Texas Football

Houston QB Case Keenum has been granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA, bringing back one of the nation's most prolific passers ever for yet another go at a senior season.

Team USA has announced its roster, and, aside from Westlake head coach Darren Allman at the reigns, there are six Texas kids making the trip to Austin on February 2nd. These guys will compete against a team of kids outside the US — the hand-picked best players from the rest of the world. Pretty cool. Here they are:

South Garland coach Keith Wright has announced that he will be retiring this offseason.

UNT quarterback/receiver Riley Dodge will transfer, according to ESPNDallas.com. He gave the website a list of his preferred spots, but none of them are FBS programs.

Not to be lost in TCU's Rose Bowl victory is Texas Tech's win over Northwestern in the TicketCity Bowl, also a thrilling game that came down to Tech's last-second interception to end any hope for the Wildcats. Tech won 45-38, but that score doesn't give a fair representation of most of the game — Northwestern had to come back 31-9 and 38-17 deficits at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas this afternoon.

SMU's 16-14 loss today to Army makes the state of Texas 0-3 in bowl games so far this year; UTEP lost to BYU in the New Mexico Bowl and Baylor lost to Illinois in the Texas Bowl.

OldCoach is reporting that Abilene ATH Ronnell Sims has pledged out to SMU and Dallas Jesuit K James Hairston has chosen LSU. Those are two pretty big decisions — Hairston is in my list of top ten senior kickers/punters from 2010, and Ronnell is obviously one of the top athletes in Texas.

Aledo's Johnathan Gray ran for eight touchdowns against La Marque Friday night in the 4A DII title game at Cowboys Stadium, setting the state's all-time single-season record with 59 rushing touchdowns. He broke Kenneth Hall's (Sugarland) 1953 record of 57. 

When you go the JUCO route, sometimes signing day comes a bit early. UTEP has been the most productive so far, and the Miners have just announced that four JUCO players have signed letters of intent and are set to start school next semester: LB Josh Fely (Mesa College, CA), OL James Robinson (City College of San Francisco), LB A.J. Ropati (LA Harbor College, CA) and CB Darren Woodard (Kilgore).