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https://247sports.com/college/texas/Article/Texas-Longhorns-football-Tom-Herman-hires-analysts-Dave-Huxtable-Everett-Withers-Corby-Meekins-Houston-tight-ends-143935209/

Source: Herman adds Huxtable, Withers as Longhorns' analysts

By CHIP BROWN 3 hours ago

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas coach Tom Herman has hired former N.C. State defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable as a defensive analyst as well as former Longhorns’ assistant and former Texas State head coach Everett Withers as an offensive analyst, sources told Horns247.com.

Huxtable coached linebackers at Wisconsin in 2011 when Texas defensive coordinator Chris Ash ran the Badgers’ defense.  A longtime defensive coordinator, Huxtable has run defenses at Western Kentucky (1989), Georgia Tech (1996-97), North Carolina (2002-03), Central Florida (2008-10), Pittsburgh (2012) and most recently N.C. State (2013-19).   Huxtable is a confidante of Ash whose name came up when Texas was making assistant coaching hires on defense.

The hiring of Withers as an offensive analyst holds some intrigue considering Withers has been a defensive coach the majority of his coaching career, including as secondary coach under Mack Brown at Texas from 1998-2000 before moving on to the Tennessee Titans (2001-06).  Herman and Withers coached together at Ohio State in 2012 and 2013, when Herman was the offensive coordinator and Withers coached defensive backs for the Buckeyes.  Withers took over as head coach at James Madison in 2014, going 9-4 that season and 9-3 in 2015, before becoming the head coach at Texas State in 2016. Withers was dismissed as the Bobcats’ head coach after the 2018 season with a 7-28 record.  Withers was hired as the defensive coordinator at Florida International in 2019 but left before coaching a game to become the defensive backs coach of the New York Giants. But after the 2019 season, Giants' head coach Pat Shurmur was fired, and his staff was let go.  Withers last coached on the offensive side of the ball in 1990 as the receivers coach at Austin Peay.

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Houston coach Dana Holgorsen also announced on Monday that Corby Meekins, who spent the past five seasons as an assistant coach to Tom Herman, has been hired to coach tight ends and inside receivers for the Cougars.  After coaching tight ends at Texas in 2017, Meekins coached inside receivers in 2018 and 2019 before moving into an administrative position at Texas in December.

Meekins returns to Houston, where he spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons as tight ends/fullbacks coach under Herman. He will be responsible for Houston's tight ends and the Y-receiver position, Holgorsen announced.  Meekins, the former head coach at Houston Westfield High School, helped Herman recruit former Westfield star defensive linemen Ed Oliver (to Houston) and Keondre Coburn (to Texas) as well as former Westfield running back Daniel Young to Texas.  Meekins spent 15 seasons at Westfield High School in Houston, including 11 years as head coach. He guided Westfield to seven district championships and 10 playoff appearances. He also served on the Texas High School Coaches Association Board of Directors from 2009-12 and was a part of the Executive Board of Directors for the Greater Houston Football Coaches Association from 2009-15.

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Withers as an offensive analyst is interesting. In most situations I'd say it indicates Herman and staff are pretty serious about self scouting and not falling into another predictability cycle on offense. Of course, that'd be a decidedly un-Herman move, so I'm skeptical.

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14 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

Withers as an offensive analyst is interesting. In most situations I'd say it indicates Herman and staff are pretty serious about self scouting and not falling into another predictability cycle on offense. Of course, that'd be a decidedly un-Herman move, so I'm skeptical.

Yeah, the only problem with the notion of self-scouting is every single game Herman has coached since arriving at Texas. One of the reasons I’m certain that Herman is a typical idiot is the repeated patterns of predictable personnel choices coupled with predictable play calling. We’re looking at a special level of horrific on both fronts. 

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11 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Yeah, the only problem with the notion of self-scouting is every single game Herman has coached since arriving at Texas. One of the reasons I’m certain that Herman is a typical idiot is the repeated patterns of predictable personnel choices coupled with predictable play calling. We’re looking at a special level of horrific on both fronts. 

