40 Acres Sports

Arkansas quarterback Mitch Mustain had his request for release from his scholarship granted Tuesday by head coach Houston Nutt. His impending transfer just makes him the latest of the highly touted players and coach from nearby Springdale to bolt on the Razorbacks.

Damian Williams was the first Arkansas player to leave after the PTA meeting back in December between the parents of some spoiled brats and Arkansas’ athletic director Frank Broyles. Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn left for the greener pastures of Tulsa with the honorable Todd Graham last week. Now the news out of Fayetteville is that blue chip quarterback Mustain is gone as well.

After only a single season with the Razorbacks Mustain is getting out of there as fast as he can. Despite his skills, potential, and former high school coach calling the shots he couldn’t grab the starting job in his true freshman season. He and the rest of his high school teammates (and coach) clearly had personal issues with Houston Nutt. Pretty much everyone knows Nutt is a bit of an ass so I’m not sure how it came as such a surprise to all these guys. Could Mustain be headed to Tulsa to rejoin Malzahn?

With these events, Rhett Bomar’s ousting from Oklahoma, and Ryan Perrilloux’s recent legal troubles, it seems karma is seeking out former Texas quarterback recruits. John Brantley better watch out.

Update

Latest news is that Mustain was interested in Oklahoma, Alabama, and Tulsa but Bob Stoops and Nick Saban weren’t interested in the formerly highly recruited player. He was forced to enroll in classes at Arkansas this Spring but won’t participate in anything football related. (1/20/2007))

Adrian Peterson is headed to the NFL. After his big freshman year, his career at OU was a big disappointment.

We should all know by now the issues the USC Song Girls have had when it comes to cheering for the right team. If you don’t know what I am talking about check it out here and here.

Thankfully they finally got it right, and this time MichiganSportsCenter.com has provided full HD proof. Click the image below to enlarge.

At least she was wearing something right?

Several members of the “Springdale 5” aren’t happy with the way Houston Nutt controlled the [tag]Arkansas[/tag] offense and they’re getting mommy and daddy to complain about it. Rumors of trouble in Fayettenam starting swirling last week on the message boards but now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has a story on it as well. The parents of quarterback Mitch Mustain and WR’s Damian Williams and Ben Cleveland apparently thought the offense should be tailored around them as true freshmen so they went above head coach Houston Nutt’s head to athletic director Frank Broyles. There’s some pretty interesting quotes in the article:

“The reason for the meeting was very simple,�? Rick Cleveland said. “We wanted to know what is the direction of Arkansas’ football program ? Are we eventually going to get to Gus’ offense ? Or are we going to stay with the way we are at present?�?

The way you are at present? You mean in the SEC Championship Game and having a chance for a national title in the final weeks of the season?

“With our kids going to Arkansas, it’s basically like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,�? Rick Cleveland said of the offense. “When Gus came onto the scene, the very first question we would ask was, ‘Do you have full control of the offense and do you have full control of the personnel ?’ Which we were told, ‘Yes.’

“I don’t believe Gus lied to us. But as the season has progressed, it’s very obvious that this is not Gus Malzahn’s offense and Gus does not have full control of the personnel or the play calling.

“From our perspective – and it’s only our perspective – it seems as if you’ve been sold a bill of goods.

“We never would have committed here knowing that this was the offense, because we knew our boys wouldn’t be happy.�?

I can’t believe they’re actually publicly complaining about an offense that resulted in one of Arkansas’ best seasons in many years, made running back Darren McFadden the Heisman Trophy runner-up, and is getting offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn national honors as a coach. This is an incredible display of immaturity and selfishness and I can’t believe these kids parents are supporting it. Clearly they think their stats are more important than the team winning.

Damien Williams has already asked for and been granted release from his scholarship and will be transferring from Arkansas. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mustain and Cleveland followed him, though they’re currently saying all the right things and that they’re going to be Razorbacks for three more years.

All this drama is definitely entertaining for Longhorn fans and I hope things only get worse.

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Sounds like it could happen, but it just doesn’t seem like a good fit. Leach should stay in Texas.

It was pretty funny last year in the Rose Bowl when a USC Song Girl cheered when Vince Young scored his two point conversion. But to do it again this year against your biggest rival (UCLA) is just classic.

You would think that they would have taken enough flack from it last year to learn their lesson. Apparently not. Thanks to The Michigan Zone for the video.

