40 Acres Sports

Ross the Intern (Jay Leno) goes to the Red River Shootout. Not super funny but decent to see some video from around the game and State Fair.

Vince Young day to day with quadriceps strain. Hopefully he’s healthy enough to lay a beating on the Texans next Sunday.

Against ISU, Colt “McCoy looked positively Tony Romo-esque making plays with his feet.” Wish I could find video of those two plays.

Three questions after Iowa State covering the running game, Killebrew vs. Kindle, and McCoy vs. McCoy.

Horns open up passing game despite missing Limas Sweed. Great to see Jordan Shipley step up in Sweed’s absence.

I mentioned FSN’s “wonderful” announcing and overall presentation repeatedly during Saturday’s live blog of the [tag]Iowa State[/tag] game. They missed plays, butchered names, and were just generally awful, but the most awkward moment of the day came courtesy of color man Dave Lapham. He was confused most of the game but he found some clarity when he went nuts and repeatedly says that Texas safety [tag]Erick Jackson[/tag] “face rapes” ISU receiver Todd Blythe.

The great site Awful Announcing found video of the comment and it’s embedded below for your enjoyment/bewilderment:

There’s some comments over at AA with people claiming he said “face raking” but on the live broadcast it was pretty clear what he said. Plus he said it again in about 30 seconds. Awkward.

Today’s matchup for the Longhorns against [tag]Iowa State[/tag] should be a rout, but there’s been lots of games like that this season and Texas only took care of business against Rice. The Horns need to continue the solid play from last week against Oklahoma and if they can they should be able to come home with a comfortable win.

Follow with me and my random thoughts during the game below:

First Quarter

• I wonder when FSN Southwest will be in high definition on DirecTV? It looks like the game is being shot in HD and if I had FSNMW I could be watching it in HD. Oh well.
• Ryan Bailey kicking off, is Hunter Lawrence hurt?
• Same starting lineup on defense that we’ve seen all year.
• Texas is only 7th in the Big 12 in punt returns? [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] is solid back there so I don’t really blame him for that number. With Limas Sweed out for the year it might be time to protect Cosby and put one of the young WR/DB’s back there.
• Long bomb from [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] to [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] on Texas’ first offensive play. McCoy does nice job buying time in a collapsing pocket and finds Shipley wide open. 58-yard touchdown for the Horns.

Texas 7, Iowa State 0

• FSN’s wonderful coverage continues. They take a TV timeout and miss both the kickoff and the first ISU play after it. Sad.
• FSN announcers are apparently using an OU roster instead of Texas.
• On third down play it looks like defensive line slants to the field and [tag]Robert Killebrew[/tag] lets the ISU runner get wide for the first down. Might have been Lamarr Houston’s fault. Terrible defensive fundamentals.
• I was just going to complain about the lack of pressure from the Texas defense then [tag]Lamarr Houston[/tag] comes untouched off the end for the sack.
• Face raped? Yikes. Not sure you should say that on TV. That was a definite face mask but the reason the helmet comes off is that it’s not fitted correctly. Your helmet should never come off that easy. He said face rape again.
• Is our defense really this poorly coached? We’ve got guys flying inside to avoid blockers on every play. If you’re a defensive end and have a linebacker blitzing to your inside you can’t try to get in the same gap. Ugh.
• [tag]Derek Lokey[/tag] playing defensive end on that play. He got whipped man on man and gave up a big run.
• Texas holds on third down and forces a field goal. Field goal is wide right. Break for Texas as Iowa State had put together a very solid drive.
• Mental mistake by wide receiver covered up Jermichael Finley. FSN announcers are morons.
• Looks like [tag]Chris Ogbonnaya[/tag] is seeing increased playing time already over Jamaal Charles. If we’re going with the wide open offense that’s a good idea since he’s a better blocker and pass catcher than Charles.
• Looks like McCoy is growing a sweet mustache. Couple more weeks and that might be thick enough to show up on camera.
• Ogbonnaya and [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] get the two Texas redzone rushing attempts. Hope Charles can keep his head up, figure out the issue, and earn these attempts back.
• Not sure that was a well advised throw by McCoy but man did Cosby get up and get that one. No good camera angle but I think that might have come out a little when he hit the ground. Another good scramble to buy time and find a receiver by Colt.

