HornSports Staff

Just days after receiving an offer from Steve Sarkisian and staff, 3-star prospect Eoghan Kerry pledged his commitment to the Texas Longhorns. Kerry, a 6-3, 225 lb. outside linebacker from Mater Dei High School (Santa Ana, CA) was offered on July 31st and subsequently named his top five schools on Tuesday night. A half day later, he made his intentions to become a Longhorn solid via social media. Kerry is ranked as the 45th best player in the state of California, the 61st best linebacker in the country and the 587th best player nationally according to the 247 Sports Composite Rankings. Texas beat out UCLA, Arizona, Colorado and Howard for his services. Kerry becomes the 16th recruit in the Longhorns' Class of 2022

We will have an article up shortly about the Select Committee on the Future of College Sports in Texas hearing that went down today.

Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns received their first commitment in more than two weeks, when 4-star target Derrick Brown announced his commitment inside Darrell K. Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium. Brown, a 6-3, 210 lb. standout defensive end at Texas High in Texarkana (Texas), chose the Longhorns over Baylor after narrowing his Top-2 earlier in July. He held offers from more than 30 programs including Texas A&M, TCU, Oklahoma State, Arkansas and Houston among others. Brown visited Austin the first weekend in June and made it public two weeks later that he would be committing on July 20th. That date was backed up to July 30th, which happened to coincide with Texas hosting a weekend barbecue and pool bash on The 40 Acres. He is ranked as the 46th best player in the state and the 16th best EDGE in the country according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. His commitment is the 15th for the Longhorns and propels the Longhorns to eleventh best class in the Class of 2022.

Photo: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports The University of Texas and University of Oklahoma have taken the first step towards leaving the Big 12 Conference, with the schools sending out a joint statement on Monday morning. "The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Oklahoma notified the Big 12 Athletic Conference today that they will not be renewing their grants of media rights following expiration in 2025. Providing notice to the Big 12 at this point is important in advance of the expiration of the conference’s current media rights agreement. The universities intend to honor their existing grant of rights agreements. However, both universities will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate athletics landscape as they consider how best to position their athletics programs for the future." Both schools are expected to join the Southeastern Conference, but it is unclear when the move will happen. The Big 12 grants of television rights span through 2025, but if the Sooners and Longhorns stick around that long it would be surprising. The Big 12 held a virtual meeting with member institution presidents and athletic directors last Thursday to discuss all options and potential paths forward. Neither Texas or Oklahoma participated. This is a fluid story, and will be updated as more information develops.

Hey guys, @Aaron Carrarais at Big 12 Media Days today. Updates/Streaming Thoughts from AT&T Stadium will be posted here. DAVE ARANDA - BAYLOR Aranda talked about the importance of mental health due to COVID and talked about the importance of relationships. Says he's excited about the Bears being a "running team" and having a good competition at quarterback. When asked about the Bears' quarterback battle, Aranda said he is excited for the competition. He says he is being transparent about where things are at with his guys. Sounds like Aranda will use multiple QB's based on the plays they want to run and opponents they face. On defense - Aranda says there is a lot of pride in the unit and they recognize what great play is. Says it's personal to his defensive players. He was asked about the Oklahoma game last year and Aranda said that OU is such a deep team that is very-well coached. Aranda says if he can so the simple things better, the Bears' defensive unit will be really good. When asked about the defense in this league, Aranda said he sees the Big 12 as a defensive conference. References Gary Patterson's defenses, OU's defense and Iowa State's transformation to a defensive emphasis team. Says the Big 12 has really become more of a Big 10-ish conference in terms of the look of defenses and formations. On offenses, he references more 12-13 personnel looks and the need to run more instead of the spread-offense sets we have traditionally seen. KANSAS - The KU team's plane is grounded and they are currently not at Media Days.

With three players selected during the first two days of the MLB Draft (Ty Madden - 1st Round, Mike Antico & Cole Quintanilla - 2nd Round), four more Longhorns were selected on the final day of the MLB 2021 Draft. Hard-hitting slugger Ivan Melendez went to the Florida Marlins in the 16th Round with the 479th overall pick. Melendez led the team with a .319 batting average last season and finished with 51 RBI's. Pitcher Kolby Kubichek was taken in the 18th round by the New York Mets with the 532nd overall pick. Kubichek who battled an injury during the season, made 12 starts and finished with a 5-3 record and a 3.86 ERA. Catcher Zach Zubia, who led Texas in RBI's last season, was selected by the Florida Marlins with the 599th overall pick in the 20th round. Zubia finished his career at Texas with 30 home runs, 162 RBI's and 140 walks - all Top 10 on Texas' all-time career lists. Complete list of Longhorns selected in the 2021 MLB Draft: CB-A (32) – Ty Madden – Detroit Tigers 8 (241) – Mike Antico – St. Louis Cardinals 9 (263) – Cole Quintanilla – Washington Nationals 16 (479) – Ivan Melendez – Miami Marlins 18 (532) – Kolby Kubichek – NY Mets 19 (559) – Cam Williams – Kansas City Royals 20 (599) – Zach Zubia – Miami Marlins

Photo: Lola Gomez/American-Statesman - USA TODAY Network via Imagn Content Services, LLC Following Ty Madden's Round One selection at #32 in the MLB Draft, the Texas Longhorns saw two more players drafted on Day Two. Versatile outfielder Mike Antico was selected with the 241st overall pick (8th Round) by the St. Louis Cardinals. Hard-throwing right-handed pitcher Cole Quintanilla was picked up in the next round, with the 263rd pick by the Washington Nationals. Antico played only one season with the Longhorns, as a graduate transfer, after playing for three years at St. John's University. In his lone season at Texas he held a .273 batting average and stole 41 bases (team high). He also finished the season with the most walks in the NCAA (63). His 41 stolen bases were good enough to rank him second nationally. Cole Quintanilla pitched three years for the Longhorns and was a key piece of the Texas bullpen. He finished the season with a 1.35 ERA and went 5-1 in 40 innings pitched. In his career with the Longhorns he tallied a 3.18 ERA and a 7-2 record with 5 saves.

