40 Acres Sports

Texas takes on [tag]Iowa State[/tag] and former Texas coach Gene Chizik today at 11:30 on FSN and the team is still looking for it’s first Big 12 win of the season. Riding a four game conference losing streak the Horns are looking to get back on track against an ISU team that has struggled mightily this season under their new coach.

The Longhorns are big favorites, but here are three things to watch for in today’s game:

1. Hold on to the freaking football.

[tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag]’ fumble last week wasn’t the only mistake the Longhorns made in the loss to Oklahoma but it was certainly a back breaker. He’s run hard and pretty well despite an inexperienced offensive line and a sometimes questionable offensive scheme, but at some point that doesn’t matter if you can’t hold on to the football consistently. For me that point was last week. It’s time to get [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] more touches and keep Charles on the sideline when the Horns get inside the red zone.

2. Play more young guys.

McGee isn’t the only youngster who needs to start seeing increased playing time. Texas is a program that should be (and has been) a perennial top 10 team but they’re not likely to end there this season so it’s time to start looking towards 2008. This doesn’t mean throw in the towel on this season, on the contrary playing guys like Sergio Kindle, Deon Beasley, McGee, John Chiles, and Michael Huey should give the Horns a boost in 2007 as well. I hope these guys can get some meaningful early minutes and that Texas pulls away enough to get them even more time in the second half.

3. Try a double pass or other trick play.

Trick plays sure worked well against Texas’ Gene Chizik coached defense last year so today seems like a great day to finally execute the Colt McCoy to [tag]John Chiles[/tag] double pass. The Horns tried it last week against OU but couldn’t hold off defenders long enough to give Chiles a chance to throw. Chiles just needs to play more in general and not just on trick plays. So far every time he’s been in the game the play call has involved him so defenses are able to key on him and be on the lookout for trickeration. Line him up out wide and send him on a normal pass route a few times per game.

Horns are facing ex-coach Gene Chizik for first time. Tough season for Chizik, but unlike Greg Robinson at Syracuse I don’t feel sorry for him.

Yes, you are reading that right. This is an actual headline to an actual story that KUSports.com is currently running on their site.

I would assume Coach Mangino knows that he is more than a little overweight, but if I were him I might be a little upset that my own school website is making fun of me. I truly hope that editor had permission to run with that image.

As you know from reading this site, we like to talk trash just as much as the next fan. But I think Texas Tech fans might have gone a little too far with this one.

It has been reported that a student at Texas Tech has designed a t-shirt that says “Vick ’em” on the front, and the back shows an image of a football player (Vick) hanging Reveille. While I guess you could call this “clever”, it will no doubt cause an uproar in the public.

I am thinking this won’t help with the perception that Tech has a bunch of classless fans. It’s also kind of funny that this comes just a few months after Texas Tech announced Raider Power, a campaign the university start to help promote “Honor, Respect, Pride, Tradition.”

Original Rivals Thread

History says Horns can rebound. Texas has won at least nine games the last four times they started 4 – 2.

Upcoming opponents offer Texas chance to be 2-2 in Big 12. Iowa State and Baylor should mean two conference wins.

Does Texas need to find a mean streak to beat Oklahoma? Definitely need to find some way to focus and find more consistency.

Not that anyone wants to relive yesterday’s game, but ESPN’s highlights of the loss to [tag]Kansas State[/tag] are posted below if you’ve got the stomach for it:

It makes it even worse to know how close we were to taking the thing back over at the end of the first half and again in the third quarter. The kick and punt returns for touchdowns just absolutely killed any momentum and fire the team was able to muster. Every time the team (and me at home on the couch) thought we were back in it KState would do something to rip out our hearts again.

Just to help me back away from the ledge a little, videos of Florida, West Virginia, and of course Oklahoma getting upset this weekend are posted after the jump.

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Texas A&M gets blown out by an average Miami team. The Aggies are wannabes.

Big 12 Conference named Dan Beebe as its new commissioner Wednesday. Beebe replaces Kevin Weiberg who left to for the BTN.