If 2010 Texas played 1997 Texas, who would win?

Don't forget to show your work.

Let's fast forward a few years into the future. Mack Brown has retired, and Will Muschamp is the new head coach at Texas.

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The new depth chart for Wyoming is out, and there are a couple of notable changes.

Tre Newton is now the starter at tailback with Cody and Fozzy backing him up. Ho hum. It wouldn't surprise me to see a different starter each week at this position, and it won't surprise me to see a different standout each game. When you have three guys who have about the same ability, one might play better than the others each week but over the course of the season they'll be about the same. There is no clear standout.

Paden Kelly is back after being punished for an overdue library book or whatever and is backing up Britt Mitchell at right tackle along with Mark Buchanan. Buchanan is also backing up Michael Huey at left guard along with Thomas Ashcraft meaning Dominic Espinosa is no longer on the depth chart. We have a lot of guards. Redshirt him.

Jamison Berryhill and Ryan Roberson are still listed as co-starters at fullback. That means on goal line we'll bring in a backup linebacker who has never played the position before and who missed last because of an injured shoulder.

Kenny Vaccaro is now listed as co-starter along with Christian Scott at left safety. Our two leading tacklers in the secondary at the same position, but apparently neither of them can line up the defense. Vaccaro is also listed as co-starter with Aaron Williams at nickel back, and Williams is still listed as co-starter at left corner with Curtis Brown. Chykie Brown is still the man at right corner. Message sent, imo.

Update: Mack Brown said in his press conference that Cody sprained his ankle on the second play of the game. And the Statesman quotes Greg Davis as saying "We've worked him so hard in camp that I think he's a little worn down. You could tell he didn't have fresh legs like Tré (Newton) and Fozzy (Whittaker). We've been saving those guys in camp."

So that's two different excuses after the first game. Not good.

I didn't watch the game live because I'm a bad fan and I refuse to go to Houston on general principle, and then my dvr failed to record the game so I didn't get to break it down any. f grande.

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Lately I've been thinking about which player is going to improve the most from last season. My first instinct is to look to the defense where every dude we have on that side of the ball will improve. But that's too easy. I don't want to pick someone who goes from good to very good or from very good to great. I want someone who goes from Vasherized to very good or even great.

So I had to look at the other side of the ball where a change in scheme is going to do the most good. Cody Johnson? Good choice, but he played well last year in limited action. Garrett Gilbert? He didn't play enough to warrant consideration. My post, my rules. So who did I pick?

Michael Huey.

Oh. Yeah. The Big 12 championship game. But you can't judge Huey against N'DonkeyKong Suh. That's like judging Scipio's game against girls who have self esteem. Neither dude has a chance. But there aren't any more Suhs on our schedule, and there are a lot of girls out there with a negative body image.

Huey is built like a hippo, and I mean that in the best sense of the word. Hippos are dangerous animals, killing more Africans each year than war, famine and the AIDS combined. Powerful and fast, the only way to stop them is by letting Greg Davis train them.

Mack Brown likes hippos.

Huey came to Texas a dangerous animal, but three years playing Duck, Duck, Goose took the fight out of him. Well now he's finally playing in the right system, and he's wrecking shit. What's that? You say that scheme is overrated? Take a look at Suh playing for Bill Callahan.

Recently Mack Brown said that "Michael Huey is playing with dominance in the preseason." Dominance. We haven't had an offensive lineman play at a level anything close to that since Justin Blalock, and even he was partially neutered as a senior.

Huey is getting to play more from a three point stance. As Brown said last week, "We’re in a three-point stance, and we’re coming downhill and coming off the ball. It’s no doubt that it is easier to run the ball in a three-point stance rather than a two-point stance." It's certainly a lot easier to prevent a defensive lineman from getting underneath your pads at the snap of the ball. No longer will we have to watch our offensive linemen try to replicate moves they saw in 'The Matrix' after a defensive lineman got underneath their pads before they knew what hit them.

Obligatory, imo.

And Huey played hurt last year. Now I know that every commenter on BC played eighth grade football with a severed carotid artery and a distended anus. Your toughness is legendary! But don't you remember how much better you played when you stopped losing blood and were able to sit down again? That's what I'm expecting from Huey starting on Saturday.

