40 Acres Sports

Frank Okam and Jamaal Charles earn All-America honors. Third team and honorable mention respectively.

Colt McCoy and Jamaal Charles in top 15 on CFN’s early 2008 Heisman contenders list. Lots of Big 12 players near the top.

The Texas Longhorns held their annual football banquet Friday night (photos) where they honored team members for their accomplishments on and off the field. Though fans and recruits do attend, the event is definitely a night for the players to look back on the season and to honor the careers of the outgoing seniors.

Quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] and running back [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] were deservedly named the team MVPs. McCoy didn’t have as good of a season as he did his freshman year but he definitely is the player that made this team go (when it went anywhere). Charles was also named Darrell K. Royal Most Valuable Offensive Player while the Mike Campbell Most Valuable Defensive Players were [tag]Brandon Foster[/tag] and [tag]Marcus Griffin[/tag].

In a team vote [tag]Dallas Griffin[/tag], [tag]Tony Hills[/tag], and [tag]Derek Lokey[/tag] were honored with the D. Harold Byrd Leadership Award. Also, in a shocking development quarterback McCoy was given the Outstanding Quarterback Award.

In a move that infuriated Internet Coaching and Motivational Experts [tag]Rashad Bobino[/tag], [tag]Scott Derry[/tag], and [tag]Robert Killebrew[/tag] shared the honor of being the team’s Outstanding Linebackers. I’m not sure what else you can really do though as no linebacker really deserved the honor and it would be pretty embarrassing to not hand out an award for the position.

A list of all the award winners is after the jump.

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Jamaal Charles won’t tolerate a let down against Aggies. If JC can keep running like he has been Horns will be fine.

Jamaal Charles named Doak Walker semifinalist. He’ll find out next week if he’s a finalist for nation’s top running back.

None of Texas’ wins against [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag] the last few years have come easily and that isn’t likely to change today. This team showed last week it could come back from a big deficit and win, but hopefully they don’t have to keep doing that. I wouldn’t mind jumping out to an early 17-point lead like last year, that might be the only way I’m not a nervous wreck this afternoon.

Here are three keys to a Texas victory against the Cowboys:

1. Find a way to run the football

Oklahoma State isn’t a terrible football team but they’re not a good one either. This is a team that’s giving up an average of nearly 26 points per game and gave up 41 in an early season loss to Troy. The Longhorns won against Nebraska because they suddenly rediscovered the zone read, against the Cowboys they’ll have to try that and a bunch more because they can’t win if they can’t run the ball. [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] showed what he can do when he’s feeling it, let’s hope he can stay on a roll, find a few holes, and make some more big plays this week.

2. Beat the blitz

Texas got lucky last week. The Cornhuskers blitzed often and with tons of success against the Longhorns for the first three quarters. Quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] didn’t have time to think let alone throw and that resulted in one of the worst performances in his career. Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy is 40 years old and claims his team won’t blitz like Nebraska did but I don’t buy it, they’d be stupid not to. McCoy and the Texas offense have to threaten the defense deep in order to open on the quick hot routes they’ll need to hit to beat the blitz. Of course if Charles rushes for nearly 300 yards again that would be nice as well.

3. Have a linebacker lead the team in tackles

The bad news: Sergio Kindle is out this week. The good news: the coaching staff appears to be noticing that the young, athletic linebackers can make more plays that the veteran group. Last week the team’s top three tacklers were all linebackers (when is the last time that happened?) and the defense needs to be led again by it’s linebackers against OSU and their option attack. If Marcus Griffin or another member of the Texas secondary is the game’s leading tackler that probably means OSU running back Dantrell Savage had a big day and the Horns are headed home to Austin as losers.

Prediction: Texas 35, Oklahoma State 31

It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pretty, but the Longhorns came back from down 14 and then barely held on in the final minutes to knock off [tag]Nebraska[/tag] 28 – 25. The victory takes the Horns to 7 – 2 on the season and puts them back in the discussion for a Big 12 title shot. The game wasn’t sealed until Texas was (finally) able to recover an onside kick and pick up a critical first down that allowed them to run off the last two minutes from the clock.

