ICYMI: Auburn Lands Will Muschamp as Defensive Coordinator

Oh boy, this is going to make things a bit more interesting in 2015.

Auburn University hired a new defensive coordinator Friday night. The guy they hired made his reputation as one of the best d-coordinators in the business.

And he was recently fired as head coach at the University of Florida.

Will Muschamp did not come cheaply, but we are guessing Auburn fans are perfectly okay with that as the wake up Saturday morning.

Reports say the former Texas and LSU defensive coordinator and disciple of Nick Saban reportedly nabbed a deal that will pay him somewhere in the $1.6 to $1.8 million a year range, making him the new gold standard for college coordinators. He joins the staff of Coach Gus Malzahn immediately.

And raising the absurdity bar for the cost of college coaches.

But Muschamp will be worth it to the folks on the Plains if he can help a sagging defense that has been the Tigers achilles heel the past several seasons. If the defense improves enough to take down Alabama and get Auburn to the College Football playoff, well, then in their minds, the cost will be worth it.

Muschamp will meet the crazed, assembled masses Saturday in what is sure to be a well attended press conference.

David Ash Is Done At Texas

((HT: Longhorn Network))

David Ash will no longer play football-period.

Head coach Charlie Strong said that, as a result of multiple concussions, his former starting quarterback is giving up the sport.

His first major concussion was in a game against BYU last season. He came back for the Kansas State game, but still suffered some after-effects and was ruled out of the season.

He came back for the 2014 season opener against North Texas and still had issues after the game against the Mean Green. He has decided it's, simply, time to go. Coach Strong did say that Ash will still be a part of the football program

Here's the story of Ash and what he meant to the Longhorns


The HQ commends Ash for making a smart decision and wanting to have a "rest of his life."

Just How Bad Is Texas Football Right Now...???

And by "Texas," the HQ means specifically the Longhorns...

We get that Charlie Strong is disposing of a lot... No, A LOT!!!... of Mack Brown's recruits in a cleaning house of massive proportions- 8 so far with four more players that were "suspended" for the game against BYU Saturday night...

The larger questions was: Just how many guys were left to chase after Cougars QB Taysom Hill...???

Answer: Not enough...

It was ugly and it was the most points allowed by a Texas team since they gave up 66 to UCLA

Charlie Strong took the blame for the "embarassment..."
((HT: KVUE-TV))
KSL-TV's Alex Kirry gives the game-day grades, and the HQ imagines they're a lot of "A's"

BUZZER BEATER: Jonathan Holmes Steps Up For Longhorns

Texas needed a big shot to overcome 22nd ranked Kansas State and Jonathan Holmes manned up and placed the dagger in the Wildcats.

Thanks ESPN

"I knew since they were worried about Javan (Felix), my man was going to go with him, so I just slipped to the ball and I was open and made the shot." Holmes said.

Holmes would have eight points and 10 rebounds against K-State.

"When John hit the shot I was happy, first because we won the game, and obviously because I missed those two free throws. But, it is good we can get out with the win." Texas guard Javan Felix said.

Felix led the 'Horns with 23 points 

With the win Texas is now 4-2 in the Big 12 Conference, 15-4 overall.

The End For Mack Brown: Let's Face It, Oregon Let Up...

It was the blowout that Oregon kept from being a blowout...

Marcus Mariota was trotted out there out of shape and the Oregon offense still ran rings around the Texas...

Well, the Texas everything...
Here's Mack Brown after the fact...
((HT: Longhorn Network))


With analysis from San Antonio from Kirk Bohls and Cedric Golden from the Austin American-Statesman
And highlights from KVUE-TV

5 AM Practice This Morning For North Carolina, Texas Upsets #14 UNC 86-83

That's how pissed off North Carolina head coach Roy Williams was when the Tar Heels lost at home to Texas Wednesday night 86-83.

It wasn't a classic rant like Barry Hinson but it was Roy Williams going off.

(Note the Barry Hinson reference)

Thanks WRAL-TV Raleigh, NC


Here's the highlights with FOSG Jones Angel on the call.

