Bevo's Daily Round Up 2.26.09

Texas beat Tech 87-81. Damion James had 20 points and 11 rebounds and A.J. Abrams scored 24 points for the Horns win.

The Texas-Oklahoma game was the fourth most-viewed Big 12 regular season game on ESPN.

Dogus Balbay's adjustment to life as the starting point guard has helped Texas' chances of a late-season run.

"Dog (pronounced Dohj) knows what he’s looking for," UT coach Rick Barnes said.

For the Longhorns that means they at last have someone to push the tempo, find the open man, and attack the basket when necessary. Before Balbay was inserted into the starting lineup against Oklahoma State four games ago, UT’s offense – which had been lacking a steady ball handler since D.J. Augustin entered the NBA Draft last spring – had a tendency to get stagnant and predictable.

Brain Orakpo could be one of the NFL's hybrid defenders.

It's changing the way teams draft, too. Half the league is looking for the guy who can rush the passer and drop into pass coverage.

CBSSports' Dennis Dodd has more on the Bradford-Griffin connection. Now, they have one more thing in common: a concussion.

What does the transfer of Nebraska quarterback Patrick Witt mean to the Cornhusker program?

Now that the contract drama is over, Mike Leach gets unenviable task of rebuilding his Red Raider team.

Texas Tech's offensive outlook for 2009 is a bit unsettling. Two of the biggest losses for Leach and staff entering into 2009 are, Graham Harrell at quarterback (the only three-year starter during Leach's reign in Lubbock) and, quite possibly, the nation's top receiver the last two years — Michael Crabtree (231 catches, 3,127 yards and 41 TDs in two seasons).

The offensive losses do not end with Harrell and Crabtree, however. In fact, only five players who started for Texas Tech in this year's Cotton Bowl return to the 2009 offense.

Fortunately, for Tech's offensive rebuilding project, eight starters to the defensive unit that was often credited during 2008 for letting the team take the "next step" towards success. In an ironic twist in Lubbock, it is possible that the defense will pick up some early-season slack for the offense while the latter unit gels.

ESPN's Tim Griffin has the five things he loves about Big 12 football.

Mark Schlabach has the 10 things he hates about college football.

1. The BCS: It's too easy a choice, but I, like many college football fans out there, would rather see the national championship settled on the playing field. If the BCS couldn't give me Texas playing Florida for the BCS national championship last season, at least give me the Longhorns playing Southern California in the Rose Bowl. I would have preferred to see Georgia play USC in the 2008 Rose Bowl, instead of watching the Bulldogs rout overmatched Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl, and USC pounding another Big Ten team in Pasadena. I'm not saying college football needs a full-blown playoff, but a plus-one system would at least be a start.

ESPN looks at the battle for integration in the state of Mississippi and it's effect on the Ole Miss football program.

From the SI Vault... An Englishman's view of Texas football, 1959.