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Position Rating: B-
Starters: Deon Beasley, Ryan Palmer
Reserves: Chykie Brown, Curtis Brown, Aaron Williams

If you’ve watched the last few NFL drafts you know the Longhorns have had a lot of talented cornerbacks in recent years, but if you watched games or looked at stats you’ll notice the Texas pass defense has been awful since the 2005 championship season. This year the position is as talented as ever, but hopefully with new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp it will translate to fewer big plays and fewer points on the scoreboard.

The two starting corners both saw significant playing time last season. Senior Ryan Palmer is by far the most experienced player in the Texas secondary. Palmer started every game last year and led the team in pass break-ups while also recording 80 tackles. He is a little undersized but makes up for it with speed and confidence. Palmer might not be the playmaker some of the younger guys are but coaches will be looking to him to provide consistency and leadership in the young defensive backfield.

At the other corner is Deon Beasley. 2008 will be his first as a starter but the junior saw significant snaps last year as the team’s nickelback and in a couple of spot starts. He picked off three passes last year and with more time on the field this season should create even more turnovers for the Texas D. Lean and athletic Beasley has already shown flashes that he could be the team’s next great corner.

The guys behind the top two should also see a lot of the field as the defense should play a lot of nickel against the many spread offenses they’ll face this season. Sophomores Chykie Brown and Curtis Brown (no relation) are both gifted players that stand over six feet tall. Chykie has performed so well in spring and fall practices that on the first depth chart of the year he was actually listed as a co-starter with Beasley.

Behind them is true freshman Aaron Williams who has come in and immediately impressed. Currently listed as the fifth corner there was buzz in the last two weeks that his incredible talent already had him passing some of the more experienced players ahead of him. Look out for him as the season goes on to get more and more playing time.

Cornerback is full of speed and talented depth, but that has been true before and hasn’t resulted in good defense. There are more playmakers in the group than in recent seasons and if the front seven can pressure the quarterback we could see a lot more turnovers created this year. With the big time passing offenses in the Big 12 this group will be tested early and often, but an improved performance will mean a vastly improved defense. We’ll find out soon what Palmer, Beasley, and company are capable of.

Related Links

• Quarterbacks preview
• Running backs preview
• Wide Receivers preview
• Tight ends preview
• Offensive line preview
• Defensive tackles preview
• Defensive ends preview
• Linebackers preview
• Safeties preview

Update: Bevo Sports is giving away NCAA Football 09, enter to win!

NCAA Football 09 is less than a month away, the demo is up on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network, and player ratings are starting to make their way on to the Internet. EA Sports released the team top 25 and player ratings for all those teams.

I went through the list and put the players’ real names in where possible. I had trouble with a lot of the true freshmen in the game so if you know who any of the blank names are or if I made any mistakes please let me know in the comments. It really looks like EA did a poor job this year on the roster and depth chart. Hopefully it’s a little more accurate when the game is released.

You can download Excel files of the player ratings at the bottom of this post or check out the overall ratings for the Texas team below:

Downloads

• Texas player ratings
• Full top 25 player ratings

The 2007 Rivals100: One year in. Notes on how all the top prospects did in their first seasons on campus, including Tray Allen and Curtis Brown.

Looks like we’re definitely headed towards another situation where the early FSN game is going to interfere with the start of the Texas vs. Rice game. Texas Tech and Oklahoma State have decided to forego defense and play a 9-hour offensive shootout. All is not lost however, if you’re a DirecTV customer the game will start on schedule on channel 667 and you can check out FSN Southwest’s contingency plan for the telecast over on the official UT football site. Plus I’ll post frequent updates on the game here on this post. Stay tuned…