Thanks GoHeelsTV


The Tar Heels only shot 39 percent from the field and a much worse 51 percent from the free throw line which has been North Carolina's problem.

"I know we miss a lot of them, and it hurts when you're trying to make runs." North Carolina guard Marcus Paige said.  "We shouldn't have been in a position where free throws determined this game in the first place. Our first half was probably the worst first half of basketball we could have possibly played. I mean, it doesn't help when...if you miss two free throws it's basically like turning the ball over or giving the ball right back to them. It's frustrating to not take advantage of those opportunities."

I'm sure the 5:00 am practice was hell on the floor.  If you are a Tar Heel can you can only hope this is a wake up call to the team.

Mack Brown Says Situation Hasn't Changed

((HT: ESPN))

Mack Brown addressed his situation in his initial Alamo Bowl presser as Texas anticipates a shootout against Oregon...

So, of course, he addressed the elephant in the room...


Brown plans to meet with new athletic director Steve Patterson and university president Bill Powers about his future as the Longhorns' coach.

There was talk that "late this week" there would be some kind of an answer... whatever that answer is...

And, now, we have to determine the definition of "later this week" from the time it was talked about earlier this week...

Ole Miss Rolls Texas 44-23 , Fire Mack Brown Chant Growing Louder?

So when does the Texas athletic administration pull the plug on the Mack Brown era?

Don't you get the feeling it's inevitable.

Saturday night the Longhorns still couldn't stop the run even with former defensive coordinator Manny Diaz no longer on the staff.

The Rebels ran for 272 yards against the 'Horns with Jeff Scott running for a career high 154 yards.

It added up to another Texas loss 44-23.

Here are the highlights from Austin, TX (Thanks KVUE-TV)




Texas is now 1-2 on the year and the Longhorn nation is getting restless.  Fans are beginning to wonder if their needs to be a change at the top.

'Horn fans expressed their opinion to KVUE-TV.




Mack Brown continued the coach speak following the Ole Miss Loss.

"We just feel great about the opportunity to come into this kind of arena as a young program with young kids and fight for 60 minutes and see what the scoreboard says." Brown said.  "That's what our kids did tonight. Our fans that came, they were here on as many tickets as we could get. I'm proud for them too."

For Texas fans that scoreboard better tell a positive story next week against Kansas State.  

OSG College Football Crystal Ball Part 2

Eastern Kentucky at #8 Louisville

What does Louisville head coach Charlie Strong think of Eastern Kentucky?

“It’s a solid football team.”

The Colonels did whip Robert Morris 38-6 last week.  Expect EKU to take the six figure check from Louisville and take a whoppin’ themselves

Louisville 55, Eastern Kentucky 3

UAB at #9 LSU

13 years ago the Blazers defeated the Tigers 13-10.  No way in hell that happens again.

LSU 42 , UAB 14

#12 Florida at Miami

Al Golden is yet to have a signature win during his tenure at Miami.  Saturday is the Hurricanes chance to make a statement and provide the benchmark win for Golden.

“It’s obviously a big game, but worrying about anything on the outside is not going to change what happens in between the lines.” Golden said.

A ton of Hurricane recruits will be in Sun Life Stadium too and Golden would like to make an impression on their young minds.

Florida head coach Will Muschamp also wants to leave a mark on South Florida.

“They have players every year, you take Broward and Dade county, those two alone, the number of players that sign out of there every year.” 

So instead of the Seminole War Canoe the two teams played for annually until 1987 the Gators and Hurricanes play to impress high school players.

It will be a close on but the “Canes prevail.

Miami 31, Florida 28

#13 Oklahoma State at Texas-San Antonio

When Mike Gundy was the quarterback for the Oklahoma State Cowboys Larry Coker was his offensive coordinator.

 “I have always enjoyed being around Coach”  Gundy said.  “As a player, I enjoyed his approach to certain plays. He kept the game simple and as a player I really enjoyed that."

“Mike has done a great job there.” UTSA head coach Larry Coker said. “He was a very smart player and tremendously competitive. He was a playmaker when there weren’t plays to be made. He was an outstanding player. He’s very confident and you can see that in their team now.”

