/tag] – One tackle.

[tag]Michael Huff[/tag] – Four tackles against KC and two passes defended.

[tag]Quentin Jammer[/tag] – Posted 11 tackles and had a forced fumble in the Chargers’ controversial loss to the Broncos.

[tag]Derrick Johnson[/tag] – Eight tackles, seven of them solo.

[tag]Cullen Loeffler[/tag] – Inspired me to teach my kids to deep snap.

[tag]Cory Redding[/tag] – Three solo tackles against the Packers.

[tag]Shaun Rogers[/tag] – First sack of the 2008 season and added six tackles.

[tag]Aaron Ross[/tag] – Four tackles.

[tag]Bo Scaife[/tag] – Without Vince Young, just one catch for six yards.

[tag]Limas Sweed[/tag] – Still no catches in his NFL career. Like Finley, looking at his game logs it appears he’s not even playing.

[tag]David Thomas[/tag] – Picked up his first catch of the year against the Jets, a 14-yarder from Matt Cassel.

[tag]Nathan Vasher[/tag] – Returned punts for the first time in a long while. Had three returns for a total of 21 yards. Added two tackles.

[tag]Ricky Williams[/tag] – After an exciting preseason another ho hum game for Ricky. He had 11 rushes for 28 yards in the Dolphins’ blowout loss to Arizona.

[tag]Roy Williams[/tag] – Just about the same performance as week one: three catches for 48 yards. Looks like Calvin Johnson has become the clear number one target in Detroit, maybe Roy can head down to Tennessee next year as a free agent.

[tag]Selvin Young[/tag] – Was the Broncos’ leading rusher with eight carries for 78 yards, including a big 49-yarder. Also added one catch for eight yards.

Shaun Rogers looks good in Browns camp. It’s all about motivation with him and he’s talking like he’s got it.

After acquriing him via trade last Saturday, the Cleveland Browns moved quickly to lock up former Longhorn [tag]Shaun Rogers[/tag] to a long-term contract. The Pro Bowl defensive tackle signed a six-year, $42 million deal today with the team. $20 million of the new contract is guaranteed money.

Despite playing at a high level, he hasn’t always played up to his elite skill level during his career. His motivation has been questioned due to his inconsistency and problems with his weight. The article mentions he’s listed at 340 pounds, but rumor a couple of weeks back was that he was closer to four bills than he was to 340. He’ll be playing in the 3-4 now so the weight won’t be as big of an issue, but he still needs to be in good enough shape to be in there for a majority of the snaps. Hopefully he can find motivation in this new opportunity and fresh start he’s getting in Cleveland, because he has the talent to dominate on every play.

Congrats to Shaun on the big money deal.

And just because it’s awesome, here’s his fleet-footed run and stiff arm (of Selvin Young) on a 66-yard interception return for a touchdown last season:

In an effort to measure which college programs have been the most successful over the last five seasons, the Wall Street Journal has come up with The Dow Jones College-Football Success Index. I’m not sure why, but they have chosen to use a formula that calculates the success of college football teams using only NFL information. They use the number of players starting/contributing on NFL teams as one factor, which also includes how many games their NFL teams win. The other factor is a team’s “draft success” which attempts to determine whether a team’s players have lived up to their draft promise.

The Longhorns land at number sixteen, which isn’t too low except for the fact that teams like North Carolina and Texas A&M land ahead of the Horns. That’s a pretty tell-tale sign that your ranking logic is horribly skewed. They list only [tag]Derrick Dockery[/tag], [tag]Casey Hampton[/tag], and [tag]Derrick Johnson[/tag] as standout players. I guess Pro Bowlers [tag]Nathan Vasher[/tag] and [tag]Shaun Rogers[/tag], who might be the best defensive tackle in the league, don’t count as standouts.

Here’s their comment on Texas:

National champs sent only three players to the NFL this year from the nation’s top offense. One problem: Longhorns’ shotgun formation isn’t popular in the NFL.

Not a very good argument there. I’m guessing a better reason we only had three offensive player’s drafted is that the team has seven returning starters this year on that side of the football. It’s kind of hard to be drafted when you’re still in college. [tag]Vince Young[/tag] went third overall, tight end [tag]David Thomas[/tag] went in the third round to the Patriots, and tackle [tag]Jonathan Scott[/tag] was the Lions’ fifth round selection. Guard [tag]Will Allen[/tag] signed a free agent deal with the Saints and backups [tag]Matt Nordgren[/tag] and [tag]Ahmard Hall[/tag] also found teams despite not being starters at Texas. Actually seems like a pretty good success rate to me.

So basically they took a faulty premise and backed it up with terrible analysis. There’s a lot of ways to determine a successful college football program, but how many backups a school has in the NFL is probably one of the last things you should consider.

Via: The Wiz

Not much college football on this weekend (Hawai’i Bowl was a great game Friday night) but several Longhorns in the NFL had pretty good games Saturday.

• [tag]Chris Simms[/tag] led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a game-tying touchdown with less than a minute to go in regulation and two easy field goal opportunities in overtime. He finished the day with 285 yards passing and 2 touchdowns and it looks like the Bucs will make the playoffs.
• In his first 20+ carry game since coming back off retirement/suspension [tag]Ricky Williams[/tag] ran all over the Tennessee Titans for 172 yards and a TD. Quietly, Ricky has played really well this season in Miami and has looked like the Ricky of old when given the chance.
• Roy Williams and Shaun Rogers led the Detroit Lions to a win over the Saints in San Antonio. Williams had four big catches for 111 yards and the Pro Bowler Rogers rumbled 21 yards for his first career touchdown after recovering a first quarter fumble.

Certainly doesn’t hurt recruiting to have these guys and others playing well in the pros every weekend. Future NFL success is one of the big draws for programs like Miami and if you can add that factor the UT’s already attractive atmosphere, coaching staff, location, facilities, and tradition I think you’ll see the program get even stronger over the next few years.