Photo: USA TODAY Sports Texas Baseball right handed pitcher Ty Madden finished the season with a 7-5 record, a 2.45 ERA and 137 strikeouts as the Longhorns' ace. On Sunday evening he was drafted with the 32nd pick by the Detroit Tigers, becoming the highest MLB draft pick from the Longhorns since 2011 (Taylor Jungman - Milwaukee Brewers #12 overall). Madden was a force on the mound, holding opposing hitters to a .188 batting average. He ended his career with Texas by pitching 13 innings in Omaha in the College World Series, striking out 18 and allowing four runs. In his time wearing burnt orange, he went 14-6, pitched 181 innings and struck out 200 batters while totaling an ERA of 2.59.

The Preseason Big 12 Football Poll was released on Thursday and for the 6th consecutive year, the Oklahoma Sooners remain atop of the media's selection prior to the start of the season. The Sooners (386 points) grabbed 35 of the 39 first place votes with last year's runner-up Iowa State (351 points) securing the remaining four. The Longhorns hold the third spot with a total of 273 points. Oklahoma State (266) and TCU (255) round out the Top 5. West Virginia (185) holds the sixth spot, followed by Kansas State (163) Baylor (124), Texas Tech (103) and Kansas (39). The Big 12 Championship game will be held on December 4th at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX and will feature the top two finishers in the conference standings. 2021 Big 12 Football Media Preseason Poll 1. Oklahoma (35) 386 2. Iowa State (4) 351 3. Texas 273 4. Oklahoma State 266 5. TCU 255 6. West Virginia 185 7. Kansas State 163 8. Baylor 124 9. Texas Tech 103 10. Kansas 39

Photo: Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports Big 12 Media Days will take place on Wednesday, July 14th & Thursday, July 15th at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. The Conference announced participating players from each school on Thursday (2), and junior defensive lineman Keondre Coburn and sophmore running back Bijan Robinson will represent the Longhorns along with head coach Steve Sarkisian. Coburn played in and started all 10 games in the 2020 season, logging 25 tackles (13 solo), 4.5 tackles for loss, one sack and two pass breakups. Bijan Robinson started in 6 games for the Longhorns last season and tallied a total of 703 yards on 86 carries with 4 touchdowns. Texas is slotted for Thursday, July 15th with Sarkisian's press conference taking place at 12:35 PM. The Longhorns will take the stage with Baylor, Kansas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State on that day. Full list of player attendees by Big 12 School can be found below.

Murphy finished in the Top 11 at the Elite 11 Finals.... What Texas fans need to understand about Maalik is he hasn't played a lot of real football. He's played way more 7v7 football and is a stud in that environment. He has all the tools but will still need to learn and isn't a guy that will come in on Day 1 and take over the starting job. This isn't a knock on him whatsoever - just something to temper expectations.

Photo: Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports The Texas Longhorns claimed the Learfield IMG Director's Cup which recognizes the top athletics (all-sports) program in the country. The honor, the first for The University of Texas, snapped Stanford's run of winning the previous 25 Cups. The Director's Cup awards points based on program finishes in NCAA Championships and schools can score in up to 19 sports, four of which must be men's basketball, baseball, women's basketball and women's volleyball. Texas finished with a total of 1,252 total points in the standings which was good enough to claim the top spot. They earned 13 Big 12 titles and three national championships and amassed a total of 13 Top-10 finishes. 2020-21 Division I Learfield IMG College Directors’ Cup Final Standings (Top 10 schools) Rank School Total Points 1. TEXAS 1,252.00 2. Stanford 1,195.75 3. Michigan 1,126.50 4. North Carolina 1,126.25 5. Florida 1,121.75 6. USC 1,052.00 7. Alabama 1,017.25 8. Arkansas 988.75 9. Ohio State 972.50 10. Georgia 971.50 Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte's Statement on the Longhorns Winning the Division I Learfield IMG Director's Cup

What we like about Miller is his motor. He is a tad undersized, but runs like a bull. Excellent pickup by Stan Drayton!

Photo: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports Texas Baseball ended its season with a 4-3 loss to the Mississippi State Bulldogs at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha on Saturday night. The Longhorns have consistently responded to having their backs against the wall in the College World Series, but fell just short against the Bulldogs. Cam Williams started the scoring with a two-run shot in the second inning, bringing in Ivan Melendez who walked in his at-bat. Mississippi State added a run in the third thanks to a leadoff double and a two-out RBI single. Douglas Hodo's double to start the fifth followed by Mike Antico's two-out double made the score 3-1 at that point. But the Bulldogs added the run right back in the bottom of the inning on a groundball double play. After five innings Texas led Mississippi State 3-2. Tristan Stevens gave up a run before getting into a bases loaded, no-outs situation in the bottom of the sixth. Stevens was replaced by Cole Quintanilla, who navigated the inning and escaped with the Bulldogs scoring no more runs to keep the score tied at 3-3. Mississippi State walked it off in the ninth with an RBI single to left field of Quintanilla. The Longhorns end an impressive season with a 50-17 overall record and one game short of the College World Series Finals.