40 Acres Sports

Mack Brown turns up heat in Texas’ bowl preparations. Remind me again why we weren’t doing this all year?

Bobby Petrino resigns from Falcons, takes Arkansas job. If I’m Arthur Blank I sue the s*** out fo Petrino and get every dime back.

Norm Chow to UCLA? I haven’t been overly impressed with his NFL work so I think Vince will be fine without him if he leaves.

Fran Fraschilla on Rick Barnes’ transformation at Texas. Discusses his change from control freak to coach who let’s his player’s have freedom.

Former Horn Kendal Briles to join father Art’s Baylor staff. Not sure what position he’ll be in.

A&M approves $4.4 million buyout of Franchione. Wow. Wish I could get millions for sucking at my job.

The Aggies aren’t officially in need of a head coach yet but that hasn’t stopped the crazy train for getting going full steam ahead. Coaching candidates from across the country including Tommy Tuberville, Mike Sherman, and Paul Bear Bryant have all reportedly begged to have the job and silently accepted the position.

The latest hot name is the one and only Steve Spurrier, but Aggie fans aren’t sure he’s good enough for them. Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel probably spit coffee all over his keyboard when he read this email from Aggie Matt from Corpus:

I am sure you are tired of hearing questions about the Texas A&M coaching situation, but I heard Steve Spurrier mentioned as a possible candidate. Do you think the Aggies will actually consider him, and if so, how do you think he would compete against Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech in recruiting?
–Matt, Corpus Christi, Texas

Mandel’s response is a classic:

At some point, I’d like to take a visit to whatever planet it is Aggies fans come from. Would A&M “consider” Spurrier? Sure. They’ve already set their sights on Tommy Tuberville, and Dennis Erickson is apparently on their “Plan B” list. Why not throw Spurrier into the mix as long as we’re playing Monopoly?

Now, will Spurrier “consider” the Aggies? Sure… for about as long as it takes to read this sentence.

The guy specifically chose South Carolina because at this point in his career, he wanted a low-pressure environment where the expectations are manageable. Texas A&M — where they expect the coach to compete at the same level as Texas, despite an all-time record of 35-73-5 against the ‘Horns — does not fit that description.

Nice to see we’re not the only ones who can have a good chuckle at the Aggies’ expense. They may not be from another planet but they sure can drink the Kool-Aid in College Station. I love the note about their expectations and hopes to be as good as Texas, and of course pointing out their horrid all-time record against the Horns.

Hilarious.

Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman is reporting that SMU is possibly interested in Texas offensive coordinator [tag]Greg Davis[/tag] for their recently vacated head coaching position. Though Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds said no one from SMU had requested permission to speak to Davis a source did confirm that they had contacted him unofficially.

A surprising amount of coaching rumors today. Before the Davis to SMU rumor this afternoon there was some buzz on the Arkansas message boards that Davis was headed for retirement and former Arky offensive coordinator Guz Malzahn would be Texas’ next OC. When that rumor was brought up on Orangebloods.com, posters claiming to be “in the know” wouldn’t comment on particular coaches coming or going just that there was some smoke that one of the Texas coaches may be headed for retirement.

I’m certainly not going to claim that Davis has no faults (in fact he’s got tons of them), but he’s a solid offensive coordinator and an even better quarterbacks coach. The development of Vince Young and Colt McCoy as quarterbacks has been incredible and Davis deserves a huge amount of the credit. His gameplanning and playcalling often leave a lot to be desired but it won’t be easy to replace him if he leaves.

Texas’ offense might be more exciting with someone like Malzahn calling the shots, but I’m not sure it would be better.

We’ll keep you updated on any other juicy rumors or actual news as we hear it.

Mack Brown and Greg Davis discuss reasoning for inserting backups on 3rd series. As long as it doesn’t hurt momentum, I love it. (via)

I’ll be surprised if Bill Callahan survives the weekend after Nebraska’s blowout loss to A&M. I knew Nebraska was terrible but didn’t expect A&M to score almost 40.