Apparently attending the Ramonce Taylor School of Idiocy, initial reports coming out of Austin are saying [tag]Tarell Brown[/tag], starting cornerback for the Texas Longhorns, has been arrested along with former Longhorn [tag]Aaron Harris[/tag] on charges of possession of marijuana and unlawfully carrying a gun. Could the timing be anyway worse for the Longhorns? Probably not.
Brown and former teammate Aaron Harris, a linebacker on last year’s national championship team, were booked into Travis County Central Booking Facility at 4:55 a.m. Monday.
Brown was charged with a Class A misdemeanor of unlawfully carrying a weapon. He and Harris were both charged with Class B misdemeanors of possession of 2 ounces or less of marijuana.
Longhorn football coach Mack Brown has been informed of the situation but has not yet spoken to Brown, a team official said.
This is about the worst thing that could happen to the Longhorns right now. Not only is Tarell expected to cover Ohio State’s deep threat Ted Ginn, Jr., but now the Longhorns have to deal with all of the distractions that are sure to come about from this. It is just a matter of time before the national media pick up on this story and ESPN will be blasting this all over their air waves. Hopefully the coaching staff can keep the players under control this week and maybe even move everybody into a controlled hotel environment.
Update: More details coming out show that three players are involved. Aaron Harris, Tarell Brown, and [tag]Tyrell Gatewood[/tag]. Aaron Harris was driving when they were pulled over and Tarell and Tyrell were asleep in the back. Hopefully Harris can take the fall for this and Tarell can play this weekend.
Update #2: The gun is reported to belong to Tyrell Gatewood. The story is that the gun was used earlier in the day at a shooting range. Then later while driving around the gun came out from under the front seat and Tarell grabbed it, put it in his lap and fell asleep. The cops came up to the car when Aaron Harris was pulled over and saw the gun in Tarell’s lap. According to Tarell’s lawyer, Tarell will be able to play in this weekend’s game against OSU. Thank goodness.
Update #3: It looks like Mack Brown is sitting out both Tarell Brown and Tyrell Gatewood for Saturday’s game against Ohio State.
Update #4: Now Brown and Gatewood’s attorney Jamie Balagio is saying that the two players were unnecessarily TASERED during their arrest. Man, this situation is getting weirder and weirder.
Update #5: The drug charges on both Tarell Brown and Tyrell Gatewood have been dropped. The gun charges still remain on Brown.
Read more to check out the arrest affidavit from Travis County.
In a nutshell, Texas had their way with Louisiana Lafayette, which is indicated by the 60-3 score. Texas did pretty much anything they wanted to on offense, including rushing for 418 yards. The defense was also stout, and you could tell right from the start that Louisiana Lafayette was going to have trouble doing anything. I guess the only real down spot is Saturday’s game is the special teams, who missed 3 extra points! Now let’s move on to a position-by-position look at how the Longhorns graded out on Saturday.
Quarterback – Overall Grade: A
After [tag]Vince Young[/tag]’s 5 touchdown performance in the Rose Bowl, there is no surprise that he entered this season as one of the top contenders for the Heisman Trophy. With all of that pressure, I was interested to see how he would perform. I think it is safe to say that Young did not disappoint. Young finished the game with an efficient 13-17 for 173 yards. He looked to be very comfortable throwing the ball and you could tell he has gained a lot of confindence this past off-season. [tag]Matt Nordgren[/tag] played for most of the second half but did not attempt a single pass attempt. He did scramble a few times, showing off an interesting technique of gaining more yards when going out of bounds.
Running Backs – Overall Grade: A+
Texas appears to have a full stable of speedy and powerful tailbacks to compliment quarterback Vince Young this year. Freshman running backs [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] and [tag]Henry Melton[/tag] had a huge impact on the game, with Charles running for 135 yards and 1 score and Melton running for 65 yards and 2 scores. I swear it looked like Melton couldn’t be tackled. A bigger and quicker [tag]Selvin Young[/tag] added 65 yards and speedster [tag]Ramonce Taylor[/tag] also added 65 yards. With a total of 418 yards, I would say things are definitely looking good for the Texas running game.
Receivers / Tight Ends – Overall Grade: B
[tag]David Thomas[/tag] was up to his usual self, making big plays and scored 2 touchdowns on 3 catches. With his 2 touchdowns, David Thomas moved into fifth place all-time at Texas for a tight end with his 51th career reception. Senior [tag]Brian Carter[/tag] also help out by setting a career high with three receptions against the Ragin’ Cajuns for 65 yards, matching his previous career total of three receptions in only the first half. [tag]Nate Jones[/tag], [tag]Limas Sweed[/tag], and [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] also performed well, with Nate Jones scoring his first career touchdown. It was nice to see some consistency in this group and I look forward to seeing them improve this year.
Offensive Line – Overall Grade: A+
Considering that Selvin Young, Jamaal Charles, Henry Melton, Ramonce Taylor and Vince Young averaged 9.5 yards per carry, I would say that the offensive line did pretty well on Saturday. [tag]Justin Blalock[/tag] (fellow Plano East grad) led the offensive line who just totally dominated Louisana Lafayette. Hopefully they keep the same aggressiveness next Saturday against OSU.