FanHouse Texas Football

The SEC has long been known as a place where defense rules in college football. Maybe some of that had to do with the league's generally minimal focus on offense for so many years, but we can debate that in another entry. Regardless, its defensive credibility is rock solid.

But in recent years, a steady influx of offensive changes from coaches to schemes has balanced the league and made it all the more dangerous.

But, as noted at the Daily Texan, there's also been a barely noticed flow of defensive coaching talent away from the SEC. Former Auburn star defensive coordinators Gene Chizik and Will Muschamp have made their way to the Big 12. Chizik was Texas' defensive coordinator before being hired as the head coach at Iowa State. Muschamp, meanwhile, is Texas' new D.C.

Elsewhere, former Alabama defensive coordinator Joe Kines is now the D.C. at Texas A&M. Chances are, those three have been adequately replaced, but their departure and the SEC's changing offensive makeup seems to indicate a change from the All D, No O days of SEC past. I doubt wide open offensive football with not much defense like on display in the WAC ever finds a home in the SEC. OK, severely doubt it. But it is interesting to note a modest departure of defensive coaching talent as a steady wave of offensive coaching talent moves in.

Related: I wonder if this perks up the state of defense in the suddenly wide-open, quarterback loaded Big 12?

(Via: Football Rumor Mill)

The Big 12's gain is the loss for a lot of college sports fans.

"After 36 years, 23 Final Fours, all 10 Bowl Championship Series title games and a half-dozen laptops, I'm done," he writes.

"I will begin working as a writer/blogger for the Big 12 Conference web site (so I'll need laptop No. 7). The Big 12 wants its web site to convey information about its schools in both video and story form. I'll be somewhat involved with the former and heavily involved with the latter. It's a great opportunity that I'm lucky to have considering the death spiral of major newspapers."

Barnhouse had been the national college football and basketball writer/columnist for the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. Barnhouse's national reach, reputation and popularity grew as the internet allowed more readers access. His columns were considered required reading by many college sports fans. Barnhouse was also one of the few national college sports writers at a newspaper. Not at a national paper, magazine or TV/internet operation.

The Star-Telegram benefited from his reputation, but the actual value to the paper was low. The national following added little to their subscription base. This led the paper to decide to eliminate the national college beat. Offering Barnhouse the choice of a buyout or assuming role of Texas A&M beat writer. As Barnhouse wrote, "Nothing against the Aggies, but it was clearly time to bail out."

Intrepid writers have long earched for perfect comparisons for football teams. We've seen Simpsons characters, Arrested Development characters, cars, potato chips, and the granddaddy of them all, rappers. Here, we add another chapter to the canon of contextualization: standup comedians.


Frank Caliendo: UCLA

Your absolute, ultimate, professional pretender. Sure, they're popular, but that's because they're right there in Hollywood. Setting foot on national TV for the sole purpose of getting laughed right back off of it. An uncanny ability to make people sick of them before enjoying them.

Key comparison: HIS COACHNESS SIR RICK NEUHEISEL <3 and Caliendo's impression of John Madden. Lucky they're next to someone who knows what the hell he's talking about--"Thanks, John."

George Carlin: Penn State

Transcendent in the 80s, still outstanding in the 90s, but now the wheels are off the track, and the words most bandied about are "senile," "bitter," and "angry."

Key comparison: George Carlin's voice and Joe Paterno's voice. Somewhere between gravelly and demonic at this point.

[NOTE: Carlin passed away after this portion was written, but there's absolutely zero chance that he would want people dodging jokes about him in the wake of his death.]

Dane Cook: Texas

Undeniably popular, and probably earning it. Probably. Sure, there's an odor of douche to it all (Colt McCoy, get a real name, please), but that comes with popularity these days, right? Right? Whatever, you're just jealous.

Key comparison: Superfinger and Hook'Em salute. Put them together, and it's Wonder Twin Powers Activate!

Buried in one of ESPN's contrived point-counterpoints between Ivan Maisel, who drew the short straw and had to defend the BCS, and Pat Forde, who got to tear into it, is this nugget from Texas head coach Mack Brown:

"I would like to see coaches not have a vote," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "We would have a panel like the one that chooses the 65 teams in basketball."