He's healed and playing in a system that takes advantage of what he does best, and I'm expecting an All Conference year for him

So who is your pick for the most improved Longhorn player?

Texas freshman linebacker Tevin Jackson from Garland is no longer enrolled because of some lingering high school transcript issues that haven't been resolved with the NCAA. It looks like he won't be playing this fall, and if he doesn't get everything squared away he won't be able to enroll until the spring.

Nice work by both the NCAA and the Texas academic staff, imo.

Update:official release.

Mack Brown is a mesmerizing dude. It's why he recruits so well and why everybody likes him. In person he's dynamite. It's like listening to Morgan Freeman read the Declaration of Independence. You come out of a press conference and think 'Man, Greg Davis is doing a helluva job at Texas and we're lucky to have him.' Players are ready to run through walls for him, which is good preparation for our running game. But reading Brown's words don't have the same effect on a person that they would if you heard Mack speak them in person, and his comments sometimes do make for interesting reading. Like his press conference on the 20th.

"Christian Scott is playing really well. He’s covering better. We always knew that he could run and hit and tackle. He’s actually toned some down. He hurts guys in practice if we allow him to go full speed all the time. We say, ‘Christian help us. Wait until the games.’"

I'm trying to remember the last time Texas had a guy like Christian Scott at safety. We've had plenty of great safeties, but I'm talking about the kind of hard pipe-hittin', uh, safety that a defensive coordinator calls when he wants to get medieval on someone's ass. The closest one I can think of is Richard Peavy, and I'm chomping at the bit to see Scott hit someone so hard that they go sit on the wrong sideline and then quit the team the following Monday.

Usually when you go to a nickel defense, you're not as strong against the run. Typically teams will bring in a small third corner to line up in the slot. When we go to nickel, we'll have Scott filling an alley like a linebacker and Aaron Williams who also plays as well as any defensive back in the country around the line of scrimmage. We can be a really strong team against the run in the nickel. Something to keep an eye on.

"I would like to see D.J. Monroe and Marquise Goodwin on kickoff returns."

Two of the fastest players in college football returning kicks? Now we're talking. When you have a single return guy who is a threat, you can try to keep the ball out of his hands by kicking to the other guy named Vondrell Ogbonnaya-Geiggar. When you have two guys back there who have both returned kicks for touchdowns, it gets a lot harder. The surest way to avoid them both is to kick it short to an up man. Now named Vondrell Ogbonnaya-Geiggar. I guess if a kicker has a strong enough leg, he can kick it out of the end zone. It's not like he's going to tire himself out making multiple kickoffs against Texas this year.

"What you’d have right now is Britt [Mitchell]’s doing a good job, Kyle [Hix] is doing a really good job and then you’d have Luke that if we played today, he would move back and forth, so you’ve got three tackles that we feel like right now are playing well enough to step up and play."

We've got a career right tackle playing left tackle, and a bulked up former tight end at right tackle. Our chief backup is a 275 pounder who actually had the confidence to walk around without a shirt at one of the seven on sevens I watched. That's not good. You want your offensive linemen to be the kind of guys who wear tshirts when they go swimming if you know what I mean.

But you play the hand your dealt, or in this case, recruited. The only thing that makes me feel good about the tackle position this year is comparing it to next year. See? Don't you feel better already?

Hix will have to go up against Von Miller, and Mitchell will have to face Jeremy Beal. This is where play action and a competent screen game will have to come in. Don't laugh, unless you're still thinking about next year's tackle position. Yes, we don't really have anything in our past to make you think that we can actually screen competently, but. But? But nothing. Hey, I'll be as surprised as you will if we can screen correctly this season. Nothing to cling to at this point other than hope.

September 4th, imo.

If [insert team A] can slow down [insert famous team B ex-player], they have a chance.

Head over to March to March where all the cool kids and Vasherized are.

So former Aggie and current New England Patriot Ty Warren has decided to forego his $250,000 offseason workout bonus to instead stay home and attend college classes.

