40 Acres Sports

Texas tabs Auburn’s Muschamp as defensive coordinator. Official MB-TF story.

A&M tight end Martellus Bennett to declare for NFL draft. Not great production but draft is all about potential.

Vince Young practices but is a game-time decision against San Diego. He’s going to have to carry the team, hope he’s healthy.

The US Army All-American Bowl is most fans first chance to see the top high school recruits for themselves. Texas fans can see several Longhorn commitments take the field for the West squad as well as take their first look at 5-star stud running back Darrell Scott, who reportedly may now favor the Horns. Tune in now (12 pm Central) to NBC to catch the game.

Here are the Texas commits and targets to watch for:

Name	Number	Position	Commit?	Ranking
[tag]Nolan Brewster[/tag]	24	Safety	Yes
[tag]Dan Buckner[/tag]	4	Wide receiver	Yes
[tag]Dravannti Johnson[/tag]	44	Linebacker	Yes
[tag]DJ Monroe[/tag]	25	Defensive back	Yes
Rahim Moore	15	Safety	No
Darrell Scott	2	Running back	No
[tag]David Snow[/tag]	76	Guard	Yes
[tag]Justin Tucker[/tag]	23	Kicker	Yes
[tag]Aaron Williams[/tag]	7	Cornerback	Yes

I’ll post some relevant updates and thoughts below:

First Quarter

• Nice looking punt by Justin Tucker. He’s been recruited as a placekicker but it certainly wouldn’t hurt if he could help out as a punter as well.
• DJ Monroe makes a good break on the football and knocks the pass up in the air for Nolan Brewster to pick it off. A third Texas commit, Dravannti Johnson, was also right there after the play was over. Impressive play by Monroe.
• Fantastic catch by Dan Buckner taking advantage of his size to go up high and grab the ball over a shorter corner. Definitely something I think we’ll see a lot of during his Longhorn career.

Second Quarter

• Good coverage by corner Aaron Williams but he gets beat deep. Williams has reportedly been very impressive this week and may be on the verge of getting a fifth star. He’s got good size but his speed (despite being listed with a 4.4 forty time) may mean he ends up at safety.
• It’s pretty clear where the Terrelle Pryor/Vince Young comparisons come from. The kid is big and natural and makes things look easy. Vince became Vince because of his intangibles and the improvements he made while in school, if Pryor can do the same he’ll be special.
• Monroe doesn’t look afraid of contact. Came flying up on screen and made a solid tackle behind the line of scrimmage.
• Another play by DJ Monroe. Good high punt by Tucker and Monroe gets down the field quickly as one of the gunners and covers up the ball after the East returned muffed it.
• Good tackle by Williams. I love to see secondary guys who can actually tackle.

Third Quarter

• I haven’t noticed Darrell Scott much. I don’t think he’s been in on a ton of snaps.
• Safety Rahim Moore, who is committed to UCLA but is still being recruited by Texas, just made a big hit on a pass breakup then popped up and gave the double hook ’em. Don’t know what our chances are but new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp won’t hurt.

For some reason the inaugural Under Armour All-America High School Football Game is going up head to head with the US Army game on ABC. I know there’s a limited window when these kids are out of school, but this game should have been last night when there were other college or NFL games to compete with. Definitely looks lower rent than the other game but there’s still some very good talent in the game including several future Longhorns. The game started at 1 pm but since I’ll have to save any comments till later when I watch the game off the DVR.

Not sure how the teams were determined, there’s Longhorns on both the Silver and Red team. ESPN doesn’t provide jersey numbers, but here’s the guys to watch in this one:

Team SILVER

Name	Position	Commit?	Ranking
[tag]Mark Buchanan[/tag]	Offensive tackle	Yes
Rodrick Davis	Defensive tackle	No
[tag]DJ Grant[/tag]	Wide receiver	Yes
[tag]Antoine Hicks[/tag]	Wide receiver	Yes

Team RED

Name	Position	Commit?	Ranking
[tag]DeSean Hales[/tag]	Wide receiver	Yes
[tag]Jarvis Humphrey[/tag]	Defensive tackle	Yes

Deron Gustafson passes away from liver disease at age of 46. Former player, former coach, and legendary coach’s son was a Longhorn for 16 years.

After over a day of back and forth and strained nerves for Texas fans, Phillip Marshall of The Huntsville Times is reporting that [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] has officially resigned his position as Auburn defensive coordinator and accepted Texas’ offer.

Will Muschamp resigned today as Auburn’s defensive coordinator to accept a similar position at the University of Texas.

Muschamp, who interviewed at Texas on Thursday, told Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville shortly after returning from Austin this afternoon that he had decided to accept an offer from Longhorn coach Mack Brown. Muschamp leaves after two years on the Auburn staff.

The Auburn president and Board of Trustees recently approved a raise for Muschamp that would have made his salary $425,000 in 2008.He had a two-year contract with no buyout clause. He would have been the highest paid assistant coach in the Southeastern Conference.

I like the comment from the Auburn fan below the article, “Seems a little like leaving your wife who is a hot 9.2 for a 9.5.” I think Texas is more of a 10 but damn it feels good to be the Joneses. I love the attitude that we can go out there and get the best of the best.

This is big time news for the Texas program, Big 12 offenses are going to have to look out for Mssrs. Kindle, Muckelroy, and Norton next year. It’ll be nice to have some of that swagger we saw in the Holiday Bowl last all season.

Vince Young down 2 of his top 3 targets for the playoffs. Roydell Williams has a broken ankle. Crap.

Larry Mac Duff’s office chair isn’t even cool yet (I didn’t even have time to post the news of him leaving) and already the rumors are flying fast and furious that we may have a replacement.

Orangebloods.com reported just before lunch that Auburn’s [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] was a possible candidate to be Texas’ next defensive coordinator and by five they were reporting he’d been interviewed and offered the job. We should be hearing more tomorrow already, with a final decision possibly being made as early as this evening.

Muschamp is a big name and would make big news around college football. At only 36 he’s already on the fast track to being a head coach. In fact, rumor on the Auburn message boards is that he wouldn’t be going anywhere as a defensive coordinator unless he was promised the head coaching position.

He’s young, fiery, and best of all has experience coaching linebackers. Oh, and like all smart men, he hates the Piggies:

Muschamp played safety at Georgia from 1991 – 1994 (yes Dad, you’re getting old) and has an impressive coaching resume. From Wikipedia:

Stay tuned… if news breaks, we’ll break in.

Update: It is being reported (again by Orangebloods, best $10/month you can spend) that Muschamp was offered a “Jimbo Fisher deal.” The Florida State offensive coordinator was lured away from LSU by the promise that he would be the coach to succeed the legendary Bobby Bowden. If this is true, Muschamp would likely have something in his contract that paid him a large buyout if he is let go or if someone other than himself is selected to follow Mack Brown as Texas coach. Biggest difference, Bowden is 78 and Mack is still a relatively young 56. (9:44 pm)

Update: It doesn’t look an official announcement will come tonight, but multiple sources at both Texas and Auburn are reporting that it’s a done deal. An agreement is reportedly in place between Texas and Muschamp but papers haven’t been signed yet. Don’t want to count chickens yet but it sure looks like Will Muschamp is going to be your next Texas defensive coordinator. (11:14 pm)

Update: The Huntsville Times is reporting the deal is done. Hook ’em! (Friday, 5:09 pm)

Damion James dominates but Texas struggles to get past TCU without AJ Abrams. Ian Mooney is outplaying young studs? Ah oh.