40 Acres Sports

According to the headlines on both ESPN.com and SI.com, Tennessee Titans’ head coach Jeff Fisher announced today that [tag]Vince Young[/tag] would not get his starting job when he was back healthy and able to play. The ESPN headline is “Unbeaten Titans to go with Collins over injured, troubled Young” as if Young has been benched, but is that what Fisher actually said?

Here’s the actual quote from Fisher in the AP article:

“We’re going to get Vince back, get his knee back, work with him, get him back involved in the offense, but Kerry’s going to go ahead and play for us until either he struggles or whatever else happens.”

And…

“He’s got to get back. He’s eventually going to be under center for us. When that happens, I don’t know. For right now, Kerry’s our quarterback”

That’s not exactly the statement the headlines or the article are making it out to be. Fisher essentially said that Collins would be starting for him since Young was injured and that they’d take the time for his knee to heal and not rush him back.

This isn’t some huge vote of confidence in Collins. Fisher stated that Collins would play until “either he struggles or whatever else happens.” For anyone who watched Collins play back in 2006 and in limited time in 2007, it would be pretty surprising if he does anything more than put up the average day he did Sunday against mediocre competition. That “for right now” is also pretty damn noncommittal.

Collins will likely start the next three games, put up two clunkers against Minnesota and Baltimore, and then Vince is back in as the starter after the bye week. For the next few weeks Vince needs to get both his knee and his head healthy. He’ll get his chance again soon, he just needs to get back out there on the field and just play his game when it comes.

Like most people, I have been waiting for this weekend for some time because we get to see two of the top teams in the nation square off during the regular season, #1 USC vs. #5 Ohio State. There is almost as much hype for this game as the National Championship. Unfortunately some of that excitement has diminished for me since it has been reported that Chris “Beanie” Wells will not play this Saturday against USC.

And now that we know Texas vs. Arkansas is postponed, we have to find something else to watch. Let’s see what is going on this weekend. (P.S. I went 2-0-1 last weekend with my picks)

Michigan at Notre Dame (+1) – 3:43 PM EST on NBC. Some of the luster of this game has worn off since both programs seem to be struggling. Even so, NBC’s broadcast of this game in HD looks great, and it will be good fun seeing Notre Dame get embarrassed at home. Notre Dame should have lost last weekend, and I just can’t see anyway they can pull off that same miracle against Michigan. I’m not a huge fan of Rich Rodriguez, but I seem them winning easily this weekend.

#3 Oklahoma at Washington (+20) – 7:45 PM EST on ESPN. I’m pretty curious to see how Washington responds to getting screwed last weekend against BYU. It will probably either be extremely good, or extremely bad. I am going to go with the latter. Oklahoma’s offense continues to improve and their young wide receivers are absolutely torching the opponents’ secondary. Oklahoma is averaging 55 points per game, Washington 19. You can do the math here. Expect Oklahoma to win by 30.

#5 Ohio State at #1 USC (-11) – 8:00 PM EST on ABC. Like I said, this game isn’t as exciting since Ohio State isn’t bringing all of their weapons, but this will still probably be the biggest game in college football this year. So far this year USC has been more impressive than we thought, and Ohio State has been not nearly been as good as we expected. Without Chris Wells I don’t see them able to get the running game going against USC’s strong defense, which in turn puts more pressure on QB Todd Boeckman and freshman QB Terrelle Pryor. Boeckman is coming off one of the worst games of his career. Things are probably only going to get worse. And Pryor will most likely be a big-time quarterback soon in college football, but now is not that time.

USC on the other hand has a “stable” of 6 running backs on their team, probably all of whom would start on most teams in the country. Does 6 sound like a little too many? Yeah, sure does, but 5 of the 6 scored touchdowns against Virginia in their season opener. Talk about depth. Bottomline, Ohio State has no shot in this game and will probably lose by 20. Take USC here.

