Cursed With Ambition

Turning Point to Turnaround

37-21

Well, fuck.  I follow the Horns year round - recruiting, arrests, what have you.  I highly anticipate the season, go to a couple of games, including OU.  I buy some more burnt orange gear.  I cart a boom box out to Matagorda Island to listen to the game against Wyoming.  For the national championship game I take a day and a half off from work and drive 2-1/2 hours to watch the game in Austin with my cousin and brother so that I will be at celebration ground zero if we win.  Suffice to say, I had a lot invested in the game last Thursday night and it was all over on the fifth play of the fucking game when Colt McCoy got rocked from behind and pinched a nerve in his shoulder.  We went from having the best quarterback in the county who completes over 70% of his passes and directs one of the most potent offenses in the country to a playground offense.  Don't get me wrong, Garrett Gilbert probably did about as well as can be expected given the circumstances, but he might as well have been a kindergartener out there.

The paragraph you just read was written over a year ago, right after the Horns lost the national championship game to Alabama.  Since then, the Longhorns went 5-7 and had their worst season since 1997.  I was at the UCLA game, their first loss of the season.  At the time, I thought it was a fluke.  That one loss a year to a team they should beat.  What it really was was the beginning of the end.  We played competitively against OU, but got beat.  Then we went into Lincoln against the #5 team in the country in what was something of a grudge match due to the offseason conference realignment drama.  Nebraska bolted our conference for the Big 10, citing Texas' control over the conference as one of the factors.  We beat Nebraska in what may be the last team the two storied programs see each other on the field in a long time.  The season seemed salvageable.  Then we proceeded to lose four games in a row to Iowa State, Baylor, Kansas State and Oklahoma State.  Iowa State and Baylor are historically the two worst teams in the conference.  We pasted Florida International, which is one of the worst programs in the NCAA's top football division, then we lost to A&M to close out the season. 

There are lots of superlative negative statements that can be made and a lot of unbelievably bad statistics that can be drawn out the season.  The one question that I kept coming back to over and over again was, "How did this happen?"

Before the season even started Mack Brown complained of the team feeling "entitled."  I dismissed it at the time.  Usually things are so good that Mack has to find insignificant things to complain about so that it appears that he's constantly trying to make the team better.  I thought this was one of those times.  I don't really know if the team's sense of entitlement to winning contributed to this abortion of a season.  But that's something that Mack pointed to.  In my search for answers I started paying attention to Longhorn football message boards.  One of the things that I learned is that message boards are terrible for gaining any real information about the team.  Mostly it's a bunch of dudes competing to see who can bitch about the team and the coaches in the most creatively vulgar way.  Sometimes someone will get on there and act like they have inside information, but there's never any way to verify it.  One of the most sickening things to me to witness was how quickly people were to believe the most meager morsel of information put out there by someone claiming to be in the know.  Another thing that came out of the message board experience was my participation in organizing a banner to be flown around the stadium before one of the home games that said, "Greg Davis is not our standard."  For those reading who don't know, Greg Davis was the offensive coordinator.  The "standard" was flown about by the team as their motto this year, as in, Texas football has a certain high standard.  Every year a team adopts a motto.  We used that on the banner.

Greg Davis was fired after the season.  I don't think the banner had anything to do with it, though I do think that ten years' worth of fan discontent with the man did play a small part.  Along with Davis, most of the other coaches were either fired, reassigned or left for other jobs.  I don't have any idea whether the coaches had anything to do with the failures of the team in the 2010 season, but firing coaches is the program's way of keeping fans happy until wins come again.  I tend to think that we could have come back next year with the same coaching staff and had a ten win season.  Nevertheless, as a fan I am happy to see the changes and happy to see the courage on the part of Mack Brown and the administration to make them.  The new staff is made up of some of the best guys on the market.  Offensively, especially, it will be very interesting to see the then/now difference.

National signing day just happened and according to most, UT's recruiting class ranks in the top 5.  We probably would have ranked number one if Christian Westerman, an offensive line recruit from Arizona, hadn't bailed on us for Auburn.  The good news is that we continue to have a top level talent pool and that will continue unless we have another season or two like the last one.

So, here's looking forward to next season.

