Texas Longhorns

Texas has struggled for two seasons, winning just 13 combined games when it had won 10 in nine consecutive seasons before it.

The Longhorns put their hopes in the Garrett Gilbert basket on the recruiting trail, but when Gilbert struggled in 2010 and was benched in 2011, they were left without a big-time prospect.

But has too much blame gone to the quarterbacks? They have the ball in their hands the most, but Gilbert hasn't gotten much help from his receivers.

Texas has recruited some of the nation's best over the past few years, and here's a look at how they shook out:

2008 (three ESPNU 150 receivers):

• D.J. Grant: Grant, an Austin native, was the nation's No. 5 receiver and the best signee in the 2008 class. He moved to tight end this year after missing the 2009 and 2010 seasons with a knee injury and redshirted in 2008. He caught 13 passes for 143 yards and a team-high three touchdowns this year.
• Dan Buckner: Buckner was the nation's No. 6 receiver, and caught 45 passes for 442 yards in Colt McCoy's senior season back in 2009, but transferred to Arizona after the season. He caught 42 passes for 606 yards and two scores for the Wildcats this year.
• DeSean Hales: Hales was No. 95 in the ESPNU 150 and the nation's No. 17 receiver, and caught 10 passes in 2010 before catching one pass in 2011.

2009

• Only receiver signee was Greg Timmons, who never made a catch and left the program before 2011.

2010 (Three ESPNU 150 receivers)

• Mike Davis: Davis was the team's leading receiver in 2011 (45 rec., 609 yards, TD) after being No. 2 in 2010 with 47 catches for 479 yards.
• Darius White: White had six catches for 71 yards in two seasons at Texas. He left the team after 2011 and plans to transfer to Missouri.
• Chris Jones: Redshirted in 2010 before transferring in November, during the 2011 season.

2011

• No ESPNU 150 signees but four-star recruit Jaxon Shipley emerged as one of the team's best weapons before suffering a knee injury that slowed his progress and caused him to miss three games. He finished with 44 catches for 607 yards.
• Miles Onyegbule also caught four passes for 51 yards.

So, there you have it.

Six top-flight recruits. Zero impact players among them. Shipley looks the part of future star, and Davis did as a true freshman, but he didn't show a ton of improvement in 2011.

The quarterback play has a lot to do with it, but Texas has swung and missed on so many receivers along the recruiting trail in recent years, perhaps the blame has fallen too heavily on the quarterbacks' shoulders.

Texas lost ESPNU 150 member Thomas Johnson, and has just one receiver committed for the 2012 class, which will sign letters of intent on Feb. 1. Johnson was the nation's No. 4 wide receiver, but he's not coming. Texas is still chasing the nation's No. 1 receiver, Dorial Green-Beckham, but it seems Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri have the inside track in that race.

In 2012, ESPNU 150 recruit Cayleb Jones is set to join the Longhorns. He's the nation's No. 3 receiver.

Marcus Johnson, the nation's No. 79 receiver, and Kendall Sanders are the only other players signed up to come to Austin and play receiver in 2012. Sanders is rated as the nation's No. 10 cornerback.

Can they change the trend?

Cast blame for the receiving troubles wherever you'd like: Coaches' development, poor recruiting evaluation, poor work ethic by the receivers. You could probably come up with a few more.

But it's clear that quarterbacks haven't been the only problem at Texas the past two years.

The ESPN HS Great State Debate continues. When comparing current pros, what state has bred the best? Brady and Rodgers are California boys. 5,000-plus passers Brees and Stafford hail from Texas. Time to discuss.

Top current NFL quarterbacks from Texas: Drew Brees (Austin Westlake); Andy Dalton (Katy); Matt Flynn (Tyler Lee); Kevin Kolb (Stephenville); Colt McCoy (Jim Ned); Christian Ponder (Colleyville Heritage); John Skelton (El Paso Burges), Matthew Stafford (Highland Park); Vince Young (Houston Madison).

Also part of today's package, Tom Luginbill looks at the spread of the spread offense and how spread quarterbacks have not fared well in the NFL.

Here's a sample:

The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, with smart signal-callers who win by throwing the ball accurately and on time. But at the college and high school levels, there's more of a willingness to accept a less-than-ideal passer who is an extraordinary athlete.

Prior to the explosion of the spread offense in the past 10-15 years, the core foundation of the quarterback position was learning to play under center. You dropped back from under center, read coverages from under center, made pre-snap assessments from under center. Everything you learned was about footwork, timing and reading defenses on the move.

Now, almost all you see in high school and college is the spread formation, so quarterbacks lack repetitions under center, which has led to a lack of fundamentals at the position. Every year I go out to camps and combines and see kids with multiple BCS offers who struggle to take a five-step drop, hit their fifth step and get the ball out. It can be staggering how many can't do it.

The reason for this is that from a coach's perspective, your mindset is to force defenses to have to defend your quarterback's ability to run. You implement some option principles into that mentality and it really puts a lot of strain on the defense. In high school, coaches take their best player and put him in the Wildcat formation, and if he has any promise as a passer he is going to get a long look from college coaches.

