Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Joel Klatt is confident that the stars are aligning for Texas to finally knock off Oklahoma as the Big 12 Champions.
The hype surrounding Texas football this season is real. Continue reading “CFB Analyst Joel Klatt: Texas has a ‘great chance’ to knock off Oklahoma”
Two Longhorns are listed within 247Sports’ top 50 college football players this season.
The 2020 college football season is rapidly approaching. Continue reading “Two Longhorns listed among college football’s top 50 players”
According to a report from KXAN in Austin, Dr Mark Escott of the Travis County Health Authority believes it is too much.
The Texas Longhorns are preparing for the upcoming season and athletic director Chris Del Conte has stated there will be fans in attendance. In an email to season season ticket holders, Del Conte proclaimed they were ready to “rock n’ roll.” The plan around most major colleges participating in the fall season falls around 25 percent capacity. At Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium that means 25,000 screaming fanatics.
However, not everyone agrees with the sentiment of having that many fans in the stands. Recently KXAN, a NBC affiliate in Austin, had an interview with interim Austin-Travis County Health Dr. Mark Escott. Escott was not a fan of moving forward with 25 percent or 25,000 fans at DKR.
He spoke with local schools about their upcoming football season and even wants to start slow with them.
Let’s see if we can play, lets see if we can have two healthy teams play one another and then let’s talk about introducing parents of the athletes into the stands and again move gradually towards more people as we can prove success.”
When discussing fans at the stadium, Escott wants UT to limit the number even beyond the 25 percent being announced across the remaining FBS schools.
Packing 25,000 people in, even in a 100,000 seat stadium, introduces a lot of risk, not only to the people who are there but to the community as well,
While you can understand the sentiment behind the doctors thoughts, it really doesn’t hold much weight. The city of Austin holds zero authority over the University of Texas.
The challenge with UT Football at 25% capacity…if the prevalence of disease on game day is similar to today, with 25,000 fans we can expect more than 100 of those fans to be COVID-19 positive…and then it multiplies. Let's stick to watching football on TV this Fall!
— Dr. Mark E. Escott (@MeaEscott) July 30, 2020
New DC Chris Ash will have a ton of returning talent to work with. Here are the highest-graded returners on Texas’ defense per PFF:
Texas’ defense struggled last season, being the reason for a couple of the Longhorns’ losses last season. However, there is hope and optimism for the defense going into 2020.
Most of that is due to how many contributors are returning this season. Texas is expected to have nine starters back, including Caden Sterns, B.J. Foster, and Joseph Ossai. The roster is full of studs.
However, the implementation of defensive coordinator Chris Ash will be the biggest reason for the hoped success. Former defensive coordinator ran a base 3-3-5 defense and Ash will be switching over to a base 4-3 defense.
Ash will have a ton of returning talent to work with, hoping to make the Longhorns’ defense one of the best in the Big 12.
Here are the highest-graded returners on Texas defense per PFF:
LonghornsWire will be looking at each scholarship player listed on the Texas roster. Today, we will be looking at senior C Derek Kerstetter.
Going into the 2020 football season, LonghornsWire will be looking at each scholarship player listed on the Texas roster.
Heading into the season each profile will cover where the player is from, how recruiting websites rated them coming out of high school, and what role they will play for Tom Herman this season.
Today, we will be looking at senior center Derek Kerstetter.
Height: 6-5 / Weight: 293
Class: Senior
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
High School: Reagan
HS ranking (247Sports): Three-star / No. 27 position / No. 52 in-state
HS ranking (Rivals): Three-star / No. 45 position / No. 59 in-state
Analysis: Derek Kerstetter played right tackle for the Longhorns last season, forming an outstanding duo with left tackle Samuel Cosmi. Now, the senior will be moving to the interior offensive line, playing center.
Coming out of high school, Kerstetter was just a three-star prospect and outside the top 50 in the state of Texas. Offensive line coach Herb Hand has done an excellent job in turning Kerstetter into a good offensive lineman to one of the best in the Big 12.
Zach Shackelford was a leader of the football team last season from the center position. Kerstetter will have major shoes to fill, having to keep Texas’ offensive line at an elite level. They will be protecting quarterback Sam Ehlinger, the most important player on the offense.
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Each morning, LonghornsWire will provide the top headlines in the Big 12. Today, BR, Twitter, and TexasTech.com provide the headlines.
Each morning Longhorns Wire will share the top stories from around the Big 12 Conference. For this edition of the Big 12 morning rush, Bleacher Report, Twitter, and TexasTech.com provide the headlines.
