College Confidential

Texas adds Cal, Minnesota to future football schedules

Texas officials announced today they have scheduled a home-and-home football series with both California and Minnesota during the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

The Longhorns will play at Minnesota in 2015 and at California in 2016. The teams will play in Austin in the opposite year of the respective contracts.

In both seasons, the non-conference contests will be played in consecutive weeks. The 2015 season has California playing in Austin on Sept. 12, followed by the Longhorns’ trip to Minnesota on Sept. 19. During the 2016 season, Texas plays at California on Sept. 10 before returning home to face Minnesota on Sept. 17.

Texas officials also announced the addition of non-conference games in 2013 and 2014 against New Mexico State (Aug. 31, 2013) and North Texas (Aug. 30, 2014). Both contests will be played in Austin and project to be the openers in those seasons.

_ Jimmy Burch

Inside Colorado's stumbling start

How bad are things in Boulder, where Colorado is off to a 0-2 start with losses to Colorado State and Toledo and fans are turning on coach Dan Hawkins?

The geology profs are talking about how boring the football team is. Really.

The Denver Post has that anecdote and a whole lot more here.

Tebow expands HeismanPundit lead

So far, there is no sign of Tim Tebow fatigue among the media voters in the HeismanPundit.com weekly poll.

The Florida quarterback received nine of 13 first-place votes to build his margin on runner-up Colt McCoy. Also work noting: Houston quarterback Case Keenum has cracked the top five.

Longhorns avoiding revenge talk

Texas players say revenge is the furthest thing from their minds when the No. 2 Longhorns face Texas Tech before a national TV audience Saturday.

And Michael Crabtree's game-winning touchdown catch-and-run with one second to go? The Longhorns have tried to erase it as much as possible, even though ESPN replays have made it a near-futile exercise.

Even if the players have a firm check on their emotions, much will be on the line Saturday. Texas has been workmanlike in lopsided victories over La.-Monroe and Wyoming. Tech (2-0) represents an increase in talent and urgency, with the Big 12 season opening a couple weeks sooner than normal.

Some news and notes from Texas' availability today:

1. Coach Mack Brown said he met with quarterback Colt McCoy, who he believes has been pressing at the start of games, and told him to relax more. Overall, Brown believes McCoy is off to a great start.

2. Redshirt freshman Tre Newton, the former Southlake Carroll standout, is listed as a co-starter at tailback with Vondrell McGee nursing a sore ankle. Brown said he believes Newton can be an every-down back.

3. Coaches and teammates are still praising the play of Sergio Kindle, who has eight tackles but none for loss in the first two games. Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said Kindle led all players in "productivity points" against Wyoming.

4. Offensive guard Michael Huey (ankle) is back on the depth chart and expected to play this week. Offensive tackle Mason Walters and linebacker Jared Norton will not against Tech because of injuries, Brown said.

Balogun, Oklahoma have submitted their findings to the NCAA

Oklahoma, with the help of linebacker Mike Balogun's attorney, have submitted their 'finding of facts' to the NCAA's fact-finding committee and are awaiting word as to the results of the ongoing process regarding his certification to play this season.

That committee will resolve the differences between the OU-Balogun point of view vs. the certification staff's findings--which according to lawyer Woody Glass ignore most of the information he has gathered over past weeks through sworn affadavits.

The fact-finding committee's determinations will be forwarded to the Amateurism Certification Committee for a decision.

Balogun's certification of eligibility was pulled in mid-August because of the NCAA's initial finding that he played amateur league football after his 21st birthday.--Mike Jones.

 

 

Texas stays No. 2 in AP poll

Despite a slow start Saturday at Wyoming, Texas narrowly held onto the second spot in the AP Top 25 and USA Today coaches polls released today.

The Longhorns were eight points ahead of Southern California in the AP voting and held a 31-point USA Today margin on the Trojans, who put together a dramatic road win over Ohio State on national TV. One press box joke Saturday had Texas being helped by the fact its game was televised by Versus, not exactly a destination channel for college football fans outside the Mountain West.

Defending national champion Florida remained an overwhelming choice for No. 1 in both polls.

