40 Acres Sports

Obviously the Texas Longhorns were supposed to beat [tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag] pretty easily (24 point favorites), but I was a little worried about how they were going to perform with all of their young talent. But I must say that I came away from the game very impressed overall. The offense looked solid, the defense was decent, and they looked liked they were playing with some confidence. I am looking forward to seeing this team progress.

Now let’s look at how each position fared.

Quarterback – Overall Grade: A

If there were any doubts about how [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] would perform this year, he quickly put the naysayers to bed by completing his first 13 passes and 19 out of his first 20. And if that wasn’t enough he tacked on 100 yards rushing, joining [tag]Vince Young[/tag] as only the second player in school history with 200 yards passing and 100 yards rushing in the same game. One of the best things about Colt’s running was he didn’t have that chicken-with-his-head-cutoff style he seemed to have perfected last year, but that he actually ran with a purpose. And luckily for us, he was even able to survive two very late cheap shots from the FAU linebackers on the sideline.

[tag]John Chiles[/tag] also got into the action as both QB and in the new “Q package” on offense. The Q package didn’t necessarily contribute to any big plays, but having Chiles out there with Colt at the same time definitely made the defense think a little extra. Hopefully will get to see this a little more throughout the season. Chiles also threw for his first touchdown, 29 yards down the middle to WR James Kirkendoll.

Running Backs – Overall Grade: B+

The running backs didn’t do anything to get me too excited, but [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag], [tag]Chris Ogbonnaya[/tag], and [tag]Cody Johnson[/tag] all had solid games. All three scored touchdowns, and Ogbonnaya even caught 4 passes for 35 yards and a touchdown.

I must say I am a big fan of McGee and I think he has a lot of potential to be a great running back this year. He showed that he isn’t afraid to run up the middle, and also has the speed on the outside. McGee finished with 63 yards and 1 touchdown. Even though they split a lot of time at the running back position, I expect to see a few 100 yard games out of McGee this season.

Receivers – Overall Grade: B

It’s easy to have a good game as a wide receiver when the quarterback is on fire. Tight end [tag]Blaine Irby[/tag] had a stand-out game catching 7 passes for 62 yards and a touchdown. Irby seemed to be Colt’s safety valve throughout the game. [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] put in a solid performance, including a nice touchdown catch in the back of the end zone. I do hope to see some more production out of [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] in the next game. Cosby never really seemed to be a factor, and dropped a catchable ball from McCoy after a nice scramble.

Defense – Overall Grade: B-

It’s hard to give the defense a B- when they only allowed 10 points, but the secondary looked somewhat shaky throughout the game. Our young safeties struggled as expected, as redshirt freshman [tag]Earl Thomas[/tag] got beat on several big plays. At least he helped to make up for it with a blocked punt. The front seven was actually pretty strong. Even though the defense did not record a sack, they were constantly putting pressure on FAU QB Rusty Smith and forcing him to make some hurried decisions. Muschamp definitely has some work to do with this defense, but one good sign is it looks like they responded well after giving up to early red zone drives.

Special Teams – Overall Grade: B-

Starting the game off by kicking it out-of-bounds is not something I wanted to see. I am not sure why we always struggle with the kick-off, but it is something they eventually need to correct. Quan Cosby was returning some punts, which is pretty scary considering he is one of our main receivers. Not sure we can handle an injury to Cosby at this point. Earl Thomas’ blocked punt was nice, and I think having Akina back focused on special teams will be a good thing this year.

Overall – Overall Grade: B+

Like I said, overall I was pretty impressed with the performance. The offense executed well and Colt looks like he is back on track. There are still some things we need to sure up on defense, but they are young and have a lot of potential to be very good.

Update: Download named rosters for NCAA Football 10. (7/23/2009)

NCAA Football 09 is less than a month away, the demo is up on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network, and player ratings are starting to make their way on to the Internet. EA Sports released the team top 25 and player ratings for all those teams.

I went through the list and put the players’ real names in where possible. I had trouble with a lot of the true freshmen in the game so if you know who any of the blank names are or if I made any mistakes please let me know in the comments. It really looks like EA did a poor job this year on the roster and depth chart. Hopefully it’s a little more accurate when the game is released.

You can download Excel files of the player ratings at the bottom of this post or check out the overall ratings for the Texas team below:

