Texas
Texas Fans Furious With Steve Sarkisian’s Decision Making
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is getting ripped for his choice to kick a area aim as a substitute of going for a go-ahead landing earlier than halftime.
The Longhorns have been on the two-yard line when Sarkisian elected to take the factors — or so he thought. Place kicker Bert Auburn missed the try and squandered a possibility to take the lead heading into the break.
As a substitute of a potential 17-10 lead, the Longhorns are tied up 10-10 with the No. 1-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.
“If Texas loses an in depth one, that Steve Sarkisian choice to kick a area aim on the final play of the primary half goes to hang-out Longhorns followers for a very long time,” ProFootballTalk’s Michael David Smith wrote.
Sarkisian and the Longhorns got here away with three factors on one other shut redzone look earlier within the recreation. Texas followers have been upset with what they felt was a missed cross interference name that seemingly would’ve resulted in a landing rating.
If the Longhorns wish to mount an upset over the No. 1 workforce within the nation, they will must capitalize on extra scoring alternatives within the second half.
Texas
Best College Football Prop Bets for Texas A&M vs. South Carolina in Week 10
One of the biggest games on the Week 10 card features Texas A&M in primetime for the second week in a row, this time on the road in Columbia, South Carolina to face a well rested Gamecocks team.
How can South Carolina deploy LaNorris Sellers to better the team’s chances of winning? We discuss both Sellers passing and rushing yard prop as well as Texas A&M’s Le’Veon Moss’ rushing yard prop in our player prop betting preview below!
Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook
LaNorris Sellers UNDER 167.5 Passing Yards
Sellers is limited as a passer, but has gone over this in two straight games. However, I believe those numbers are a bit misleading given that Alabama’s defense is far worse than expected and the Gamecocks were able to blowout Oklahoma.
Given that this game has a low total and is expected to be a rock fight with a low total, I’m going to bank on the Texas A&M defense having answers for the limited Gamecocks passing game.
On the season, South Carolina ranks outside the top 100 in EPA/Play, but the real issue is the team’s shaky offensive line against the Texas A&M defensive line. The Aggies pass rush is elite, evident in the team’s resounding second half effort against LSU.
Texas A&M is 36th in sacks and 11th in tackles for loss, so I don’t expect a ton of time for Sellers to read the defense. This season, when under pressure, Sellers is completing 41% of his passes with nine turnover worthy plays.
The Aggies should win at the line of scrimmage all night and put South Carolina in obvious passing situations, where the visitors can drop more back into coverage. The home underdogs are 98th in third down success rate while Texas A&M is 26th in that same metric on defense.
In a projected rockfight, take the under on Sellers’ passing yards.
LaNorris Sellers OVER 21.5 Rushing Yards
The South Carolina offense has allowed more sacks than all but one team in the country (Oklahoma), a big issue against the elite Texas A&M defensive line.
Sellers is going to have a ton of negative yardage due to sacks, but off a BYE week, I expect South Carolina to look to improve its field position by using Sellers as a rusher. He has run the ball at least 10 times in all but one game he has played in this season, and has gone over this number in four of six games.
With fresh legs, against a potentially taxed Texas A&M defense, I like for the Gamecocks to look to use Sellers more as a rusher than a passer.
Le’Veon Moss UNDER 83.5 Rushing Yards
Moss is the lead back in the Texas A&M backfield, but Amari Daniels has had his fair share of rushes as well, so I don’t expect a monster volume game from Moss. Further, he is set to face an elite South Carolina defense on the road.
The Gamecocks are top 10 in yards per carry allowed and has one of the best defensive lines in the country, ranking 11th in tackles for loss.
While Moss has shown the ability to get over this mark, given the defensive matchup, and the likelihood that this game will feature a ton of, if not all of, Marcell Reed at quarterback who can attack the Gamecocks offense with his legs, I need to go under on Moss’ rushing yard prop.
I believe the Texas A&M inability to have a dominant passing game will lead to a lot more loaded boxes for Moss and co. to run through, limiting his ability to rip off a chunk play.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
Follow Reed on Twitter @ReedWallach and get all his college football bets on betstamp @rw33
If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
Texas
Virtual appointments to renew Texas driver’s license are a win-win
For too many Texans renewing, replacing or getting their first driver’s license, the process is a bureaucratic nightmare. Average booking times range from 40 to 180 days, without counting the time you spend at the driver’s license office.