Hoping with the change of 7 new assistants, that maybe by some miracle  several of Herman's poor coaching habits from the past 3yrs go away.  I have high hopes for better offensive playcalling, more pressure from the DL, and much better special teams play.

I HAVE A DREAM... 🤘

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1 hour ago, LTtxfan said:

 

Meekins returns to Houston, where he spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons as tight ends/fullbacks coach under Herman. He will be responsible for Houston's tight ends and the Y-receiver position, Holgorsen announced.  Meekins, the former head coach at Houston Westfield High School, helped Herman recruit former Westfield star defensive linemen Ed Oliver (to Houston) and Keondre Coburn (to Texas) as well as former Westfield running back Daniel Young to Texas.  Meekins spent 15 seasons at Westfield High School in Houston, including 11 years as head coach. He guided Westfield to seven district championships and 10 playoff appearances. He also served on the Texas High School Coaches Association Board of Directors from 2009-12 and was a part of the Executive Board of Directors for the Greater Houston Football Coaches Association from 2009-15.

Question from a layman:

Will Meekins' depature affect the rapport with Texas High School Coaches  ?

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1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

Yeah, the only problem with the notion of self-scouting is every single game Herman has coached since arriving at Texas. One of the reasons I’m certain that Herman is a typical idiot is the repeated patterns of predictable personnel choices coupled with predictable play calling. We’re looking at a special level of horrific on both fronts. 

Except for the fact that he has won literally every single bowl game he has been in as a head coach. Given time the dude is nails. Self-scouting and scouting other teams is among the things he is best at. The issue isn't scouting or game planning given time. It's absolutely regarded position coaches, all of whom are gone.

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8 hours ago, TheFlyingBoat said:

Except for the fact that he has won literally every single bowl game he has been in as a head coach. Given time the dude is nails. Self-scouting and scouting other teams is among the things he is best at. The issue isn't scouting or game planning given time. It's absolutely regarded position coaches, all of whom are gone.

You don’t need to be a good self-scout to win bowl games, at all. You simply have to be able to find weaknesses in your opponent and exploit them better than they exploit yours. Outcoaching Barry Odom and Kirby Smart isn’t a mark of wizardry. Kyle Whittingham’s slow ass team couldn’t keep up. 

I really couldn’t disagree more about Herman’s behaviors. When you can predict 90% of the personnel packages on both sides of the ball throughout an entire season, the coaches are completely unaware of their tendencies. The play calling predictability was just as bad in stretches. They’re either not self-scouting or they are and then they’re ignoring the input. 

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10 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Yeah, the only problem with the notion of self-scouting is every single game Herman has coached since arriving at Texas. One of the reasons I’m certain that Herman is a typical idiot is the repeated patterns of predictable personnel choices coupled with predictable play calling. We’re looking at a special level of horrific on both fronts. 

I’m completely with you on self-scouring and giving away run vs. pass based on RB alignment, etc. 

I don’t agree on play calling though. For the times we’ve known Herman is the one actually calling plays (bowl games and most of the 2018 season), not just vetoing the worst of the shit sandwich Beck/Mehringer were sending down to him, our play calling has been very good and busted tendencies. In all three bowl games, Herman generated big plays to the RBs, usually through sneaking them out the backside, like with Young against Mizzou and Ingram against Utah.

This year will be an interesting test as to whether Herman can get his program to self-scout and do some of the finer things required of elite programs. Obviously, shit fell apart to a huge degree this year and Herman was struggling due to issues he unnecessarily created. But Herman now has a coaching staff that should require a lot less hand-holding, which should remove any and all excuses for us to not be better at self-scouting.

Last year, I’d say Herman had about 3-4 coaches who didn’t need hand-holding/oversight: Hand, Naivar, Giles, and Drayton. And even then, Drayton and Giles needed some oversight in recruiting their position. He obviously also had some coaches failing in epic proportions, lookin at you, Drewdd Mehrlando. 
 

This year I’d say we have about 7: Yurcich, Ash, Hutzler, Coleman, Boulware, Hand, Drayton. I’m not a fan of the Giles/Hagen pairing, but both are very experienced P5 coaches that shouldn’t need oversight in managing their position group. Recruiting may be a different story. 
 