We took a look at the best atmospheres on Tuesday, and today, it's time to rank the top 10 games involving Big 12 teams of 2011.

1. Kansas State 53, Texas A&M 50 (4 OT): Kansas State erased a double-digit lead in the final half of the fourth quarter to force overtime. Collin Klein burrowed into the end zone on a quarterback sneak to earn a huge win and a memorable night in Manhattan.

2. Baylor 50, TCU 48: The first game of the entire season for the Big 12 began in style. Robert Griffin III began his Heisman campaign with five touchdown passes, but the Bears blew a 47-23 lead in just over 11 minutes, giving up 25 fourth-quarter points. Griffin, though, hauled in his only catch of the season to extend a game-winning drive on third down, and Aaron Jones booted a 37-yard game winner with just over a minute left, cueing the Baylor fans to storm the field after a game-clinching interception.

3. Oklahoma State 41, Stanford 38 (OT): This was what we thought it was. Neither defense could stop the opposing offense, and Oklahoma State converted a fourth down from Brandon Weeden to Justin Blackmon to extend the game and take the lead, but Stanford drove back down the field and missed a 35-yard field goal as time expired. It missed another kick in overtime, and OSU kicked a game-winning field goal after Colton Chelf's game-winning touchdown was overturned to just a 24-yard gain.

4. Baylor 45, Oklahoma 38: This gave way to the signature moment of Robert Griffin III's Heisman campaign, and it wasn't the 87-yard touchdown pass to Kendall Wright off Tevin Reese's helmet. The teams traded second-half leads and Oklahoma erased a 14-point, fourth-quarter lead before Griffin extended a play and hit Terrance Williams for a 34-yard, game-winning touchdown pass with eight seconds left.

5. Iowa State 37, Oklahoma State 31 (2 OT): This game made our top 10 moments of 2011, too. The Cowboys lost a 24-7 second-half lead and missed a game-winning field goal. Brandon Weeden threw an interception in the second overtime and Jeff Woody set off the biggest party in Ames in a long while with his game-winning, four-yard touchdown run in the second overtime.

6. Texas 27, Texas A&M 25: The Aggies led 10-0 and 16-7, but once again, it didn't matter. Jeff Fuller gave the Aggies back the lead with a big 16-yard touchdown with 1:48 to play. The two-point conversion failed, though, and Case McCoy got free for a 25-yard scramble that set up a 40-yard, game-winning field goal by Justin Tucker as time expired to give the Longhorns bragging rights in the heated rivalry for as long as they want, perhaps forever. The two teams aren't scheduled to meet again after A&M leaves for the SEC.

7. Oklahoma State 52, Kansas State 45: OSU fell behind 24-14 early after a pick six by Weeden, putting the undefeated season in doubt. The teams traded three touchdowns in just under two minutes, and Joseph Randle's 23-yard run gave OSU the lead for good with 3:16 to play, making it four touchdowns in three minutes. Kansas State drove to tie the game and possibly win it with a two-point conversion, but two Collin Klein passes fell incomplete, and OSU survived to move to 9-0.

8. Baylor 31, Kansas 30 (OT): This game wasn't televised, but it was quietly a classic. Baylor struggled to stop the run, and trailed 24-3 in the fourth quarter before RG3 broke a 49-yard run and hit on two long touchdown passes to tie the game. The two teams traded touchdowns in overtime, but Kansas failed to convert a game-winning two-point conversion, and Turner Gill's guts went unrewarded. Kansas also went without a win in conference play. Baylor loses this game, and RG3 doesn't win the Heisman.

9. Missouri 31, Texas Tech 27: This is a sneaky pick for our top 10 list. Texas Tech jumped out to a 14-0 lead, and Missouri trailed by 10 in the fourth quarter, but James Franklin threw one touchdown pass and ran for another to take the lead. Texas Tech drove inside the Missouri 10-yard line in the final minute, but a tipped Seth Doege pass was intercepted to give Mizzou a dramatic win.

10. Missouri 38, Texas A&M 31 (OT): The SEC bowl helped bury Texas A&M's season and spark Missouri's. The Tigers trailed by 14 early and 11 points at half before taking the lead in the fourth quarter. Randy Bullock tied the game with a field goal in the final minutes to force overtime. James Franklin hit Marcus Lucas for an 11-yard score and Ryan Tannehill's final pass was batted down as Missouri stormed the field and celebrated the end of their three-game losing streak. The Tigers would win four of their final five games, and that bounced Mizzou to 4-4 instead of 3-5. That loss for then-No. 16 Texas A&M keyed off four in the final five regular-season games, including two in overtime (K-State, Mizzou) and another as time expired (Texas).

Honorable mention: Kansas State 28, Miami 24; Baylor 67, Washington 56; Iowa State 44, Iowa 41 (3 OT); Texas 17, BYU 16; Arkansas 42, Texas A&M 38; Oklahoma State 30, Texas A&M 29.