Well, it’s official folks. USC has just completed one of the biggest choke jobs in college football history. With their spot secure in the BCS Championship game, they fail to beat the lowly UCLA Bruins as 14 point favorites. And as bad as I was feeling with Texas football, this surely brightens my college football season.

The big question now is what will ESPN do for the next month without being able to hype USC? Will they shut down? Will they still go ahead and rank this season’s team against the greatest of all-time? Or will they just focus on the New Orleans Saints and Reggie Bush? Who knows, but it sure feels good to be able to watch SportsCenter again.

Update: It looks like HD Buttercup in West L.A. will be giving away a lot of free furniture. They promised that if you spent at least $2,000 on furniture before kick-off and UCLA wins, everything is free. Bet they weren’t counting on it coming true. Ha.

After the game, it seemed like there were no real incidents and I felt Horns fans showed some class in their loss to the Aggy. Aggy, however, is not showing much class with some of their latest posts on TexAgs.com. What can you really be thinking to post this kind of stuff…

Colt,

Glad to hear you were able to walk out of the hospital on your own yesterday. Just keep rubbing on the ******* and ******* and all will be well.

While you are taking time to recover, I thought you might like some entertainment. I hope you find the following video interesting:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qmbc7k299vk

You see, Colt, Kellen Heard didn’t really lay in to you like he could have. Next year, I fully expect him and the rest of the team to give you the ‘Detmer Special.’

You can also use this recovery time to practice your pouty face in the mirror. I know it will come in handy this time next year.

Oh, and tell your grandmother I said hello.

Your pal,

odessan

Source

• Another classless post
• Yet another classless post

Ok. Back with some more fun with the Aggy. This time I have included three classic videos, brought to you exclusively by Bevo Sports. No doubt you have seen these, but I am sure you will still get a kick out of them. And don’t forget about Squeeze Aggie.

Aggie Chris Walker makes a bad decision

Don’t Worry, Aggies Can Also Rap

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I did a quick roundtable exchange with Brad from the 12th Manchild to discuss the upcoming game and some of the issues each team has. His responses are below (good stuff). You can check out my answers to his questions here (midway through).

1. No doubt Coach Fran is having a tough year, what are your thoughts on his performance so far this season? Are you ready to start looking for a new coach?

Tough year? no. Tough November? you bet.

It’s too early to legitimately and accurately evaluate this season. On the one hand, the physical condition of the program has vastly improved. The level of talent on both sides of the ball and currently being recruited is the best in years, the controversial decision to hire Darnell proved to be a good one, and Fran is finally winning on the road (undefeated so far this season). On the other hand, Fran continues to squander opportunities and choke in the big games.

Personally, I think Fran has done too well for his own good this season. Aggieland went from having very low expectations to delusions of grandeur in a very short time this season. What has got him in the hot seat again is his inane in-game decision making, the majority of Aggies feel that neither Nebraska nor Oklahoma beat us, rather Fran’s inept playcalling gave the games away.

If the Ags can win in Austin and win convincingly in our bowl game, “CanFran” will revert back to “FranistheMan”. Otherwise, with the hellish schedule next year, Fran could likely be gone by December 2007.

2. The Aggies’ schedule was noticeably soft at the beginning of the year. Do you think this played a part in your loss to Texas Tech? Would you like to play a tougher non-conference schedule to help prepare you better for the regular season?

The loss to Tech can be blamed on multiple things, but a weak non-conf isn’t one of them. Unless you’re putting New Mexico State or Hawaii on your schedule, no non-conference team will prepare your secondary for Texas Tech’s offense. If there is any one thing that can be blamed for the loss to Tech, it could be that we scheduled them as our first conference game of the season. Gimmick offenses are always strong early in the season, but as the season goes on and the tape stacks up, the offense falls because teams are able to pick apart the hidden system (i.e. Tech’s current season). Combine that with a relatively young secondary prone to giving up the big play, and you get an offensive shootout where the winner is the one who has the ball last.

I would certainly like to play a tougher non-conference schedule, but not for reasons of “preparation”. Nobody schedules big programs for preparation purposes anymore, they schedule them because of the way BCS depends on the polls -> hence the way polls depend on “big” non-conference games to reshuffle their pre-season polls.

I’m all for playing DI-AA Citadel again, as long as there’s also a Top 20 team on the schedule with them.

3. The Aggies’ 3 losses this season have only been by a combined 6 points, all at home. What will it take for the Aggies to get over the hump next year and start winning those close battles?

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