2010 Texas Longhorns Football Preview

Save for a nerve in Colt McCoy's right shoulder being compressed from a hit by Alabama's Marcell Dareus, we'd be talking about a post-championship year in 2010.  This season would have been much like '06 where expectations were extremely low considering the departure of the savior Vince Young and the unheralded McCoy stepping in as the starter.  In '06, though, low expectations were okay because, well, we'd just won it all.  The euphoria from that (and the willingness to forgive coaches and players for their mistakes and losses) lasts about one season.  This year, however, expectations are much higher.  For one, we got a glimpse of Garrett Gilbert's promise as a championship caliber quarterback.  We also have a lot of very, very good players returning and a freshman class with thirteen players who made it onto the depth chart.  So, this edition of the Longhorns looks promising and we should have another double-digit win season and a legit shot at the Big XII Championship and a BCS bowl.

Offense

I must be getting soft, but I've become something of a Greg Davis apologist.  Who knows how much of the offense's success over the last twelve years is due to personnel or scheme, but you can't argue with success.  He is the person responsible for the offense and the offense has consistently ranked among the leaders in the country in many offensive categories.  I also think the man has evolved.  He seems to have learned a lot from the Simms era; as in what NOT to do.  To the offensive coaches' credit, they realized during the National Championship Game that we relied way too heavily on McCoy's accuracy.  Without it, we had no way to control the ball or the clock.  Thus, a renewed emphasis on the running game this season.

Quarterback

Obviously the biggest change from last year, Garrett Gilbert steps in as the new most important player on the field.  With a new emphasis on the running game, some of the pressure should be taken off Gilbert.  The guy was tested in the hottest fire in college football during the National Championship Game and I think that experience will serve him well.  Coming down the tunnel at the Cotton Bowl to face OU this year shouldn't be as daunting.  With a full year of practice with the ones and as the guy, I expect to see a polished QB.  He'll make some mistakes, but I also think he'll do well and he has the potential to take the team a long way.

Running Back

We haven't had a featured back since Jamaal Charles.  We proved last year that a team can have a lot of success with the running back by committee.  When you do that, it either means that you've got several guys who are all really good and they are so good that you want to use them all.  Or, it could mean that they are all mediocre and no one of them is good enough to set themselves apart and become the featured back.  I worry that the reason has been that Major Applewhite, the Horns' running backs coach, isn't an effective talent evaluator or *gasp* just not a very good running backs coach.  Regardless, this season they seem to have pushed Cody Johnson to the front of the pack ahead of Fozzy Whitaker and Tre Newton.  Vondrell McGee is dead and buried.  Cody has leaned up, which should help his speed and agility and turn him from the battering ram type of back whose main asset is that he's hard to bring down to a more nimble version of that who can add make-'em-miss and outrun-'em to his tools as a back.  I look forward to seeing how that works out.  I expect it to work out well.

Receivers

We lose the most consistent and productive playmaker on the team in Jordan Shipley.  We return a stable of high quality receivers who should be able to be just as productive as a whole.  I predict that John Chiles has a great season, becoming something of what Quan Cosby was - another quarterback on the field and a guy who understands what a contributor has to do to help win ballgames.  Quise Goodwin, James Kirkendoll and Malcolm (Mal!) Williams represent the core of the receivers and all of them are top quality talents who each bring A+ tools to the table.  Quise has world class track speed.  Captain James T. Kirk (his middle initial really is "T.") has top end speed, super hands and also has a playmaker's mindset.  If the game is on the line and it's third and long I'm looking to throw to Kirk.  Mal is the biggest of the frontline receivers and can use his size as an advantage over smaller DB's.  Mal, too, is a playmaker.  The freshmen, Mike Davis and Darius White (annointed with jersey no. 4) could contribute big things this season.

Tight Ends

Ugh.  Let's face it - this is a weak group.  Maybe our offense has just lost the identity of the tight end.  Maybe the tight end as a position in football is dead.  Regardless, we don't have a David Thomas type in there.  Then there's this whole H-back thing.  I don't really understand the coaches' vision for this position.  I could see one blocker, one receiver, but it's hard to tell if that's what they're doing.  Fortunately, we probably don't need a productive pass catching tight end with our wealth of playmaking ability at other positions.

Offensive Line

The starters look like this:  Senior - RS Freshman - Junior - Senior - Senior.  The RS Freshman, Mason Walters, is filling in for injured Senior Tray Allen probably only for the Rice game.  Although there is not an NFL prospect among them, they are a solid and experienced group.  True freshman Trey Hopkins is likely to get some PT this season and is probably the Horns' next great offensive lineman.  They are going to be motivated to protect their new QB and by getting more run blocking assignments, which linemen love because it gives them a chance to get a running start and pancake a smaller defensive player.

