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Texas Prepares for Gilbert Era

After losing college football’s all-time wins leader, Colt McCoy, the Longhorns are looking at their running backs to step up and provide the balance that has been lacking in the last couple of years.

The Horns plan to go back to an under-center, two-back approach like they ran during the Vince Young era. This should be exciting for fans who know the history of the University of Texas. This school was built on running the football. This old, new again, strategy will help give the young quarterback, Gilbert, more of a chance to learn and grow in the system instead of having to make perfect throws.

You didn’t have to search far into the disappointment of the BCS Championship game defeat in January to find a silver lining for the Horns. Texas lost its quarterback of the present early but found its quarterback of the future a little later in the form of Garrett Gilbert. Who recovered from a terrible start to lead Texas to within three points of the Crimson Tide.

Gilbert won’t be the only question mark on an offense that also lost wide receiver Jordan Shipley. The Horns get a boost from a talented recruiting class that is particularly rich at receiver. The Longhorns will find themselves relying on youth and talent rather than experience.

The future of Texas football is in great hands, but only time will tell if Gilbert has the ability to step into the leadership role that is required.

Texas Basketball’s Future Dominance

This week’s issue of Sporting News features an in-depth look at the Texas Basketball program by national college basketball writer Mike DeCourcy. DeCourcy’s article is entitled, “2020 Vision: Ten Reasons Why, 10 Years from Now, We Could be Talking about how Texas Basketball Owned the Last Decade.”

DeCourcy‘s list of 10 reasons starts with this comment: “Indeed, Texas basketball is as big as all Texas. But might it still be on the verge of dynamic growth. If Kentucky was the program of the 1990s and North Carolina the program of the `00s, might Texas became the program of the next 10 years?”

The article made me stop and think. Does our basketball program have the same potential as our football one? In my opinion yes it does. Don’t get me wrong, we Texans love our football but I believe we still have room for a little love for the roundball as well.

Scouting Combine Invites the Horns

Seven former Longhorns have been invited to the 2010 NFL Scouting Combine from Feb. 24-March 2 in Indianapolis, according to the Combine official invitation list.
The group includes DT Lamarr Houston, DE/LB Sergio Kindle, QB Colt McCoy, LB Roddrick Muckelroy, WR Jordan Shipley, S Earl Thomas and OT Adam Ulatoski, who are among over 300 athletes who will attend.

Participants are determined annually by a Selection Committee. The Directors of both National and BLESTO scouting services, which combined represent 25 NFL teams, are joined by members of various NFL player personnel departments to form the committee.

All eligible players are reviewed and voted on by the committee members. Each athlete receiving the necessary number of votes, by position, is then extended an invitation.

