AUSTIN, Texas -- University of Texas coach Mack Brown usually doesn't like to live in the past, but this week he broke out some old film for his team.
He showed the Longhorns how teams from 2006 and 2007 finished in comparison to 2005, when Texas won the BCS national title, and last season when many agree the 12-1 Longhorns should have been given the opportunity to compete for the national championship.
Brown's point to his second-ranked,10-0 squad is simple: stay focused these last two regular-season games, the Big 12 championship game in two weeks, and then biggest of prizes await the Texas Longhorns in Pasadena. A slip up anywhere between now and the Jan. 7 BCS national championship game will lead to great disappointment for Texas.
Sam Bradford at times looked a little rusty, and he and his receivers seemed out of synch, but the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback returned after a nearly one-month layoff to lead the 19th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners to a 33-7 win over Baylor on Saturday in Norman, Okla.
Bradford, who had missed three games after spraining the AC joint in his (right) throwing shoulder in the first half of the season opener, passed for 389 yards and a touchdown in a relatively easy Big 12 opener. The real test comes next Saturday when the Sooners take on No. 2 Texas in the annual Red River Rivalry in Dallas.
"It's extremely gratifying just to get back out on the field," Bradford said. "Just to be out there with the guys that I have put in so much work with in the offseason and just the simple things like handoffs. Everything out there, it's just exciting to be back."
If there was one true loser on a night of winners, that man is Billy Sims.
The 1978 Heisman winner and College Hall of Famer made an absolute mockery of the ceremony when Sam Bradford was presented this year's trophy, hooting and hollering "Boomer" repeatedly until a fellow Oklahoman finally responded "Sooner" (based off of the school's fight song).
Not surprisingly, this isn't the first time Sims has lampooned the presentation with his rah-rah antics. When the trophy was presented to quarterback Jason White in 2003, Sims did the same exact thing.
Video of the clowning and a rundown of message board vitriol after the jump...
Colt McCoy has, for all intents and purposes, said he always planned on returning to the Texas Longhorns for his senior season of college football. (And who can blame him? Have you ever been to Austin?)
However, McCoy had also mentioned testing the NFL draft waters. But now, per the Dallas Morning-News, Longhorn fans can (presumably) rest easy, as Colt reached out and told everyone that he will indeed be coming back next year.
"I'm coming back," McCoy relayed through a UT spokesman this afternoon.
[...]Late in the season, McCoy had mentioned getting feedback from an NFL advisory committee to gauge his possible draft status. He still could without jeopardizing his eligibility. But he won't have to worry about the draft itself for a year.
Well, he'd obviously be a fool not to at least listen to how many millions of dollars he could earn by leaving for the NFL. But at the same time, Colt's situation is one that definitely warrants -- in my oh-so-motivated opinion -- coming back for another year.
Texas more or less just gotjobbed by the BCS standings, thanks to a silly Big 12 tiebreaker rule, and can't play for a national title. Additionally, a strong run by Tim Tebow and a possible championship for the Gators could have squeezed Colt out of a potential Heisman Trophy, and one would have to think that in 2009 he'd be a pretty strong candidate to win. Looks like he feels the same way, or at least cares about unfinished business.
Remember Joe Hamilton? Diminuitive quarterback par excellence at Georgia Tech a few years back. Heisman Trophy runner-up. The last known relevant Georgia Tech season was played under his command. Then he disappeared into football obscurity because the No Fun League has no need for guys that good.
Anyway.
Hit and run DUI, folks. Aaaaaaand our football God returns just in time to beat a hasty retreat.
Former Georgia Tech quarterback Joe Hamilton resigned from his position at the school Wednesday, a day after he was charged with marijuana possession, driving under the influence of alcohol and hit-and-run.
The charges came about a week after the 31-year-old was hired as the school's assistant director of player personnel.
"Today, I sadly accepted Joe's resignation," said Georgia Tech football coach Paul Johnson.
YouTube of the good times below (on the right side of the law) in lieu of further commentary.
FanHouse is counting down the 10 best, 10 worst, and 10 weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.
There ought to be a unit to measure cockiness in athletes. There should be some means of comparing one athlete's self-confidence with another's. Yes, there should be such a unit, and if there ever is, it should be called the Howard. One Howard would be equal to the amount of cockiness displayed in the photo above, the infamous moment towards the end of the 1991 Ohio State-Michigan game when Desmond Howard struck the Heisman pose, knowing--knowing--that he had just locked up the award.
I remember seeing this moment on live TV. At the instant Howard struck his pose I had never admired nor loathed an athlete so much. He was arrogant, and he was right. Howard didn't just win the 1991 Heisman, he claimed it. Howard scored 138 points for Michigan that season, becoming the first receiver ever to lead the conference in scoring.
It wasn't just what Desmond Howard did that earned him the Heisman, though. It was how he did it. He caught 61 passes for 950 yards that season. That's more than respectable, but those aren't dizzying numbers. Last year Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree caught 134 passes for 1,962 yards. Crabtree even outdid Howard in touchdown receptions, 22 to 19. But did you catch something in those numbers?
