Heart without Discipline

"He who spares his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him promptly."
Proverbs 13:24

What are you supposed to say about a team that gives up 11 penalties and two turnovers with atrocious clock management...yet loses by only five points?!?

The story of 2014 Longhorn Football is the disconnect between potential and execution.  The talent is there, especially on defense.  Unfortunately, the sloppy mistakes continue.

If you're an optimist, there's plenty of good news to take from today's game.  The defense, once again, played spectacular until it got tired; they didn't allow a touchdown until late in the third quarter.  Defensive lineman Malcolm Brown, Linebacker Jordan Hicks, and Safety Quandre Diggs' elite level talent is obvious. They also rallied from a three touchdown deficit to make it close.  Unfortunately, none of that is good enough.

If you're a pessimist, the Longhorns' 2 - 4 record speaks for itself.  Sloppy mistakes killed them, yet again, today.  11 penalties for 85 yards is PATHETIC on a "Raideresque" level.  Multiple turnovers on offense and touchdowns allowed on special teams are likewise unacceptable.  Yet nothing changes....

As a recovering fan of the New York Jets, this author has noticed a disturbing trend: the longer we watch Charlie Strong, the more he reminds us of Herm Edwards.  He's got his motivational quotes, he's got his stupid "rules," yet he can't manage the clock on gameday.  He has until the end of this season to prove his team can learn to stop making sloppy mistakes.

Congratulations to Whitney.  This website cannot deny that our loss today was 100% self-inflicted.  Your 5 - 1 record compared to our 2 - 4 record proves that execution is more important than talent.  It's killing us.  Still, we're happy that you're happy.  OK, we're totally lying with that last statement, but we swear we're trying really really hard not to be a sore loser.  Shut up Whitney.

Bottom Line: Charlie Strong has more than enough talent to win.  Unfortunately, so far he seems unable to execute.  He has 6 games to prove he can stop repeating the same tiresome mistakes, otherwise...Mack Brown 2015?!?

Freedomworks Packs the House Tonight in Austin!!!

Tonight, in Austin, at least 120 Patriots attended Freedomworks' Come and Take It event.  The event was held to introduce Freedomworks' plan to help counter Battleground Texas.  Fortunately, with no PA system [Freedomworks' Director of Grassroots] Whitney Neal's loud mouth came in handy....:)

Whitney (pictured above) opened her presentation by highlighting how Colorado went Blue.  She described how Colorado Republicans stopped doing their job.  She made the unfortunate point about how raiding the Rainy Day Fund in Texas is similar to the fiscal shenanigans Colorado Republicans pulled in the mid- 2000's.

Next up was an update on Battleground Texas' activities.  Two factoids of note is that they're training people to start at the local level and that they have a paid staffer on every major college campus in the state.  Also, 80% of their donations are in state.

Freedomworks is using Texas as the guinea pig for their national efforts.  They're intend to open offices around the state to grow leaders from the local level.  They're also developing data-analytics software that's supposed to be awesome!

The first major action is a community building weekend October 4 - 6.  It will include training sessions on Friday night and events on Saturday.  Already, there are block-walking events planned in El Paso and the Valley.

Travis county elections trains deputy voter registrars every month on the first Tuesday.  This is a step everyone needs to take.  The next one is the Tuesday after labor day; we'll be there.

The bottom line is that at least 120 people showed up tonight to make Texas a deeper shade of Red; that can only be good news!!!