40 Acres Sports

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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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.

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

Not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but it is good to see him progressing well.

He is done for the season. Definitely some sad news for a truly spectacular player. We wish him the best.

First off, it was one of the hottest games that I have ever been to. The temperature was around 100 degrees and there was basically no breeze what-so-ever. As far as the game went, Texas obviously dominated a weaker [tag]North Texas[/tag] team, but I came away a little under-impressed with Texas’ performance. The offensive unit didn’t seem to have much of a spark, and there were really no plays that had any sort of wow factor. With that said, here is how I graded the performances:

Quarterback – Overall Grade: A-

[tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] started the game off quickly with a 60 yard touchdown pass to Limas Sweed on the third play of the game. Colt threw for two more touchdowns, added one on the ground, and threw for 178 yards. Overall I was impressed with Colt’s calmness on the field. He didn’t seem nervous at all and most of his throws were on the money (although a few of passes seemed to float on him a little). [tag] Jevan Snead[/tag] didn’t seem to be as relaxed as McCoy, but he still made some decent throws. And a few of his incompletions were definitely the receivers’ fault.

Running Backs – Overall Grade: A

There really should be an asterisk next to this grade, as the defense for North Texas was so weak it was hard to get a good feel for just how good the Texas’ backs were running. But with that said, the running backs looked good. [tag]Selvin Young[/tag] looks like a new man out there, showing off his regained speed. Young scored one touchdown on the ground and added another one receiving (did he embarrass that defender or what?). [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] ran for 77 yards and a score, but for some reason I was expecting a little more flash from him. I kept waiting for him to break one for a 50 yard gain. Colt actually had the longest running play of the day with a 27 yard scamper he almost broke for a touchdown.

Receivers – Overall Grade: C

I was pretty disappointed with the performance of the receivers, aside from [tag]Limas Sweed[/tag] that is. Sweed definitely did his part, going for a career best 111 yards and added 2 scores. Other than Sweed however, there were way too many dropped passes. Hardy dropped a couple I can remember and even Pittman dropped a pretty easy pass. Snead’s interception was also the result of a pass that was tipped off of Jordan Shipley’s hands. I expect this was all just nerves, but I hope they all get over it because this can’t happen against Ohio State.

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Ok. Well maybe it isn’t the prettiest ticket in the world, but it sure feels good to finally get it. Off to the North Texas game. Let’s cover that spread!

Hook ’em.

It is official. Game starts at 4:00 PM EST.

Only a couple of games between ranked teams for the opening weekend. There’s a lot of talk about California giving USC a run this season in the Pac 10 and we’ll find out a little bit about the Bears as they have an early road test against Tennessee. The Vols have talent and should be improved from last season. The biggest game of the weekend doesn’t actually take place till Monday. Florida State and Miami face off in primetime in high definition on ABC. Both the Seminoles and Hurricanes finished below their fans’ expectations last season and are looking to rebound to become national title contenders once again.

Here’s this week’s picks:

Related Links

• SI.com Top 25 Scoreboard
• SI.com Big 12 Scoreboard