SB Nation User Blog: jc25

The more film I watch of Texas third-year sophomore S Earl Thomas, the more impressed I am with his...

jc25 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:45:03 -0000

The more film I watch of Texas third-year sophomore S Earl Thomas, the more impressed I am with his combination of skills. Outside of Tennessee's Eric Berry, there is not a safety in the country who wears more hats for his defense than Thomas.

The first thing that jumps out is that Thomas lines up all over the field. He can shadow wide receivers in the slot, and Thomas made a nice interception against Missouri after lining up over the slot, turning with the receiver out of his break and adjusting well to the ball. He also shows tremendous range when playing the deep middle in zone coverage, and he shows rare closing burst for a college player both when the ball is in the air and when tracking down ball carriers. He simply makes plays and is always around the ball.

The one knock on Thomas is that he is a bit undersized at 5-foot-11, 198 pounds, but he has time to fill out his frame and get stronger over the next couple of years, be it at Texas or in the NFL. Whether Thomas enters the draft in 2010 or 2011 -- or even 2012 -- he has the look of an early-to-mid first-round pick.

Should Thomas leave school following this season, the overall safety class would become very strong. Berry ranks as the No. 1 overall player on the board, and while USC's Taylor Mays remains in the top half of the first round, Thomas could become legitimate competition for the No. 2 spot in the safety class. With LSU's Chad Jones rising into the early-second-round area and South Florida's Nate Allen showing the physical tools of a second-rounder, we could see five safeties come off the board in the top 50 picks in 2010.

For those worried about Earl Thomas declaring for the draft (In$ider)

Dr. Joseph Guillotine was a man of mercy, but he did not actually invent the machine created for...

jc25 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:58:46 -0000

Dr. Joseph Guillotine was a man of mercy, but he did not actually invent the machine created for swift, efficient, and "painless" decapitations in the name of revolutionary justice. He merely suggested it. Its actual engineers were anonymous men working at the direction of mad revolutionaries who did not sleep, so deep was their thirst for blood and victory. In other words: Sergio Kindle, doing precisely what Will Muschamp was telling him to do for la Republique

D is for Decapitated: from The Alphabetical, brainchild of Orson Swindle/Spencer Hall, a master of letters.

Also, there's an awesomely disturbing Longhorn picture if you scroll down to the letter P.

AP Poll: Texas Still #2, USC Gaining

jc25 — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:52:21 -0000

AP Poll: Texas Still #2, USC Gaining

Texas dropped 20 points to fall to 1404. USC's big win over OSU has them just 8 points behind Texas. Expect similar things from the Coaches Poll.

Oklahoma State falls to 16; Houston moves in at 21.

UPDATE: As noted in the comments, the Coaches Poll is out and Texas is at #2. They lost just 8 points from last week, while USC gained 16. USC picked up 3 first place votes; Texas had none.

Rashod Favors Commits to OU

jc25 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:13:52 -0000

Rashod Favors Commits to OU

For those following recruiting, I think we're counting this as bad news in the Darius White sweepstakes.

Even to this day, I consider myself a learner. I'm always trying to learn new things and I feel...

jc25 — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:59:21 -0000

Even to this day, I consider myself a learner. I'm always trying to learn new things and I feel like there is always going to be room for improvement. And that's been my mentality ever since I got here. I learned from Vince. I learned from Coach [Greg] Davis every day. One of the things I've always tried to do is practice every day like it's a game. And that means mentally, physically, I'm ready to go.

I said to Vince, "Talk to me. Tell me what you're seeing. And if I don't understand what you're saying, then I'll go back in the playbook or I'll ask Coach Davis. I just want to know terms and what coverages you're seeing. Just talk to me." I learned so much as Vince went through [watching film]. So I did the same thing with [freshman QB Garrett] Gilbert this summer. I would teach him everything I knew going through film. What's great is when I'm talking through it, I'm also reminding myself while I'm teaching him.

The past presents the future...I love it. From the always fun to read Bruce Feldman.

Fast Times at Barking Carnival High

jc25 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:44:11 -0000

I know most of you already frequent the fantastic blog otherwise known as Barking Carnival, but for those who don't, now is a good time to start. Thankfully, football season is right around the corner, which not only brought back our venerable PB, but also BC's fabulous State of the Unions (they've covered ISU, Tech and Nebraska so far).

For those unfamiliar with what a State of the Union is, a brief sampling from the Texas Tech one, courtesy of one Scipio Tex:

Tech concluded their Greatest Season Ever by losing a 2nd tier bowl to an Ole Miss team led by Colt McCoy’s understudy and headset Hee-Haw Houston Nutt. They rewarded Mike Leach by nearly driving him away with a contract squabble, the organizational self-awareness equivalent of Billy Joel getting rid of Christie Brinkley. Once both sides realized their mutual inability to upgrade - the key to all successful partnerships - they quickly reconciled. However, Texas Tech lost a lot from last year’s team. And I don’t mean just their dignity in Norman.

On offense, QB Graham Harrell left for greener pastures and a glorious professional future…

In retail.

