jame.gumb

You know, I was a student there in the mid-90s and I can't believe how much that school has grown. They've always been a reputable school academically (especially the business school) and the football and baseball teams have a rich history, but it's only in the last decade that they've reached elite status as a school. This isn't really relevant to the topic, but I didn't really notice this until all the Texas --> Big 10 talk.

this wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for texas, because they've still got the academics problem. arizona, arizona st and tcu have lousy academics. texas is a much better fit with schools like cal and stanford for academics and good non-revenue athletics. I know Stanford and Cal are excellent schools, but I'm not sure how the conference as a whole compares to the Big 10 as a whole. It has to be better than the Big 12, though. TCU actually has decent academics (at least I thought they did). The SWC I was thinking of would likely be better academically, but I was thinking more along the lines of a big athletic conference to rival the SEC. The bottom line is that money is what would make Texas move. They'll make a ton going to the Big 10 and they'll make it quickly.

I will be totally and utterly shocked if the 49ers take a RB anytime before Round 4 let alone with their first pick. Granted it is Spiller but we have Gore and just spent a 3rd rounder on a guy the coaching staff supposedly really likes. I wouldn't be surprised to see them take Spiller if they think he's the BPA since that seems to be their first-round MO and returner is a need. In the first round, I think they take BPA with one pick and BPA at a position of need with the other.

Even if they moved baseball they could still schedule many out of conference games in Texas against all of the regular Big XII opponents. If the Big XII falls apart where does that leave the rest of the athletic department. Personally I would want everyone to go if such a move were to happen. I also think it would help the football program from a recruiting standpoint and out-of-state enrollments to be in the Big 10. I agree with all of that. I don't know how the Pac 10 compares to the Big 10 academically, but they'd be a better fit for Texas athletically. And, iirc, Texas asked to join the Pac 10, then the Big 10 before joining the Big 12. I know it's crazy, but I'd like to see a new SWC with Texas, OU, A&M, Arizona, Arizona St., USC, UCLA, TCU and a few spares.

I read an insider article earlier today by a writer who speculated that Texas might join the Big 10 in academics and football only. I don't know how plausible that is, but that would allow the football and baseball (which I consider to be the only real roadblock to such a move) teams to compete in the best conference for their sport.

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/7556/jeffcoat.png

You supply the grain of salt, I'll supply... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/highschool/01/29/jeffcoat-texas/index.html?eref=sihp and http://bleacherreport.com/articles/334956-jordan-hicks-is-a-longhorn-choses-over-gatorsbucks

Yeah this would suck, though I know its going to happen sooner rather than later. Rumors were talking about Hicks and Jeffcoat committing very soon (some about Hicks committing to Texas and other about his committing to Ohio State). And Brown is not going to retire for probably another 5 years. Why can't they want Greg Davis instead. I do like Tennessee though, and if he goes there hope he has a ton of success. I'm curious as to the staff he would assemble too. Wonder if he would try to take Major Applewhite as the OC or go with someone who has more experience. The latest I've heard is that Muschamp will release a statement today that he's not interested in the job. The source also said he'll be replacing Mack sooner than some thought. Apparently Mack has given Boom more responsibility in recruiting this year and will give him more responsibility in practice for the upcoming season. And yeah, there's a lot of buzz that Hicks will commit to Texas in the next day or so. I'm optimistic about Jeffcoat now that Florida has told him they don't have a scholarship for him. Unless something happens, it looks like it's down to Texas and OU with him visiting OU next week. edited for clarity Some rumors that Hicks and Jeffcoat have been talking about committing to play together, and Jeffcoat did cancel his trip to UF too. That would be phenomenal to get them both. I'm just hoping for one. I thought Jeffcoat committed to UF this past week? Florida told Jeffcoat they didn't have a scholarship for him and cancelled their in-home with him. It seems like it's down to Texas, OU and USC for him.

My guess is that Mack is staying through the Garrett Gilbert era (hopefully that's three more years). I think Texas is loaded to make a run at a MNC in 2012 and maybe 2011 too. Mack will then give Boom the keys to the defense he's created and two years of Connor Wood and Case McCoy (I think at least Wood will redshirt this year).

