Texas Longhorns Will Not Join Pac-12

It looks like any hopes of people having that included the Texas Longhorns ever becoming a part of the Pac 12 conference had their dreams crushed Wednesday.  Pac 12 commissioner Larry Scott announced the new Pac 12 network on Wednesday.  It would be nearly impossible for the Longhorns to join the Pac 12 because they have already launched their own network.  Larry Scott had this to say when someone asked if this all but ended a Texas- Pac 12 merger. 

"I think you could certainly imply that, with the news that we're going to announce tonight," Scott told the newspaper. "The Longhorn Network would be certainly a huge impediment."

ESPN Announces TV Times for Texas Longhorn Football

ESPN recently announced which games they will televise this upcoming football season.  Here are the pair of Longhorn games that will be televised by ESPN next season.

Oct. 8: Oklahoma vs. Texas in Dallas: Noon, ABC
  
Nov. 24 (Thurs.): Texas at Texas A&M: 8 p.m., ESPN

Ranking of Big 12 Quarterbacks

David Ubben, who is a blogger for ESPN's for the Big 12, recently ranked the Big 12's quarterbacks.  Here's how he ranked the quarterbacks in the Big 12.

1. Brandon Weeden, Oklahoma State
2. Landry Jones, Oklahoma
3. Robert Griffin, Baylor
4. Ryan Tannehill, Texas A&M
5. Seth Doege, Texas Tech
6.James Franklin, Missouri
7. Collin Klein, Kansas State
8. Garrett Gilbert, Texas
9. Steele Jantz, Iowa State
10. Jordan Webb, Kansas

Gilbert at 8?? Sounds a little low, hopefully he'll prove them wrong!

List of Big 12 Games on Big Monday

During the college basketball season, ESPN hosts Big Monday.  Big Monday is a showcase for the best games going on each Monday in college basketball.  Here's a look at the Big Monday games that Big 12 teams are playing in.  Get excited for the Longhorn games!

January 16
Texas A&M at Missouri, 4:30 p.m.
Baylor at Kansas, 8:30 p.m.

January 23
Texas A&M at Kansas, 8 p.m.

January 30
Missouri at Texas, 8 p.m.

February 6
Texas at Texas A&M, 8 p.m.

February 13
Kansas at Kansas State, 8 p.m.

February 20
Baylor at Texas, 8 p.m.

February 27
Kansas at Oklahoma State, 8 p.m.

You can see that a certain school is the most consistently featured in this, yeah that's right, it's Kansas, but whose next?  The Horns!  

Longhorns Discuss New Newtowrk with Rivals in Big 12

The Texas Longhorns will be launching their new network this season.  They are entering a 20 year 300 million dollar deal that gives them a clear advantage over their rivals.  Longhorn officials have been working with the NCAA to get some rules set up.  The Longhorns are planning on televising some high school games on their network.  they have also said that those broadcasts will having nothing promoting the Longhorns or anything.

This sounds dangerous.  Texas seems like it will have a huge financial advantage over it's competitors.  Not only that, with the new network, all young Texas kids will see on TV is Longhorns and will only want to go there.  What do I say to the other schools?  Tough luck.  This is the way it works we are the Longhorns and we don't care.

Texas Longhorn Player Profile: Fullback Cody Johnson

Cody Johnson is from Waller, Texas and has had a big impact at the University of Texas.  Cody Johnson attended Waller, High School.  During his career at Texas, he has rushed for over 1,200 yards and has scored 30 touchdowns.  He scored 24 touchdowns over his freshman and sophomore seasons.  As a junior in 2010, he rushed for 592 yards and scored six touchdowns.  He had back to back 100 yard games against Florida Atlantic and Texas A&M.
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Mel Kiper recently rated the top five NFL draft prospects at each position for the senior class for the 2012 NFL draft.  The number one rated fullback was Cody Johnson, my boy!

Hook 'em horns!

Texas Longhorn Player Profile: Linebacker Keenan Robinson

Keenan Robinson is from Omaha Nebraska.  He was a highly touted recruit coming out of high school as he was rated the fourth best outside linebacker in the class of 2007.  He attended Plano East Senior High School in Plano, Texas.  He was named an All American by Parade Magazine.