Wait, it gets better.

It’s important you know that Texas Tech has a receiver named Corndog Douglas and I pray for the day that he drops a ball that Potts throws too hard so that I can remark, "A little too much mustard there for Corndog!" and then guffaw obnoxiously until I’m silenced by the palpable scorn. I’ll do it with relish.

Read it again if you missed it the first time. Ok, here's a highlight from the Iowa State one, this time from Vasherized:

Let’s summarize: New HC, DC, and OC. No Troy Davis on the roster. No Todd Blythe defying the limits of his own athleticism. No Larry Eustachy banging drunk co-eds in the stands. A paucity of depth at nearly every skill position. A smallish defense with average speed. That may be enough to beat A&M but fortunately for the Aggies, Iowa State is not on the schedule this year. Wait, they are. On Halloween! If both teams dressed as axe murderers and played to the death, the Big 12 would be stronger for it. We’ll call it The Big 10 and make those rust belt troglodytes change the name of their conference to match the actual number of schools that play in it. For Tech fans that can’t count over ten, that number is eleven. It’s like they pretend Northwestern just doesn’t exist.

Oh yes, we get our Aggie digs in wherever we can. If I haven't already convinced you to Go. There. Now., then you have no Longhorn football soul. Be sure to also check out Huck's "News at 11" Mike Balogun expose, HJ's and CA's practice roundups and CTJ's way too optimistic (or is it?) Baylor prediction. Oh, and if you find yourself mildly amused by the beergut and HornsChamps comments, you ain't seen nothing til you check out the comment threads over there.

This commercial was in no way sponsored by Barking Carnival, although after all the time I've spent on it, it dang well should be.

Mel Kiper's Initial 2010 Big Board

jc25 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:12:47 -0000

Mel Kiper's Initial 2010 Big Board

For those without ESPN Insider, thought I'd give you a peek at the Big XII Names:

1. Sam Bradford
4. Gerald McCoy
5. Ndamukong Suh
8. Dez Bryant
9. Trent Williams
11. Colt McCoy
14. Russell Okung
15. Jermaine Gresham
20. Sean Weatherspoon
23. Sergio Kindle

Surprisingly, there is no Tim Tebow on the list, although Jevan Snead checks in at 7.

To Kevin Durant. Why? He flew to Vegas for summer league even though he wasn't playing, sat on his...

jc25 — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:06:24 -0000

To Kevin Durant. Why? He flew to Vegas for summer league even though he wasn't playing, sat on his team's bench every day, cheered his boys on, dispensed advice during timeouts and everything else you'd want from your top gun. All signs point to Durant becoming one of those galvanizing, personable, Duncan-like leaders for the Zombie Sonics. Love it. Couldn't be happier about this. Our one-sided bromance continues to be in full bloom.

Bill Simmons' love affair with Kevin Durant continues. Can't blame him, of course; Kevin Durant is awesome. To carry on, this is a solid piece by Bill Simmons, and references one of my favorite (and mainstream underrated) movies.

NYT: Ricky Williams Profile

jc25 — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:35:18 -0000

NYT: Ricky Williams Profile

Interesting, if a little strange, profile on one of the all-time Texas greats. A worthwhile read.

Austin Wood's epic performance may have helped his stock

jc25 — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:29:25 -0000

Nice article written by Mike Hume over at ESPN. Since it's an In$ider article, I thought I'd clip out some of the relevant Austin Wood parts for BONers.

By early afternoon of the second day of Major League Baseball's amateur draft, both Boston College's Mike Belfiore and Texas' Austin Wood, the relievers who combined for 298 pitches in the epic, 25-inning standoff in the NCAA regionals May 30, had been snatched up by the Arizona Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers, respectively. It was a joyful turn, though one that was not assured.

Once again, a hearty congratulations to Austin Wood for getting a shot at a pro career.

"A few weeks ago I heard anywhere from [Round] 7 to 15," Wood said Wednesday after being chosen. "But as of the past two weeks I started hearing the fifth round possibly."

According to one NL scout, Wood was chosen "higher than many people I know had him, so the argument could be made his outing helped him. Wood's performance just reinforced the fact of what a great competitor he is," the scout said, before pointing out that the high pitch count was the point of some debate.

It's an interesting theory, and I don't doubt that Wood got some name recognition from his performance. In fact, if you asked the average sports fan to name two (any two) college baseball players right now, I'm guessing his/her answer would be "Stephen Strasburg and that dude that threw 12 something innings of no-hit ball in some game a couple weeks ago."

In any case, this also helped out Wood's foil, Mike Belfiore from Boston College, who also went higher than expected at 45th overall.

The future is still the future, but as of Wednesday, both Wood and Belfiore were beaming about realizing their childhood dream.

"Probably been the best month of my life," said Wood, whose Longhorns start College World Series play June 16 in Omaha. "I haven't stopped smiling for the past two or three weeks."

You've gotta imagine that no matter how well Wood's pro career goes, he'll never have a greater baseball moment than those 12.1 no hit innings that will be forever remembered in Longhorn history. Well done, and hook 'em.