40 Acres Sports

Chris Simms on his injury status and Texas’ trip to Central Florida. He’s expecting a big showing of Longhorns at the game. (via)

Is Chris Simms still hurt? Sounds like he’s still experiencing complications from his splenectomy.

Can’t blame him now that Petrino is gone. Why not Rutgers?

Former Texas quarterback Chris Simms had an emergency splenectomy today after the Tampa Bay Bucs lost to the Carolina Panthers. At some point during the game Simms ruptured his spleen but Simms played through the injury and led the Bucs to a go ahead field goal that did not hold up.

It was originally reported that Simms was in critical condition but that information was inaccurate. Simms had the surgery to remove his spleen, received blood transfusions, and will be Tampa’s St. Joseph’s Hospital for several days. He should make a full recovery but will probably miss several months and possibly the rest of the season. He’ll eventually be able to return to action and play without a spleen at no increased risk of injury.

This is very serious news for Chris and his family and our thoughts are with them as they get through this.

Lots of positive reports from the media on Chris lately, & good quotes from Coach Gruden.

Agrees to a one-year, $2.1 million deal.

[tag]Chris Simms[/tag] played well this afternoon as his Tampa Bay Buccaneers took on the Washington Redskins during the first weekend of the NFL playoffs but they came up a little short in the end. The former Longhorn QB was 25 of 38 for 198 yards and looked like a slower, less agile Vince Young on a 2 yard touchdown run in the third quarter. He led the Bucs into position for a game-tying score late in the fourth, but his perfect pass was dropped by Edell Shepherd and they then couldn’t convert a 4th down play.

Simms and Tampa Bay were killed by turnovers today as they gave an offensively inept Redskins team 14 early and easy points. They also had one last chance with 50 yards to go and one minute left on the clock but he had a pass batted at the line result in his second interception of the game. The game made my post about him getting too many passes tipped at the line back in November look prophetic.

Tough way to end the season but it sure looks like Chris has nailed down the starting job in Tampa Bay. Improve the offensive line this offseason, build around him and Cadillac Williams, add a little youth to that excellent defense and the Bucs should be a pretty good team next season.

Not much college football on this weekend (Hawai’i Bowl was a great game Friday night) but several Longhorns in the NFL had pretty good games Saturday.

• [tag]Chris Simms[/tag] led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a game-tying touchdown with less than a minute to go in regulation and two easy field goal opportunities in overtime. He finished the day with 285 yards passing and 2 touchdowns and it looks like the Bucs will make the playoffs.
• In his first 20+ carry game since coming back off retirement/suspension [tag]Ricky Williams[/tag] ran all over the Tennessee Titans for 172 yards and a TD. Quietly, Ricky has played really well this season in Miami and has looked like the Ricky of old when given the chance.
• Roy Williams and Shaun Rogers led the Detroit Lions to a win over the Saints in San Antonio. Williams had four big catches for 111 yards and the Pro Bowler Rogers rumbled 21 yards for his first career touchdown after recovering a first quarter fumble.

Certainly doesn’t hurt recruiting to have these guys and others playing well in the pros every weekend. Future NFL success is one of the big draws for programs like Miami and if you can add that factor the UT’s already attractive atmosphere, coaching staff, location, facilities, and tradition I think you’ll see the program get even stronger over the next few years.

[tag]Chris Simms[/tag] is looking really good today. Very efficient and led his team to 28 points so far against a tough Washington defense. He hasn’t made any mistakes and he’s done a good job leading an offense that isn’t blocking well and isn’t running the ball hardly at all anymore. That said, he still throws the ball way too low and gets too many passes knocked down. I don’t think its really a mechanics thing, so I don’t know how you fix it. With the athletes on the defensive line in the NFL, he’s going to have those picked off every now and then and those would be killers.

With less than a minute to go, Simms just led his team to a game-tying touchdown. He hit his wide receiver with a beautiful pass for a 30-yard TD. Wait a second, screw the tie. After two penalties on the Redskins on the extra point try, John Gruden sends the offense out there for the two point conversion. Mike Alstott barely gets in and the conversion is good. Tampa Bay leads 36 – 35.

Troy Aikman and Joe Buck are really hyping him right now and talking about how far he’s come. Glad to see Chris succeeding as he’s always represented the university very well. He’s a Texas Longhorn and even Major Applewhite supporters should be cheering him on.

Brian Griese tears ACL and is out for a big chunk of time.