"Colt looked as good as I've ever seen him," [head coach Mack] Brown said. "He's even more accurate of a passer, if that's possible. I believe he has a chance to be very special."
The competition for the backup quarterback job between redshirt freshman Sherrod Harris and true freshman John Chiles also heated up on Saturday. Both quarterbacks excited Longhorn fans with impressive runs from offensive coordinator Greg Davis' zone-read playbook. Harris broke a 75-yard touchdown run and Chiles later scored on a 28-yard run of his own. Despite the efforts with their legs, both freshman will need to improve their passing. Harris finished the day 2-6 for 17 yards passing, while Chiles completed 1-4 passes for 15 yards.
It will be interesting to see how the Longhorns decide to use McCoy's backups. Their presence certainly gives Greg Davis some versatility. If he can figure out a way to utilize the athleticism of Harris or Chiles by developing a package that caters to their individual strengths (see Tebow, Tim), it could mean nightmares for opposing defensive coordinators. The threat becomes even greater if McCoy is as efficient as he was in 2006, and the extremely talented group of receivers continues to develop.
Texas just put out a 272-page spring football media guide even though NCAA rules state guides must be limited to 208 pages.
Tsk tsk.
This isn't a big deal obviously, but it just flies in the face of any sanctimony from the Texas camp about being within the rules any time they start slinging mud at Texas A&M or Oklahoma or USC or whoever.
Fans Are: Delusional, as always. God didn't create Texas, Texas created him don't you know?
There would be more noise made about last year's somewhat disappointing effort but the national championship afterglow is still in effect. People tend to savor something that takes 35 years to happen, especially people who talk like it happens every year.
Expectations: Another typical Mack Brown season: 12-2 or so, beat Oklahoma, play in the Big 12 Championship game, contend for a BCS bowl and maybe even a national championship.
Questions:
1. Jamaal Charles' sophomore slump was cute. Not. That's over with and he will go back to being Mr. 7 yards-a-carry again, right?
One would hope. He's apparently worked with the weights in the offseason and is finally running over teammates at practice. Thing is, he also ditched track and has two full seasons of football on his body, chances are he's lost a fraction of a step (or two) in exchange. So maybe he doesn't break away as many big runs but he'll become a more consistent inside runner.
2. The secondary was not very Texas-like last year. Any chance for improvement this time around?
Hard to tell. It's very rare to have that kind of talent assembled as happened last year with All American Aaron Ross, veteran Tarell Brown and the Griffin brothers at safety. They should have been outstanding. Oops. I guess they miss Michael Huff more than they thought they would.
The experience and overall talent will definitely be down this year in the Texas secondary, but sometimes overshadowed guys end up doing alright. Look at Ohio State last year, they lost nearly their entire secondary yet a cast of nobodies went out and throttled an increasingly pass-happy Big Ten. Mind you Chris Leak picked them apart underneath in the national championship game but they were good enough to stabilize that defense to get to that game in the first place in spite of all the personnel changes. Maybe that happens with this year's Longhorn secondary. Linebacker Drew Kelson's making a run at one of the safety jobs, if that means anything.
Chykie Brown and Deon Beasley are the names to know at cornerback this spring.
3. Will Sergio Kindle earn himself a starting job?
There's a shot. Coaches hate to bump established starters and Texas' three linebackers from last year all return. However, there's nobody special like Kindle in that group and it'll just plain look bad if he's still logging backup minutes two years into his Longhorn career.
"We feel like we're in better shape because we've got a lot of depth," Brown said. "We have fewer stars on this team than probably any we've had since we've been here. There are a lot of talented young guys, but fewer stars."
Brown said the rebuilding job for his upcoming team might be his most extensive since his first season at Texas in 1998.
"It really is exciting," Brown said. "It's fun to go back and try to have your best team with maybe not your best personnel."
Isn't this a little like telling your children they may not be as smart or talented than their older siblings? I mean, it may be true and they may do great things just the same, but you don't say anything like that within earshot - do you?