First Quarter

• Rice won the toss and will kick off.
• Good deep kick and Quan Cosby takes a knee.
• Chris Hall starting at right tackle again. Limas Sweed is healthy enough to make the start at receiver.
• Colt McCoy misses Cosby on a 12 yard out.
• Jamaal Charles may never touch the football again. Another damn fumble. Rice football.
• No surprises starting at linebacker. Same three veterans: Derry, Bobino, Killebrew.
• Great penetration on the blitz by Rashad Bobino results in a loss of yards.
• Deon Beasley got the start at cornerback over Brandon Foster.
• How is that not grounding? Rice OL forgets to block Frank Okam and he gets a free run at the QB.
• There’s a flag, they called it after all. Rice lining up for 50-yard field goal attempt.
• Rice kicker misses wide left. My former coworker and former Rice kicker Derek Crabtree would’ve made that one. Or so he’d tell me.
• Charles is still the running back. McCoy hits Jermichael Finley on a quick out for a 9 yard game.
• Charles reverses field and gets a good gain. Kid has tons of talent, hold on to the ball and I’ll be your best friend.
• Ugly option play and McCoy gets brought down hard. Guard Cedric Dockery got his ass kicked.
• Great catch on a hitch by Cosby. Colt tried to get him killed. Short of the first down and Texas has to punt.
• Texas sends out Colt McCoy with the rest of the punting team in some sort of likely fake but we screw it up and have to blow a timeout.
• After the timeout we’ve got the regular offense out there for 4th and 2.
• Lead dive out by Charles behind FB Atwan Cobb gets the first down.
• Completion from McCoy to Nate Jones on a slant. 7 yard gain.
• McCoy fumbles the shotgun snap but he rolls to his left and finds Cosby alone for a completion and a first down.
• Terrible looking play where two Texas linemen are running laterally 3 yards deep in the backfield and Charles has to fight his way through them on the counter before he can get a couple of yards. Yikes.
• Tony Hills with an obvious hold made more obvious by the fact that he threw his hands up in the air trying to claim innocence. Costs the Horns a first and goal opportunity.
• McCoy and Cosby bail out Hills. Great pass and catch for the touchdown on 3rd and long. The inside receiver was even more open on the play.

Rice 0, Texas 7

• About 1:30 left in the Tech/OSU game and OSU just scored to go up by four on a 54 yard TD catch.
• Didn’t know Texas was using the Bill Bates air conditioned shoulder pads. Great technology.
• Great job by Aaron Lewis to string out the play, Bobino flies to the ball and blows up the blocker, and Lewis is able to make the tackle.
• The Rice receiver might have been bobbling that ball. Rice thinks so too and is running the no huddle.
• Rice’s line is getting whipped right now. They’re doubling the two defensive tackles and that allowed the end to come and make the tackle untouched.
• As I’ve said over and over again, that spread punt formation is the dumbest thing in college football. Texas gets the ball at their 33.
• Colt is holding the ball a tick too long on the deep ball. Another underthrown bomb and another incompletion. He’s got a good enough arm if he gets rid of it a little quicker he’d be a lot more successful.
• Long run by Charles on the single back counter.
• Another ill advised deep ball. Come on Colt. Be smart. Interception but there’s flag on the play.
• McCoy bailed out by the pass interference call. That could have gone either way. First down Texas.
• John Chiles in the game. McCoy motioned left and Chiles ran the zone read. Nice idea but center Dallas Griffin got his ass beat and a Rice lineman blew up the play.
• Two incompletions and Texas will have to attempt a field goal.
• Ryan Bailey’s 44-yard field goal goes right down the middle.

Rice 0, Texas 10

• If our corners are going to give 15 yard cushion they can’t miss freaking tackles. Beasley whiffs and there’s a good gain for Rice.
• Ryan Palmer shows Beasley how to do it.
• Sergio Kindle in the game. Texas defensive line is blowing up the zone read every time.
• Looked like all the young linebackers might have been out there on that series. Rice has to punt.
• Cosby fair catches a line drive punt at the 10 and Texas starts this possession with bad field position.
• Charles lined up at wideout and McCoy puts a beautiful pass in his hands and Charles drops it. Would have been an easy 6.
• Colt is leaving all these short passes up high. Doesn’t seem to have the zip on it he did last season.
• The game is on regular FSN Southwest now so I’ll be doing less play by play and make more witty comments.

(more …)

TexasPreps has great video of Curtis Brown and G.J. Kinne from this season at Gilmer HS.

Name: Curtis Brown
Position: Defensive Back
Ranking:

Hometown: Gilmer, TX
School: Gilmer
Height: 6-foot-0
Weight: 174 lbs

Background

Curtis Brown is one of the top defensive backs in the nation, ranked 3rd in his position by Scout.com and number 2 by Rivals. The 6-footer from Gilmer was dynamic with the football in his hands as a high school wide receiver but he will at least start his career at Texas as a cornerback.

At Gilmer Brown was a three-year starter who received district and regional accolades as sophomore and junior and national honors as a senior. Named first team all-state by The Associated Press and the Texas Sports Writers Association his senior season.

Immediate Impact

As a spring enrollee, Curtis is already on campus and is wearing Nathan Vasher’s number 3 jersey. The depth chart at corner is wide open after the departures of Aaron Ross and Tarell Brown and Brown’s early start should allow him a shot to crack at least the two-deep. Could at least make an immediate impact as a kick returner if the coaching staff trusts him back there.

Future

He is Texas’ highest rated defensive back in a long time (since Edorian McCullough who was great on my Xbox but not so much in the classroom) and will be expected to be a three-year starter in the defensive backfield. Great frame and has the athleticism to be shut down corner for the Horns.