Texas 14, Iowa State 0

• Hunter Lawrence kicking off on this one. Wonder why it wasn’t him in there on the first one?
• Young linebackers in there for this series.

(more …)

Only two games between ranked teams and neither is that sexy. The one of the most interest is in the Big 12 featuring the Oklahoma Sooners hosting the undefeated Missouri Tigers. I complain about this just about every week but that game is big enough that ESPN’s College Gameday shows up but the Big 12 television contract is so awful that a huge game between two highly ranked teams is buried on FSN.

(23) Texas at Iowa State – 11:30 am on FSN. Longhorns try to get their first Big 12 win in way too long against former Texas coach Gene Chizik’s Iowa State Cyclones.

(1) LSU at (17) Kentucky – 2:30 pm on CBS. Probably been a while since Kentucky came into this game ranked but I don’t think the outcome is going to be too different. UK’s Andre Woodson has a solid game but LSU still rolls in this one.

Texas A&M at Texas Tech – 2:30 pm on ABC. The Aggies haven’t won in Lubbock since 1993 and are double digit underdogs today. I just noticed Tech QB Graham Harrell has 28 touchdown passes already this season. Wow. A loss for A&M could mean seal Coach Franchione’s fate. Could be ugly.

(4) Boston College at Notre Dame – 2:30 pm on NBC. The Irish get a chance to return the favor for the BC upsets that ruined seasons for them in the past, but they won’t. Boston College actually has a four game winning stream in this matchup, sad (not really) how far Notre Dame has fallen. BC isn’t worthy of being the number four team in the country but Notre Dame sucks so they win easily today.

(11) Missouri at (6) Oklahoma – 5:30 pm on FSN. Were the upset by Big 12 North members Kansas State and Colorado two weeks ago a fluke? Oklahoma is definitely not the dominant team of years past, if Chase Daniel gets hot the Tigers definitely have a shot today. Texas fans should definitely be rooting for Mizzou here, another conference loss by OU gives the Longhorns a real shot at a Big 12 title if they can win out.

Texas takes on [tag]Iowa State[/tag] and former Texas coach Gene Chizik today at 11:30 on FSN and the team is still looking for it’s first Big 12 win of the season. Riding a four game conference losing streak the Horns are looking to get back on track against an ISU team that has struggled mightily this season under their new coach.

The Longhorns are big favorites, but here are three things to watch for in today’s game:

1. Hold on to the freaking football.

[tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag]’ fumble last week wasn’t the only mistake the Longhorns made in the loss to Oklahoma but it was certainly a back breaker. He’s run hard and pretty well despite an inexperienced offensive line and a sometimes questionable offensive scheme, but at some point that doesn’t matter if you can’t hold on to the football consistently. For me that point was last week. It’s time to get [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] more touches and keep Charles on the sideline when the Horns get inside the red zone.

2. Play more young guys.

McGee isn’t the only youngster who needs to start seeing increased playing time. Texas is a program that should be (and has been) a perennial top 10 team but they’re not likely to end there this season so it’s time to start looking towards 2008. This doesn’t mean throw in the towel on this season, on the contrary playing guys like Sergio Kindle, Deon Beasley, McGee, John Chiles, and Michael Huey should give the Horns a boost in 2007 as well. I hope these guys can get some meaningful early minutes and that Texas pulls away enough to get them even more time in the second half.

3. Try a double pass or other trick play.

Trick plays sure worked well against Texas’ Gene Chizik coached defense last year so today seems like a great day to finally execute the Colt McCoy to [tag]John Chiles[/tag] double pass. The Horns tried it last week against OU but couldn’t hold off defenders long enough to give Chiles a chance to throw. Chiles just needs to play more in general and not just on trick plays. So far every time he’s been in the game the play call has involved him so defenses are able to key on him and be on the lookout for trickeration. Line him up out wide and send him on a normal pass route a few times per game.

Freshman Gary Johnson has been cleared to practice. Rick Barnes called him a more explosive PJ Tucker, quite a compliment.