40 Acres Sports

Texas track/football commit Marquise Goodwin part of winning relay team. Goodwin also won the World Junior long jump title.

Andre Jones sentenced, wants back on team. I hope he finds a place to restart his life, I’m not sure that’s at Texas.

Reunited, and it feels so good: The Texas Premier Football Camp. A Daily Texan report from the camp held by 3 former Texas receivers.

Kevin Durant makes “Best Cameo” of Orlando Summer League. I love to hear that Westbrook is playing so well.

In his latest blog entry ESPN’s Bruce Feldman shows some love to the Big 12 and Texas quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag]. Feldman is ranking his top quarterback conferences for the 2008 season and puts the Big 12 conference at the top.

Feldman loves the conference’s depth at the position and believes four QB’s have a legitimate shot to win the Heisman Trophy, including McCoy. It is surprising (and sad) to see the Pac-10 and ACC so far down in the rankings. The Pac-10 will bounce back quickly (especially if USC would share some of their QB talent) but I’m not sure what it will take for the ACC to rebound.

Check out his conference quarterback rankings below:

1. Big 12: This is a clear top choice thanks to a lot of heady leaders who make smart decisions and have proven to be very accurate with the ball. The league has four guys with legit Heisman hopes in Chase Daniel, Sam Bradford, Graham Harrell and Colt McCoy. A fifth, Todd Reesing of Kansas, is as tough and as sharp as they come, although I expect KU to backslide some this year. Behind those five is plenty more talent that probably could merit all-conference consideration in any other league save for the SEC. In fact, 10 of the league’s top 11 passers return. Depth-wise, this is better than it’s ever been for the Big 12.
2. Big Ten
3. SEC
4. Big East
5. MAC
6. Pac-10
7. WAC
8. ACC
9. MWC
10. C-USA
11. Sun Belt

From Kotaku.com:

About two weeks ago we reported that this is crunch time for the independent roster editors for NCAA 09, which goes to the street today. But as this video — of NCAA 09’s roster screen — shows, using a third-party edited file can can corrupt a team’s depth chart and its overall rating, if not delete the team entirely, until EA can patch the game.

For roster editors, this is a setback in a niche that has prided itself on near-instantaneous turnaround of complete roster files by the date the game drops. EA, we’re told, is working feverishly on a patch to resolve this problem. But for now, anyone who downloads any roster file should avoid editing it; and those who do choose to edit it should do so offline, as doing so online risks corruption and can crash the game, according to our source.

Conversations with that source tell of an entire, crucial weekend of work essentially lost. One early-bird editor, working off of a devkit and not a final copy of the game, already got a file out through EA Locker. Other roster editors used it as source for their own files, and discovered the glitch. Even though the original author removed that file, there is still some residual viral spread that could affect unwitting others. It and anything going around right now should be considered suspect until the game is patched.

“I was assured that when I release my rosters on Friday there shouldn’t be any problems wth them,” one editor, who demanded anonymity because of a close, unofficial relationship with EA, told Kotaku. A day-three release of a custom roster file was, to now, considered very late. Now it’s the earliest that a reliable file can be produced.

The corruption — and this could be a total shot in the dark — appears to involve nonstandard ASCII characters in certain players’ names in the roster file, such as the infamous A’Mod Ned of Florida International, who memorably waded into a melee between FIU and Miami in 2006 on a pair of crutches. Indeed FIU is one of several teams that go missing, for inexplicable reasons, after changes are made to a roster file that was already created and shared by one editor. While that editor has already removed the file from EA locker, others who downloaded it continue to send it to friends unwittingly.

If you intend to game with custom roster files on NCAA Football, you probably should not use them until you see that the game has downloaded a patch from Electronic Arts.

…Stephen W. out of Cedar Park.

Congratulations to Stephen for being randomly selected as the winner of a copy of NCAA Football 09 courtesy of Bevo Sports. Stephen entered our game giveaway contest simply by sending in his name and email address and now he’s being shipped the Xbox 360 version of the game. He’ll have the game soon and should be playing in a new online dynasty as the Horns by the end of the week.

Thanks to everyone for entering the contest and for reading the site. Keep tuning in here for more great content, all new features, and the chance at free stuff. Hook ’em!

Texas 2009 commit [tag]Chris Whaley[/tag] is one of the top recruits in the state and top running backs in the country. With 4.5 speed at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds (and still growing), Whaley possesses a rare combination of speed and power for a high school back. He’ll be a great complement to the speed backs (Vondrell McGee and Fozzy Whittaker) when he first gets on campus and could be Texas’ next big time running back.

Check out his highlights below:

Can’t wait till he gets onto the Forty Acres.

Kevin Durant wants to earn his degree from Texas. Took one class this summer and hopes to take more next summer.

Summer update: Cedric Dockery. I’d love to see him back playing the way he was before his injury in 2006.