Yeah this would suck, though I know its going to happen sooner rather than later. Rumors were talking about Hicks and Jeffcoat committing very soon (some about Hicks committing to Texas and other about his committing to Ohio State). And Brown is not going to retire for probably another 5 years. Why can't they want Greg Davis instead. I do like Tennessee though, and if he goes there hope he has a ton of success. I'm curious as to the staff he would assemble too. Wonder if he would try to take Major Applewhite as the OC or go with someone who has more experience. The latest I've heard is that Muschamp will release a statement today that he's not interested in the job. The source also said he'll be replacing Mack sooner than some thought. Apparently Mack has given Boom more responsibility in recruiting this year and will give him more responsibility in practice for the upcoming season. And yeah, there's a lot of buzz that Hicks will commit to Texas in the next day or so. I'm optimistic about Jeffcoat now that Florida has told him they don't have a scholarship for him. Unless something happens, it looks like it's down to Texas and OU with him visiting OU next week. edited for clarity Some rumors that Hicks and Jeffcoat have been talking about committing to play together, and Jeffcoat did cancel his trip to UF too. That would be phenomenal to get them both. I'm just hoping for one. Apparently, Orangebloods is reporting Muschamp to Tennessee talks are over.

Yeah this would suck, though I know its going to happen sooner rather than later. Rumors were talking about Hicks and Jeffcoat committing very soon (some about Hicks committing to Texas and other about his committing to Ohio State). And Brown is not going to retire for probably another 5 years. Why can't they want Greg Davis instead. I do like Tennessee though, and if he goes there hope he has a ton of success. I'm curious as to the staff he would assemble too. Wonder if he would try to take Major Applewhite as the OC or go with someone who has more experience. The latest I've heard is that Muschamp will release a statement today that he's not interested in the job. The source also said he'll be replacing Mack sooner than some thought. Apparently Mack has given Boom more responsibility in recruiting this year and will give him more responsibility in practice for the upcoming season. And yeah, there's a lot of buzz that Hicks will commit to Texas in the next day or so. I'm optimistic about Jeffcoat now that Florida has told him they don't have a scholarship for him. Unless something happens, it looks like it's down to Texas and OU with him visiting OU next week. edited for clarity

Losing Colt, then the MNC, then Muschamp in less than a week would be worse than the 2003 NLCS for me.

Ha. I tried to convince Jame to take Brown with out pick in the first round but he overruled me and took Stafford. I also said Maclin would be my second choice. We then both wanted English in the 2nd round and got him. After that we agreed on Asher Allen in the 3rd round and Andre Brown in the 4th round. I would say it was C effort in retrospect. Hah. Yeah, my ideal draft was Orakpo in the first and Will Beatty or Britton in the second. Too bad. And sorry about calling the Niners first. Blame the Texas/Bama game for being compelling enough to comment right around the time dew decided to solicit drafters. We could just use the same system as last year. That seemed pretty fair. Sounds good to me as long as it doesn't result in taking a QB in the first again :P That's fine with me, as long as someone takes Clausen before we pick. :D One of those first rounders is going to be the bpa, though...

Ha. I tried to convince Jame to take Brown with out pick in the first round but he overruled me and took Stafford. I also said Maclin would be my second choice. We then both wanted English in the 2nd round and got him. After that we agreed on Asher Allen in the 3rd round and Andre Brown in the 4th round. I would say it was C effort in retrospect. Hah. Yeah, my ideal draft was Orakpo in the first and Will Beatty or Britton in the second. Too bad. And sorry about calling the Niners first. Blame the Texas/Bama game for being compelling enough to comment right around the time dew decided to solicit drafters. We could just use the same system as last year. That seemed pretty fair.

I'll pick for the Niners.

I honestly don't know if that fumble is on Gilbert for not spotting the blitz, the OL for not changing the protection or Greg Davis for not having Newton in the backfield at the best time for Bama to blitz. But I blame most of the INTs (except the botched shovel pass) on Gilbert being a freshman (i.e. staring down receivers).