Officials at [tag]Texas[/tag] and [tag]Arkansas[/tag] are discussing their options now that it looks like [tag]Hurricane Ike[/tag] might be traveling through Central Texas. According to StormPulse.com, Hurricane Ike will hit the Texas coast Saturday morning around 7:00 AM near Corpus Christi. Ike is then projected to move north through Austin and push towards Dallas.

This doesn’t look good for the game against Arkansas on Saturday. With the scheduled kick-off at 2:30 PM, Ike could possibly be moving through Austin right around game-time. Luckily both teams have an off week on Sept. 27, so scheduling a make-up game in case of a postponement should not be a problem.

Update: A source from OrangeBloods.com says that there is a 90% chance the game will be postponed until Sept. 27.

Update #2: Brazoria County, Chambers County and Galveston officials have issued evacuation orders.

Update #3: Orangebloods is reporting that the game has officially been postponed till September 27th. Here’s a the official press release from the athletic department. The football schedule page has been updated. (8:50pm)

Source

After a second week of games the [tag]Big 12[/tag] pecking order is starting to clear up just a little. The conference won all 12 games last weekend but not every team played well. Even in victory, several teams (including Texas) were outgained by their opponents. There’s some shuffling in the rankings this week, including near the top as Mizzou hopped ahead of Texas.

Check out this week’s conference power rankings below:

1. [tag]Oklahoma[/tag]

   
   LW: 1

   The Sooners looked nearly as good as in week one, this time against a much better opponent. It was close at halftime and for a while in the third quarter but QB Sam Bradford led a 24-0 run to put the game away. They face a Washington team this week who got screwed Saturday and might not be up for another top 25 opponent.

2. [tag]Missouri[/tag]

   
   LW: 3

   After playing a tough opponent last week Mizzou had a virtual bye this week against Southeast Missouri State. The Tigers rolled to a 48-0 lead by halftime but did give up 334 yards. The FCS Redhawks put together three long, sustained drives in the first half but came away with no points. After two games the defense has to worry Tigers fans at least a little.

3. Texas

   
   LW: 2

   After two straight weeks of pass defense resembling 2007 the Longhorns drop behind Missouri this week. There’s time for the secondary to improve and I still have faith in [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag], but for now the Horns just aren’t playing as well as the Tigers. Texas is off this week after the Arkansas game was postponed.

4. [tag]Texas Tech[/tag]

   
   LW: 4

   Another win but another troubling game for Tech fans. The Red Raiders were outgained 488 to 421 by Nevada and QB Graham Harrell completed only 41% of his passes and threw two interceptions. I looked for a team to move ahead of them but despite the struggles no other Big 12 team really has earned this spot either.

5. [tag]Colorado[/tag]

   
   LW: 5

   The Buffaloes barely survived a scare at home versus Eastern Washington. They were down by 14 at halftime and down by a touchdown with only two minutes left in the fourth quarter. They scored with two minutes left and then less than 30 seconds later picked off a pass for the gamewinning score. Big game hosting West Virginia this week.

6. [tag]Kansas State[/tag]

   
   LW: 6

   A big blowout win for the Wildcats against FCS Montana State. I’m not sure exactly what they’ve proved in the first two weeks but both games have been incredibly easy for KSU. QB Josh Freeman was again impressive.

7. [tag]Kansas[/tag]

   
   LW: 8

   KU jumps Nebraska after a shutout win. The defense shut down the Louisiana Tech offense and QB Todd Reesing threw for a career high 412 yards. The Jayhawks get their first test of the season this coming Saturday when they face #19 South Florida on the road.

8. [tag]Nebraska[/tag]

   
   LW: 7

   As is a common theme this week in the conference, the Cornhuskers were underwhelming in a win and were outgained by their opponent. The score is deceiving but Nebraska was only up 14-12 in the fourth quarter before returning a kickoff for a touchdown and opening up the game.

9. [tag]Iowa State[/tag]

   
   LW: 9

   Another week and another solid win for the Cyclones as they made the most of turnovers and big plays. Iowa State had five scoring drives less than 25 yards, including three under 10 yards. Rivalry game up this week against [tag]Iowa[/tag] is their first real test.

