40 Acres Sports

In his first appearance on Monday Night Football [tag]Vince Young[/tag] and the Titans soundly beat the Saints 31 – 14 tonight. The Titans offense started off hot and Vince was sharp throwing the ball until he banged up him arm late in the first half. In the fourth quarter the defense took care of business and finished off the game.

Vince’s postgame interview is below:

I think it’s funny that Vince Young referred to himself as Vince Young more times than either reporter or linebacker Keith Bulluck did.

I missed the whole game (I’m still at work) but caught the game on Sirius Radio and Boomer Esiason was giving him a ton of love the entire game. Vince is definitely winning over the national media with his performances on the field. The AFC South is tough this year but the way Vince has them playing the Titans looks like they could make a run for the playoffs.

Looks like we’re definitely headed towards another situation where the early FSN game is going to interfere with the start of the Texas vs. [tag]Rice[/tag] game. Texas Tech and Oklahoma State have decided to forego defense and play a 9-hour offensive shootout. All is not lost however, if you’re a DirecTV customer the game will start on schedule on channel 667 and you can check out FSN Southwest’s contingency plan for the telecast over on the official UT football site. Plus I’ll post frequent updates on the game here on this post. Stay tuned…

First Quarter

• Rice won the toss and will kick off.
• Good deep kick and [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] takes a knee.
• Chris Hall starting at right tackle again. Limas Sweed is healthy enough to make the start at receiver.
• Colt McCoy misses Cosby on a 12 yard out.
• [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] may never touch the football again. Another damn fumble. Rice football.
• No surprises starting at linebacker. Same three veterans: Derry, Bobino, Killebrew.
• Great penetration on the blitz by [tag]Rashad Bobino[/tag] results in a loss of yards.
• [tag]Deon Beasley[/tag] got the start at cornerback over Brandon Foster.
• How is that not grounding? Rice OL forgets to block Frank Okam and he gets a free run at the QB.
• There’s a flag, they called it after all. Rice lining up for 50-yard field goal attempt.
• Rice kicker misses wide left. My former coworker and former Rice kicker Derek Crabtree would’ve made that one. Or so he’d tell me.
• Charles is still the running back. McCoy hits Jermichael Finley on a quick out for a 9 yard game.
• Charles reverses field and gets a good gain. Kid has tons of talent, hold on to the ball and I’ll be your best friend.
• Ugly option play and McCoy gets brought down hard. Guard Cedric Dockery got his ass kicked.
• Great catch on a hitch by Cosby. Colt tried to get him killed. Short of the first down and Texas has to punt.
• Texas sends out [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] with the rest of the punting team in some sort of likely fake but we screw it up and have to blow a timeout.
• After the timeout we’ve got the regular offense out there for 4th and 2.
• Lead dive out by Charles behind FB Atwan Cobb gets the first down.
• Completion from McCoy to Nate Jones on a slant. 7 yard gain.
• McCoy fumbles the shotgun snap but he rolls to his left and finds Cosby alone for a completion and a first down.
• Terrible looking play where two Texas linemen are running laterally 3 yards deep in the backfield and Charles has to fight his way through them on the counter before he can get a couple of yards. Yikes.
• Tony Hills with an obvious hold made more obvious by the fact that he threw his hands up in the air trying to claim innocence. Costs the Horns a first and goal opportunity.
• McCoy and Cosby bail out Hills. Great pass and catch for the touchdown on 3rd and long. The inside receiver was even more open on the play.

Rice 0, Texas 7

• About 1:30 left in the Tech/OSU game and OSU just scored to go up by four on a 54 yard TD catch.
• Didn’t know Texas was using the Bill Bates air conditioned shoulder pads. Great technology.
• Great job by Aaron Lewis to string out the play, Bobino flies to the ball and blows up the blocker, and Lewis is able to make the tackle.
• The Rice receiver might have been bobbling that ball. Rice thinks so too and is running the no huddle.
• Rice’s line is getting whipped right now. They’re doubling the two defensive tackles and that allowed the end to come and make the tackle untouched.
• As I’ve said over and over again, that spread punt formation is the dumbest thing in college football. Texas gets the ball at their 33.
• Colt is holding the ball a tick too long on the deep ball. Another underthrown bomb and another incompletion. He’s got a good enough arm if he gets rid of it a little quicker he’d be a lot more successful.
• Long run by Charles on the single back counter.
• Another ill advised deep ball. Come on Colt. Be smart. Interception but there’s flag on the play.
• McCoy bailed out by the pass interference call. That could have gone either way. First down Texas.
• John Chiles in the game. McCoy motioned left and Chiles ran the zone read. Nice idea but center Dallas Griffin got his ass beat and a Rice lineman blew up the play.
• Two incompletions and Texas will have to attempt a field goal.
• Ryan Bailey’s 44-yard field goal goes right down the middle.