"I try to put the kids in the best educational system possible and I think there is something to be said for their father, who has been blessed to play in the NFL and do something he's loved to do, going back and finishing what he started," said Warren. "In the big picture, I think it's important for me to do what I'm doing. I can sacrifice that bonus for that."

Because many pro athletes don’t graduate from college, we are automatically programmed to applaud any player who gets his degree by any means necessary short of stealing it. But this is stupid. This is really stupid.

Warren is on track to graduate next spring with a degree in economics agricultural leadership and development, and he says his plans after football are helping those at A&M get more involved in the community.

"If I'm fortunate enough to play 12, 13 years, but then find myself getting cut in training camp, I'm not going to put myself in a situation where I don't have my degree," he said. "I'm not going to give myself up like that. I need to have options, so I feel like right now is a time where I need to dictate what I'm doing in the offseason.

Here’s an idea. Get paid $250,000 for working out and then use that money to pay for your school and your kids’ school. You’re not going to make that kind of money working in a non-profit in BCS. Get as much money as you can from your lucrative job while you can.

Athletes like to say ‘It’s not about the money’ when it is more often than not all about the money. This situation is all about the money, and the right thing to do is to take it.

This staff is money. The kind of money Trips leaves in g-strings. After this weekend’s four game sweep of Iowa, the team ERA is sitting at 1.89.

Game 1

Pitching: Cole Green was on and looked really comfortable out there. He gave up a single unearned run in the first on a single, three stolen bases and two errors while striking out the side. Iowa only managed three singles and a walk the rest of the game. His backdoor curveball was especially lethal against lefties. The batter will give up on it only to watch it drop in on the outside corner. Take your seat.

Hitting: Bad, but at least they didn’t strike out a lot. Kevin Lusson hit his first home run of the year in the second, and then Texas scratched across single runs in the 4th and 5th. That’s all they needed as Iowa wasn’t going to do anything against Green.

Fielding: Aside from the first inning debacle, they were gold. Freshman Jonathan Walsh got the start at catcher, and Iowa tested him. He threw out the only other Iowa player to attempt a steal in the 3rd. Tant Shepard got an error in the first when his spike caught on the turf while he was trying to set his feet on a throw to first. Fluke, but it allowed the run to score.

Game 2

Pitching: Brandon Workman wasn’t as dominant as he was against Houston, but he still pitched great. Iowa got two runs in the first off of three wuss singles, but he shut them down the rest of the game while striking out 8 in 6 2/3 innings. Andrew McKiran and Stayton Thomas kept Iowa scoreless until the 9th when Chance Ruffin pitched a perfect inning for the save.

Hitting: Brandon Loy went 3-3 with two doubles, and Kevin Keyes and Shephard had two hits apiece. No one else got a hit.

Fielding: A single error in the 4th that didn’t lead to any damage.

Game 3

Pitching: Freshman Hoby Milner got the start, and he pitched ok. He’s pretty freaking skinny at this point and had some problems with his control. But he didn’t allow any runs in 4 1/3. Thomas relieved him and struck out four of the five hitters he faced. Sam Stafford, Kendall Carrillo and Josh Urban got their first action of the year, and they all pitched a scoreless inning.

Hitting: Iowa ran out of pitching. It’s like when nobody at BC wants to write anything so only The General is putting up stuff. But five home runs is five home runs. I can’t really remember the last time we hit five home runs at home. We now have hitting momentum! Or something.

Fielding: Perfect.

This four game series against Iowa was like playing in the losers’ bracket in a tournament. Our pitching was dominant, and they just wore out Iowa. Thomas looks like our setup man, and I think he does a better job than Ruffin of not allowing inherited runners to score. Ruffin just seems to do better starting off an inning rather than coming in during an at bat.

Our middle defense of Loy and Jordan Etier is great. I doubt there is one better in college. Etier is also becoming a pretty good hitter. He’s leading the team in home runs, and he does a good job of working the count in his favor.

Cohl Walla looks like our starting left fielder from here on out. He can hit for power, he can steal bases and he runs like a deer in the outfield. I hope Jonathan Walsh gets more work as well. He looks like a natural line drive hitter.