10. [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag]

    
    LW: 10

    Wide receiver Dez Bryant put up incredible numbers in a big shootout against Houston. He had nine catches, 236 yards, and three touchdowns and RB Kendall Hunter chipped in 210 yards rushing as Okie State put 56 on the board. The Cowboys have a couple of “easy” games before starting Big 12 play in October.

11. Texas A&M

    
    LW: 11

    There’s definitely a quarterback controversy brewing in College Station. After Stephen McGee went down with an injury sophomore Jerrod Johnson filled in and tossed three touchdown passes. It got sketchy for a while against New Mexico in the fourth quarter but they held on. The Aggies may be in for a world of hurt against Miami this week.

12. [tag]Baylor[/tag]

    
    LW: 12

    Coach Art Briles gets his first win as Baylor coach as true freshman QB Robert Griffin looked great in his first career start. Griffin completed 79% of his passes for 294 yards and three touchdowns against Northwestern State. He also rushed for 42 yards and another score. I’m feeling a big win coming this weekend against Washington State.

Last week’s rankings

The Big 12 and SEC dominate my Top 25, holding 8 of the top 10 spots. Ohio State continues their over-hyped season by barely beating Ohio at home. Oklahoma and Missouri are proving they have the offense to keep up with anyone. And East Carolina is probably the surprise of the season, jumping all the way up to #12.

Agree or disagree? Please let me know in the comments.

1. [tag]USC[/tag]

   

   I try not to give too much praise to USC, but they looked really impressive in their blowout win over Virginia. They truly look like the best team in the nation right now.

2. [tag]Oklahoma[/tag]

   

   Oklahoma’s offense looks unstoppable. They have already scored 109 points in 2 games, and haven’t trailed yet.

3. [tag]Florida[/tag]

   

   Tim Tebow and the Gators beat Miami for the first time in the last 25 years or so, and did it against a very athletic Miami defense.

4. [tag]Missouri[/tag]

   

   Talk about high powered offenses, Missouri looks like they can score at will. But the real question is if their defense can stop the other big-time teams.

5. [tag]LSU[/tag]

   

   Even with all the weather distractions, this team looked very impressive in its home opener. What will happen when their QB’s actually have to throw a pass longer than 10 yards?

6. [tag]Texas[/tag]

   

   Colt and the offense are on a serious roll right now. Their young secondary is struggling at times, but they should be able to pick it up.

7. [tag]Georgia[/tag]

   

   I feel this is one of the more over-hyped teams in the nation. But if they can make it through some of their tougher games I will have to move them up.

8. [tag]Alabama[/tag]

   

   Coach Nick Saban has things going well down in Alabama. They absolutely destroyed Clemson on national tv. I would not want to play against this defense.

9. [tag]Auburn[/tag]

   

   Auburn’s defense always seems to keep them in games. If they can just get someone who can play quarterback they might be able to do something this year.

10. [tag]Ohio State[/tag]

    

    Ohio State is probably the second most over-hyped team in the nation. Lucky for them, they play in the weak Big 10. Unlucky for them, they are about to get smoked by USC.

11. [tag]Kansas[/tag]

    

    Kansas is another tough team from the Big 12 North. Todd Reesing is one of the top quarterbacks in the Big 12 and has their offense off to a hot start.

12. [tag]East Carolina[/tag]

    

    ECU has been one of the big surprises so far this season beating Virginia Tech and destroying #8 West Viriginia. I don’t think anyone will overlook this team anymore.

13. [tag]Texas Tech[/tag]

    

    If Texas Tech actually played anyone in their non-conference schedule they might actually be ranked a little bit higher.

14. [tag]Arizona State[/tag]

    

    ASU always seems to be that overlooked team in the Pac-10. Coach Dennis Erickson has a solid football team here.