AUSTIN, Texas -- At a time when a team, even a young one like Texas, should be hitting its stride, the Longhorns (12-5, 2-2) are hitting the wall.

And to make matters worse, the players are not hitting shots. Or even taking the right ones for that matter.

In the last three games, the Texas offense has averaged 64 points per game -- 12 below its average -- shot 33 percent in the first halves and started games glacially slow -- averaging just 13 points in the first 10 minutes of each game. The staggering thing is, twice Texas got away with such poor offensive play in large part because of how bad Texas A&M and Oklahoma State were, and because of the Texas defense.

(Read full post)

In this week's edition, Recruiting Nation gets the latest updates on No. 1 prospect Mario Edwards. We also look ahead to national signing day to see what schools could be making big strides.

Take a listen.

This was a fun post to visit last year, and we're rounding up the best in-game atmospheres of 2011. It's a question I'm asked very, very often, so here's a list of the five best to clear it up.

Just like last year, to be fair, I can't weigh in on games I didn't attend this year, so you can find the list of games I did attend at the bottom of this post.

As an added bonus, below the list, I've linked all our coverage from every game in the post, so you can go back and reminisce on a memorable season.

For a second consecutive season, a Kyle Field crowd tops the best atmosphere list. To be honest, this was a bit of a weak year when it came to atmospheres. Last year was much more memorable. That said, there were some classics.

1. Texas A&M vs. Texas at Kyle Field: So, yeah, maybe we could have predicted this one back in September, but the Thanksgiving night crowd lived up to the hype. They filled the stadium early and were loud from start to finish. Well, until close to the finish. After Texas' Justin Tucker won the game on a 40-yard field goal, the Texas sideline mobbed him in relative silence. There was only a small contingent of burnt orange that made the trip to College Station, but the atmosphere was by far the Big 12's best. Of all the games and atmospheres on this list, it's probably the only one I'll never forget. Compare that with last year, which had three I'd classify in that category.

2. Oklahoma vs. Texas at the Cotton Bowl: The 50-50 split wasn't deterred by the 11 a.m. kickoff at the State Fair. This game was the only one on the list that had ESPN's "College Gameday" in town, and former Sooners star Blake Griffin showed up on the sidelines to share his picks with Kirk, Lee and Desmond. The Texas fans had emptied out by the end of the 55-17 laugher, but this battle of then-undefeated teams was a fun one.

3. Oklahoma at Oklahoma State at Boone Pickens Stadium: This Bedlam didn't have the national title implications it looked like it might early on, but the Cowboys fans who came got a therapeutic experience. What's it like to take out a decade of frustration by embarrassing your rival on your home field to win your first league title in your current conference? Four hours of fun, capped by storming the field to celebrate.

4. Kansas State vs. Arkansas at Cowboys Stadium: These fans showed up early and were constantly loud, providing the best atmosphere of the bowls and one of the best of the entire season. The 19 decks of Cowboys Stadium were about 80 percent full an hour before the primetime matchup, and they provided a second consecutive year of a great atmosphere for the Cotton Bowl. Apparently, LSU fans aren't the only ones who can be loud. Both fan bases toted big travel parties, and it showed.

5. Oklahoma State vs. Stanford at University of Phoenix Stadium: Same story here. This wasn't as packed as the Cotton Bowl, but it was almost full, and the thriller only amplified the noise late. The Oklahoma State exploded when Jordan Williamson yanked a 35-yard game-winning field goal to extend the Cowboys' season and open the window for the eventual 41-38 win.

Call this post a double whammy. Not only is it the best atmospheres, it can also serve as sort of a gameday yearbook. You ought to bookmark this one. All the pregame videos, all the in-game posts and instant analysis and all my gameday columns (you may need to scroll down a bit on some of the links to find the columns) in one place.

Week 1: TCU at Baylor; SMU at Texas A&M

Week 2: Arizona at Oklahoma State; BYU at Texas

Week 4: Oklahoma State at Texas A&M

Week 5: Texas A&M vs. Arkansas at Cowboys Stadium

Week 6: Oklahoma vs. Texas at the Cotton Bowl

Week 7: Baylor at Texas A&M

Week 9: Baylor at Oklahoma State

Week 10: Kansas State at Oklahoma State

Week 11: Oklahoma State at Texas Tech

Week 12: Oklahoma at Baylor

Week 13: Texas at Texas A&M

Week 14: Oklahoma at Oklahoma State

Bowls: Oklahoma State vs. Stanford at the Fiesta Bowl; Kansas State vs. Arkansas at Cowboys Stadium in the Cotton Bowl.

The ESPN HS Great State Debate continues with a look at states that are producing the best college quarterbacks.

With names like Darron Thomas, Andrew Luck and Case Keenum in the mix, it's no surprise that Texas is doing well.

As part of today's package, Mark Schlabach looks at how Alabama has succeeded with in-state talent. He also looks at the pressure of in-state recruiting and the importance of signing big names within the state.

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