Defense

Will Muschamp is never going to have a shitty defense.  Period.  The End.

Defensive Line

This is the area that most concerns me, mainly because we don't have a stud defensive tackle coming back and we're very thin at that position beyond that.  Kheeston Randall is the best we've got, and I just don't think he's that good.  Certainly not in the line of Hampton, Rogers, Lamarr Houston, Roy Miller, Okam or Rodrique Wright.  According to some reports, Tyrell Higgins shit the bed during camp and didn't impress.  So much so that Muschamp moved a defensive end, Alex Okafor, into that position to challenge for playing time.  You would think that a 258lb. Okafor is going to get pushed around by 300lb. offensive linement, but there is precedent for using smaller, quicker defensive tackles with success, especially on pass rushes employing blitzes and stunts.

The defensive ends on this year's team are probably the best unit on the team and maybe the best group of DE's UT has ever had.  We're just totally stacked at least two deep.  And two of these monsters are freshmen!

Linebackers

Again, a very, very solid unit.  We've got Jared Norton back after losing a season to injury.  He'll be hungry.  Dravannti Johnson and Keenan Robinson are just...just...  Well, they're fucking good.  So is Emmanuel Acho.  Say what you will about the token white boy in Dustin Earnest (a la Scott Derry, Reed Boyd), but he wouldn't be out there if Muschamp didn't think he belonged.

Defensive Backs

Second only to the defensive ends in talent are the defensive backs.  Aaron Williams may be the best football player on the team.  Chykie and Curtis Brown might play at the next level.  Blake Gideon is a warhorse at safety who is battle tested.  Depth-wise, Christian Scott gets a chance to prove himself among these studs as do Kenny Vaccaro and Carrington Byndom (someone's mother watched too much Dynasty in the 80's).  Adrian Phillips is fucked because he wears no. 17.

*Notice I didn't even mention the loss of Sergio Kindle, galactic warrior.  We're that good.

Kickers, Punters, Special Teams

Not to downplay the importance of special teams, but we should be solid on all fronts.  The combo of D.J. Monroe and Marquise Goodwin returning kicks is unbelievable.  I expect to see 3-4 touchdowns on kick returns this season.

Coaching

Best head coach in college football.  Best defensive coordinator in college football.  As a staff, second to none.  Mack has perfected the recipe for success.  Now it's just a matter of serving the meal year in and year out.

Predictions

UT 42, Rice 10

UT 38, Wyoming 13

UT 24, Tech 21

UT 28, UCLA 3

UT 13, OU 28

UT 17, Nebraska 31

UT 35, Iowa State 13

UT 37, Baylor 21

UT 28, K-State 20

UT 42, OK St. 20

UT 44, Fla. Atlantic 10

UT 34, A&M 31

Holiday Bowl v. Washington:  UT 37, Washington 28

Season:  11-2, Final ranking #8

Emerging Adulthood

Stumbled across this article in the NY Times today.  It's a subject I've thought a lot about and discussed with a lot of people, mainly because I personally went through it and have watched others do the same.  It appears to be some sort of culture shift or phenomenon.

The article is good, but based on my own observations I think they didn't get the reasons why correct.  Their reason was based mostly on the psychology, but I'd take it a step further and look for why the psychology of young adults seems to have changed.  Our parents' and grandparents' generations didn't seem to have this psychology.  So something had to have changed.  My explanation would be that culture has changed and minor institutions that have probably existed for hundreds or thousands of years, like the wayward youth, have taken firmer root in our culture, reached icon status, became more widely accepted and are now becoming the norm.  So where the wayward youth was a novelty in 1500AD, now everyone's doing it.  I think today's trend really grew legs in the 60's.  Think of the books, music and movies of the time.  They really encouraged young people to rebel against all cultural mores, including what were the expected stages of life.  The second thing I would point to would be economic.  Used to be that you could expect to get a good job right out of college.  There was a set pathway that was acceptable for young people and the businesses that hired them.  That's changed.  Entry level jobs for recent college grads really suck and today's young person would rather wait tables and have more time for other things than to grind away at a shitty job.  Young people have also realized that youth is precious and that it's important to make the most of it, or maybe they've always known that and now it's more at the forefront of everyone's minds.  So that's even less incentive to buckle down for a 9-5 at the company.  On the business side, too, things have changed.  College grads do not have much real productive value and it's an investment for a company to hire someone and train them.  Depending on the job, it could take a year or more to turn a college grad into a productive employee.  Apparently, that's been a losing proposition for businesses for some time.  So what businesses have done is to create a layer of jobs that appear to be well suited for a person with a college education, like more layers of lower management, when in reality it's job that no one wants to do.  It's a system that just doesn't work for business or young people.  Personally, I'd like to see the education system change to something that provides more practical real-world skills and produces graduates who actually know something and can do something of value.