15. [tag]Wisconsin[/tag]

    

    Wisconsin is one of those boring teams that always has a solid season. If they weren’t in the weak Big 10 they would probably barely crack the top 25.

16. [tag]Oregon[/tag]

    

    Another high powered offense from the Pac-10. Their dual quarterback play seems to be working well. And Jeremiah Johnson has a ridiculous 10.1 yards per carry.

17. [tag]BYU[/tag]

    

    BYU squeaked by Washington thanks to the refs ruining the game. UCLA should be a tougher match-up.

18. [tag]Wake Forest[/tag]

    

    Wake Forest needed a last second field goal to beat an average Ole Miss team. Now they open their ACC season against Florida State.

19. [tag]South Florida[/tag]

    

    I was not happy with team since they delayed the coverage of the Texas/UTEP game. They are probably the best team in the Big East right now.

20. [tag]California[/tag]

    

    Cal is averaging 7.8 yards per carry as a team, including two touchdowns of over 80 yards. Their defense also held Washington State to only 3 points.

21. [tag]Penn State[/tag]

    

    Penn State has started off strong with an impressive running attack. I’m curious to see how they play on the road.

22. [tag]Fresno State[/tag]

    

    Fresno State has another solid team that dismantled Rutgers on their own field. Their real test of the season comes this weekend when they play Wisconsin.

23. [tag]Vanderbilt[/tag]

    

    Vanderbilt is slowing building their program into a tough match-up in the SEC. Georgia and Florida better not overlook this team.

24. [tag]UCLA[/tag]

    

    UCLA had an impressive second half comeback in week 1 against Tennessee. Who knew you could throw 4 interceptions and still be a hero. Their tough schedule probably won’t keep them here long.

25. [tag]Utah[/tag]

    

    Utah is a tough team to put a handle on. Their offense is usually stellar, but they really don’t play anyone. Their win against Michigan might look impressive if Michigan wasn’t so awful.

I wouldn’t say that I ever thought the game against [tag]UTEP[/tag] was in jeopardy, but I will admit I was a little worried and/or disappointed that we only carried a 15 point lead going into the 4th quarter. It seemed pretty obvious that Texas was dominating the game, but they just couldn’t put it away until late in the game. And once again we showed our weakness lies in the young secondary, which didn’t really show much improvement from the previous game against [tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag]. Luckily we still have some time before we have to face OU.

Now let’s see how each position fared.

Quarterback – Overall Grade: A-

[tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] had another outstanding game, throwing for 282 yards and 4 touchdowns. Colt’s one interception came in the 3rd quarter when wide receiver Dan Buckner was not able to get off the line against the smaller cornerback. I can’t really blame Colt on that one. Colt spread the ball around well, completing passes to 7 different receivers. I really like the confidence Colt is playing with so far this year and it doesn’t look he will be slowing down anytime soon.

Backup quarterback [tag]John Chiles[/tag] did make a brief appearance in the game, but did not attempt any passes. He did run twice for a measly 5 yards. He was a total non-factor. [tag]Greg Davis[/tag] needs to get him more involved.

Running Backs – Overall Grade: B+

The highlight of the running back group is the emergence of a possible future star, [tag]Fozzy Whittaker[/tag]. Fozzy missed the first game with a knee injury but showed no signs of that against UTEP. Fozzy showed off his great lateral speed and ability to get around the corner in a hurry. He is the perfect compliment to the downhill slasher, [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag]. Fozzy ended up with 72 yards on 12 carries for an impressive 6.0 yards per rush average. Vondrell ended up with only 6 carriers and 18 yards. He better watch out, the way Fozzy ran Saturday, he better improve his production if he wants to see more action on the field.

