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The Forty Acres being the Forty Acres for the first time in a long time...

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.

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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) The Forty Acres at its best…
Let’s keep it real: the last 13 or so months have often been uniquely challenging. Hell, they’ve been really freaking hard at times, testing us in ways we’ve never been tested. I compare it to the Palm Beach Cardinals.

Not long ago, the Palm Beach Cardinals, the A+ affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, tweeted for help. Jacob deGrom showed up in a St. Lucie Mets jersey for a rehab start. He hit 102 MPH and dominated as thoroughly as any pitcher possibly could, striking out eight of the nine hitters he faced. Mercifully, the outing ended after three innings. Unfortunately for us, COVID-19 didn’t end after three innings. The last 13 months have often felt like the Palm Beach Cardinals against Jacob deGrom.

There isn’t light at the end of the tunnel. We’re out of the damn thing. The longest, seemingly never-ending drive through darkness is over. No, I’m not declaring COVID-19 eradicated from Earth nor am I making light of situations across the globe. It’s still real. It’s still going to be a thing we live with for a long while. There is still a lot of traffic to navigate ahead. But for the first time since March 2020, the Forty Acres will be back to being the Forty Acres.

Texas is hosting a baseball regional with full capacity seating. The hoops program welcomed its new additions and is gearing up for its first true recruiting month in forever. Football is doing the same and prospects will soon roll into town. Meanwhile, Texas has done a lot of winning lately with multiple national championships and exciting, deep postseason runs.

There’s an energy building on campus unlike anything we’ve seen in a long time. Make no mistake, part of it is the winning and baseball and the new coaching staffs. However, when’s the last time the Forty Acres was able to truly be the Forty Acres, a mecca for Longhorn faithful? It’s been a while (please read that in a Staind voice so it’s stuck in your head at least a couple hours).

As things, at least around Austin, begin to look and feel at least somewhat normal again, UT athletics is poised to show why when it’s at its best it’s one of the premier destinations for collegiate student-athletes from around the world and especially from the great state of Texas. I don’t know about y’all, but when I look down at a packed UFCU Disch-Falk Field this weekend, I won’t be able to contain a huge smile. While it wasn’t as bad as Andy Dufresne crawling through miles of crap-filled tunnel, we’ve been through a lot the last year-plus, making a packed house for baseball postseason games, recruiting visits, and Texas fans excitedly doing their thing again an especially appreciated sight for sore eyes.

2) Of the football recruits expected in this weekend…

Junior Tuihalamaka certainly looks like a very, very good fit potentially for the new Texas defense, and Bishop Alemany is a great place for any college program to begin building connections. Notre Dame, UT’s top competition for the Rivals100 linebacker, is a good example of a national power consistently recruiting California with success for a long, long time; California is there for the taking, and Notre Dame has been one of the best programs in recent years of capitalizing. There’s no reason Texas can’t do the same, especially with Steve Sarkisian’s connections.

3) Some Maalik Murphy conversation…
In case you missed it from the weekend, Texas quarterback commitment Maalik Murphy threw a football 79 yards in the air. That happened. Before someone types a contrarian response about it not mattering, it does matter and illustrates a bigger point...

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN AND DISCUSS THE TEXAS LONGHORNS INSIDE THE 40 ACRES

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