The article also really played up the parents' role in creating this "new stage of life."  Maybe in their polling that was the case, but in my own personal experience there weren't parents there enabling emerging adulthood.  For one thing, for most families, the parents don't have the money to fully support their kids from age 18-28.  So it's just not even an option.  From what I've seen, most young people in emerging adulthood get menial jobs and get by on their own.  They don't have any money and the job they are in isn't going to lead to a career and big salary someday, but they are basically independent.

One interesting thing that I've seen happen recently on the education front is that universities recognized that it was taking longer for people to graduate.  So they've instituted programs to get students finished sooner.

In sum, I think this is a real thing, though it probably doesn't meet the criteria to become a new life stage.  And it's worth discussing and learning about so that we can understand ourselves and the world a little better.

I Almost Threw a Brass Paperweight at a WF Employee Over This

BOOM, MOTHERFUCKER!!

http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/11/news/companies/wells_fargo_overdraft/index.htm?hpt=T2

I Am A Magnet for Ineptitude and Deceipt

My glasses broke on Friday night.  They were 3 years old and a frameless style that had no hinges on the limbs.  The frames were made from titanium and were flexible.  One of the limbs of the frame is actually what broke.  Just a clean break.  I had put no extraordinary amount of pressure on them or anything; just took them off of my head and they just snapped.

So today I go to the place where I bought them - Eyemasters - to see if they can repair or replace them and to see if they are still under warranty.  I still had my paperwork from when I bought them 3 years ago and I had some notes about a 3 year warranty.  I go into the store and someone named "Fashun" "helped" me.  The long and short of it is that 1) they do not do any sort of repairs, 2) my glasses were not still under warranty.  Not altogether unexpected.  Only mildly annoying except that they give out business cards of this repair shop where they direct all of the requests for repair that they get.

I need to back up a little and explain a little more of the leadup.  My vision isn't all that bad, but I'm not comfortable driving without my glasses and I can't comfortably read my computer screen at work without them.  I have two pairs of prescription sunglasses, which is how I was able to get through the weekend.  One of the pairs of sunglasses has interchangeable clear lenses, which I used at night during the Safari.  So this morning, in order to be able to see my computer screen and work effectively, I wore my Oakley frames with the plastic lenses.  I looked ridiculous in my dress clothes and sports sunglasses and EVERY.  SINGLE.  PERSON. in my office asked me about "my new glasses."  Okay.  Fine.  All expected.  But this little shit starts building up, you know?

I had two choices once Eyemasters wasn't able to offer any sort of solution.  The first option was to try to have them repaired.  The second option was to just get new glasses.  That depended on how much my vision insurance was going to pick up.  I decided to check out the repair place.  I figured that new glasses, even with insurance, were going to cost me more and I liked the glasses that I had and wanted to keep them if I could.  So I call the repair place just to ask if they can replace a limb on the type of glasses that I have.  So I call and tell the guy who answers the situation and he tells me confidently they they can fix them.  So I drive down there.  

The place is called All American Eyeglass Repair.  I go in and the place has something of a pawn shop feel to it.  Nothing too remarkable, really, except that there was a small 8"X8" window cut into one of the walls at about 6' high with a little wooden door that was partially varnished.  There also appeared to be maybe a doorbell(?) mechanism on the inner jamb.  You could see into the room on the other side of the wall through this little window and I have no idea what purpose it could serve.

