40 Acres Sports

It may be the biggest game in [tag]UTEP[/tag] football history but tonight’s game featuring the Texas Longhorns and UTEP Miners should be over quickly. The Longhorns are the team traveling 600 miles west (without leaving the state), but tonight the Miners will be the ones sent packing.

Las Vegas has the Horns as 26.5 point favorites, but read on below to see how we see tonight’s game shaking out:

Matt – I think last week [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] proved to a lot of people that he is going to be a different player this year. He ran with purpose and threw with amazing accuracy. Colt and the Longhorns offense rolled over FAU and racked up 52 points pretty easily. They will probably score at least that much this week and it might be just as easy. UTEP’s defense is not what you would call impressive, and their offense isn’t much better. I will be interested in seeing how the young safeties respond this week after struggling a little in their first game. This one shouldn’t be close.

Texas 55 – UTEP 16

Brian – This looked like a tougher game before UTEP got blown out by Buffalo last week. The Miners might not be that bad and were simply been looking ahead to this week’s game, but the Longhorns should still crush them. I fear the late start means Texas comes out of the gate a little slowly but things should be rolling by the start of the second quarter. [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] and [tag]John Chiles[/tag] both have huge games tonight on the ground as the Horns gash them with their running game.

Texas 45 – UTEP 17

The [tag]UTEP[/tag] fans and players have likely had this weekend circled on the calendar for months. Their match-up against the Longhorns might be the biggest game they’ve ever played in the Sun Bowl. After the Miners’ loss to lowly Buffalo last week this game lost a little luster, but the Texas team still has plenty to work on both for this game and the rest of the season.

Read below for the Longhorns’ keys to beat the UTEP Miners:

1. Don’t sleepwalk to start the game.

A 9:15pm game time is not normal for the Texas players but they can’t let it affect the way they start the game. There’s going to be a lot more downtime for the team on gameday but the players need to find a way to get into their routine and be ready for the opening kickoff. If it takes Texas two quarters to wake up, UTEP will gain confidence and start believing the upset is possible.

2. Secondary play must improve.

The young secondary certainly looked inexperienced in the first half against FAU before they settled down a bit. UTEP quarterback Trevor Vittatoe had a rough season opener but was great in 2007 and will test the pass defense. There have to be fewer mental mistakes and fewer missed tackles this week and the safeties in particular need to improve quickly. The passing defense may not hurt the Horns this week or even against Arkansas, but when the team travels to Colorado in October they better not be playing like freshmen anymore.

3. Get more big plays out of the running game.

[tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] and [tag]Chris Ogbonnaya[/tag] were both solid last week but the longest run of the game came on a 25-yard scamper from QB [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag]. The offense was near perfect but not explosive, this week it would be good to see McGee take one 30+ yards to the house. Getting the speedy [tag]Fozzy Whittaker[/tag] back will certainly help but he’s still not full strength yet.

4. Hit UTEP quarterback Trevor Vittatoe.

The best way to help out the secondary is by getting after the quarterback. The defensive line did get decent pressure on FAU QB Rusty Smith but didn’t record a single sack. That has to change this week. Against UTEP the Horns will likely stay pretty vanilla on defense but the team should still be able to get to and hit Vittatoe repeatedly. I want to see at least one sack each from [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag], [tag]Henry Melton[/tag], and [tag]Sergio Kindle[/tag] Saturday night.

Honestly, there really aren’t too many exciting games to watch this weekend. It’s almost like all of college football is waiting for next week’s match-up of USC and Ohio State. The game to watch this weekend has to be Miami at Florida. Florida hasn’t beat Miami in 23 years but will come into this game as huge favorites. Definitely something to watch before the Texas/UTEP game kicks off. Let’s see what else looks good this weekend.

Cincinnati at #4 Oklahoma (O/U 53) – 3:30 PM EST on ABC. After barely breaking a sweat last week against Chattanooga, I am pretty interested in seeing what Oklahoma will do against a real team in Cincinnati. Now I am not saying Cincinnati is a world beater or anything, but they have been making some real improvements in their program and are coming off of a bowl win. Oklahoma looks unstoppable, and the Bearcats run a spread offense, so this game as the potential to be a very high scoring affair. I think this game easily goes over the 53 point total, and probably more around the 70 mark.

Miami (FL) at #7 Florida (-23) – 8:00 PM EST on ESPN. Like I mentioned above Florida hasn’t beaten Miami in 23 years, so I expect Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators to be pretty jacked up for this game. But even though they are heavy favorites, you can never know what to expect in these in-state rivalry games. I don’t think Miami will pull out the victory in this one, but I think their defense can keep them in it enough to cover the 23 points they are getting.

