40 Acres Sports

Chris Rainey might want to keep the wads of cash on the down low.

The Arkansas TE joins a growing list of early enrollees.

A touching article on Matt Nader and the people who helped save his life.

Westlake star offensive lineman and future Longhorn [tag]Matt Nader[/tag] collapsed tonight during the Chapparal’s game at A&M Consolidated. His mother performed CPR and emergency medical personnel used a defibrillator when they did not detect a pulse. Matt is currently in a College Station hospital but is now alert and talking. Our thoughts are with Matt and his family.

More details over at the NCAA FanHouse.

Update: It looks like Matt Nader has been forced to give up football due to a heart condition. Thankfully his doctors say he will lead a normal life. Also, it looks like Matt will still have the opportunity to get an education at UT, as coach [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] has a policy of standing by a scholarship agreement, even if a player can no longer play.

Dead on. Aggies have been recruiting well, but are still losing ground to Horns.

The Texas Longhorns continued to add to their fantastic recruiting class on Monday with a surprise commitment from defensive end [tag]Sam Acho[/tag]. The 6-foot-2 250 pounder from Dallas St. Mark’s exploded onto everyone’s recruiting radar with several big time camp performances this summer. He went from virtual unknown to holding offers from national powers such as Oklahoma, Texas, USC, and Virginia in just a handful of weeks. Texas made a strong impression on Acho during an unofficial visit to Austin in early August, but he was expected to take a little more time before making a decision.

Acho was rated as a 3-star prospect by Rivals before his meteoric rise and reportedly will be elevated to 4-star status during the current reshuffling of their 2007 prospect rankings. National top 100 status is a possibility for the young man who excels in the classroom as well as on the football field.

Acho is the 23rd member of the Longhorns’ 2007 recruiting class and the fourth defensive lineman to give the team a verbal pledge. He joins DE Russell Carter and defensive tackles Andre Jones and Michael Wilcoxon as future anchors of the defensive front line. The Horns are still strongly pursuing 5-star DT Joseph Barksdale out of Detroit’s Cass Tech High School. Acho’s commitment likely leaves just one or two more slots available in this class.

He had about 5 inches and 50 pounds on everyone, but he looked good. Big potential.

Get ready for some down years in recruiting for those Oklahoma boys up in Norman and Stillwater. Yesterday the Seattle Sonics were sold to a business group from Oklahoma City for a whopping $350 million (those casinos up there must be doing better than I thought).

Now this has to worry all of the OU and OSU fans out there. I mean where will the money come from to “solicit” all of their recruits? How will they afford all of the Texas players they keep getting. In the near future I expect to see a lot of decommits coming from the Sooners and Cowboys, and possibly even some transfers.

My question is if anyone warned ole Stooper about this? He can’t be too pleased about this. Not only will he probably lose some players over this, but he will probably lose about $1 million in under-the-table bonuses that he usually receives. How will he feed his family?

High praise for the future Longhorn, whether he ends up a QB or a WR.

The first Rivals100 list is out for 2007 and it had a decidedly burnt orange hue. Nine Texas Longhorn commitments are on the list and three receive five-star status. Guard/tackle [tag]Tray Allen[/tag] is the highest ranked Horn at number eight, followed by the two quarterbacks [tag]John Chiles[/tag] and John Brantley at twelve and thirteen respectively.

Not a ton of controversy (and keep in mind this is an early list that will definitely change) over the rankings but there are a couple of things that stand out. Hempstead wide receiver Terrance Toliver is a tremendous raw talent but hasn’t put up big numbers despite playing at a small school. Definite potential but a bit of a reach as the nation’s number ten overall prospect. Interesting to note that Toliver has big time talent but Mack Brown has decided not to pursue him, there’s usually a reason for that.

The omission of future Texas linebacker [tag]Keenan Robinson[/tag] from the list is a little surprising, Robinson’s camp performances have been impressive and he’s been rising quickly. His latest performance at last weekend’s Texas Junior Day had people talking. There are reports that he’s a near lock to be on the next top 100 list.

To put things in perspective, the Longhorns have more top 100 commitments than any other school has total commits. With three, or possibly four, more spots available, it’ll be interesting to see how the coaching staff decides to use those final scholarship offers.