So I go up to the counter and this pudgy young guy waits on me.  His name is Christian, but he looks vaguely Arabic.  Light complexion though.  He's also wearing a t-shirt that says something like "Don't say no to Jesus."  So maybe Lebanese?  I show him what I have and he tells me they can either weld the frame back together or replace the limb.  The welding costs $79, takes an hour and he doesn't seem all that confident in its durability.  The new limb is $109 and takes 15 minutes.  I tell him I want the new limb.  He goes back into the shop area to see if he's got the right color and type.  After ten minutes he comes back out with the limb and tells me he's got it.  I tell him to go ahead and replace it.  I'm thinking this is a win because I get what I need relatively quickly at a price that is probably the least amount I could possibly pay for my solution.  I am pleased.  Christian tells me to fill out this form with my contact info and then sign it.  On the form are several disclaimers.  Whenever I'm asked to sign something like this I'm always conflicted.  Being a lawyer, I feel guilty about just signing things because I don't have the excuse of ignorance.  But if I don't sign it, I don't get the service that I need.  So I signed the goddamned thing thinking that the odds of it coming in to play are pretty minute.

They have a little waiting area with some magazines where I sit down to wait.  I pick up a copy of ESPN the magazine with The Messiah VY on the cover.  I read about 3/4 of the entire magazine and start to wonder what is taking so long.  It's been over 30 minutes.  There was one screw.  I'm not kidding about that.  I honestly don't know what possibly could have taken 30 minutes.  The only thing I can think of is that they might stretch the time out to make you feel like you got your $109 worth.  But it's still just one screw.  I'm in a relatively good mood though, because I am getting my solution.  The overage on time detracts a little from the level of solution I'm getting, but we're still within limits so I'm happy.

The guy calls out several times that it's just going to be a couple more minutes.  After the third time I was very close to just asking him why it was taking so long.  I was curious more than anything.  After the guy said, "Just one more minute" he started making small talk about all the rain we've been getting.  This makes things slightly worse, but whatever.

So he finally comes back out to the counter with my glasses with the new limb.  He's shaping it to match the other one but I can clearly see that it is a different shape and shorter.  He makes some excuse about how it's a slightly different shape than the original.  I think it might still be okay if it can just be shaped to match the other one.  I take the glasses and turn them around in my hands, inspecting them.  Not only is the shape and length so different that no amount of shaping is going to make them the same, but THERE IS A HUGE FUCKING SCRATCH DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE RIGHT LENS.  Immediately when I saw the scratch I started writing this blog post in my head because this is exactly the kind of scenario that I always find myself in and that people think is funny.  I almost don't want to acknowledge it and I grab my temples trying to will the situation away or to convince myself that this is no big deal.  I tell Christian, "The new one is shorter than the other and that's just not going to work."  He admits that but then tries to tell me that they will fit the same.  This defies logic and my ability to remain calm leaves me.  "Not only that, there is now a huge scratch that wasn't there before."  He tells me that there is no way he could have done it.  So I explain to him that the HUGE scratch was not there when I brought them in to his store but it is there now.  That leaves only one possibility - that in the forty fucking minutes he was back in his shop doing who knows what to my hglasses that he scratched them.  What he couldn't know is that last night I tried to wear the glasses to watch TV.  It didn't work because with only one limb the tension was only on one side and they kept getting lopsided on my face.  In fact, they would slip off my nose from the pressure of the one limb and make contact with my face.  I have oily skin, so the lenses were covered in oil from my face.  Before I took them into Eyemasters to try to get their help, I cleaned them spotless because I didn't want them to see all the oil on them and think that I didn't really care that much about them or that I didn't take care of them.  When I clean my glasses I hold them up to the light to look through them.  I had cleaned them again before going into All American and the scratch had not been there.  It was so huge I would have seen it. 

At this point I don't know what to do.  Gone is the possibility of getting my beautiful solution.  Now, I can only get my now nearly ruined glasses fixed for $109 or getting new glasses altogether for several hundred.  Both imperfect solutions by far.  What I really want to do is scratch Christian's corneas and then demand $109 for my trouble. 

I keep telling him that he scratched my glasses and he keeps denying it and coming up with all of these explanations - "my tools didn't come in contact with that lens," "I only held them by the nosepiece," etc.  Then he tries to bring up the paper that I signed waiving all my rights in the event they damage my glasses.  I tell him that I know about the paper and what it says but that it doesn't mean that I can't get pissed off about it.  We go round and round about it.  He keeps trying to explain how there's no way he could have done it and I keep explaining that there's no other possibility other than he did it.  He raises the paper again and I tell him I know they are under no obligation to make things right but that doesn't mean I can't be angry and tell him about it.

The whole thing was pointless.  What was I going to do?  Sue the company?  Physically assault Christian?  Talk to the manager?  Pfft.

Someone please tell me that this kind of shit happens to them too.