So now we head to Houston tomorrow night to play Rice before starting conference against Nebraska this weekend in Austin. Should be fun.

we fucking love him now.

The look on Perry's face is priceless.

College baseball.

He's a witch. Last night he struck out 17 Iowa batters in only 7 1/3 innings of work. And got a no decision. More on that later. He's filled out his frame and is no longer all arms and legs like he was last year. His fastball has gotten, uh, faster, and last night his slider was unhittable.

No, you wouldn't.

He gave up a single run in the first inning (made a couple of bad 1-2 pitches), and then struck out 17 of the next 25 batters he faced. How dominant has he been this year? Last night's performance actually raised his ERA to 0.93. Best Longhorn pitcher since Greg Swindell.

Before the season started I told you we'd be a team carried by pitching and defense. I told you that again after the season started because some (all?) of you assholes have ADD and shit. Now I'm telling you this a third time because I like the sound of my own voice fingers typing on a keyboard. We're a team of pitching and defense.

Good thing too because our hitting right now is outright faggotry. It's embarrassing. It's mental at this point. That's what I hate about baseball. Too much thinking involved. I actually hate a lot more things about baseball, but let's just stick to these this one for instructional purposes.

Baseball gives you too much time to think between at bats. It gives you too much time to think between swings. If you're struggling, you have a lot of time to dwell on it. It's not like football although kickers would be pretty close. If you fuck up in football, you typically have about 35 seconds to get ready for the next play. In basketball if you miss a shot, you have to get right back on defense. Unless you're J'Covan Brown. Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! That doesn't leave a lot of time for introspection.

The Texas hitters are collectively pressing right now. Hitting is contagious. Like Mono. Actually hitting isn't contagious, but Mono is. So some of you should probably get yourselves checked out. But some things are collective. Like Nazi punishments. If the Texas hitters were women, their cycles would all be in sync right now. If they lived in Mobile, they'd all be spotting Leprechauns.

Hitting .225 on the year.

Of course this can all probably just be explained by statistics, but there's a reason no one reads Huckleberry's posts.

But our pitching and defense is fantastic. As Augie Garrido said after last night's game, "We are trying and failing (at the plate), but we are winning."

And we won last night's game against Iowa 2-1 in 10 innings on solo home runs in the bottom of the 8th and 10th innings. Since losing 2 out of 3 to New Mexico, we've gone 9-1. And why have we gone 9-1?

I'm not going to tell you a fourth time.

Quandre Diggs committed to Texas last night. The commitment was reported first by Sir Gerry Hamilton of ESPN.

Texas' offer was his 25th.

Free article over at InsideTexas.

The Texas offer was the 24th offer for Diggs who was also courted by Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas A&M among many others. Florida, Georgia and USC were all showing heavy interest with the Trojans figuring to be offering very soon.

In addition to his Junior Day visit to Texas, Diggs was invited to attend Junior Days at LSU and Oklahoma. His track schedule prevented him from making it to either event.

While he figures to play defensive back at Texas, Diggs said his future position is not set in stone.

"They offered me as an athlete and I’m going to go in and compete and play wherever they need me," Diggs said.

So our hitters went 4-29 with 13 strikeouts. Against a fucking airline?! Are you kidding me?! Meh. We still won 3-2. This is who we are. Now there will be much gnashing of teeth all season long from our fans who want us to win, uh, differently. Not going to happen. Repeat after me, ‘pitching and defense.’ Really, really good pitching and defense.

Freshman Hoby Milner got his first collegiate start, and he looked like a freshman at times. They can’t all by Taylor Jungmann, you know? He’s a gangly lefty who will get better as he fills out. And it’s not like he pitched terribly. Four and 1/3 innings, six hits and two runs (one earned). Three relievers then combined for two singles over the final 4 2/3 with Chance Ruffin pitching two perfect innings for the save. Our team ERA is 2.00.

Hitting was bad. We scored two runs off of balks and a home run by Cameron Rupp (to the opposite field). I hope Rupp has figured out that he doesn’t need to pull everything. As strong as he is, he can sit back on pitches and then drive them. The one good thing about our hitting is that both times Pan Am scored a run, we answered in our half of the inning. That's what Huckleberry refers to as 'clutch.'

