COLUMN: It's not hard to find sunshine around the Forty Acres
Happy to say this week's column is again brought to you by The Timothy Center. The father-son duo of Doctors Jimmy and Josh Myers, both big Longhorn fans, are doing some great counseling work in the Austin area, especially during such a trying time mentally for many as we all are dealing with a global pandemic.
Drs. Jimmy & Josh Myers are the father/son owners of The Timothy Center here in Austin. Both are rabid UT fans, and both could use counseling themselves due to all the stress that this love of the Horns has generated.
The Timothy Center is unique in that it is the only Christian counseling facility in the Austin area that provides one-on-one counseling, couples therapy, an Intensive Outpatient programs for those teens and adults needing more concentrated help, medication management services, and one of the largest sexual addiction treatment programs in the central Texas area.
Another aspect of the Timothy Center is that all of these services are covered by most major insurance policies. Faith-based counseling, faith-based medication management, all covered by insurance is as rare in this area as an undefeated season by…well, you get the idea.
We have offices in south Austin, north near the outlet mall between Round Rock and Georgetown, and our main office about a mile north of the Arboretum on Jollyville Rd. Of course, right now, with the pandemic still raging, all of our adult services can be accessed in an online format.
If you should ever need our services, just give us a call at our main number 512-331-2700 or check out our website at www.timothycenter.com.
Alright, the writing...
1) Sunshine
If I write this column enough, surely it has to come true, right? Something about a blind squirrel finding a nut while chugging burnt orange Kool-Aid belongs here. Well, here comes the sun (again).The baseball team is No. 2 in the country with one regular-season series remaining. The basketball team hired Chris Beard who then assembled arguably the nation’s best coaching staff and is in the process of building a monster roster. Football is poised to open the recruiting floodgates and finally have an opportunity to flex the muscle it was, mostly, hired for.
So, yeah, I don’t think I’m Stretch Armstrong when I say there is some sunshine to pump around the Forty Acres right now. And I guess if you cover enough of these coaching changes, you begin to understand what’s real, what’s fake, what’s good and what’s a gigantic warning sign. Let’s hope the Orangebloods staff is done covering coaching searches for a long, long time. They're good for business but bad for mental health.
With football gearing up for a return to recruiting normalcy like Best Buy employees hours before doors open for Black Friday, baseball doing its thing and basketball slowing its roll a little bit, I’m in a mood to make some predictions.
2) Quarterbacks…
Regardless of who plays quarterback, the starter will finish the season with a passer rating above 160.0 and a QBR better than 75.0. For comparison, Sam Ehlinger finished with numbers of 150.7 (30th nationally) and 76.6 (third in Big 12), respectively, last season. I trust Steve Sarkisian with quarterbacks as much as any coach in the country. You should too as long as you prepare for some ups-and-downs.
While Ehlinger’s numbers were consistently solid, the eyeballs and numbers suggested there was always a ceiling preventing a move into the truly elite tier. Texas QBs probably won't get there next season, but for the first time in a long time, we'll see the types of explosive plays, throws and offense capable of raising the ceiling.
3) Recruiting…
By the end of the summer, the Longhorns will receive a commitment from a five-star prospect and will be closer to fifth than 10th in the Rivals.com team recruiting rankings. Yes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but if the Longhorns don’t emerge from the summer with a few recruiting trophies on the commitment list, it probably means we were wrong about this staff’s ability to go get the big boys. And I don’t think we were wrong...
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