Real Name	Name	Year	Position	Rating
[tag]Buck Burnette[/tag]	C #66	Soph(RS)	C	78
	C #60	Fresh	C	72
[tag]Deon Beasley[/tag]	CB #7	Junior	CB	85
[tag]Ryan Palmer[/tag]	CB #13	Senior(RS)	CB	84
[tag]Curtis Brown[/tag]	CB #3	Soph	CB	83
[tag]Aaron Williams[/tag]	CB #26	Fresh	CB	80
[tag]Chykie Brown[/tag]	CB #8	Soph(RS)	CB	80
[tag]Earl Thomas[/tag]	CB #12	Fresh(RS)	CB	78
[tag]DJ Monroe[/tag]	CB #27	Fresh	CB	76
[tag]Roy Miller[/tag]	DT #99	Senior	DT	90
[tag]Jarvis Humphrey[/tag]	DT #96	Fresh	DT	80
[tag]Brian Ellis[/tag]	DT #90	Soph(RS)	DT	78
[tag]Ben Alexander[/tag]	DT #92	Junior	DT	76
[tag]Kheeston Randall[/tag]	DT #88	Fresh	DT	76
[tag]Chris Ogbonnayya[/tag]	FB #3	Senior(RS)	FB	93
[tag]Cody Johnson[/tag]	FB #31	Fresh(RS)	FB	72
[tag]Ben Wells[/tag]	FS #5	Fresh(RS)	FS	84
[tag]Christian Scott[/tag]	FS #6	Fresh(RS)	FS	77
[tag]Blake Gideon[/tag]	FS #21	Fresh	FS	77
[tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag]	HB #2	Soph(RS)	HB	85
[tag]DeSean Hales[/tag]	HB #30	Fresh	HB	80
[tag]Antwan Cobb[/tag]	HB #24	Soph(RS)	HB	79
[tag]Fozzy Whittaker[/tag]	HB #22	Fresh(RS)	HB	78
[tag]Jeremy Hills[/tag]	HB #32	Fresh	HB	76
[tag]Tre Newton[/tag]	HB #23	Fresh	HB	73
[tag]Hunter Lawrence[/tag]	K #15	Junior	K	82
[tag]Justin Tucker[/tag]	K #9	Fresh	K	69
[tag]Lamarr Houston[/tag]	LE #33	Junior	LE	91
[tag]Aaron Lewis[/tag]	LE #95	Senior	LE	85
[tag]Henry Melton[/tag]	LE #37	Senior	LE	80
[tag]Charlie Tanner[/tag]	LG #52	Junior(RS)	LG	86
[tag]Tray Allen[/tag]	LG #70	Soph	LG	82
[tag]Chris Hall[/tag]	LG #71	Junior(RS)	LG	81
[tag]Aundre McGaskey[/tag]	LG #76	Fresh(RS)	LG	74
[tag]Sergio Kindle[/tag]	LOLB #2	Junior	LOLB	85
	LOLB #16	Fresh	LOLB	80
	LOLB #57	Fresh	LOLB	76
[tag]David Snow[/tag]	LT #78	Fresh	LT	78
[tag]Britt Mitchell[/tag]	LT #72	Soph(RS)	LT	78
[tag]Rashad Bobino[/tag]	MLB #44	Senior(RS)	MLB	90
[tag]Jared Norton[/tag]	MLB #11	Junior	MLB	85
[tag]Trevor Gerland[/tag]	P #17	Junior(RS)	P	83
[tag]Colt McCoy[/tag]	QB #12	Junior(RS)	QB	89
[tag]Sherrod Harris[/tag]	QB #17	Soph(RS)	QB	81
[tag]John Chiles[/tag]	QB #7	Soph	QB	79
[tag]Eddie Jones[/tag]	RE #32	Soph(RS)	RE	92
[tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag]	RE #98	Senior(RS)	RE	90
[tag]Russell Carter[/tag]	RE #97	Fresh(RS)	RE	77
[tag]Cedric Dockery[/tag]	RG #55	Senior(RS)	RG	89
[tag]Michael Huey[/tag]	RG #63	Soph	RG	81
[tag]Roddrick Muckelroy[/tag]	ROLB #38	Junior(RS)	ROLB	87
[tag]Keenan Robinson[/tag]	ROLB #53	Fresh(RS)	ROLB	82
	ROLB #4	Fresh	ROLB	75
[tag]Adam Ulatoski[/tag]	RT #74	Junior(RS)	RT	85
[tag]Mark Buchanan[/tag]	RT #54	Fresh	RT	74
[tag]Ishie Oduegwu[/tag]	SS #19	Junior(RS)	SS	88
[tag]Nolan Brewster[/tag]	SS #36	Fresh	SS	79
[tag]Peter Ullman[/tag]	TE #86	Senior(RS)	TE	81
[tag]Ahmard Howard[/tag]	TE #13	Fresh(RS)	TE	74
[tag]Blaine Irby[/tag]	TE #19	Soph	TE	73
[tag]Quan Cosby[/tag]	WR #6	Senior	WR	89
[tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag]	WR #8	Senior(RS)	WR	84
[tag]Montre Webber[/tag]	WR #14	Soph(RS)	WR	83
[tag]Dan Buckner[/tag]	WR #4	Fresh	WR	79
[tag]Malcolm Williams[/tag]	WR #9	Fresh(RS)	WR	78
[tag]DJ Grant[/tag]	WR #80	Fresh	WR	75
[tag]Antoine Hicks[/tag]	WR #81	Fresh	WR	75
[tag]James Kirkendoll[/tag]	WR #87	Soph	WR	74

Downloads

• Texas player ratings
• Full top 25 player ratings

We’ll be updating this list as we get news (mostly from Rivals) of which players have officially signed their letters of intent and if everything goes as planned will be the newest Texas Longhorns in August. The first two players to become Longhorns were Ian Harris out of San Antonio and Cody Johnson from Waller. Keep checking back here because we’ll update this list as we hear more names.

Confirmed Signings

• Ian Harris
• Cody Johnson
• Kyle Hix
• Tray Allen
• Michael Wilcoxon
• Russell Carter
• Aundre McGaskey
• Tyrell Higgins
• Sam Acho
• James Kirkendoll
• Brandon Collins
• G.J. Kinne
• Ahmard Howard
• Keenan Robinson
• Malcolm Williams
• Blaine Irby
• Earl Thomas
• Christian Scott

Early Enrollees

• Curtis Brown
• John Chiles
• Michael Huey
• Andre Jones
• Ben Wells
• Fozzy Whittaker

Update: Just added Blaine Irby and Earl Thomas to the list which leaves only Christian Scott remaining. The stud safety just was the last player to commit to the Horns (just this weekend) and it looks like he’ll be the last one to fax in his letter of intent as well. Hopefully he’s not having any second thoughts. (10:38 am)

Update: Christian Scott’s letter is in and confirmed by both Rivals and Inside Texas (thanks Eric!). That means all 24 recruits, 18 today plus the 6 already on campus, are signed and will officially be Longhorns either this summer or in the fall if their grades are in order. Congrats to the class of 2007 and welcome to the family. (11:58 am)