Christmas Eve in Austin....

"Do not be furious, O Lord,
Nor remember iniquity forever;
Indeed, please look—we all are Your people!"
Isaiah 64:9

Eventful council meeting last night.  Our original plan had been to discuss it today, but it's late and we feel like talking about Football instead.  If you don't like it, start your own blog.

Obviously, tomorrow marks the beginning of the Tom Herman era.  We honestly don't know how we feel about it.  We'd love to believe the optimistic case, but we hope you'll pardon us if we've heard the hype machine before.

For the Longhorns to be successful this season, the following needs to happen:

• Shane Buchele needs to stay healthy.

• They need to learn to convert first downs in medium yardage situations; this was a consistent shortcoming during the previous coach's tenure.

• With Swoopes and D'Onta Foreman gone, they also need to establish the short yardage game.

• On defense, they need to dramatically improve their coverage of the middle of the field.

• Malik Jefferson needs to become A LOT more consistent...but we have a funny feeling Breckyn Hegar is going to be the one everyone's talking about at the end of the year.

• The pass rush has been the one pleasant surprise the past few seasons; this needs to continue.

• Finally, most important of all: THEY NEED TO STOP TAKING STUPID PENALTIES AND GIVING AWAY SLOPPY FUMBLES.  This is a team that lost five games last season by less than a touchdown.  If they had simply take care of the penalties and turnovers, they would have won several of those games.
• Note: This is where you'll know if Tom Herman has made a difference.

Bottom Line: We'll see, but we don't think we're gonna be able to sleep tonight.