Football/Recruiting:
GhostofBigRoy continues his recruiting charts with a look at perhaps the most important boards, the running backs and offensive line.
If Texas can add Malcolm Brown or Brandon Williams they can have 2 featured players on offense at the same in Gilbert+new RB. That's a tremendous potential offense that could be brewing in Austin over the next few years so long as the OL can be shored up.
Fellow FanTake blog Roll On You Bears has a great post dealing with OL recruitment. Writer "theplay" (which play is that again?) basically has a take similar to what dedfischer has expressed on The Tortilla Retort in the past, that it's hard to tell from film whether the 300 pound HS linemen will have the mental toughness, appreciation of the sport, and remaining upside to continue to grow and succeed in the trenches when his opponents aren't 200 pound future suburbanites.
Texas fans should be able to relate after seeing several 300 pound HS guys max out on potential early (Hall, Tanner) or simply not adjust quickly to college defensive lineman (Tray Allen). Then there are academic and injury casualties...
The gist of his post is explaining to Bears fans not to freak out about the lack of 4 and 5 star talent being injected into the Bears' program through recruitment. He does some interesting mathematical work that concludes that higher rated line prospects don't pan out as consistently which is the basis for his thesis regarding why they don't.
The problem of OL recruiting being something of a crapshoot makes McWhorter's job here all the more frustrating. As Scipio detailed, Texas' current depth at tackle and on the line in general necessitates that incoming recruits in 2011 need to be guys that can crack the 2-deep quickly. Sure-fire 300 pound prospects. Let's cross our fingers on this one.
I wish Texas had a stronger work ethic in finding players that can be molded into 300 pound monsters after a few years in College S&C rather than the current plan. At this point the depth doesn't particularly allow for a lot of that but maybe in the Muschamp regime it will be demanded. Some of his takes on defense (Kriegel, Mims, Daniels, Nkowpara) suggests he is interested in player development as a means towards building playmakers.
Basketball:
It's been a little quiet on this front save for some Barnes comments conceding that Mason+Balbay on the court is a game of 3 on 5 and some Gary "the glue" Johnson comments about how some member(s) of the team seem to think they can do it all.
Patrick Bateman has a relevant argument regarding Hamilton and Brown as the X factors on the team that seems particularly prophetic after the Kansas game. Texas gets Nebraska at home Saturday and I noticed in Bateman's analysis that the good games for J'Covan Brown of the last four were in the Drum.
Trips Right has been gifting the rest of the college basketball world some insights under what seems to be a pseudonym over at March To March.
Baseball:
Texas has one more super-hyped athletics program yet to begin their season and crush our hopes. AugieBall previews them here and HenryJames comments on "the greatest rotation" Augie has ever had.
Over at BON they are beginning their baseball preview as well. I typically don't follow the team much until they reach the CWS but I'll be looking for a pick me up this year.
Finally, the Carnival gets artsy with Scagnetti giving the odds on Oscar night. I think District 9 was the best movie I saw this year pending a 2nd viewing or me seeing the other half of the best picture nominees.