The Southeastern Conference placed four teams in the AP and USA Today Top 10s to one for the Big 12. Oklahoma (No. 12), Oklahoma State (16), Nebraska (19) and Kansas (22) cracked the AP Top 25, with Mountain West member TCU moving to 15th after its road win over Virginia.

GameDay back again for UT-Tech

ESPN College GameDay couldn't pass on an encore of what might have been the best and certainly the most dramatic game of 2008.

The crew will be in Austin for the prime-time rematch of Texas and Texas Tech this Friday, ESPN announced. Last season, GameDay journeyed to Lubbock for Tech's 39-33 win Nov. 1.

It will be the third time in five years that GameDay has showcased the meeting of the Big 12 South rivals. In 2005, Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and the gang were on site when both teams were 6-0 entering the game in a matchup of quarterbacks Vince Young and Cody Hodges. Now it will be Colt McCoy versus Taylor Potts, who tossed seven touchdown passes in his second career start Saturday.

Jones doubtful today in Virginia

TCUstarting strong safety Colin Jones will most likely not play today. He's dressed, but didn't take part in pregame drills. That means Tyler Luttrell, who was moved from receiver to safety just two weeks ago, will probably start. Malcolm Williams is available to back him up.

Big 12 basketball officials coordinator retiring in 2010

 

Dale Kelley, who has served as coordinator of Big 12 basketball officials since the conference’s first season in 1996, will be stepping down after the 2009-2010 season.

He will be succeeded by Curtis Shaw, a veteran official who has worked six NCAA Final Fours.

“I’ve been contemplating this for couple years,” Kelley said Thursday. “I’ve been involved in officiating in some capacity for 45 years now. I’ve enjoyed it and made a lot friends, but it’s time for me to get out of some of this stuff now.”

Kelley is also an automobile dealer and long-time mayor of Hunnington, Tenn.--Mike Jones.

Bradford's injury won't affect his NFL career, or his pocketbook

No doubt you’ve read online or heard the talking heads yaking on about how Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford “left millions on the table” by not entering last spring’s NFL draft.

And now, see? What did he get for coming back? He got hurt. Na-na-na-na-na, we told you so!

Shut up.

Bradford is going to be fine. And would have been fine even if he would have had to have surgery to repair the AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder. Didn’t seem to affect the career of quarterback Eli Manning, who came back from a similar injury in the season-opener against Dallas and didn’t miss a game on the way to leading the New York Giants to a Super Bowl win two years ago. As Manning pointed out over the phone to Bradford on Sunday.

And as for costing himself a small fortune in the draft? Bunk. At least that’s the opinion of former Dallas Cowboys vice president Gil Brandt, whose approach and establishment of a scouting network revolutionized the way the NFL approached the draft.

“I was one of the ones encouraging him to stay in school,” Brandt said over the phone the other day. “And immediately now people are saying if he would have come out he would have gotten this money and so forth.

“That’s somewhat true. But if he’s healthy and he gets picked in the same place he did last year, he will get more this year than he would have if he would have come out last year.”

This from a guy who actually knows what he’s talking about, not some mouth or dot.com guru who has never had a whistle around his neck.

Recall that Bradford himself pointed out his decision to return had nothing to do with money.

“I think one of (the pros of coming back was) getting to go through another year of college. You only get to go to college one time and I’m having a blast right now. I’m living my dream. I dreamed of playing at Oklahoma. That’s something I want to do, and want to continue to do.”

The only initial consequence--which could eventually be negated if Bradford’s prognosis of a two to four-week return is right on--is that it has cost him some game experience. And that was one of Brandt’s points to Bradford. He explained if you track the success of quarterbacks who came out early against those who stayed and played--those to came to the NFL with 40 or so starts behind them-- it’s easy to see that more experience means a greater chance of success.

Bradford has 28 starts and a half-game in his resume, 575 completions in 838 passes thrown.

Brandt said the fact that Bradford played at OU is also in his favor.

“Think how much emphasis Oklahoma has put on the passing game,” Brandt said. “And Oklahoma doesn’t win all those games by accident. They do a really good job of coaching those guys. The quarterback coach (Josh Heupel) is really good.

“This is not going to hurt Bradford.”

-- Mike Jones