Texas picks up another commit for strong 2012 football class

Nick Jordan gave the Longhorns their 18th football commitment for the 2012 recruiting class Monday. The placekicker from Coppell High School spoke on the phone with Texas head coach Mack Brown and accepted the scholarship offer.

“It feels great,” Jordan said. “There’s been more support than I could have even imagined.”

Texas has developed a pattern of offering scholarships to kickers every other year, starting with Hunter Lawrence in 2006 and continuing with Justin Tucker and William Russ. Jordan, a top-ranked kicker, sees himself as a kickoff specialist.

“I feel like I can crush the ball,” he said.

-Trey Scott

Ellsbury closing in on Hamilton in 2011 MLB All-Star voting

Broken arm? No problem. Jacoby Ellsbury? Now that’s a different story. Josh Hamilton has held his ground as the third-highest vote-getter among American League outfielders, but Ellsbury is making a move. Hamilton, who broke his right arm April 12, holds a 3,173,000 – 3,051,675 lead over Ellsbury, but two weeks ago, the margin between the two was nearly three times as wide. Voting ends tonight at 10:59 p.m.

-Christian Corona