FanHouse is counting down the 10 best, 10 worst, and 10 weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.
Howard Stern could take over for Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News. Your cat could win the Nobel Prize in physics. Guns 'N Roses could actually release Chinese Democracy. Those are three things which seem as unlikely now as Northwestern's 1995 Rose Bowl run seemed at the time.
Northwestern had occupied a certain niche in the Big Ten's ecosystem, that of the perennial homecoming date. The Wildcats could be counted on to show up sometime between late September and late October to provide an all but guaranteed W for the returning alumni. And as long as they still played football in Evanston, every Big Ten team knew that no matter what other outrageous fortune befell them, they wouldn't go winless in the conference unless it was one of those years Northwestern just wasn't on the schedule.
A lot of coaches sacrificed large parts of their careers coaching in Evanston, trying to face up to the challenge of turning around a football team that hadn't won a conference title since 1949. But not even legitimately good coaches like Lou Saban, Ara Parseghian, and Dennis Green could accomplish anything with the Wildcats. So how did Gary Barnett do it?
Few players had a better season in 2007 than did Missouri's Jeremy Maclin. After all, Maclin gained 2,776 all-purpose yards, which was an NCAA Division I-A single-season freshman record, and was also the fifth-most ever by any player in a season in Division I-A history. He made just about every All-American team possible and gave Big 12 defensive coordinators and special teams coaches constant headaches. Now comes word that Maclin is only getting better as spring practices resume in Columbia.
"Jeremy Maclin is a lot better player right now than he was a year ago," [Missouri coach Gary] Pinkel said yesterday after the Tigers scrimmaged for nearly three hours on Faurot Field. "People go, 'Wow, how can that happen?' Well, Brett Favre was a heck of a lot better player his eighth year as a starter than he was his first year."
I'm not sure Pinkel's analogy makes a whole lot of sense, but certainly players do generally get better over time. In the case of Maclin, however, you have to wonder if he might be nearing some sort of ceiling effect? There just doesn't seem to be that much room for improvement when you look at his statistics. So, what is Coach Pinkel seeing on the practice field?
His 1-on-1 routes, he's improved dramatically," Pinkel said. "I also think that's where he's got to be demanding on himself for perfection because that's how good he can be. No single guy should ever be able to cover him. ...
"Last year was his first year, and we forget that sometimes. His work habits were good, but they weren't like Will Franklin's. They weren't like" Martin "Rucker's. Now, they're like they're supposed to be."
Now that's scary. With a Heisman finalist quarterback in Chase Daniel returning, along with a wealth of talent on the offensive side of the ball, Maclin just might continue to break records. As he progresses look for the Tigers to really separate themselves from the rest of the Big 12 North.
Missouri coach Gary Pinkel was scheduled to throw out the first pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals' Opening Day game on Monday. A delay in his return flight from Florida, however, forced the Tigers to go to their bullpen. As a result, it was quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Chase Daniel who got the call along with his battery mate wide receiver Jeremy Maclin.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned for Daniel.
The crowd gave a standing ovation to Daniel and one of his favorite wide receiver targets, Jeremy Maclin and in a nice touch, Daniel brought out a ball he was more accustomed to throwing...a football.
It certainly couldn't have been the pressure of throwing in front of a bunch of people, or the fact that the weather conditions weren't ideal, both of which Daniel is used to, so I'm going to blame the fact that Daniel BOUNCED the pitch/pass into Maclin from 60 feet 6 inches on standing on the mound.
So Daniel's pitch/pass missed Maclin and apparently rolled to the backstop eliciting boos from the Cardinal faithful. I don't expect many incompletions like that between the two this fall.
Interestingly one local writer went as far as to have a major league scout give his appraisal of Daniel's pitching prowess.
Check out this video documenting the school's decrepit athletic facilities ("In the locker room there are missing ceiling tiles, broken soap dispensers and inoperable fire alarms. In the weight room you'll find damaged Olympic weights, cracked upholstery on machines and broken equipment.")
The funny part is that even though the Warriors won the WAC this year, they've still got Boise State on the brain. Whatever, at least they're finally allocating some money to address the situation. I'm guessing that's the only reason cameras were allowed to show the mess in the first place, now that Hawaii can stand up and say "change is coming".
AUSTIN, Texas -- University of Texas coach Mack Brown usually doesn't like to live in the past, but this week he broke out some old film for his team.
Sam Bradford
If there was one true loser on a night of winners, that man is 
Colt McCoy
Remember Joe Hamilton? Diminuitive quarterback par excellence at Georgia Tech a few years back. Heisman Trophy runner-up. The last known relevant Georgia Tech season was played under his command. Then he disappeared into football obscurity because the No Fun League has no need for guys that good.
Few players had a better season in 2007 than did Missouri's 
Missouri coach Gary Pinkel 