Continue reading “Thursday Big 12 Morning Rush: Headlines from around the conference”
The NCAA Division I Council has agreed to freeze eligibility for the fall. This ruling will need to be approved by the Board of Governors.
One of the big questions surrounding the upcoming season revolves around the eligibility of student-athletes. The idea that athletes shouldn’t lose a year of eligibility has been kicked around. Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger was supportive of the idea when he spoke to media on Tuesday.
My personal opinion is I do think that eligibility should be frozen, regardless. I think that it’s unfortunate that everybody has had to go through this, and I know it’s not the college’s fault by any stretch of the imagination. But the college experience is such a short-term thing in people’s lives and I think everybody should be able to get the most out of it.
According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, the NCAA Division I Council agrees with the Texas quarterback.
Sources: The NCAA Division I Council decided today that fall sport student-athletes can compete in any amount of competitions this year and it will not count as a season of eligibility. This still needs to be approved by NCAA Board of Governors on Friday.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 19, 2020
Provided the NCAA Board of Governors approves the ruling on Friday, then we will have a unique situation on campus. Especially for those players who are playing the schools that went forward with a fall season. It could mean that Sam Ehlinger could ideally come back for a fifth season if he chooses.
For the incoming freshman this could be a full season redshirt opportunity for the freshman class. The original ruling being that players couldn’t appear in more than four games to maintain their redshirt status. With this amendment for the 2020 season, there would be no cap on games with player eligibility being frozen.
Head coach Tom Herman would be able to get a better look at some of their underclassmen in the fall season. Now we await the Board of Governors decision on Friday.
According to a report from Sports Illustrated, Oklahoma wants to discontinue their fall season. The Texas Longhorns want to move forward.
There has been much said about the two remaining Power Five conferences cancelling their season in hopes of spring football. Some might say it was too early to pull the plug, while others think it was the right call bases on scientific evidence. Now you can add Oklahoma to the schools wanting to punt on the season.
According to a report from Mark Blaudschun of Sports Illustrated, the Sooners want out.
While that was going on on Tuesday, the Big 12 was dealing with a different issue involving Oklahoma, which reportedly is leaning against the sentiment of its brethren who want to continue with the season.
Normally this would result in a stalemate.
Not so much this time because Texas is leading a charge to continue, with or WITHOUT Oklahoma as part of the conference for football this season.
Every sign out of Austin is that the Texas Longhorns want to move forward with the season. Even if Oklahoma pulls the plug such as is suggested, one should expect the Longhorns to push forward with a season. Much like what we have seen with Big Ten and teams discussing a fall schedule, Oklahoma seems discontent with the decision made by the Big 12 Conference.
With just over three weeks remaining before the start of the 2020 season, it seems like a bad time to be having this discussion. It likely should have been brought up during the Big 12 Conference’s Board of Directors meeting. Should Oklahoma opt out of the season while the Big 12 continues, they would lose out on approximately $42 million in TV revenue.
The conference has stated that they were moving forward with preparing for the upcoming season. There hasn’t been an announcement yet that the season would go on as planned as of yet. It will be interesting to see how Texas handles the situation moving forward.
Redshirt junior offensive tackle Samuel Cosmi was named to the USA TODAY Sports preseason All-American team. He was the only Texas Longhorn.
The preseason All-American team is something that many look forward to each and every year. It gives you an idea about the players to watch are. Plus it is often a key indicator to who are the top NFL Draft prospects. No surprise here as USA TODAY Sports named offensive tackle Samuel Cosmi to their second-team.
The redshirt junior is heading into his fourth year at Texas. It is a real possibility that Cosmi could return for another season but all signs indicate that he will likely be NFL bound following the 2020 campaign. Cosmi comes in as the only Texas Longhorn to make the preseason list for USA TODAY Sports.
Joining Cosmi on the second team offense is Oklahoma State’s wide receiver Tylan Wallace. The Big 12 also added three players on the first team offense. Oklahoma State’s running back Chuba Hubbard, Iowa State’s tight end Charlie Kolar and Oklahoma’s center Creed Humphrey.
This season Cosmi is expecting to protect quarterback Sam Ehlinger’s blindside for the final time in 2020. Both could be heading for bigger things in the NFL as they prepare for the draft. Cosmi has been consistently mocked in the first round by many draft analysts.
You can read the full list by Paul Myerburg on the USA TODAY Sports’ preseason All-American team here.
According to PFF, these were the top five players on offense for Texas last season.