It's all innocent enough, obviously. Mack Brown is a master with the media and knows what he's saying but this is notable just the same.
I'm tired of being thrown around and I don't want to get hurt again
That's Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, talking about life as a scrawny quarterback at a big time D-I school.
His concern is legitimate, as he took a beating last year. The kid's tough as nails and had a fantastic season in spite of his various physical maladies, but he's taking some precautions this time around.
Kelson has played tailback and linebacker his entire career after signing with the Longhorns as the nation's top safety prospect several years ago. Now he's back where it all began and just in time to take a stab at rescuing the shaky Longhorn secondary.
Despite having All American Aaron Ross and steady veterans Tarell Brown and Michael Griffin in their secondary, Texas was repeatedly torched last year through the air. With only a handful of reliable veterans in the secondary, Kelson gets his shot to add some stability to the new-look Longhorn defensive backfield.
Having played linebacker and tailback, two high-impact positions, I'm guessing he's probably a little more banged up than most defensive backs. He may also be carrying linebacker weight still which could affect his range. But it's a smart move as he's a veteran player who knows the game having spent time at several positions and is moving to an area of team need.
Usually when we hear about college football players and automobiles, it invariably has to do with some kind of NCAA violation--like an Ohio State player getting use of a Cadillac Escalade from an Alumnus or an Oklahoma quarterback getting a job at a local car dealership to which he never had to show up.
However, when you play for the Washington Huskies--who give Stanford a run for their money in futility--sometimes you've got to take matters into your own hands. And that's exactly what Michael Houston, the Huskies' running back, did.
Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles is expected to step down this week. His departure is yet another symbol of the passing of one of college football's greatest generations, the great coaches who presided over the game from 1960 or so until the mid to late 1970's. Broyles coached the Razorbacks from 1958 to 1976 helping them win a championship and competing nationally in a great era against powers like Alabama, USC, Notre Dame and Michigan.
Another giant of his time has left us in the mortal sense: Bo Schembechler. Schembechler coached Michigan from 1969 to 1989 becoming the face of the program until his death just before the Michigan/Ohio State game last year.
Among the magnificent but dead is Alabama's Bear Bryant (1958-1982) who retired at the end of the 1982 season and promptly checked out of mortal existence. Ohio State's Woody Hayes (1951-1978) hung around until his death in 1987. Nebraska's Bob Devaney (1962-1972) checked out in 1997 and USC's comedic John McKay (1960-1975) lasted a little longer, passing away in 2001.
All those giants left the coaching ranks long ago, but each stewarded elite programs for a decade or more. To this day most of them remain the standard for which current coaches aspire to at each of their programs. Schembechler's death and Broyles' departure signal the end of their collective direct involvement in the college game.
They are the ones who were the game's caretakes from the mid to late 1970's until the late 1980's, an era of great transition and upheaval due to parity measures such as scholarship limits, the completion of racial integration and the rapid and dramatic death of plodding, run-heavy conventional offenses such as USC's "Student Body Right/Student Body Left" approach.
We'll save that analysis for another day, another time. Until then it's one final embrace of perhaps college football's "greatest generation" of coaches. Thanks for the memories, fellas.
Few things awe people more than the act of speed. I sit here writing this while the Daytona 500 plays out on my television screen, cars ripping across asphalt at nearly 200 miles an hour. The main event at the Olympic games is the 100 meter dash. In college football, our fastest players have quite often been amongst the most celebrated.
Reggie Bush and Adrian Peterson came along and spent three seasons simply running right by defenders. They gave way to Ted Ginn who capped his career with a kick return touchdown that was Ohio State's lone highlight in January's BCS Championship Game.
But now that those guys are gone, who is left to fill the void as captivating speedster?
For players already on college rosters, Clemson has two of the zoom zoomiest around in receiver/returner Jacoby Ford and tailback CJ Spiller, both sophomores. There are other players out there yet to make their mark and we'll be on the lookout for them. One such burner is Jamere Holland, a redshirt freshman receiver at USC who clocked somewhere in the 10.3 range in the 100 meters in high school.