The shovel pass call was the horrible part of all that. Texas gets the ball back and, rather than kneel, they decide to run up the middle, which resulted in a sizable gain. Texas then called timeout, rather than let the clock run out to go to half. At this point, I figure they're going to try for a deep pass down the field. If it gets picked off, the odds of Alabama returning it for a TD are pretty minimal. Even if Alabama picked it off, there only would have been a few seconds remaining and it would have been well down the field, meaning Saban would have likely taken the knee to end the half. However, if the deep pass succeeds, Texas either ends up with a TD or they run like hell down the field for a spike and a FG attempt. All of that is fine in my mind. But then...the shovel pass was called. I simply don't get that call. As he was going in for the half, Mack Brown claimed it was a high percentage play; that it was a safe call. That makes no sense. He had a really young QB with limited experience behind center. Alabama's DL had been getting penetration all night. Moreover, the probability of a shovel pass getting Texas within FG range, even if it worked, was fairly small. Had the RB caught it clean, I don't think he would have made it very far. The DL seemed to have him covered. I really don't see how that play was supposed to result in a favorable outcome for Texas. Most Texas fans have been questioning Greg Davis' playcalling for years. I, personally, have let it go, as it had driven me to the brink of insanity. I had accepted it too, but last night drove back all of the reasons I used to dislike him. I'm scared about how well he will adjust the offense to work around Gilbert. He should be working with more of a pro-style offense, and less of the spread but we will see. I am very excited to see Gilbert and Darius White together next year. Hopefully we can get Jeffcoat or Hicks as well to add to the defense. I thought he began to adjust to that offense last night. I bet we'd have seen more of the pro-style had they not been playing catchup most of the game. I'm optimistic about Hicks, but for some reason I see Jeffcoat going to USC. It's OK, an Okafor-Bible-Dorsey-Wilson front 4 will be just fine with me. With White, Goodwin, Monroe, Newton and Williams, GG is going to have some weapons.

People will stare at the 4 INTs in his stats, but overall Gilbert didn't play as bad as people think given the circumstance. He showed flashes of greatness, but glimpses of being a freshman QB. Exactly. He's an 18-year-old 5-star QB and he played like one. I will say this, I'm not worried about him going into the '10 RRS anymore. I don't think there's a situation he can be put in that's more nervewracking than his first significant action last night. I'm excited to see what this kid can do with some reps with the first-team offense.

Thanks. I hadn't read anything post-game recap about his injury yet. I hated seeing him get hurt like that; it just didn't look like a game-ender (though obviously uneducated "looks" aren't terribly conclusive). Yeah, I kept waiting for him to come back into the game. Just a freak thing. Like most, I hated to see Colt's last game in college football to end like that. I rather have beaten a McCoy lead Texas team, instead of Gilbert, but oh well. That's the only regret of the NCG, was seeing the look on McCoy's face. I kind of feel sorry for you guys because a lot of people are giving Alabama an incomplete for this season. This is a tricky situation. Texas without Colt isn't the No. 2 team in the nation and wouldn't be playing in that game, but that's the hand Alabama was dealt. The bottom line for me is that Alabama won the MNC. I will always wonder what would have happened, but I'm not going assign an asterisk like some. I just hope Colt has a chance at a pro career, because I'd hate for that to have been his last football game.

The shovel pass call was the horrible part of all that. Texas gets the ball back and, rather than kneel, they decide to run up the middle, which resulted in a sizable gain. Texas then called timeout, rather than let the clock run out to go to half. At this point, I figure they're going to try for a deep pass down the field. If it gets picked off, the odds of Alabama returning it for a TD are pretty minimal. Even if Alabama picked it off, there only would have been a few seconds remaining and it would have been well down the field, meaning Saban would have likely taken the knee to end the half. However, if the deep pass succeeds, Texas either ends up with a TD or they run like hell down the field for a spike and a FG attempt. All of that is fine in my mind. But then...the shovel pass was called. I simply don't get that call. As he was going in for the half, Mack Brown claimed it was a high percentage play; that it was a safe call. That makes no sense. He had a really young QB with limited experience behind center. Alabama's DL had been getting penetration all night. Moreover, the probability of a shovel pass getting Texas within FG range, even if it worked, was fairly small. Had the RB caught it clean, I don't think he would have made it very far. The DL seemed to have him covered. I really don't see how that play was supposed to result in a favorable outcome for Texas. Most Texas fans have been questioning Greg Davis' playcalling for years. I, personally, have let it go, as it had driven me to the brink of insanity.

Thanks. I hadn't read anything post-game recap about his injury yet. I hated seeing him get hurt like that; it just didn't look like a game-ender (though obviously uneducated "looks" aren't terribly conclusive). Yeah, I kept waiting for him to come back into the game. Just a freak thing.

Sometimes my bed hits me so hard when I'm asleep that I can barely move my arm when I wake up. It must be an SEC bed.

I know some have answered the "Why couldn't Colt come back" question, but this explains it a bit better, imo: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-texasqbs010810&prov=yhoo&type=lgns I was upset about the game last night, but mostly because I felt bad for Colt. Texas, with a true freshman QB with 26 pass attempts all year and probably zero practice with the first-team, coming within 3 of Alabama was a good fight. I'm proud of them. I'm upset, though, because I hate that Colt didn't get to finish what he'd worked his whole life for (up to this point).

Two more days... http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/1593/kindledog.gif

Gerald should stop, then. He's going to hurt his draft stock.