Two errors on defense, but I thought one was really unfair to Jordan Etier. He made a great effort getting to the ball to even have a shot at the runner. The other error was on a pickoff attempt by Milner. But the defense came up big in the 6th when Connor Rowe threw out the potential tying run at the plate.

Now we head to Houston this weekend to play Rice, Houston and Missouri.

DBs running today. Earl Thomas is running in the second group.

Perrish Cox just ran a 4.53. Dedfischer will be crushed.

Dominique Franks - 4.52. Ouch.

Joe Haden - 4.57. Dude.

Brian Jackson - 4.58.

Very slow times thus far.

The rumours of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.

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You can watch the combine live on the NFL Network.

Colt had an MRI on his shoulder, and everything is fine.

"Obviously, that was going to be a tough part of the weekend, because people are going to want to know how the shoulder is and how it's healing up," the University of Texas standout said. "The good thing is my shoulder is 100 percent fine. There's nothing wrong with it. We found nothing wrong with it. It's just a nerve injury, and it's just about 100 percent. It's just about ready to go."

Confirmation of what we already knew.

Sergio Kindle checked in this morning at 6'2 7/8" 250. That's lighter than he played (or was at least listed) last season. I'm guessing he's going to test very well.

Gerald McCoy came in at 6'4 1/8" 291. He will also test well.

Terrance Cody weighed 354.

LSU's Trindon Holliday ran an unofficial 4.27 40.

Maryland tackle Bruce Campbell ran a 4.78 at 6'6" 314. He also did 34 reps on the bench.

And if you Google 'NFL combine,' the very first news story that comes up is
Tim Tebow draws a crowd at NFL draft combine.

Unfuckingbelievable.

If we can slow down Jack McDowell, we have a chance.

The NFL combine started yesterday, but they won’t actually begin running and stuff until Saturday. They have started measuring and weighing the participants, and the offensive linemen and tight ends were up first yesterday.

Adam Ulatoski measured 6’5" 300 with 33 ¼" arms, a full three inches shorter than he was listed at Texas. Short arms.

Ciron Black of Tyler Lee and LSU measured 6’4" 327. He’s a right tackle in the pros and possibly even a guard.

Jeff Byers of USC – 6’3" 301. The knock on him has always been his size.

Tech’s Brandon Carter – 6’6" 329. Someone took the combine seriously, but he’s a limited guy athletically.

Brody Eldridge – 6’5" 261. Guys working the combine said he was the best player they ever measured.

Jason Fox of North Crowley and Miami – 6’7" 303. Four year starter who Texas never recruited.

Jermaine Gresham – 6’5" 261 with 34 ¾" arms.

Marshall Newhouse of Richardson Lake Highlands and TCU. 6’4" 319.

Russell Okung of Houston Bush and Oklahoma State. 6’5" 307 with 36" arms.

J.D. Walton of Allen and Baylor. 6’3" 300.

Trent Williams of Longview and OU. 6’5" 315.

Wide receivers, quarterbacks and running backs are measuring this morning.

Sam Bradford 6’4" 236.

Dez Bryant 6’2" 225.

Dezmon Briscoe 6’2" 207.

Colt McCoy 6’1" 216.

Jevan Snead 6’2" 236.

Jordan Shipley 5’11"193.

Tim Tebow 6'2 3/4" 236.

Get to dissecting.

Bible said this week that Texas will win four national championships and the next four Red River Rivalry games while he’s a Longhorn. His predictions seem to throw all those low-key, humble observations about him out the window -- except when you hear the reasoning behind his projections.

"The teamwork, the chemistry, the trust, the coaches and the talent we possess," he said, explaining why Texas will four-peat, "the fact that we know we’re high caliber enough to win four."

We won't hold you to that, Taylor.

Football is once again upon us. Today Mack Brown will hold his spring press conference and then tomorrow the first practice of the spring will take place. It seems like only yesterday we were playing...fuck that memory. But hope, in keeping with the theme, springs eternal.