Receivers – Overall Grade: A-

If you remember last week I was a little disappointed with [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag]’s performance. Well you can throw all of that away, because this week he had the game of his life against UTEP. Quan caught 8 passes for 154 yards, including one where he completely burned the cornerback for an easy touchdown. Tight end [tag]Blaine Irby[/tag] found the end zone again with a nice leaping touchdown up the middle in the second quarter. [tag]Dan Buckner[/tag] also scored a nice touchdown off of a Colt scramble, but his inability to get a push off of a much smaller corner ended up with Colt’s only interception. Dan has the size, he just needs to learn to be more physical around the goal line. [tag]Chris Ogbonnaya[/tag] continued to show he is always a threat coming out of the backfield and is definitely a nice luxury to have on 3rd downs.

Defense – Overall Grade: C+

So how do you give up only 13 points and still get a C+? By letting a team move the ball on you the whole game. Well ok, maybe not the whole game, but at times UTEP moved the ball down the field with ease. Texas allowed 3 drives over 65 yards, 4 field goal attempts, and 1 touchdown. The young secondary again looked average at best. [tag]Earl Thomas[/tag] is supposed to be the one all of the coaches were impressed with in practice. Well somehow he needs to figure out to translate his success in practice to the field.

The defensive played a decent game, but only started to dominate late in the game when they had finally worn out the UTEP offensive line. [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag] did end up with 2 sacks, but with their size and speed they should have dominated the whole game. Linebacker [tag]Roddrick Muckelroy[/tag] had a ridiculous game, racking up 14 tackles and returning a fumble 26 yards for a touchdown. Overall the linebackers played pretty decent.

Special Teams – Overall Grade: B+

Quan Cosby had an impressive game at the wide receiver position, but he also made an outstanding play on special teams. Quan caught a missed field goal right on the edge of the endzone and alertly returned the ball all the way to the UTEP 35 yard line. Texas scored easily and basically put away the game right there. The kick-offs were much improved from last week, but that is probably due to the high altitude in El Paso. We’ll see how that goes next week.

Overall – Overall Grade: B+

I give Texas the same rating as last week. Not too great, not too bad. They definitely need to sure up some things in the secondary, but luckily there is some time for them to improve. And besides, right now Colt is on fire and the offense is rolling, so let’s save the worrying for a few more weeks.

The Texas Longhorns have moved to 2-0 on the season with a win Saturday night over the UTEP Miners. A little closer than most expected in the first half but they eventually pulled away late in the third quarter. Overall it was a good, but not great performance by the Horns.

As Texas fans we’re spoiled and were expecting more out of the offense in the second half and a better showing from the defense. Despite the final score the game didn’t go as many predicted, and the team didn’t seem nearly as sharp as in the opening week. It is important to remember that at this time last year Texas had squeaked by Arkansas State and needed a second half comeback to beat TCU.

The team is definitely not playing its best football, the young secondary and the offensive line are only going to get better with each game. However, to win two games by large margins while so many youngsters learn on the job has to be encouraging for later in the season and certainly 2009.

Read on for some additional quick thoughts on the game:

Good

• [tag]Jared Norton[/tag] got the start. [tag]Rashad Bobino[/tag] got plenty of playing time but the fact that Norton started ahead of the senior linebacker is a sign that playing time is based on performance and not seniority.
• Quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] was incredibly sharp again in the first half. He completed 14 of 16 passes in the first half for 187 yards and three TDs. He finished the game with 282 yards and 4 TDs. He seems to always be on the same page with his top wide receivers, [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] and [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag].
• Speaking of Cosby, he played his best game as a Horn against the Miners. In addition to his 8 catches for 154 yards he also made a huge play by returning a UTEP missed field goal for a momentum-changing 74 yards.
• Tight end [tag]Blaine Irby[/tag] made another appearance in the offensive gameplan. After the loss of Jermichael Finley to the NFL there was expected to be a big drop off in performance at the position but Irby has been great so far. He only had one catch but it was a nice 23-yard touchdown grab.
• Welcome [tag]Fozzy Whittaker[/tag]. It might take a few more weeks, but it looks like we may have found our next starting running back.
• [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] coaches angry. The defense has been far from perfect, but the effort and attitude is definitely there and that can be directly credited to Muschamp. The team hasn’t allowed a second half point yet this season.

