40 Acres Sports

10. Cal. Cal is a definite BCS threat this year, as they are returning 15 starters. We will get a good idea of just how good they are quickly, with early season tests against Tennessee and Minnesota.

9. Miami. With more experience under their belt, Miami’s offense should be much improved this season. Losing Moss and Moore in the first game of the season against Florida State is costly, but if they can make it past that they should do well.

8. Florida. QB Chris Leak finally doesn’t have to learn a new offense this year. He should be more comfortable this season with head coach Urban Meyer. They do have a tough schedule though, facing Alabama, LSU and Auburn all in consecutive weeks.

7. Auburn. When you return both your starting quarterback and starting tailback at a school like Auburn, you should have a solid team. They also have their toughest matchups at home this year.

6. LSU. LSU has one of the toughest schedules you could imagine, playing at Auburn, at Florida, and at Tennessee. Their defense should keep them in every game, and may just be enough to win.

5. West Virginia. Pat White may be the fastest quarterback in college football and their 1-2 punch at tailback in Slaton and Schmitt should prove to be hard to stop. I think the downfall for this team may be the fact they are in the lowly Big East, where the competition is suspect.

4. Notre Dame. For some reason it really pains me to have Notre Dame this high, but with their offensive talent and Weis’ gameplan make them hard to beat. If they can last through their schedule, they are a clear Top 5 team.

3. Southern Cal. Even thought they lost two Heisman trophy winners, USC has some serious talent on their team. Chauncey Washington will help ease the drop-off of losing Bush, and Booty and Sanchez are both nice options to replace Leinart. The linebackers on defense are solid, but the defense as a whole is a little questionable.

2. Ohio State. No one can really question their talent at offense. Troy Smith is the flashy quarterback on the No. 1 team, but he is no Vince Young. I was really impressed with Antonio Pittman last season, and he should have another excellant year. The big question mark here is their defense, as it seems like almost everyone left for the NFL.

1. Texas. Defending National Champs. Redshirt freshman Colt McCoy and true freshman Jevan Snead have impossible shoes to fill, but the zone read offense is well established in Texas and both of these QBs can run. The offensive line is one of the best in the nation, returning 3 starters including Plano East’s own Justin Blalock. Texas has ridiculous depth at running back, and Jamaal Charles is an early candidate for the Heisman Trophy. The defense has a lot of depth and is as fast as ever, and should be good enough to help the offense win games if needed.

The preseason BlogPoll is now up. Nothing too out of the ordinary here. Auburn seems to be getting a little more love in the Blogosphere than in the media, and Cal with a first place vote? Come on now.

Brian and I will soon be releasing our Preseason Top 10.

1. Ohio State (20)
2. Texas (11)
3. Auburn (9)
4. Southern Cal (5)
5. Notre Dame (8)
6. LSU (2)
7. Florida
8. West Virginia
9. Miami
10. California (1)

Mack said if the season started today Adam Ulatoski would be the starting RT.

Part of a great ESPN feature comparing the two games.

The new SI magazine for August 21, 2006 will be sporting regional Special Edition covers, with 6 teams who they think will be battling it out for #1. Below are the cover images (click to enlarge photo), along with who is on each cover.

I have put them in order of who I think are the Top 6. I almost put Ohio State #1, except apparently they have someone who thinks they can drink 30-40 beers per day. My theory is that it was probably O’Doul’s.

It looks like ESPN is doing something similar, but is only using 3 different covers.

I don’t think you can put A&M over Tech till we see if their defense is any better.

It’d have to be a pretty big job to get Chizik, I’m not sure one opens up this year.

Selvin is being a vocal influence on the team & looks slimmer and quicker.

List includes Jevan Snead and Sergio Kindle.

Fox 4 in Dallas is reporting that former Texas defensive tackle Marco Martin has been arrested on charges he molested a six-year-old boy. Martin would have been 15 or 16 at the time of the alleged assault in 1999. Martin turned himself in to Dallas police this morning.

Details are sounding a little sketchy right now. The police say the victim came forward last year but somehow they are claiming they couldn’t find a person who was probably on TV (on the sidelines) every weekend. It also seems odd that the victim took so long to come forward with the allegations, though with a child that young it is more understandable. If the allegations are true, then this is a tragic and disgusting story. I have no tolerance for child molestors but the situation seems to warrant withholding judgement until we learn more. Let’s hope for the sake of everyone involved there’s nothing to this.

Martin was a top recruit who tore his ACL his senior year in high school and was never able to get back into football shape. The player nicknamed “Big Yummy” was reported to be up above 400 pounds. He left school early after last year without (I believe) ever playing a down for the Longhorns.