40 Acres Sports

I mentioned FSN’s “wonderful” announcing and overall presentation repeatedly during Saturday’s live blog of the [tag]Iowa State[/tag] game. They missed plays, butchered names, and were just generally awful, but the most awkward moment of the day came courtesy of color man Dave Lapham. He was confused most of the game but he found some clarity when he went nuts and repeatedly says that Texas safety [tag]Erick Jackson[/tag] “face rapes” ISU receiver Todd Blythe.

The great site Awful Announcing found video of the comment and it’s embedded below for your enjoyment/bewilderment:

There’s some comments over at AA with people claiming he said “face raking” but on the live broadcast it was pretty clear what he said. Plus he said it again in about 30 seconds. Awkward.

Today’s matchup for the Longhorns against [tag]Iowa State[/tag] should be a rout, but there’s been lots of games like that this season and Texas only took care of business against Rice. The Horns need to continue the solid play from last week against Oklahoma and if they can they should be able to come home with a comfortable win.

Follow with me and my random thoughts during the game below:

First Quarter

• I wonder when FSN Southwest will be in high definition on DirecTV? It looks like the game is being shot in HD and if I had FSNMW I could be watching it in HD. Oh well.
• Ryan Bailey kicking off, is Hunter Lawrence hurt?
• Same starting lineup on defense that we’ve seen all year.
• Texas is only 7th in the Big 12 in punt returns? [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] is solid back there so I don’t really blame him for that number. With Limas Sweed out for the year it might be time to protect Cosby and put one of the young WR/DB’s back there.
• Long bomb from [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] to [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] on Texas’ first offensive play. McCoy does nice job buying time in a collapsing pocket and finds Shipley wide open. 58-yard touchdown for the Horns.

Texas 7, Iowa State 0

• FSN’s wonderful coverage continues. They take a TV timeout and miss both the kickoff and the first ISU play after it. Sad.
• FSN announcers are apparently using an OU roster instead of Texas.
• On third down play it looks like defensive line slants to the field and [tag]Robert Killebrew[/tag] lets the ISU runner get wide for the first down. Might have been Lamarr Houston’s fault. Terrible defensive fundamentals.
• I was just going to complain about the lack of pressure from the Texas defense then [tag]Lamarr Houston[/tag] comes untouched off the end for the sack.
• Face raped? Yikes. Not sure you should say that on TV. That was a definite face mask but the reason the helmet comes off is that it’s not fitted correctly. Your helmet should never come off that easy. He said face rape again.
• Is our defense really this poorly coached? We’ve got guys flying inside to avoid blockers on every play. If you’re a defensive end and have a linebacker blitzing to your inside you can’t try to get in the same gap. Ugh.
• [tag]Derek Lokey[/tag] playing defensive end on that play. He got whipped man on man and gave up a big run.
• Texas holds on third down and forces a field goal. Field goal is wide right. Break for Texas as Iowa State had put together a very solid drive.
• Mental mistake by wide receiver covered up Jermichael Finley. FSN announcers are morons.
• Looks like [tag]Chris Ogbonnaya[/tag] is seeing increased playing time already over Jamaal Charles. If we’re going with the wide open offense that’s a good idea since he’s a better blocker and pass catcher than Charles.
• Looks like McCoy is growing a sweet mustache. Couple more weeks and that might be thick enough to show up on camera.
• Ogbonnaya and [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] get the two Texas redzone rushing attempts. Hope Charles can keep his head up, figure out the issue, and earn these attempts back.
• Not sure that was a well advised throw by McCoy but man did Cosby get up and get that one. No good camera angle but I think that might have come out a little when he hit the ground. Another good scramble to buy time and find a receiver by Colt.

Texas 14, Iowa State 0

• Hunter Lawrence kicking off on this one. Wonder why it wasn’t him in there on the first one?
• Young linebackers in there for this series.

(more …)

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.

WOI-TV out of Des Moines is reporting that Gene Chizik will be announced as the new head coach of the [tag]Iowa State[/tag] Cyclones at a press conference tonight in Ames.

The Iowa State Cyclones have a new Head Football Coach. ABC5 Sports Director John Walters has confirmed the Cyclones have hired University of Texas Defensive Coordinator Gene Chizik. Chizik will officially introduced at a news conference tonight at 6 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum. ABC5 Sports is in Ames, and will be there all day getting you the latest information. You can see the news conference live on ABC5 Television.

Surprising news on many fronts. Central Michigan’s Brian Kelly was thought to be the front runner for the job lately. I also thought Chizik would hold out for a more high profile position than ISU, but possibly thanks to his defense’s below expectations performance this year he had to lower his aspirations.

If the news turns out to be true, it’ll be interesting to see who the Longhorns pursue to replace Chizik. Would Mack Brown simply promote co-defensive coordinator Duana Akina? His secondary this season certainly didn’t play up to their ability so I’m not sure that would happen. If it is Akina and not some other big name hire, there will probably be some pretty angry Longhorn fans.