40 Acres Sports

Can’t overcome the fielding woes and lack of hitting two nights in a row.

Man, is there a huge gap between #2 and #3.

Longhorns blow a lead but freshman [tag]Kyle Russell[/tag] comes up with his first collegiate hit at just the right time. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth Russell drove a fastball into Minute Maid Field’s Crawford Boxes for a walk-off, 2-run home run and the win. (Video of the homer is below.) Big time hit in an important situation for Russell, who has big time potential. Though the offense came alive a little this weekend, hopefully Russell will get a few more at bats and an opportunity to prove what he can do.

Kyle McCulloch pitched seven strong innings but Kenn Kasparek’s wildness and poor defense let Rice tie things up in the eighth inning. Kasparek definitely has the stuff to be a closer, but he’ll have to grow into the role as the year goes on. Longhorn pitchers struck out fourteen batters during the game. Left handed freshman Kyle Walker came in the 8th, got the win, and looked very good doing it. He got all four outs via strikeout, didn’t give up a hit, and had unhittable stuff.

The offense didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard but some of the newcomers like Preston Clark and Brett Lewis have started to produce. Drew Stubbs is going to have to hit in the middle of the lineup for this team to make a run in Omaha, but right now he’s scuffling. He has to learn to lay off the curveball in the dirt.

The team has already come a long way in two weeks.

Sure am glad I didn’t actually try to watch this whole thing. Longhorns were only on for about a minute, but still some good PR for the Horns with the female/unemployed market segment. A little bit of video of Matthew McConaughey and the team before the Rose Bowl and celebrating the win, and then some short stuff from Mack Brown, Rashad Bobino, and Limas Sweed. Bobino seems like a fun kid.

Video including Craig Way saying “the Texas Longhorns are college football’s national champions” in front of ten million television viewers is below.

Video removed by YouTube. The DMCA is dumb.

Close game at the half but fifteen point run midway through second half puts the game away.

Alaniz throws 7 strong innings in win over UH.

Texans exercise David Carr’s $8 million option.

The Statesman has illustrations of the proposed changes to DKR – Texas Memorial Stadium. The $150 million in additions will include closing the North end zone with seating and a new veterans memorial plaza. It’s also going to make it really rectangular. The new end zone seats will be pretty close and should be a pretty decent view.

The changes should be completed by the 2008 season.

Someone ought to tell A&M signee Terrence McCoy that Dennis Franchione gave him that wad of cash in a plain envelope under the table for a reason:

McCoy, who said he’s been looking forward to Wednesday since he watched Jaime sign his letter of intent a year ago, has received positive reports from his brother about A&M and the football program.

“They take care of you down there,” McCoy said. “I know from my brother they keep your pockets full, give you plenty of money, keep feeding you meals. Besides that all the help they give you with football. They keep you on your grades with private tutoring. Just good all-around.”

I know you’re not on campus yet Terrence, but I’m pretty sure you should know that’s the kind of thing you have to keep on the down low. I guess the Aggies have never been too good at this cheating stuff, but that sure hasn’t stopped them from trying.

Coach Franchione posted a clarification of McCoy’s comments, here’s an excerpt:

To explain in detail what a football scholarship provides for a student-athlete would take more time and space than either you or I have. Frankly, I doubt you could grasp the numbers. The meal plan alone costs hundreds–hundreds!–of dollars. But basically, they receive tuition, fees, books, room and meals. In addition, under certain specified conditions they are entitled to meal stipends – such as when the place they eat on their meal plan isn’t open, usually a modestly priced restaurant tab plus unlimited alcohol, which comes to around $200 a meal – or sometimes meal per diems when we’re traveling in our gold leaf painted, hot-tub equipped Aggie Land Cruiser with the twenty-sixes spinning. It ought to be a crime to be this hood! That kind of rhyme dropping keeps the street cred flowing like water, wodi.

Vince to serve as host and Houston tour guide all week long.