#10 Texas at UTEP (+27) – 10:15 PM EST on ESPN2. Texas looked really impressive on offense last week and should continue that trend this weekend against UTEP. UTEP struggled in their opening match-up against Buffalo allowing 484 yards and 42 points. Hopefully this will be a good opportunity for the Texas secondary to get on track. I’m sure [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] gave them an earful after getting beat several times last week against [tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag]. Even though this game is on the road, I see Texas winning by 35 and easily covering the spread.

Finally some football. After one week of games the top 5 in the weekly Big 12 power poll stays the same but there were a few changes in the list. [tag]Kansas State[/tag] looked good and jumps a couple of spots and meanwhile the Aggies drop big time after their loss to Arkansas State. Check out the rankings below:

1. [tag]Oklahoma[/tag]

   
   LW: 1

   Not that you can really learn a lot when you play a team like Chattanooga but the Sooners were about as dominant as you can be. They were a perfect 7-for-7 on drives to start the game and were up 50-0. Amazingly they outgained Chattanooga 343-to-10 in the first half and 487-to-36 for the game. Dominant.

2. Texas

   
   LW: 2

   The Longhorns played a much tougher opponent than OU and were pretty much just as dominant, certainly on the offensive side of the ball. Quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] was near perfect and the offense could have and did do whatever they wanted to against FAU. The pass defense looked eerily familiar to last season, let’s hope that was an aberration or the offense may have to put up 52 every week to win once in Big 12 conference play.

3. [tag]Missouri[/tag]

   
   LW: 3

   The Tigers had easily the toughest opening week opponent and for parts of their game against Illinois looked like a national title contender, but their defense made Juice Williams look like Dan Marino to the tune of 451 yards and 5 TDs. Kick returner Jeremy Maclin was electric but left with an ankle injury, Missouri fans better have their fingers crossed he stays healthy all year or they’re not going to be able to outscore every team on their schedule.

4. [tag]Texas Tech[/tag]

   
   LW: 4

   That improved defense sure looked good giving up 17 points in the second quarter to Eastern Washington. Just as troubling is that the offense “only” had 35 points after the end of three quarters. They sure looked like the same Red Raiders team who drops 4 or 5 games per season.

5. [tag]Colorado[/tag]

   
   LW: 5

   The Buffs looked pretty solid in a rivalry game against Colorado State. They played well on offense, defense, and Josh Smith had a 93-yard kickoff return for a score. Things are going get a lot tougher starting with West Virginia on 9/18.

6. [tag]Kansas State[/tag]

   
   LW: 8

   Great first win for the Wildcats and QB Josh Freeman against North Texas. Freeman was efficient and error-free throwing the ball and added two scores on the ground, an impressive game that could give him confidence for the rest of the season. The KSU defense completely shut down Todd Dodge’s spread offense attack whose only score came on a 15-yard drive.

7. [tag]Nebraska[/tag]

   
   LW: 6

   The Bo Pelini era starts off with a win but not an overly impressive one. The Huskers’ offense looked good but the defense gave up over 340 yards through the air to Western Michigan quarterback Tim Hiller. I think NU needs to control the game with Marlon Lucky and the running game in order to improve on their 5-win 2007 season.

8. [tag]Kansas[/tag]

   
   LW: 9

   The Jayhawks were in complete control of the game by halftime and cruised to an easy opening week win against Florida International. Todd Reesing threw 52 passes in a very busy and effiecent performance. The KU defense looked goosd as well, giving up only 139 total yards.

9. [tag]Iowa State[/tag]

   
   LW: 10

   San Diego State isn’t a big time opponent but Gene Chizik’s Cyclones did what they’re supposed to do against this caliber of an opponent. Last year started with losses to Kent State and Northern Iowa so a win is a win for this program. They finished the season pretty strong last year so they should be gaining confidence and a win over Kent State would give them good momentum going into the Iowa game.

10. [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag]

    
    LW: 11

    Good start for the Cowboys. Washington State is a middle-of-the-road Pac 10 team but they’re better than a lot of the other Big 12 opponents and OSU won easily. They were in control throughout the game and their return men twice set the offense up for easy points.

11. Texas A&M

    
    LW: 7

    Uh oh. I didn’t expect a huge season from the Aggies this season but not only did they lose to Arkansas State but they looked terrible doing it. Mistake-prone and average in all three phases of the game. QB Stephen McGee didn’t play well but that might have something to do with offensive line and the fact that his top two receivers in the game were the second and third string quarterbacks.