Rice 0, Texas 10

• If our corners are going to give 15 yard cushion they can’t miss freaking tackles. Beasley whiffs and there’s a good gain for Rice.
• Ryan Palmer shows Beasley how to do it.
• Sergio Kindle in the game. Texas defensive line is blowing up the zone read every time.
• Looked like all the young linebackers might have been out there on that series. Rice has to punt.
• Cosby fair catches a line drive punt at the 10 and Texas starts this possession with bad field position.
• Charles lined up at wideout and McCoy puts a beautiful pass in his hands and Charles drops it. Would have been an easy 6.
• Colt is leaving all these short passes up high. Doesn’t seem to have the zip on it he did last season.
• The game is on regular FSN Southwest now so I’ll be doing less play by play and make more witty comments.

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Not a great college football weekend at all. Only two games between ranked teams and one of those is Georgia at Alabama but I’m not sure either of those teams are really that great. Not much interesting going on in the Big 12 either. Here’s today’s games worth watching:

(12) South Carolina at (2) LSU – 2:30 pm on CBS. How in the world did South Carolina climb to #12 in the rankings already? LSU looks incredible, they could make this one a blow out quick if Steve Spurrier can’t find some magic.

(10) Penn State at Michigan – 2:30 pm on ABC. Could be disasterous for the Big 10 if Michigan wins this game. Texan Ryan Mallett is starting again for the Wolverines, the kid has a cannon but hasn’t learned to use it yet.

Texas Tech at Oklahoma State – 2:30 pm on FSN. Is Oklahoma State really as bad as they’ve looked in their first three games? And what did they do to quarterback Bobby Reid? This is Texas Tech‘s first big boy opponent, any chance they keep things going now that they’re into Big 12 play.

Rice at (7) Texas – 6 pm on FSN. Can the Longhorns finally put up a dominant performance against an inferior opponent? If they can’t blow out the Owls the Interweb is going to explode. Make sure to check your local listings if there is an alternate channel (it’ll be on 667 on DirecTV) to catch the game in case Tech vs OSU runs long.

(22) Georgia at (16) Alabama – 6:45 pm on ESPN. Would Alabama be at #16 if Nick Saban wasn’t their coach? This is their last big test until November when they’ll face LSU. Texas fans wanted QB Matt Stafford bad, will it ever click for him and the Bulldogs offense?

Texas A&M gets blown out by an average Miami team. The Aggies are wannabes.

Five things to watch in the Rice vs. Texas game from an Owls point of view.

Orakpo and Ulatoski are out against Rice. Sherrod Harris should be back but John Chiles is still listed at #2 QB.

I don’t know what’s wrong with you guys, why can’t you just leave Coach Fran alone!!!

Amazing work. Incredibly funny stuff and nice job working in the shots at other Big 12 coaches, though I’m not sure which coach showers with his sister. The Tay Zonday/Chocolate Rain reference was also perfect. It’s rare to find an Aggie who doesn’t take themselves too seriously.

If you’ve been living under a bridge here’s the inspiration video from a Britney Spears fan (and Seth Green mocking him) who posted their deranged impassioned plea to America on YouTube.

Chevrolet’s PrepTicket has some good video up on their profile of future Longhorn wide receiver [tag]DeSean Hales[/tag]:

Hales is a running back and receiver for Klein Oak High School and is just flat out fun to watch. Kid is going to bring some much needed elite speed to the offense when he gets on campus. He might be able to really have a big impact on kick returns starting as early as his true freshman year.

(via)

Charlie Weis is a jerk. Notre Dame refuses to release ex-QB Demetrius Jones from his scholarship.

UT President William Powers responds to latest Longhorn arrest. Supports Mack Brown & says playing at Texas is a privilege.