40 Acres Sports

ESPN’s Pat Forde has his prognosticator hat on for the 2008 season and doesn’t go out on too many limbs. One of his predictions is that the Longhorns won’t reach 10 wins for the first time since 2000. Read on…

Texas’ streak of seven straight seasons with at least 10 wins will end.

The Longhorns don’t lack talent, but they drew a killer Big 12 schedule: three 2007 bowl teams from the North division (Colorado, Missouri and Kansas), and they’ll play two of those teams on the road. And in addition to facing Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, they must face trendy breakout pick Texas Tech in Lubbock. Burnt orange fans are encouraged to beat the rush and start criticizing offensive coordinator [tag]Greg Davis[/tag] now.

Definitely not a ridiculous opinion. The Horns struggled mightily to get to 10 wins in 2007, lost their biggest offensive threat, and face a tougher schedule this season. In Texas’ favor they should see a big improvement on defense thanks to new coordinator [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] and those tough teams on the schedule could easily fall back to earth. If the offensive line and defense play more consistently the Horns should keep the streak going and be a lot more fun to watch.

Sergio Kindle to get snaps at DE? Muschamp has big plans for Longhorns’ defense.

Muschamp brings intensity, impressive resume to Texas’ defense. Good article on the Longhorns new defensive coordinator.

Will Muschamp has made Texas’ spring practices noticeably more physical this season. Love to hear about more hitting, just hope we stay healthy.

It’s barely March but it looks like [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] is close to wrapping up his 2009 recruiting class already. After starting out strong with Garrett Gilbert and six other commits at the team’s first junior day, the Horns have since added eight more of the state’s top football players to bring the total tally up to fifteen.

Two of the biggest commits were at linebacker, where Irving’s Tariq Allen and Grand Prairie’s Patrick Nkwopara made their pledge to play for defensive coordinator [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag]’s defense. Both players were top targets of the Texas defensive coaching staff and appear to fit their mold perfectly for a linebacker, speed guys who aren’t afraid to knock your head off. If you’re a Rivals subscriber, watch Allen’s videos and you’ll be very excited about our future middle linebacker.

The team also got help in the defensive backfield by picking up commits from cornerbacks Eryon Barnett from Euless and Kenny Vaccaro out of Brownwood. Vaccaro is one of the state’s most heavily recruited DB’s and held offers from the likes of Florida, Oklahoma, and Stanford when chose the Longhorns. Barnett was a virtual unknown before committing to the Horns but Texas offered quickly and he certainly passes the eyeball test so he looks like a player who will shoot up the rankings once the scouting services get film of him.

Texas also did an excellent job filling needs from the top in-state options. Defensive end and tight end were both positions the Horns needed to fill holes at in this class. At defensive end the two big fish are still out there, Alex Okafor and five-star Devon Kennard, but the Horns added two very capable prospects in Dominique Jones and Kyle Kriegel. The tight end commits look like the two best in the state in Trey Graham and Barrett Matthews. I’m particularly excited about Matthews, whose versatility, athleticism, and toughness allow him to play an H-back role or maybe even end up on defense. It doesn’t hurt that he plays for Galena Park North Shore, a school that has now put out three top Division I tight ends in a row.

The fifteen current commits are listed below:

Name	Position	Rating*	LSR**	Hometown
Tariq Allen	LB		65	Irving
Thomas Ashcraft	OL		13	Cedar Hill
Eryon Barnett	DB		NR	Euless
Marcus Davis	DB		15	League City
Garrett Gilbert	QB		2	Austin
Trey Graham	TE		NR	Waco
Dominique Jones	DE		NR	Kilgore
Paden Kelley	OL		31	Austin
Kyle Kriegel	DE		64	Elysian Fields
Barrett Matthews	TE		59	Galena Park
Patrick Nkwopara	LB		NR	Grand Prairie
Garrett Porter	OL		30	Odessa
Greg Timmons	WR		10	Aldine
Kenny Vaccaro	DB		53	Brownwood
Chris Whaley	RB		8	Madisonville

*Note: Most of the star ratings are just estimates based on the video I’ve seen of the recruits and Orangebloods.com’s state rankings.

**Note: LSR is Geoff Ketchum’s Lone Star Recruiting Top 100. The numbers represent the player’s ranking as of 2/13/2008.

New coaches Muschamp & Applewhite bring new ideas to the Longhorns. Hopefully they also bring new intensity as well.

Muschamp’s fast track leads through Texas. Expectations for the 2008 defense are sky high.

Muschamp is ready to get the defense going. Watching the video of the press conference got me fired up.

Appeal of Texas too strong for Muschamp to resist. He was “blown away” by what he saw and what he experienced when he got to Austin.

Texas tabs Auburn’s Muschamp as defensive coordinator. Official MB-TF story.