Oklahoma State is in San Antonio for two reasons, get a win and impress recruits in Southwest Texas.

“They do a great job at recruiting Texas and I think they want to continue that.” Coker said.

The Cowboys will do both.

Oklahoma State 49, UTSA 6

#14 Notre Dame at #17 Michigan

“It's a great and historic rivalry that we'll be playing this Saturday, so let's get that out of the way right away so we don't have to answer any more questions about this rivalry.”  Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelley said.

Sounds like the Notre Dame head coach is bored with the rivalry with Michigan.

Michigan head coach Brady Hoke understands the whole nation watches this one.

 “….it must have some sort of national appeal.” Hoke said. “ Coaching in a lot of places, and maybe it's just me, but I know that whenever Michigan and Notre Dame was on TV, I was going to be watching it. I know people in Corvallis, Ore., were going to be watching it.”

And those people in Corvallis should see a Michigan win.

Michigan 21, Notre Dame 17

#15 Texas at BYU

I bet you didn’t know this, BYU has a 2-1 edge in the series.  The last time the “Horns played the Cougars in Provo they lost.

“I think it's a unique place.” Texas head coach Mack Brown said. 

Yes it is coach Brown but Longhorn nation should like the result.

Texas 35, BYU 31 

College Football Playoff Already Hacked

Well, that didn't take long.

We told you Tuesday evening about the Lords of College Football naming their new playoff system "The College Football Playoff".

And that playoff system came replete with its own website and a choice of logos put up to a fan vote.

In the "That didn't take long category" the fan vote---it was already hacked. The people who run the website announced today (Website link is RIGHT HERE, that an IP Address from Austin, TX (Yes, Longhorns fan, you are now a suspect) hacked the site, voting over 50,000 times.

From the Playoff's (Yes, it's possessive) Facebook page:

Our contractor running the logo vote has informed us that it has caught a cheater with an IP address in Austin, TX who cast 50,251 votes for logo number four, in violation of our contest rules. While we're pleased to know how popular our site is, this individual's IP address has been blocked and all his votes have been removed from logo four's tally.

As a result, the correct, updated tally shows logo one has 26%, logo two has 38%, logo three has 27% and logo 4 has 9%, with more than 60,000 votes having been cast in less than 24 hours.

On the advice of our contractor, the vote percentage totals will be announced twice daily at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., ET until the contest closes on Monday, April 29. This will allow the technical experts to prevent any further irregularities from occurring. We have been pleased with the excitement that has been created with the contest. In this particular case, there was a little too much excitement.


Really the only thing we wonder about this: Could this actually be an explanation for the random, non-release of the alleged BCS Computers? Could it be the reason nobody really knew the formula that made up the BCS?

Nah, if it did, the mediocre Longhorns would have been doing something other than playing in the Alamo Bowl. Ha!

OSG High: West, Texas... With The Comma

When Interstate 35 west winds its way, for those travelling that way, toward the merger with I-35 it's near the town of Hillsboro, Texas. The towns click off every ten miles or so- Alvarado, Itasca, Hillsboro, and then, West. A lot of people are genuinely confused over the name. But the first postmaster of the town of 2,800 in McLennan County was a guy by the name of T.M. West.

Thus, the name... and it has nothing to do with direction or time and place...

Everyone knows now that the death toll in a catastrophic mill explosion is now 14 with dozens still listed as missing- 7 fatalities from volunteer fire departments inside the state.

“It is by far one of, if not the worst, (disasters) we have seen in the state of Texas,” said Assistant State Fire Marshal Kelly Kistner.

There will be regulatory issues and safety issues that will come up over the next while over the West plant- especially after the idea that those who ran the plant maintained that there would never be any kind of catastrophic event like the one that happened. It would only be a ten second release of ammonia gas- and that would be it.

But it wasn't... and it won't be for a while...

It's a part of the state where, if drivers don't like the traffic pattern, they'll high-step their cars and trucks over the grass medians and plow over to the roads that run parallel to the freeway. It's a part of the state also known as much for its Czech influence. There are restaurants in Hillsboro and in West where you can pick up a mean kolache and, now, they're places for remembering who is gone and who remains.