And nothing fills me with hope like the release of the spring roster! Now I don't give a shit about number changes. That's mom stuff. Paper currency. I'm interested in position changes and weights. Dad stuff. Gold bullion.

QB

Garrett Gilbert 6'4" 212
Connor Wood 6'4" 209
Case McCoy 6'2" 175

Gilbert and Wood are twins, and McCoy needs to get bigger. We've heard that before.

RB

Chris Whaley is 6'3" 245 and will end up at tight end as the next Natrone Means because Mack Brown coached Means at North Carolina and Means and Whaley are the same size.

WR

Nothing of interest.

TE

What an embarrassment (of riches?). Barrett Mathews is up to 235. Dominique Jones is still listed as a TE/DE, and he might get more work as a tight end. I'm basing this on our abundance of talent at defensive end and corresponding lack of talent at tight end. Over/under on medical hardships is at 2.

OL

Tray Allen is listed as a tackle, but CloseToJumping says that's his natural position. I think he's a guard myself. Like the coaches think Mason Walters is apparently. Paden Kelley is up to 290. Luke Poehlmann is still 265. See you in a year, Luke.

DT

Calvin Howell 6'4" 290
Derek Johnson 6'3" 320
Kheeston Randall 6'5" 295

Now we're talking. Howell has put on the needed weight, and I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of shape Johnson is in right now. He can be a huge for us. Randall needs to have his breakout year.

LB

Jared Norton is listed at 248, but there's some smoke surrounding him. Fat? Injury? Dustin Earnest and Tariq Allen might be getting more snaps than anticipated.

DB

Aaron Williams is now listed at 6'1" 192. Damn.

You can watch Brown's press conference live today.

He'll be in the starting lineup against Nebraska.

Brown started four games early in the season until Barnes flagged him for excessive turnovers and inconsistent effort on defense.

But Brown has become more reliable on defense while reducing his turnovers, committing just 10 in nine Big 12 games. He made two while scoring a season-best 28 points against Kansas — 26 in the second half.

Now Barnes said Brown is ready to start, providing justification the coach often cites when a player receives a promotion.

"He has changed his work ethic and his approach in practice over the last three weeks," Barnes said.

He'll replace Mason.

The Link

The NCAA’s Football Rules Committee proposed some new rules yesterday that could have a pretty significant impact on college football next season.

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Bevo Beat Baseball Notes

Well that certainly bodes well. Texas baseball has always been about pitching, and this season will be no different. Except that this year’s staff will be incredible, and yesterday Augie Garrido said it will be the best one he’s ever had.

"Well, it’s true," he continued without hesitation.

This staff has it all. Righties. Lefties. Horses at the top and depth throughout. The 1983 staff is the gold standard, and this one has a chance to be better.

The season can’t get here soon enough.

If we can slow down Mookie Blaylock, we have a chance.

There will be open practices on March 2nd and 8th, both starting at 4pm at Denius. The Orange-White game will be April 4th.

Now some bad news. Mason Walters will miss the spring after having surgery on his left foot. I was hoping he would have taken the left tackle spot, but now we're pretty much fucked.

Nolan Brewster will also miss the spring while recovering from shoulder surgery. So Blake Gideon will continue to start alongside (hopefully) Christian Scott. I can't imagine they'd put all three at the same spot. Maybe Ben Wells will make some noise.

And Emmanuel Acho will be limited after surgery to repair a sports hernia. You can bet he'll be full speed by the time Jordan Hicks and Tevin Jackson show up on campus.

Marquise Goodwin will focus entirely on track the spring.

I didn’t get to watch Mack Brown’s press conference yesterday, but they do have the transcript up at TexasSports.

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So Muschamp’s body of work is out there now, and recruits have responded.

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If we can slow down Darvin Ham, we have a chance.

If we can slow down Ray Allen, we have a chance.

Our Northeast correspondent Vasherized is at the game. He was up there watching field hockey or some other preppy shit and somehow managed to get a ticket. Vasherized talked a bit with Todd Wright who told him that we had a great week of practice, particularly on offense.

The UConn students work on their cheers an hour and a half before gametime.

iPhone shootaround!