Bad

• [tag]Earl Thomas[/tag] needs to step it up at safety. The talent is there but he needs to improve with every game.
• The offensive and defensive lines did not look like they were overpowering UTEP’s inferior players until the Texas depth started to wear on them. Texas should be capable of dominating the trenches from the opening snap against a team like UTEP or they could struggle against Big 12 opponents.
• [tag]Greg Davis[/tag] showed no interest in getting the running game going. Whittaker was ripping off big chunks of yardage every time he carried the ball but despite that there wasn’t much effort to get him the football. There were only 18-20 rushing attempts before garbage time.
• Colt McCoy was far from sharp for most of the third quarter. It may have just stood out after three nearly perfect quarters of QB play but he missed several open receivers and threw a couple of ducks into the dirt as well. His tendency to abandon the pocket too quickly also reared its head a couple of times in the second half.
• Where is [tag]John Chiles[/tag]? He hasn’t gotten a ton of plays and when he’s in there as part of the “Q package” he appears to largely be being used as a decoy. He had no catches and only two carries for five yards. Even worse, when he got in there to replace McCoy in the fourth quarter it was purely to hand off the football and he didn’t look too excited about that.

It was an awkward and somehow unsatisfying victory for the Texas Longhorns Saturday night (and into Sunday morning) against the UTEP Miners. Only Longhorn fans could be unsatisfied after a relatively easy 29-point win, but that’s definitely the general feeling among the faithful today. Let’s take a stroll around the web to see what everyone else is saying about the game…

Local Media

• UTEP game notes
• Video Highlights
• Texas turns aside UTEP 42-13
• Longhorn defense starts slowly, grows stronger
• Whittaker sends running game in a new direction
• Photos: Texas Longhorns vs. UT-El Paso Miners
• Texas passes first road test, routs UTEP
• Longhorns Overwhelm UTEP
• Horns take care of Mack’s business in El Paso
• Postgame React, Week 2: Texas at UTEP
• UTEP Miners get hooked: Texas just too much for UTEP defense
• UTEP didn’t break

Texas media

• UTEP gets ‘A’ for effort; UT gets the ‘W’
• Colt McCoy leads Longhorns past UTEP
• Texas’ Whittaker finds his groove in El Paso
• Longhorns, McCoy too much for Miners

National media

• Texas defense bends early but doesn’t break
• McCoy passes for 282 yards, 4 TDs as No. 10 Texas rolls
• Video: McCoy Tosses Four TDs In Texas’ 42-13 Win Over UTEP

Follow along below with our live thoughts and analysis during tonight’s game versus [tag]UTEP[/tag]. 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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Comments now open.

It may be the biggest game in [tag]UTEP[/tag] football history but tonight’s game featuring the Texas Longhorns and UTEP Miners should be over quickly. The Longhorns are the team traveling 600 miles west (without leaving the state), but tonight the Miners will be the ones sent packing.

Las Vegas has the Horns as 26.5 point favorites, but read on below to see how we see tonight’s game shaking out:

Matt – I think last week [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] proved to a lot of people that he is going to be a different player this year. He ran with purpose and threw with amazing accuracy. Colt and the Longhorns offense rolled over FAU and racked up 52 points pretty easily. They will probably score at least that much this week and it might be just as easy. UTEP’s defense is not what you would call impressive, and their offense isn’t much better. I will be interested in seeing how the young safeties respond this week after struggling a little in their first game. This one shouldn’t be close.

Texas 55 – UTEP 16

Brian – This looked like a tougher game before UTEP got blown out by Buffalo last week. The Miners might not be that bad and were simply been looking ahead to this week’s game, but the Longhorns should still crush them. I fear the late start means Texas comes out of the gate a little slowly but things should be rolling by the start of the second quarter. [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] and [tag]John Chiles[/tag] both have huge games tonight on the ground as the Horns gash them with their running game.

Texas 45 – UTEP 17