Buildings have been obliterated... and I don't even think that is giving the word justice. Schools in the blast zone are not safe and superintendents have had to give advice from all around the state to figure out how to make the last month of school... "normal..."

Students will resume classes on Monday. Some students will start their new lives in neighboring Connally ISD, while some students will go to West Elementary School, which Crawford said was the only campus not affected by the explosion...

Translation... "the only school left standing where we feel safe putting people."

Everyone short of 6th grade goes there. The middle and high schoolers go to an abandoned school in Connally.

“Our goal for the next 30 days is to make sure (students) have a great experience, that we could put back a little normalcy and consistency in the kids’ lives,” West ISD Superintendent Marty Crawford said.

And the kids had to try...

The calm at Hillsboro High. Thoughts are still 15 miles south.

In Hillsboro, the Eagles were set to play a double-header against Burnsville-Eddy Friday. The JV game went by the boards and the two schools were set to play one game in the newly-constructed softball and baseball stands. Their number one fan, who was there way too early for first pitch was asked the simple question of "How are you doin'...?"

"We're here..."

And that sums up the mood of the whole region...

Over at the county fairgrounds, kids from fraternities and sororities made their way from Baylor to help unload trucks and cram everything they got from 18-wheelers into cardboard boxes and get them to West as soon as they could.

"We're more organized now than we were at the beginning," one Phi Chi told me. "If a truck comes in and it's a fork-lift truck, we really can't do anything. But if it was hand-packed, you see what we're able to do."

And that translated into about 20 college students moving around to fill boxes on four hour shifts waiting for the next group to take over.

"There are three different fraternities here," he continued. "No one cared what frat you were when you showed up. And that's not always necessarily the case."

Justin Lewis came to the fairgrounds in a blue blazer, white dress shirt, and beige power tie complete with blue jeans and boots. He seemed to be the one orchestrating what needed to be put where and how quickly. His day job is that of a Hill County judge, but his focus was on turning around every gifted piece of aid and getting it to West.

The Hill County Fairgrounds- where Baylor came to help

"We've got a Wal-Mart's worth of material," he admitted as the pile grew behind him. "Places like H.E.B. (a local department store chain) and Farmers are helping out with their trucks. And our job is to sort, inventory, re-box and be a distribution point. If someone calls and says 'I need toilet paper,' then I can go 'Okay, we'll get you a palette.' If someone calls and says, 'I need clothes.' Then, we can go 'Okay, we'll get you a palette of that.' and so on... That's what we're doing here."

But, it's not all optimism. You get the sense, though, that the work is keeping him from focusing on what he lost.

"It's bad. Real bad... it's ugly down there" and all he could do is look down and shake his head briefly before regaining focus on the job he and everyone else in the fairgrounds was working on. "I've lost friends and I can't find others. But, right now, we're running on adrenaline. They're family. And that's what you do..."

And the 18-wheelers just kept coming... a good thing for everyone- those who needed it to get their lives back on track and for those who needed to help so they could regain a part of theirs.

Kearney To Claim Discrimination Vs. Texas

((HT: ESPN/Naqi))

Former Texas women's track coach Bev Kearney, who resigned January 5th after it was disclosed she had an intimate relationship with an athlete in her program back in 2002, will announce the filing of an EEOC and Texas Workforce Commission discrimination charge on Monday, according to her attorney and Naqi.

"This is the legal prerequisite to filing a discrimination lawsuit," lawyer Derek Howard said in a text message to Naqi, "and it will specifically reference the [Major] Applewhite comparative scenario."

Applewhite, UT's co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, admitted to an inappropriate consensual relationship with a student in 2009 and is still on Mack Brown's staff at present. The double-standard is what Howard seems to be chasing with their investigation and/or subsequent lawsuit.

"[The discrimination claim] will be investigated for 180 days before [we] have the right to sue," Howard said.

Kearney won six national championships in 20 years with the Longhorns and was named Big 12 Coach of the Year last season.