That will hopefully free Herman up to fine tune other aspects of the program, or at the least, remove all excuses for him if he fails to do so.

 

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3 hours ago, closetojumping said:

They’re either not self-scouting or they are and then they’re ignoring the input. 

The way we heard it reported in the middle of the season (third hand, of course) was that they were ignoring it. The threshold of predictability was what Herman was purportedly hung up on -- 75% predictable doesn't scare him, so fuck changing anything.

I tend to believe that story, even if it isn't on film anywhere, simply because it's the best explanation for what I've seen:  a lot of available data, someone who can clearly remember a ton of information, and yet stupid decisions being made. That's not a function of inherent stupidity, it's a function of inherent arrogance and hubris. The result is the same, of course, but the correction is different -- with inherent stupidity, there's no hope. With arrogance and hubris, big changes will occasionally right the ship. It's currently taking on water; the clock is running to see whether he is John Paul Jones, or Richard Pearson. And if you have never heard of Richard Pearson, well, that's kind of the point.

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53 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

I’m completely with you on self-scouring and giving away run vs. pass based on RB alignment, etc. 

I don’t agree on play calling though. For the times we’ve known Herman is the one actually calling plays (bowl games and most of the 2018 season), not just vetoing the worst of the shit sandwich Beck/Mehringer were sending down to him, our play calling has been very good and busted tendencies. In all three bowl games, Herman generated big plays to the RBs, usually through sneaking them out the backside, like with Young against Mizzou and Ingram against Utah.

This year will be an interesting test as to whether Herman can get his program to self-scout and do some of the finer things required of elite programs. Obviously, shit fell apart to a huge degree this year and Herman was struggling due to issues he unnecessarily created. But Herman now has a coaching staff that should require a lot less hand-holding, which should remove any and all excuses for us to not be better at self-scouting.

Last year, I’d say Herman had about 3-4 coaches who didn’t need hand-holding/oversight: Hand, Naivar, Giles, and Drayton. And even then, Drayton and Giles needed some oversight in recruiting their position. He obviously also had some coaches failing in epic proportions, lookin at you, Drewdd Mehrlando. 
 

This year I’d say we have about 7: Yurcich, Ash, Hutzler, Coleman, Boulware, Hand, Drayton. I’m not a fan of the Giles/Hagen pairing, but both are very experienced P5 coaches that shouldn’t need oversight in managing their position group. Recruiting may be a different story. 
 

That will hopefully free Herman up to fine tune other aspects of the program, or at the least, remove all excuses for him if he fails to do so.

 

You’re ignoring one side of the ball completely with this post. Play calling happens on offense and defense.

And for offense, I referenced that it occurred in a set of games versus all the games. Showing extremely predictable tendencies even in a set of games still implies a full lack of self-scouting. Greg Davis looked like a wizard when playing weak opponents. OU every season would then highlight the lack of self-scouting by forcing the guy into predictable play calls based on defensive presets while having comparable talent to offset the sheer overwhelming advantage hope leveraged in prior games. We see the same with Herman, not in his own playcalling but in having allowed someone else to do it in the first place. Personnel management and play calling predictability cannot be separated when it comes to scouting anyway. 

I agree that there’s a reason to hope for change in 2020, but hope is not a fact base. 

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3 hours ago, Hank_Hill said:

Hoping that was as much on Beck and Meh as Herman and that that gets remedied with the new OC. 

Ahh, the old "hope it was the assistants and not the HC" strategy of maintaining optimism in the off season.  That's been a staple of UT football fandom for well over a decade now.  😁

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16 minutes ago, Walden Ponderer said:

The way we heard it reported in the middle of the season (third hand, of course) was that they were ignoring it. The threshold of predictability was what Herman was purportedly hung up on -- 75% predictable doesn't scare him, so fuck changing anything.

I took the MensaTom quote as being (a) accurate and (b) a result of the "impose our will" mindset.