ESPN highlights of the game are below:

[tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] had the biggest game of his career with 290 rushing yards, with a whopping 216 of those coming in the fourth quarter including three long touchdown runs. His big day took him over the 1,000 yard mark for the season.

The game will be re-aired by ESPN Classic on Sunday morning at 8 a.m.

Nothing gets me more fired up than watching Ducks Unlimited TV before a big Longhorn game. Do you think Versus would show a show about hunting and killing ducks if Oregon was playing instead of Texas and [tag]Baylor[/tag]? That might be a little awkward.

If you’re not one of the many Texas fans who made the trip to Waco you’ll have to surf through about 1,000 channels before you’ll find Versus and you’re probably only getting it if you have satellite or digital cable. Versus is on channel 603 on DirecTV, channel 151 on Dish Network, and on 470 if you’ve got Time Warner digital cable in Austin.

Here we go…

First Quarter

• I like the straight zone run play with [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] than the zone read or the counter. Gives Jamaal a chance to hit the hole fast and get going north/south quicker.
• I like that a professional football announcer doesn’t know the difference between the zone read and a counter. Not even run out of the shotgun is a zone read.
• Three attempts towards [tag]Jermichael Finley[/tag] already. One good completion, one ball he should have caught, and one that he and [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] had a miscommunication on.
• And another pass towards Finley. Texas attempts a fake field goal after he goes out wide and uncovered but [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] can’t get the play off quickly enough and then can’t get the ball out to him before the defense adjusted. Versus missed the whole play because we were zoomed in on kicker Ryan Bailey’s helmet.
• [tag]Erick Jackson[/tag] has been serviceable at safety this season but he is absolutely awful at adjusting to the ball in the air. He was there in coverage on a terrible Baylor pass but couldn’t make a play on the ball. Looked similar to the unnecessary pass interference penalty he picked up last week.
• Baylor offensive lineman Dan Gay IV commits a holding penalty. How unfortunate is that last name? Especially with the IV after it. You can essentially put any noun after that and hilarity will ensue.
• I’m surprised how empty Floyd Casey Stadium is. Enough Texas fans normally make that trip to fill up the place a little better.
• Second time already that I thought the Baylor defensive back got there early on pass coverage. [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] doesn’t drop many passes, it looked like he got bumped early.
• Great punt but Jackson can’t down it before it bounces into the end zone. The only good thing to come out of the Kansas State game is punter Justin Moore.
• Versus really likes to use the camera angle from the roof of the press box. The damn thing is so high i can’t tell anybody’s number.
• [tag]John Chiles[/tag] and the second team offense is in there for this series. I actually like the timing of this one better than last week. The first team offense didn’t have much momentum so it’s not really going to disrupt them.
• Chiles has to be more careful with the football. First downs are important but not as important as holding onto the football. Don’t stretch the ball out in traffic on your own 40 yard line.
• Smithson Valley sucks!
• Big run by [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] up the middle. 18 yards on the carry is probably the second teamers biggest gain against first team defenses. I think as Chiles gains more experience running the zone read the whole offense opens up. Right now he looks a little like he’s keeping and handing off randomly and not doing a great job reading the defensive end. That’s a tough read and you can only really learn in live game situations.
• Set your feet before you throw John.
• [tag]Ryan Bailey[/tag] nails the 46-yard field goal into the wind. Right down the middle.

Texas 3, Baylor 0

• How sad is Baylor that the announcers are talking about their defense getting a victory by holding the second team defense to only a field goal?
• Not sure if this is their first series or not, but the young group of linebackers are in there now for Texas.
• What did they rule that play on the field? I thought I saw an official pointing that he was down before the fumble. Looks to me like the ball is coming loose a little before the Baylor running back hits the ground.
• Not sure how they ruled he was down after reviewing that play. Looked pretty clear from one angle that the ball was loose before his butt hit the ground.

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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.

Jamaal Charles’ brother ShanDerrick was a running back for SMU before injuries ended his career. JC is trying to carry on his legacy.