This is why we welcome a novel idea from the Department of Public Safety that will allow virtual appointments. This will not only help customers get their documents faster, but it will also help the agency get around staffing shortages, which are worse in metropolitan areas like Dallas, our colleague Amber Gaudet reported.
How will virtual appointments work? A customer would book the online appointment and then upload the required documents ahead of time. During the virtual meeting, a DPS employee, who could be anywhere in Texas, will review the documentation and take the driver’s photo if needed.
Many Texans are already using telehealth services to meet their physicians in a virtual setting, and many of us have office meetings in online conference rooms. Renewing a driver’s license remotely makes sense.
But DPS’ pitch goes even further. Noncommercial drivers could take their road test virtually. This will require road and driver-facing cameras and the help of a passenger to act as a proctor. We are more skeptical about this. But as technology continues to evolve, assessing driving skills without being in the car might be feasible in the near future.
DPS has been struggling for years with wait times for driver’s license processing.
In 2018, The News reported that people waited up to eight hours, sometimes outdoors and in extreme weather. Back then, the online system was not as efficient, but now the problem is waiting for an appointment. Good luck if you are in Plano, where a renewal or replacement appointment can take up to 64 days.
With tens of thousands moving to Texas each month, DPS has had difficulty keeping up with the demand.
DPS is asking the Legislature to invest $22 million over the next five years in the system. About 40% of Texans have to be in person to get their updated license. This includes first-timers and noncitizens, but also those who have renewed online previously.
This is a sensible investment, but lawmakers should also consider security enhancements to avoid cybersecurity threats like the 2023 breach in which criminals illegally obtained thousands of licenses.
It is commendable that DPS is looking for practical solutions to a problem that has frustrated Texans for too long. Legislature, take the wheel.
We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com
Texas
In Houston, what’s on voters’ minds ahead of the election?
With Election Day approaching, candidates up and down the ballot are making their final push to reach voters. CBS News Texas has been following the polls and covering political events all year long in a quest to find the Texas State of Mind.
But ultimately, it’s the people who matter and who will decide what happens. In an effort to get a better understanding of what voters across the Lone Star State will be thinking about as they cast their ballots, reporter Jason Allen and a CBS News Texas crew are spending the weeks leading up to the election traveling across the state, speaking to people from the Chihuahuan Desert to the Pineywoods.
Jason’s final stop on this road trip: Houston.
HOUSTON – For our final stop on our road trip, we decided to hit up the biggest city and second-largest metropolitan region in the state.
Jason and the crew visited two different events in sprawling Houston: a farmers market and the annual Korean Festival Houston. We found out pretty fast that no matter where Houstonians are originally from, they love that they’re here.
“We have the best diversity, we have some of the best southern hospitality here and we have some of the best food from around the world,” said one woman at the farmers market.
Another man at the farmers market, a business owner selling Bundt cakes, touted the city’s reputation as a melting pot.
“There’s so many different people,” he said. “That’s what I like about Houston.”
We heard similar responses from nearly everyone we spoke with during our 24 hours in the city. In fact, most of the people we spoke with struggled to name things they don’t like about Houston.
“I think Houstonians are enormously proud of being Houstonians,” said Bernice Kearney, a former television news director. “Houston people love being from Houston. They brag about it.”
Kearney, who has worked in both Houston and San Antonio, said there’s a resilience to all Texans that seems heightened in Houstonians.
“I think they’re battle-weary here. They’ve gone through so many storms, so many natural disaster-type things,” she said. “I’ve heard this a number of times, ‘Well we’re used to it. Well you just go and fix it up again and you just go and get back on that horse.’”
Even those who said life is pretty good for them had some issues on their mind ahead of the election.
“I would say, woman’s rights,” said one man at the Korean Festival. “Government doesn’t have the right to interfere with a woman’s choice or a doctor’s choice to get an abortion.”
“Parents want the best for their kids,” said another man at the farmers market. “And we invest more in new schools outside of the city proper. I’d love to see more investment in the center of cities in general for that level of education.”
Another woman said she’d like to see Houston become a more walkable city.
One woman who immigrated from the Democratic Republic of Congo said, that despite feeling the pinch of rising prices, overall she feels grateful to be here.
“The way I think about it is there’s many people who don’t have what we have here in Texas,” she said.
This story is one of several CBS News Texas is releasing in the weeks leading up to the election, trying to find the Texas State of Mind. We asked every person we met on the road for their essential road trip song. Below is the playlist we put together of those recommendations.
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