Here's how the story broke when the relationship was made public and Kearney resigned back in January...
((HT: KVUE-TV))

Kearney had been placed on paid administrative leave since November of 2012. The school found out about an "intimate consensual relationship" the month before and had investigated.

Remember The Alamo: Longhorns Have 2 Under Sexual Assault Investigation (UPDATED and UPDATED again)

((HT: KHOU-TV))

For the 5,000th time...

Nothing good ever happens after 1AM...

Our new example is from San Antonio...

2 University of Texas players are under investigation for an alleged sexual assault along the Riverwalk in San Antonio- a little before 3 this morning...

An unidentified woman went to local police after saying that she met two Longhorns players and invited them back to her hotel room. She, then after what happened in their meeting, went to police with the allegation. Coaches have been notified of the incident and it appears that one of the players may be a starter on the two-deeps.

Further questioning should occur later today, along with the coaches press conferences...

Here's the overnight report...
More when we know more... 1400 UPDATE: We know more... Mack Brown addressed the media, but did not go into any specifics... He did say, however, the two players were suspended... The HQ is aware just how stunned you are... ((HT: KXAN-TV Austin))

Sex assault allegations made against Longhorn players before Alamo Bowl

1445 UPDATE: Two sources tell Hookem.com that Case McCoy and Jordan Hicks have been ordered home from Alamo Bowl. That can't be good... 1600 UPDATE: San Antonio police are telling various sources that there is only one suspect... even as Mack Brown sent two players home...

Darrell Royal Passes At 88

((HT: KXAN-TV))

One of college football's legendary sports figures has passed from complications from Alzheimer's at the age of 88...

Texas Longhorns long-time former coach and administrator Darrell Royal had been fighting the disease for some time and passed in an assisted living facility where he had been receiving care and treatment.

From his 23 years as head coach to front office director to sports personality, Royal will always be known for his down-home demeanor and presentation.

On the field, he brought the powerful wishbone offense to Austin and made the Longhorns a long-term success with 11 SWC titles, 10 Cotton Bowl titles, and 2 national titles...

Here's Austin's early coverage...

University of Texas sports legend Darrell Royal dies

And here's what the HQ remembers him for- in part... ((HT: OldSchoolYou))

Mack Brown Says Stats Are Out The Window, Flips Bird At Himself

((HT: ESPN))

And all the Longhorns are evaluating now are wins...

That's, probably, the healthy way to look at things since the kids under Manny Diaz have stopped playing defense in Austin...

The latest evidence was last night playing another team that has stopped playing defense a few years ago in Baylor...

Here's how the game started...


By the end of things, 106 points were scored, 1,132 total yards of offense were on the table, 18 different receivers caught passes, Lache Seastrunk actually got some action, and Texas won 56-50. The Longhorns knocked the Bears to 3-3 while staying at 25th-ranked for now until the new numbers come out...

But halftime had its moment of unintentional levity as Mack Brown gave himself the finger... fans can read into that whatever they wish...


The HQ doesn't quite think Diaz lasts til next year...
Jus' sayin'...

Oklahoma racks up 63 on Texas

Yeeeeesh...

How many people thought the Oklahoma/Texas game was going to be close this year?

After all, both teams came in ranked in the Top 15.

Folks, this one wasn't close.

At all.

Oklahoma didn't just beat Texas in the 2012 version of the "Red River Rivalry", they destroyed them. Your final score in Dallas today--Oklahoma 63, Texas 21. And it wasn't that close.

Damien Williams had a 95-yard TD run and Blake Bell ran for 4 TD's. Add in Landry Jones with 321 passing yards and a couple of TD's along with Trey Millard's 119 yards receiving and...well, you get the picture.

Oklahoma moves to 4-1 on the season and keeps themselves a game behind Kansas State for the Big 12 lead along with getting their mojo back after struggling early, Texas goes to 3-2 and raises the same questions that popped up over the last couple of seasons: Are they really this bad?

Here is an early highlight for you.

Check out Millard taking the screen pass and hurdling an oncoming tackler. He didn't score, but this was an awfully impressive move for a fullback.