40 Acres Sports

The Statesman has up some excellent footage from yesterday’s Pro Timing Day.

Not exactly breaking news, but ESPN sucks. This is their front page story on Vince’s workout today…

Quarterback Vince Young was timed in 4.58 seconds in the 40-yard dash Wednesday on what is considered a fast track at the University of Texas in Austin, one NFL scout told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen. The scout said Young’s time was slower than anticipated. According to the same scout, Young’s overall workout was “fairly impressive,” but the scout believed that Young was not asked to make certain drops and throws that he would have to perform in a private team workout. Young’s pro workout Wednesday, which was open to all NFL teams, was run by Jerry Rhome, a former NFL quarterback and assistant coach.

First off, pretty much every person I’ve heard quoted that was actually there called it a great performance and Sean Salisbury said he and all the scouts were “blown away.” Salisbury, a USC homer, even said he’d think about taking VY over USC QB Matt Leinart. Former Cowboys’ scout Gil Brandt said, “He impressed everyone with his arm strength, quick delivery and accuracy.”

Second, the 40-yard dash times ranged anywhere from 4.49 to 4.57 depending on whose stop watch you were looking at. Of course ESPN quoted a time above all of those.

Next, I’ve heard several times over the last couple of years that the track they run on is a slow one. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I’ve certainly never seen it called a “fast track.”

Finally, Chris Mortensen is a jackass. He’s been trying to claim for years that former Arkansas QB and current Jaguars receiver Matt Jones was a better quarterback than Vince. Despite the evidence from this past season and inspite of all logic, he restated the ridiculous claim again today.

Unbelievable.

Update

ESPN has updated their story to include a few quotes from people who were actually there. For the first couple of hours the quote above was the entire story. I find it interesting that they can only find unnamed sources that’ll give negative quotes. Hmm… (6:50 p.m.)

Update

They’ve added some good video of the workout to the story. Ed Werder does actual reporting from Austin and talks to actual coaches and scouts instead of quoting a single unnamed scout to say negative things like Mortensen did. It’s amazing that ESPN ran with the one negative report they could find based on second-hand reports from a guy I don’t believe was even there, despite the gushing reviews from their own guys like Salisbury. (03/23/2006)

Starts off 7 of 7. We’ll have more tonight on his performance. Update: Vince kicked ass.

Michael Waltrip will drive a special edition Aaron’s #99 car in April 8th’s NASCAR Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The car will feature a special orange and white paint job and graphics to honor the 2005 National Champion Texas Longhorn football team. You’ll also be able to purchase 1/24-scale die cast model cars at Aaron’s locations near you.

Check out TexasSports.com for more info and for dates and locations you can see a replica show car on display.

The Longhorns have picked up commitment number thirteen from Brenham’s Ahmard Howard. The 6’4″ tight end prospect and his parents were in Austin and he gave Mack Brown his verbal pledge on Monday. Howard has spent the last two weeks telling pretty much everyone he’d commit as soon as he got a chance to sit down with Coach Brown and the rest of the coaching staff so this one’s not a surprise.

Howard is one of the state’s top tight ends and has excellent size and speed to go along with an impressive list of scholarship offers. Howard chose Texas over Arizona, Kansas, K-State, Nebraska, and Oklahoma State. Another good addition to an excellent 2007 recruiting class.

Texas’ thirteen man class is below…

*Note: The star ratings are just my best guesses based on the little bit of video I’ve seen of the recruits and Orangebloods.com’s Lone Star Top 100.

Mack Brown & Bob Stoops are the best head coaches and Gene Chizik is the best DC.

“A.J., you may be the worst defensive player I’ve ever recruited.”

Horns will need big game offensively and defensively from Daniel on Thursday.

We’re facing a completely different type of team today in NC State and we’ll have to play a completely different basketball game if we hope to win. The Wolfpack are going to hit open three pointers so the Texas zone has to be solid and not give them a ton of open looks. You can also assume they saw the final few minutes from the Penn game and will go to a full court press early in the game to see if they can force the Texas guards to turn the ball over.

First Half

• Kenton Paulino was supposed to be limited today because of a banged up knee, but he started the game and already nailed a 3. With Daniel Gibson’s long range shot the possession before Texas already has as many three’s as they did the entire Penn game. If we hit our open jumpers we win easily against most teams in this tourney, but we haven’t done that consistently.
• Nice to see Brad Buckman going early.
• Mike Williams in and Buckman to the bench already. Williams still isn’t exactly a force on offense, but he’s been a much more confident player the last couple of weeks and has been giving quality minutes. If he can play good defense and get rebounds he definitely will help this team.

NC State 5, Texas 8

• With 15 minutes to go Paulino nails another 3. He’s had three open looks and got good shots at all of them.
• And another 3 from Gibson! Welcome to the NCAA Tournament Mr. Gibson and Mr. Paulino!

NC State 5, Texas 16

• Does it bother anyone else how they pronounce “realtor” in the commercials for the National Association of Realtors? The way they pronounce it it rhymes with the word “four”. I guess they can say it however they want since they have a registered trademark on the word. Did they just make it up? Odd.
• Nice to see the Wolfpack having ball handling issues instead of our guys. Four turnovers by them already.

NC State 9, Texas 20

• Not only are we shooting the ball better, but we sure have a lot more energy out there today. Good defense and hustle on the glass.
• Ten minutes gone and still no full court pressure from NC State. They did just go to a half court trap though but we beat it and PJ Tucker hits the short jumper.
• Nice penetration and dish by AJ Abrams. Tucker throws down the bigdunk.

NC State 13, Texas 27

• 9 to 2 run by NC State since the timeout. Texas has to slow down of offense and get their butts back on defense quicker.
• Guards are also doing a much better job of getting into the lane and causing trouble. The difference is night and day from Friday.
• We’re getting beat for the rebounds we were getting in the first part of the half. It’s led to NC State’s run and we’re starting to turn the ball over as well. Rick Barnes should’ve called a timeout earlier in that run to slow things down.

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A look around the conference at teams’ big question marks and position battles.