40 Acres Sports

Lyle Sendlein to start at center Sunday for Arizona Cardinals. The Texas rookie will get a big chance to play for him hometown team.

Take a photo tour of UCF’s new Bright House Networks Stadium. Very nice looking, it should be packed this Saturday. (via)

ESPN’s Forde-Yard Dash bashes Notre Dame and mocks Texas A&M. Pat Forde is obviously a smart man.

The first giveaway was a big success so we’re doing it again. Sign up using this entry form and you could win a great t-shirt from Bevo Sports and SportsCrack.

We will randomly select a winner from entries submitted to this form and the winner will receive a free t-shirt of their choice from SportsCrack. No strings attached, just cool free stuff from your favorite Texas website.

We recommend supporting your favorite quarterback with a burnt orange The Real McCoy t-shirt or maybe let people know what you think of Pete Carrol’s boys with an FUSC shirt. If you win you can choose any SportsCrack shirt valued at $17 or less. There’s a bunch of great looking and high quality shirts to choose from no matter which team you root for.

Comments on this post are open only for questions about the contest, you must fill out this entry form to win. Only one entry per person will be accepted. Duplicate entries will result in disqualification. The contest ends Friday at 12:01 AM Central time, so have your submission in by then to win. We will announce the winner Friday afternoon.

Good luck!

Update: Contest closed, we’ll announce the winner soon. Thanks for reading the site!

Statesman Longhorns Notebook. Tidbits on Sam Acho, the first road trip, Nate Jones, and the secondary.

The doctor of former UT commit Kevin Everett is now optimistic he will walk again. Great news for him and his family.

Much to the fans’ delight, UT’s offense is becoming more pass-first and using more formations. I’m glad it happened before the OU game.

Texas is ranked number four in BCS according to BCS Guru. These things are exceedingly useless this early. (via)

A few more exciting games on today’s schedule than last week, including a big matchup for Texas against the TCU Horned Frogs. Two ranked teams and the game is on freaking FSN. The Big 12 desperately needs a better television contract if it wants to be thought of as an equal to the SEC and Big 10.

Miami at (5) Oklahoma – 11 am on ABC. Texas fans will be rooting for the Hurricanes but if OU blows this one it’s going to be tough for the Big 12 to get any respect this season nationally. Can the Sooners’ offense move the ball against Miami the way the did against UNT?

(16) Nebraska at Wake Forest – 11 am on ESPN. Wake Forest played well against Boston College last week but the Cornhuskers should be able to run away with this one. Marlon Lucky is a stud.

Fresno State at (23) Texas A&M – 2:30 pm on FSN. Could be a trap game for the Aggies. This isn’t the same top 25 caliber Fresno State team that was hanging with USC a few years back but if A&M comes out flat they’re good enough to pull off the upset.

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Last week’s keys didn’t work out so well. We barely won, Brian Orakpo got hurt, and John Chiles could barely even see the field from where he was sitting on the bench. Let’s hope the Horns come out firing against [tag]TCU[/tag] and turn things around for the rest of the season.

1. Get Jamaal Charles running north/south.

There was some minor controversy this week over a [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] quote on Scout that the Longhorns’ sideways running style had made him more hesitant. I’m not sure he should have said it, but I agree with him. I don’t know if it’s Charles or the system (or both) but if your running back is spending half his time running lateraly you’re not going to be successful consistently. If we’re not running the zone read with an athletic QB then we should take a cue from teams like the Indianapolis Colts, which Greg Davis spent time with this offseason. If we can’t run more consistently from the shotgun then we have to put Colt McCoy under center more.

2. Don’t give receivers a ten-yard cushion.

It doesn’t matter who our cornerbacks are if we continue to give wide receivers a 10+ yard cushion. Playing that far off you’re not going to get burned deep but you’re also going to let the opposing QB eat you alive ten yards at a time. If you let a quarterback get comfortable he’s making the easy passes. This week [tag]Duane Akina[/tag] has give Brandon Foster, Ryan Palmer, and/or Deon Beasley a better chance to succeed (or fail).

3. Convert short yardage opportunities.

Not being able to get one yard costs us two games last season and almost costs us against Arkansas State. If it’s first and goal from the two or third and one, the linemen have to be willing and able to whoop somebody’s a**. The offensive line didn’t have a terrible game against ASU but couldn’t get it done when it mattered. Texas should be a team that can maul and get 2 – 3 yards even if everyone in the stadium knows it’s coming, but we haven’t been able to do that since Cedric Benson left.