Two thoughts spring immediately to mind:

• Amen.
• Holy crap, I do not want to be a guy on that panel.

Just imagine it now: through some hilariously improbable series of events you, reader, are plucked from the masses of college football fans to sit on this panel. You are given a choice between completely indistinguishable teams.

Since team A and team B played teams like Utah State and Northern Colorado in the nonconference (and so did everyone else in team A and team B's conferences), there is absolutely no basis for comparison between the two teams. Pick team A and fans from team B will put a contract on your head. Pick team B and fans from team A will put a contract on your head.

Fun!

(Via Get The Picture.)

The Big 12's annual meetings are currently taking place in Colorado Springs and league commissioner Dan Beebe has a lot on his plate. But one agenda item that he is pushing strongly is a fifth year of eligibility for football players. He hopes the proposed change will get some attention from the NCAA rules committee.

The proposal for a fifth year of eligibility would eliminate redshirting, instead giving college football players five years to compete on the field. Under current rules, players have a five-year window in which to complete four years of playing time. This isn't the first time this change has come up, but opponents have argued that eligibility rules need to standard across sports. Big 12 commissioner Beebe, disagrees.

Beebe, however, said he thinks football should be seen as unique because it has a high rate of redshirts and injuries.

"Injuries happen and coaches have players who could contribute, but they don't want to play someone on a limited basis and burn a redshirt year," Beebe said. "And you have kids during their redshirt year who are getting the heck beat out of them in practice every day with no hope of playing."

The rule change would certainly eliminate the need for coaches to agonize about redshirting decisions. In addition, it would seemingly end the need for athletes and schools to file medical hardships in the wake of injuries. Lastly, given that the average college football player takes around 4.7 years to graduate, the five-year eligibility window could help improve graduation rates.

A month ago, Texas back-up quarterback John Chiles was a suspect in an "assault-by-conduct" incident in Austin. The Daily Texan, the student newspaper at the University of Texas, reported this information in their blog. According to a recent editorial in The Daily Texan, this set off a firestorm of criticism from at least one official in the UT athletic department.

"Last month, The Daily Texan reported on its blog that the Austin Police Department suspended an assault with injury investigation in which Longhorns backup quarterback John Chiles was a suspect. When the Texan originally reported that APD confirmed Chiles as a suspect, assistant athletics director John Bianco wrote several threatening e-mails to Daily Texan sports editor and journalism senior Ricky Treon, calling him unprofessional and his reporting "untruthful." Bianco warned that other news agencies (and potential employers) "realize how you do business now," which "will hurt you in the long run." He also said that if the Texan's editors didn't pull the post off the blog, "John Chiles would understandably have an issue with the entire paper" which would be "unfortunate for the Texan's long-term working relationship with him."

The editorial goes onto discuss the "rules" of covering big-time college athletics, culminating with the following thoughts:

"The bottom line is that press scrutiny is simply not accepted by sports officials or the public fan base. At UT, reporters are not allowed to call athletes, and both athletes and reporters face being reprimanded for unauthorized interviews, no matter what the story is about. More importantly, university officials are under pressure to protect the image of their sports programs, which are at the forefront of bringing in money, identity and recognition to the school."

Interestingly, this is not the first time this spring that a Big 12 student newspaper has found itself in trouble with an athletic department because of the paper's coverage of the football team. Earlier Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini temporarily banned The Daily Nebraskan for a piece criticizing his handling of an alleged criminal incident. These situations taken together only seem to solidify the point made by the Daily Texan's editorial piece. Ultimately public institutions are accountable to the public, and I'd certainly contend it's the media's job to help ensure this occurs.

via The Wiz

Where there's smoke, there's generally fire. Or in the case, internet rumors appear to have some basis in fact. G.J. Kinne, a backup quarterback at Texas has indeed decided to transfer.

"I chose the best school at what was the end of a very successful, but difficult high school career," Kinne said. "I have definitely become a better quarterback with the help of one of the most knowledgeable offensive coaches in college football, Greg Davis. However, the quarterback position is unique in terms of playing time, and I have to find a program that best fits my skills.

"Quarterbacks transfer in college football. That's life for this position.I've made great memories, great friends and have been blessed with experiences most can only watch. So the answer is, 'No, I have no regrets.'

