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) Texas and NIL...
Get ready. College athletics as we know it will soon change July 1st when the Texas Student-Athlete NIL bill goes into effect. Make no mistake, college athletics aren’t doomed or anything like that. The sports and teams you love aren’t suddenly going to change because student-athletes can finally profit off their name, image and likeness. We might not see much of a difference on the field if any at all. The college athletics landscape will simply be… different. Much different.
I’d be lying if I said I knew what it was going to look like, how much of an impact it’ll make, and who is set to cash in. Truly, this is a new frontier. We’ve never seen anything like it.
You’re kidding yourself if you think it’ll only impact the Bijan Robinsons of the college sports world. UT track star Tara Davis has 167,000 followers on Instagram. She announced on Instagram she was turning professional, and it was liked by 47,800 people. Her very next post was a paid advertisement. NIL will be bigger than the biggest football and basketball stars, especially at a place like Texas.
Especially at a place like Texas. That should be music to your ears. Back in August of 2020, UT announced its “Leverage” program, which began preparing Texas and its student-athletes for this day. It’s one thing to have the Texas reach and brand. But how much can it matter if student-athletes, those coaching them and the professionals operating the athletics department don’t know how to appropriately and successfully use it? Yes, appropriately because there are rules to follow.
How many athletic departments have a program like “Leverage” and the resources to professionally and accurately guide their student-athletes through this new frontier? My guess is not many, especially during this time of shrinking athletic departments and budgets coming out of a global pandemic. Can NLI be an advantage for Texas? You’re damn right it could be. Actually, let me rephrase: this should be an advantage for Texas moving forward because if it’s not, the athletics department dropped the ball. All that talk about athletic department revenue, reach on social media, and the power of the Texas brand is about to be weaponized.
2) The recent recruiting weekends...
Ultimately, the true success of this past recruiting weekend will be determined a long time for now when the top prospects who visited make college commitments. That said, simply getting so, so many big-time 2022 and 2023 players on campus added to Steve Sarkisian and his staff’s strong start to June. The more elite prospects a staff gets on campus, the better their odds for building great classes. Duh. The Longhorns are truly involved with the top prospects they need to be and have the potential to land program-changing classes. The past couple weekends truly signaled the start of that pursuit.
3) Arch Manning…
I’m sticking by my parting shot from the most recent Modcast...
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