Commitments

NAT’L NAME

POS RANK SCHOOL, HOMETOWN HT/WT

K NR WILLIAM RUSS

(Evangel Christian Academy) 6-3/180

Shreveport LA

DE 2 JACKSON JEFFCOAT

(Plano West SR HS) 6-4/233

Plano TX

OLB 2 JORDAN HICKS

(Lakota West HS) 6-2/200

West Chester OH

WR 6 DARIUS WHITE

(Dunbar HS) 6-4/195

Ft Worth TX

WR 3 MIKE DAVIS

(Skyline HS) 6-1/175

Dallas TX

S 3 DEMARCO COBBS

(Central HS) 6-2/205

Tulsa OK

DE 3 REGGIE WILSON

(Haltom HS) 6-3/238

Haltom City TX

CB 4 ADRIAN WHITE

(De Soto HS) 5-11/175

De Soto TX

DT 12 ASHTON DORSEY

(John Tyler HS) 6-2/265

Tyler TX

RB 18 TRAYLON SHEAD

(Cayuga HS) 6-2/210

Cayuga TX

WR 18 CHRIS JONES

(Daingerfield HS) 5-11/170

Daingerfield TX

C 6 DOMINIC ESPINOSA

(Cedar Park HS) 6-3/275

Leander TX

DE 40 GREG DANIELS

(St. Pius X HS) 6-4/250

Houston TX

S 11 BRYANT JACKSON

(Sulphur Springs HS) 6-3.5/175

Sulphur Springs TX

S 15 CARRINGTON BYNDOM

(Luftkin HS) 6-0/165

Luftkin TX

QB 9 CONNER WOOD

(Second Baptist School) 6-4/203

Houston TX

QB 50 CASE MCCOY

(Graham HS) 6-2/170

Graham TX

OLB 21 AARON BENSON

(Cedar Hill HS) 6-0/207

Cedar Hill TX

WR 39 ADRIAN PHILLIPS

(Garland HS) 5-11/195

Garland TX

WR 68 DARIUS TERRELL

(De Soto HS) 6-3/210

De Soto TX

DT 38 DE’AIRES COTTON

(Taylor HS) 6-3.5/285

Houston TX

OLB 9 TEVIN JACKSON

(Garland HS) 6-2/198

Garland TX

WR 64 JOHN HARRIS

(Naaman Forest HS) 6-3/195

Garland TX

OT 12 TREY HOPKINS

(North Shore SR HS) 6-4/260

Galena Park TX

DT 19 TAYLOR BIBLE

(Guyer HS) 6-2.5/283

Denton TX

Horns Hook Nations Top Recruits

Get excited Longhorn Nation. The nations #2 and #4 overall recruits have committed to Texas. Defensive end Jackson Jeffcoate, the son of former Dallas Cowboy defensive end Jim Jeffcoate, from Plano TX made his announcement Friday morning that he planned to play his college football for the Horns. Also on Friday the #4 recruit, linebacker Jordan Hicks from West Chester OH, committed to the horns. Both of these recruits are # 1’s in their respected positions.
Jeffcoate is 6 ft 5 225 lbs, he had 68.5 tackles, 8.5 sacks, and 2 interceptions his senior year.
Hicks is 6 ft 2 210 lbs, he had 80 tackles, 3 sacks, and 2 interceptions in his senior year.
Judging from Mack Brown’s recruiting abilities the Horns can look forward to some great talent on the defense to go along with the great talent they have on offense. I can’t wait to see these guys decked out in burnt orange. If you bleed orange like I do, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Colt McCoy

Colt McCoy is named the winner of the 2010 Manning Award. McCoy is only the second Texas QB to receive this award honoring the nation’s top quarterback. This award has been around for 6 years and it is exciting for Texas fans to see that the nation does not overlook the outstanding abilities of these great athletes from the Big 12.
Colt collected a number of awards this year including the Walter Camp Football Foundation National Player of the Year, Maxwell Award Player of the Year, Davey Obrien Award, Unitas Golden Arm Award, Big Twelve Player of the Year, and the AT&T All-American Player of the Year.
He is the all time winningest quarterback in NCAA history. Congratulations on all of your amazing accomplishments. You are truly as big as the great state of Texas itself.

What A Heartbreaker

What a heartbreaker for the Longhorn Nation. Everyone in Texas must have felt the same as me when they saw Colt McCoy being taken to the locker room so early in the National Championship game. The entire states heart must have sunk. The Longhorns showed great character with their leader being out. The rest of the first half you could tell that their emotional leader wasn’t there and they struggled. Alabama took advantage of this and attacked. Every Longhorn fan should be excited however, because they have a great future by the way the true freshman quarterback, Garret Gilbert, handled the pressure. I can only imagine what was going through his head having to step in to fill the shoes of one of Texas’ greatest QB’s in such a big game. He proved to everyone that the future of the Longhorns is in good hands. Congratulations guys on an incredible season and best of luck to you seniors with the upcoming draft. I know I’ll be watching.

Heisman Trophy-type Game

Texas quarterback Colt McCoy needed a Heisman Trophy-type game.
How about 304 yards passing, 175 yards rushing and five total touchdowns in a nationally televised win over bitter rival Texas A&M?
How about a 65-yard touchdown run that evoked memories of Vince Young in Texas’ national championship season of 2005?
McCoy threw four touchdown passes and dashed 65 yards for another score, and No. 3 Texas overcame a huge game by Johnson to wrap up an undefeated regular season with a wild 49-32 win over the rival Aggies.

Colt McCoy needed the kind of game that could break him out of the pack and I believe that this rivalry game provided just that.

This game will go down as one of the most exciting games in the 116 game series.

In Search of the Perfect Season

On the heels of last season’s one loss record and the way the cards fell the Longhorns have proven Nay Sayers wrong and shown that the belong in the National Championship game. But in one of the oldest rivalries in NCAA history the Texas Longhorns will once again do battle with Texas A&M. With all the pressure of a National Championship and perfect season can Colt McCoy and the horns pull out a victory at Kyle Field on Thanksgiving Day? YES THEY CAN! The horns are the most “total package” team in college football. They have talent at all of the skilled positions and depth on both sides of the ball, not to mention outstanding special teams. I am disappointed again this year in the lack of respect shown to this outstanding athletic department by the polls. They are the number 1 team in the power rankings yet still sit at number 3 in the BCS standings. Now tell me how this can be possible. Even with a perfect season could they be watching the big game from home? Let’s hope not!