"I'm looking forward to what the future holds for me. I wish nothing but great things for The University of Texas. I appreciate all that Coach Brown and The University have done for me."

Kinne's decision to leave, could point to the continued development of John Chiles as the next great Texas quarterback. In addition, the Longhorns' continued success in recruiting top-flight quarterbacks out of the high school ranks has made transfers like this more likely to occur. Jevan Snead, another backup, left the program in 2006.

This is not the first transfer for Kinne in his career. In 2006, as a high schooler, Kinne left Canton High School after his dad, the head coach, was shot by an angry parent.

We've already checked in on the quarterbacks, so why not delve into what's new with the running backs of the Big 12.

We'll start at Texas, where the biggest question mark of the spring is who will replace Jamaal Charles? Charles led the Big 12 in rushing in 2007 on the strength of a fantastic second half of the season. Three backs will fight it out over the starting running back gig in 2008.

Sophomore Vondrell McGee will get first shot at the starting job after serving as Charles' understudy a year ago. When Charles was having consistency problems at midseason in 2007, McGee actually got more playing time, specifically on short-yardage and goal-line plays. He gained 297 yards overall and scored eight touchdowns.

Redshirt freshman Fozzy Whittaker and McGee share the same, low-to-the-ground build. Both resemble miniature linebackers.

Whereas McGee prefers the I-formation, Whittaker is more comfortable running out of the shotgun. That's how he made his yardage at Pearland High School, where he finished with the sixth-best rushing total in Class 5A history.

The third member of the committee is Chris Ogbonnaya, a well-known offensive commodity. The Longhorns often turned to Ogbonnaya on third-down situations last fall because he was as adept at running pass routes as he was at picking up the blitz. He caught 21 passes a year ago. To prepare for this season, the fifth-year senior dropped 12 pounds to improve his speed. He's now at 215.

We'll look elsewhere in the Big 12 after the jump.

Spring practice has always been a time of offensive and defensive scheme installation, fundamentals and player evaluations. But this year's spring practice also has Big 12 coaches channeling their inner Olivia Newton John. That's right, it seems everyone in the conference is getting physical.

At Texas, it has been new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp who has the Longhorns playing tougher.

"We've had the most physical practices we've ever had," [head coache Mack] Brown said. "We were more physical last spring, but this spring we've just continued. Obviously, Will's come in with some new defensive thoughts and we're working on those."

The players seem to be catching on:

"Every day, we're hitting, no matter where we are," cornerback Deon Beasley said. "Inside the bubble, outside, we're hitting. I think it's good for us to get some contact and for us to show that we're not only a fast team, but we're a physical one as well."

Nebraska's new head coach Bo Pelini also wanted the Huskers focusing on physical football.

Pelini labeled last year's defensive performance "irrelevant" and said he hasn't watched any of the tape from last year. He'll spend some time trying figure out what talent he has, and "tweaking" the scheme to the players. It will also be more physical.

"We're not gonna be out there playing tag, I promise you that," Pelini said.

Arguably the biggest off-season move in college football was Mack Brown's hire of Will Muschamp to run the Longhorns defense. Muschamp, whose name was tossed around for several head coaching gigs, is known for his intensity and passion for defensive football. And it appears that he has wasted no time in bringing that famed intensity, or should I say "BOOM!" to Austin.

One concept Muschamp developed is the Hard Hat Award, which is handed out to the player delivering the biggest hit at each spring practice session. The hat has quickly become a coveted piece of apparel.

"It's a big competition," said linebacker Rashad Bobino, Muschamp's initial honoree this spring. "Whoever has the hardest hit gets that hat and ends up moving into a starting role."

Muschamp's major goal for the Longhorns appears to be to mould them in his own image.

"You want your players to take the personality of their coach. That's the way I've always looked at it. I want our players to play excited and have fun playing with intensity ... with controlled aggression."

It should come as no surprise then Muschamp isn't above doling out a well-deserved chest bump or a well-deserved butt-chewing. But whatever the method, Texas players like defensive end Brian Orakpo seem thrilled to have Muschamp on board

"He'll get in your face, but he loves you to death. He's a very emotional coach. He brings that excitement and enthusiasm to the table that we need."