12. [tag]Baylor[/tag]

    
    LW: 12

    I thought they’d give Wake Forest more of a fight than they did but it wasn’t a terrible opening week showing under a new head coach. Best news for Baylor fans is it looks like they may have found their quarterback for the next 4 seasons in true freshman Robert Griffin.

1. Notre Dame Stadium

Of all of the college football stadiums in the country, none have the aura or mystique of Notre Dame Stadium. Maybe it’s because I have watched the movie Rudy so many times (greatest sports movie ever), but there is just something about this stadium that makes we want to watch a game there. And even though I usually feel Notre Dame is the most over-hyped team in the nation, they still have the best stadium in college football.

The following quote probably sums up everything best:

“This is not merely a football field,” says Notre Dame’s Official Campus Guide. “It is an experience, a uniquely Notre Dame synthesis of sport, tradition, pride, loyalty, and belief.

It is haunted by a thousand ghosts of glorious seasons past: the Four Horsemen riding into immortality on the words of Grantland Rice; the multi-talented George Gipp and “Jumpin’ Joe” Savoldi; Joe Montana, a field general in a green jersey; Raghib “The Rocket” Ismail flying toward the end zone; and, of course, Knute Rockne, pioneer of the forward pass, master of the locker room speech, brilliant motivator, relentless innovator, and though gone from the gridiron since 1930, still the most victorious coach (winning an amazing .881 of his games) in college football history.”

I know this might not be everyone’s favorite, but it is definitely mine. Check back soon for more of our Top 5’s.

College football’s best stadiums

1. Notre Dame Stadium
2. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field
3. Tiger Stadium
4. Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium
5. Michigan Stadium

Unless you’re brand new around here you’ve no doubt noticed some major changes to Bevo Sports this week. We’re officially Version 2.0!

It’s been a long time in the making, starting as a list of features and some simple sketches on paper back in March, design finally started in June, development in August, and miraculously we had the site live and running on schedule for the opening weekend of the 2008 college football season.

The most obvious difference is the site has undergone a major design facelift. We’ve redesigned everything from the ground up. A new clean, modern look that we think not only looks good but is going to make the site is easier to use. We’ve also reorganized everything to make it easier to find what you’re looking for. All content is grouped by sport, select football, basketball, baseball, or recruiting from the top navigation to find the latest coverage and analysis of each sport. Everything else will be listed under the Other Sports drop down.

The homepage has been completely reworked to present more content to you in and better highlight all the best stuff the site has to offer. Next to the main features you’ll find the most recent and most read articles. Below it are all the latest stories grouped by sport, the top performers from the most recent games, and the latest video featured on the site. Schedules, rosters, depth charts, and more for each sport are also right around the corner.

Just as importantly, the roster of editors on the site is also about to grow. We’re actively looking for writers to help us continue to expand the quantity and the quality of the content on Bevo Sports. We’ll have a full article on what we’re looking for and what’s in it for you soon, but if you’re eager to throw you hat in the ring please let us know. The site is only going to get better and better.

We’re not done yet though. We’ve got more changes still to be made, additional features to be added, and likely bugs to squash (but hopefully not too many). Please let us know via the contact form if you run into any problems, have trouble finding anything, or just have a feature request or comments on the new site. We hope you enjoy the new and improved site!

The team formerly known as the Seattle Supersonics officially debuted their new Oklahoma City team name and logo this evening. To no one’s surprise the team name is the Oklahoma City Thunder, but I’m not sure anyone expected the logo to be completely terrible. I’d love to support [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag], but I’m not wearing anything with that on it.

It honestly appears as if they spent $71 at TemplateMonster or LogoMaker.com. They used so much money paying off the city of Seattle that they were forced to get on the Internet and search for “basketball logo templates” and after 10 minutes decided on “Basketball team logo 3” you see now on their merchandise. Wow.

The logo says nothing about the team, the city, or the mascot. All it says is swooshy colors and “basketball.” I just hope the state of Oklahoma never gets a pro football team, I shudder to think what their logo would look like.

Good luck up there Kevin, you’re going to need it.

2. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field

First off I would like to say that I am definitely not a Gators fan. In fact, they are probably in my Top 5 least favorite college football teams. But the one thing they have going for them in my book is The Swamp. Bottomline is that opposing teams really just don’t have much of shot to win there. Steve Spurrier was 68-5 in 11 years and Urban Meyer is already 22-1.

And it was actually Spurrier who gave Florida Field its nickname, The Swamp. Following the 1991 season, Spurrier was quoted as saying “The swamp is where Gators live. We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous.” And so the name stuck.