Robinson redshirted during his freshman season.  He spent his freshman season mostly on Special teams until he had a break out sophomore season in which hestarted 14 games and was an honorable mention on the All Big 12 team.  He was a team leader in 2010 and was named to the All Big 12 team.

Recently, Mel Kiper rated him the fourth best senior outside linebacker for the 2012 NFL Draft.  He's going to be great in an NFL uniform.  Hook 'em horns!

Two Longhorns Rated Highly by Mel Kiper

Mel Kiper recently rated upcoming seniors as NFL Draft prospects.  A fair amount of Big 12 players ended up making the list.  The list was the top 5 seniors at each position.  Naturally, two Longhorns were on the list: fullback Cody Johnson and Outsider Linebacker Keenan Robinson.

I'm going to do small profiles on them in my upcoming post so that we really know why Kiper thinks they will be such successful NFL players.

Jamaal Charles Ranked in NFL Rankings

So there is an NFL Lockout, and NFL is trying to do anything to get people to still come to their site.  What did they decide to do?  Rank all of their players.  I think this was a really cool idea because it allows fans to really think about the players and stay in touch with the game.

Great news, Longhorn fans!  There was a Longhorn on the top 100!  Kansas City Chief running back Jamaal Charles made the list and was ranked 33rd overall.

Charles is a beast!  He scored 11 touchdowns in 2005 as a member of the '05 National championship team.  Remember, Charles also ran for 290 yards against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 2007.  Such a sweeetttt Longhorn moment!

He was an All-Pro last year and made the Pro Bowl.  He averaged 6 yards per carry and ran for nearly 1,500 yards.  He was one of the youngest players to make the list.

Texas Football Team Preview: Defense

So if you read my last post, you can see the there are a ton of question marks over on the offensive side of the football for the Texas Longhorns next season.  This defense is loaded with talent and depth at all positions.  It ranked 6th in the nation last year in total defense and 1st in the Big 12.

The linebackers are led by Emmanuel Acho, Keenan Robinson, and Jordan Hicks.  The first two are seniors who are proven and dominant.  The scary part about this trio is that the Sophomore Hicks, might end up being the best of the bunch by the time the season is over.  Maybe the best linebackers in the nation right here.

Jackson Jeffcoat and Alex Okafor are serious talents, both were rated as five starts at one point.  They man the defensive line and should put a ton of pressure on opposing quarterbacks.  Kheeston Randall is a really solid player in the middle.

Cornerback should be an iffy place for this defense as they return no starters.  Thankfully for the secondary, they boast the best safety tandem in the country with Blake Gideon and Kenny Vaccaro.

Texas Football Team Preview: Offense

For the rest of the week, I will previewing Texas' football team.  Let's start with the offense.

Wow, talk about the difference that one player makes.  This offense was garbage without Colt McCoy last season.  People were worried about the play calling earlier, but no one noticed or cared because McCoy was so good.  Now that he's gone, the problem has been exposed.  Gilbert was terrible last season, throwing 17 interceptions and just ten touchdowns

The running backs were really bad too.  Fozzy Whitaker was so bad last year, and he is supposed to be the starter again.  The Longhorns have to hope that incoming freshman, Malcolm Brown to live up to the hype.

The receivers are really average outside of sophomore Mike Davis.

The offensive line was shaky last year, they'll have to hope it improves dramatically.

Here are my two cents on this.  This team returns a lot of talent, but when it's all said in done, this team's success hinges on Garrett Gilbert's progression.  He was awful last year and has the talent to be great so if he progresses like he should, the horns won't be the laughing stock of the nation again.

Garrett Gilbert or a Back Up?

Hmmm very interesting situation in Austin, Texas regarding the quarterback situation.

Garrett Gilbert really had a nice performance, or at least promising performance when he was thrown under fire in the first quarter of the BCS National Championship Game.  He threw two touchdowns to go along with four interceptions.

Then came the 2010 season.  Expectations were high for Gilbert but he did not deliver at all for the Longhorns, leading them to a 5-7 season.  He didn't show a lot of flashes of greatness either.

Gilbert is going to have to play very well, very early if he hopes to continue to quarterback this team.  Casey McCoy is hot on his trail.