Florida sophomore receiver Percy Harvin is also a superb choice, weaving expertly through defenses any time he so much as has a step on a defender. West Virginia junior tailback Steve Slaton has excellent speed and is a worthy candidate. Junior Arkansas tailback and Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden is an obvious selection here. Finally, there is junior Texas tailback Jamaal Charles who ran somewhere in the 10.2 range in high school and owns several long touchdown runs to his name.
Among incoming recruits, many people have made comparisons between Louisiana's Joe McKnight (a USC signee) and Reggie Bush, but McKnight is probably a step slower with a personal best of 10.71. There are some reports of him having clocked a 10.4, but I have yet to find anything legitimate and official backing that up. He's definitely a playmaker but I'm not sure he's quite in that class of guy who simply runs right by college defenders as Peterson and Bush and Ginn were able to do.
My nominee among this year's incoming freshmen to fill the speed vacuum would be tailback Jahvid Best, a 10.41 runner who has signed with California.
Noble reader: now that you've seen my list, I ask you now who else should be under consideration as an impact player with awe-inspiring speed? Feel free to leave a comment below.
In case you haven't heard, there's a little skirmish happening in Austin this weekend. In fact, it's a rare No. 1 vs. No. 2 battle, the earliest point in a season a one versus two game have ever been played.
The defending national champion Texas Longhorns will go it without that Vince Young guy, but feel confident in taking on the Ohio State Buckeyes with young buck Colt McCoy seven yards behind center.
Ohio State vs. Texas (8:00 p.m.) ABC, ABC HD
Former Power Faces Declining Power
In a game that's flown under the radar and has the feel of Spain taking on France for global supremacy, the Washington Huskies travel to Norman for a fun intersectional battle with Oklahoma. This would have been more festive in the 1980's, but we'll take it anyway.
Washington vs. Oklahoma (3:30 p.m.) ABC, ABC HD, ESPN360, ESPN GamePlan, DirecTV 775, Dish Network A Team May Die, But Its Rivalries Live On
Colorado vs. Colorado State (5:00 p.m.) CSTV, OLN Takin' on the ESS EEE CEEE
Mississippi vs. Missouri (12:30 p.m.) FSN, FSN HD, FSN Regional Affiliates, Turner South, Comcast Mid-Atlantic, Philly and Chicago
Mountain West Showdowns
UNLV vs. Iowa State (7:00 p.m.) Texas Tech vs. UTEP (9:00 p.m.) CSTV, CollegeSportsDirect.TV
The Sun Belt is Your Personal Whipping Boy--Commence The Beating
Louisiana-Lafayette vs. Texas A&M (7:00 p.m.) Kansas vs. Louisiana-Monroe (7:00 p.m.) Oklahoma State vs. Arkansas State (7:05 p.m.) ESPNU Florida Atlantic vs. Kansas State (7:10 p.m.) Fishing in I-AA Waters
Nicholls State vs. Nebraska (1:30 p.m.) Northwestern State vs. Baylor (7:00 p.m.
Texas held its annual orange-white spring game on Saturday and it was the play of the quarterbacks that stood out. Starter Colt McCoy, who is hoping to avoid the pounding he took in 2006, led the way. He completed 7 of 11 passes for 136 yards. He also connected scoring strikes of 41-yardw to Nate Jones, 40-yardw to Jordan Shipley and 21-yardw to Billy Pittman.
Last Year: 10-3 (6-2), # 13 AP, # 13 Coaches
Not really. But it's interesting to hear him publicly say the 2007 Longhorn team 
I love this quote:
Senior Texas linebacker 
Usually when we hear about college football players and automobiles, it invariably has to do with some kind of NCAA violation--like an Ohio State player getting use of a Cadillac Escalade from an Alumnus or an Oklahoma quarterback getting a job at a local car dealership to which he never had to show up. 
Arkansas Athletic Director 