An interesting fact: In EA Sports’ college football video game franchise, NCAA Football, The Swamp has been ranked as the #1 toughest place to play in every version in which home field advantage has been included.

Check back soon for our #1 favorite college football stadium.

College football’s best stadiums

1. Notre Dame Stadium
2. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field
3. Tiger Stadium
4. Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium
5. Michigan Stadium

Think new defensive coordinator [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] gets fired up during the game? Well check out this photo of Muschamp taken during Saturday’s game against [tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag].

Rumor has it that he took out his frustration on a clipboard during a play when the secondary busted pass coverage early in the game. He obviously didn’t care about the blood since it looks like he let it stream down his face while he was laying into the defense. No wonder they picked up their intensity.

If you haven’t already seen his YouTube videos from his days at Auburn, you should definitely check them out. As you can see, he definitely gets fired up (warning: strong language).

Obviously the Texas Longhorns were supposed to beat [tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag] pretty easily (24 point favorites), but I was a little worried about how they were going to perform with all of their young talent. But I must say that I came away from the game very impressed overall. The offense looked solid, the defense was decent, and they looked liked they were playing with some confidence. I am looking forward to seeing this team progress.

Now let’s look at how each position fared.

Quarterback – Overall Grade: A

If there were any doubts about how [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] would perform this year, he quickly put the naysayers to bed by completing his first 13 passes and 19 out of his first 20. And if that wasn’t enough he tacked on 100 yards rushing, joining [tag]Vince Young[/tag] as only the second player in school history with 200 yards passing and 100 yards rushing in the same game. One of the best things about Colt’s running was he didn’t have that chicken-with-his-head-cutoff style he seemed to have perfected last year, but that he actually ran with a purpose. And luckily for us, he was even able to survive two very late cheap shots from the FAU linebackers on the sideline.

[tag]John Chiles[/tag] also got into the action as both QB and in the new “Q package” on offense. The Q package didn’t necessarily contribute to any big plays, but having Chiles out there with Colt at the same time definitely made the defense think a little extra. Hopefully will get to see this a little more throughout the season. Chiles also threw for his first touchdown, 29 yards down the middle to WR James Kirkendoll.

Running Backs – Overall Grade: B+

The running backs didn’t do anything to get me too excited, but [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag], [tag]Chris Ogbonnaya[/tag], and [tag]Cody Johnson[/tag] all had solid games. All three scored touchdowns, and Ogbonnaya even caught 4 passes for 35 yards and a touchdown.

I must say I am a big fan of McGee and I think he has a lot of potential to be a great running back this year. He showed that he isn’t afraid to run up the middle, and also has the speed on the outside. McGee finished with 63 yards and 1 touchdown. Even though they split a lot of time at the running back position, I expect to see a few 100 yard games out of McGee this season.

Receivers – Overall Grade: B

It’s easy to have a good game as a wide receiver when the quarterback is on fire. Tight end [tag]Blaine Irby[/tag] had a stand-out game catching 7 passes for 62 yards and a touchdown. Irby seemed to be Colt’s safety valve throughout the game. [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] put in a solid performance, including a nice touchdown catch in the back of the end zone. I do hope to see some more production out of [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] in the next game. Cosby never really seemed to be a factor, and dropped a catchable ball from McCoy after a nice scramble.

Defense – Overall Grade: B-

It’s hard to give the defense a B- when they only allowed 10 points, but the secondary looked somewhat shaky throughout the game. Our young safeties struggled as expected, as redshirt freshman [tag]Earl Thomas[/tag] got beat on several big plays. At least he helped to make up for it with a blocked punt. The front seven was actually pretty strong. Even though the defense did not record a sack, they were constantly putting pressure on FAU QB Rusty Smith and forcing him to make some hurried decisions. Muschamp definitely has some work to do with this defense, but one good sign is it looks like they responded well after giving up to early red zone drives.

Special Teams – Overall Grade: B-

Starting the game off by kicking it out-of-bounds is not something I wanted to see. I am not sure why we always struggle with the kick-off, but it is something they eventually need to correct. Quan Cosby was returning some punts, which is pretty scary considering he is one of our main receivers. Not sure we can handle an injury to Cosby at this point. Earl Thomas’ blocked punt was nice, and I think having Akina back focused on special teams will be a good thing this year.

Overall – Overall Grade: B+

Like I said, overall I was pretty impressed with the performance. The offense executed well and Colt looks like he is back on track. There are still some things we need to sure up on defense, but they are young and have a lot of potential to be very good.