40 Acres Sports

ESPN.com is reporting that [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] has decided to sit out both [tag]Tarell Brown[/tag] and [tag]Tyrell Gatewood[/tag] for Saturday’s matchup against Ohio State. As devastating as this news is, it is probably the right thing for Mack Brown to do. With all the looking-the-other-way that goes on in college football these days, I applaud Mack for making the tough decision. Even though legally Brown may have been able to play, there is just too much uncertainty around the whole situation.

“As a head coach, No. 1 you have to look at the legal system and cooperate with the authorities completely,” Brown said. “No. 2, you must go through the university because that’s who we work for. No. 3, you are concerned about distractions for your football team. We want to move forward because it’s No. 1 playing No. 2 and it’s such an exciting game for all of us.

“No. 4, you care about the three young men involved and their families. We will try to help the families individually and move forward with our team for the ballgame on Saturday.”

Mack did not say whether or not the suspensions would last past Saturday’s game, but if they are going to miss one game we can probably stand for them to miss a few more.

Hopefully now we can all put this situation behind us and start focusing on the game.

Source

A loss of over 18 plays per game? Wow!

If the stakes weren’t high enough already, the Ohio State at Texas matchup this Saturday is officially a #1 versus #2 battle. The Texas Longhorns were already #2 in the USA Today Coaches poll, but now they are also #2 in the AP poll as Notre Dame slides down to #4.

This will mark the first time in 10 years that the #1 and #2 teams in the AP poll have met during the regular season. That year #2 Florida State edged out #1 Florida 24-21.

The Longhorns are 4-0 in #1 versus #2 battles, the most recent one taking place when Texas beat USC in the Rose Bowl to win the BCS National Championship. The Ohio State Buckeyes are 2-0 in these games, their latest coming when they beat Miami in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl.

This really comes as a shock to me though. With all the love Notre Dame gets from the media who would have thought they would dare move Notre Dame down in the polls after a victory. I didn’t think they were that level-headed.

So get ready. Saturday is only 4 days away!

Our Thoughts

Matt – Well I ended up shuffling around my Top 25 quite a bit this week after finally getting to see the teams play. I only had one team drop out, Alabama, mainly because I felt South Carolina had a better showing than them. Obviously I was most impressed with Tennessee, as I jump them from #24 into my top 10. As a result of their drubbing of Cal, I am now moving Cal to the #25 spot and may drop them out completely if they don’t step up their game. Texas, Ohio State, and USC held true to form and dominated their respective opponents. As good as Ohio State looked early, they might be the most suspect out of the top 3 mainly because of their poor defense.

I also dropped Notre Dame down quite a few spots with their sub-par performance against Georgia Tech. And if it weren’t for a questionable personal foul call (Reggie Ball wouldn’t have gotten that call) and a 3rd down CATCH by Calvin Johnson that was overturned that in the game, Notre Dame might sitting down out the bottom of the poll with Cal right now.

Texas gets their toughest test of the season this week against Ohio State and with all of the controversy right now with Tarell Brown who knows what is going to happen. I definitely feel nervous going into this game, but I feel a lot better after seeing what NIU’s Garrett Wolfe did to their defense.

Other Big XII teams I have in the top 25 include Nebraska at 17, Oklahoma at 21, and Texas Tech at 22.

Related Links

• Last week’s rankings
• AP Top 25
• USA Today Coaches Top 25

Bruce Ciskie is hosting this weeks Blogpoll Roundtable. The focus is all about how teams performed against your expectations. Here is how I saw everything break down:

1. What team best met your overall expectations of them in their opener?

I am going to go with Ohio State here. They showed me everything I expected out of their team. They are loaded with offensive weapons and can put points up in a hurry. Troy Smith to Ted Ginn, Jr. looks like a deadly combination. And their new running back Chris Wells may help them to forget about Maurice Clarett.

But they also showed some weakness on defense, which is what I would expect when you lose 9 starters on defense. NIU’s Garrett Wolfe went off for 171 yards rushing on 26 carries and 114 yards receiving on 5 receptions. This makes me feel a little bit better about Texas being able to move the ball against their defense.

2. What team jumped off the map and surprised you the most? (Bonus points to anyone who can make an argument for someone besides Tennessee.)

Well since I cannot pick Tennessee I am going to go with Oregon. I mean as ugly are their uniforms are, how could anyone expect them to win by 38 over Pac-10 rival Stanford? Seriously though, this was one of the more shocking scores that I saw all day. And anytime you see a Pac-10 defense only allow 10 points, that has to be the surprise of the day.

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Not sports related but sad nonetheless. He was stung by a stingray in the chest.

Apparently attending the Ramonce Taylor School of Idiocy, initial reports coming out of Austin are saying [tag]Tarell Brown[/tag], starting cornerback for the Texas Longhorns, has been arrested along with former Longhorn [tag]Aaron Harris[/tag] on charges of possession of marijuana and unlawfully carrying a gun. Could the timing be anyway worse for the Longhorns? Probably not.

Brown and former teammate Aaron Harris, a linebacker on last year’s national championship team, were booked into Travis County Central Booking Facility at 4:55 a.m. Monday.

Brown was charged with a Class A misdemeanor of unlawfully carrying a weapon. He and Harris were both charged with Class B misdemeanors of possession of 2 ounces or less of marijuana.

Longhorn football coach Mack Brown has been informed of the situation but has not yet spoken to Brown, a team official said.

This is about the worst thing that could happen to the Longhorns right now. Not only is Tarell expected to cover Ohio State’s deep threat Ted Ginn, Jr., but now the Longhorns have to deal with all of the distractions that are sure to come about from this. It is just a matter of time before the national media pick up on this story and ESPN will be blasting this all over their air waves. Hopefully the coaching staff can keep the players under control this week and maybe even move everybody into a controlled hotel environment.

Update: More details coming out show that three players are involved. Aaron Harris, Tarell Brown, and [tag]Tyrell Gatewood[/tag]. Aaron Harris was driving when they were pulled over and Tarell and Tyrell were asleep in the back. Hopefully Harris can take the fall for this and Tarell can play this weekend.

Update #2: The gun is reported to belong to Tyrell Gatewood. The story is that the gun was used earlier in the day at a shooting range. Then later while driving around the gun came out from under the front seat and Tarell grabbed it, put it in his lap and fell asleep. The cops came up to the car when Aaron Harris was pulled over and saw the gun in Tarell’s lap. According to Tarell’s lawyer, Tarell will be able to play in this weekend’s game against OSU. Thank goodness.

Update #3: It looks like Mack Brown is sitting out both Tarell Brown and Tyrell Gatewood for Saturday’s game against Ohio State.

Update #4: Now Brown and Gatewood’s attorney Jamie Balagio is saying that the two players were unnecessarily TASERED during their arrest. Man, this situation is getting weirder and weirder.

Update #5: The drug charges on both Tarell Brown and Tyrell Gatewood have been dropped. The gun charges still remain on Brown.

Read more to check out the arrest affidavit from Travis County.

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I know it is only Monday, but I thought everyone might enjoy this Texas versus Ohio State preview video. After watching this I am ready for this game to start now.

He even got a couple of big cheers from the crowd and my section even started a “Chuck, Chuck, etc” chant.

More than 400 people were treated at the three cooling tents and five EMS stations at the stadium.