40 Acres Sports

Joe Schad interviews with the new Rice offensive coordinator and former Longhorn legend [tag]Major Applewhite[/tag] on his Insider blog. Seems to have his head on straight about expectations for the Owls, but still has his goals and a plan to achieve them. He also talks about Vince Young and text messaging recruits. He also covers the Longhorns’ two-headed (or maybe three?) quarterback situation, a subject he may know something about:

As a coach now, my opinion is that when you have two quarterbacks, it’s because you haven’t found one. In Texas’ situation, it’s because of inexperience. Make no mistake, Texas has one, it’s just a question of them not knowing which one because neither has taken a snap. My whole deal is, if you’re asking your quarterback to be a leader of the team, it’s difficult with two guys doing that. With 18-, 19-, and 20-year-old kids, the maturity level just isn’t there. You lose sight of the big picture and agendas and selfish ideas get in the way. You have to have one guy. You have to make him earn it and you have to trust him. Then, if he struggles, you can always try the other guy. The problem at a place like Texas is, you’d better find the right guy fast. You’d really like to come out of spring ball and say, hey, you have one starter. That’s not easy, though.

Read link. (ESPN Insiders only!)

I likely will spend time this weekend reading all of them for free at Barnes and Noble. (via)

I’d rather have more parking than a condo, but “Gameday Centers” are rumored to be headed to UT.

“If you had a perfect season and were still considered second best wouldn’t you have a chip on your shoulder?”

Wasn’t USC supposed to have one of the best teams of all-time? Oops…I guess next time ESPN will do those kind of polls AFTER the National Championship game.

And man, they still keep referencing that USC had previously won back-to-back championships. Apparently they haven’t heard about USC’s One-Peat.

Show is scheduled to air in October. (via)

Urban Meyer over Mack Brown? HA! Seven coaches rated higher than the winningest coach in college football?

Brown turned around the University of North Carolina, guiding a historically woeful team to three 10 win seasons in the tough (compared to Utah’s Mountain West) ACC. Since his departure UNC has quickly returned to losing 10 games per year and getting beat by Duke. Brown then tookover a Texas program that had fallen on very mediocre times and since then has won more games than any other coach in the nation. Consistently great teams, top national recruiting, a clean program with kids that (for the most part) keep out of trouble and represent the University well, two Rose Bowl wins, and of course a national title.

Meyer is a good coach (that I’m not particularly fond of) and will have success at Florida, but he has proven absolutely nothing yet. It’s also a bit of a joke for Charlie Weis to be that high on the list after a single season at Notre Dame. Would you have ranked Tyrone Willingham this high after his initial success for the Irish? Mark Richt and Jim Tressel are also both a little overrated. Look at their schools’ records before they took over compared to after, there’s not a ton of improvement there. Plus Tressel and Ohio State are constantly making news for the wrong reasons.

[tag]Mack Brown[/tag], Pete Carroll, and Bob Stoops are the top three coaches in football and in my opinion it’s not even close.

You can own the “droopy” horns from the North scoreboard for a mere $6,000 bid.

The stadiums and the crowds look absolutely gorgeous.

Thank God we don’t let some color blind Nike employee design our uniform.

Jamaal Charles, Tim Crowder, Mike Griffin, and Frank Okam honored.