It seems that his interpretation of imposition of will is purely physical, and totally ignores the idea of out-thinking the opponent. And that, in turn, leaves out at least half of the power of play-calling, which is half the battle when the opponent has no better than a 50-50 shot at being correct about what you're going to do... thinking 75% is okay is beyond arrogance and well into stupidity. Just to be clear: that's offense, defense AND special teams, and the approach we saw in 2019 was across the board, with offense showing the play from formation with 75% certainty, defense doing so even more often, and ST fair-catching punts every. fucking. time.

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14 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

Ahh, the old "hope it was the assistants and not the HC" strategy of maintaining optimism in the off season.  That's been a staple of UT football fandom for well over a decade now.  😁

I mean, the WR rotation was allegedly on Meh, but yea it's on Herman for allowing that shit to happen.

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49 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

You’re ignoring one side of the ball completely with this post. Play calling happens on offense and defense.

And for offense, I referenced that it occurred in a set of games versus all the games. Showing extremely predictable tendencies even in a set of games still implies a full lack of self-scouting. Greg Davis looked like a wizard when playing weak opponents. OU every season would then highlight the lack of self-scouting by forcing the guy into predictable play calls based on defensive presets while having comparable talent to offset the sheer overwhelming advantage hope leveraged in prior games. We see the same with Herman, not in his own playcalling but in having allowed someone else to do it in the first place. Personnel management and play calling predictability cannot be separated when it comes to scouting anyway. 

I agree that there’s a reason to hope for change in 2020, but hope is not a fact base. 

I wasn’t ignoring defense, but there’s not much he can directly do re play calling and self-scouting on defense. From all reports, Orlando refused a lot of help via using analysts and obviously wasn’t able to self-scout on his own. At that point, I think it boils down to Orlando just being a shitty DC. Herman trying to get involved in the level of dictating play calling and defensive  personnel isn’t a very workable solution. Also, we had great defensive performances in all three bowl games, so it still goes to show that when Herman has time/bandwidth to address things, even the defensive play calling and tendencies improved. 
 

as for the offense, I don’t agree at all on sets of plays when Herman was actually calling the offense, and my whole point was he hired so many shitty coaches that he was constantly having to put out fires by calling plays, convincing WRs and misused defensive players to not quit on their coaches, etc., that we may not know the full extent of his ability to self-scout at this point, but we should know by the end of 2020. None of that is meant to absolve him for those issues, because they were all self-inflicted, but those problems do interfere with our ability to know how much of it is him being a stupid meathead versus him not having the bandwidth to self-scout. 

I’m not super optimistic about that question based on Herman’s entire demeanor and response to the OB article about tipping tendencies, but I think we’ll have a much more definitive answer after this season. 

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1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

You’re ignoring one side of the ball completely with this post. Play calling happens on offense and defense.

I think a pretty good case can be made by watching the defensive playcalling in the Utah game that there was plenty of quality self-scouting going on and available and that Todd Orlando is a fucking lunkhead who ignored any and all external sources of information. Which is bolstered by the fact that he didn't hire more QC staff when it was offered to him. 

My expectation is that playcalling will be better on both sides of the ball this year because the coaches are better. Not based on hope but on the fact that we've seen this OC and this DC scheme better than their shitty predecessors not a huge bar to clear, I admit. 

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1 hour ago, bigup2dahorns said:


Charlie Strong will be taking a defensive analyst job with the Crimson Tide, AL.com confirmed after ESPN reported it first Tuesday morning.

As long as Nick doesn't put Charlie in charge of the coin flip he should be fine.

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32 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

it must be pretty sobering when you've been in a profession for 30 years and all of a sudden find yourself in an entry-level position.

The real puzzler, for me, is why does he even bother at this point? Five, six, seven years of multimillion-dollar salaries - I'm guessing he's got a few million left in the bank, so... why bother?

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53 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

I wasn’t ignoring defense, but there’s not much he can directly do re play calling and self-scouting on defense. From all reports, Orlando refused a lot of help via using analysts and obviously wasn’t able to self-scout on his own. At that point, I think it boils down to Orlando just being a shitty DC. Herman trying to get involved in the level of dictating play calling and defensive  personnel isn’t a very workable solution. Also, we had great defensive performances in all three bowl games, so it still goes to show that when Herman has time/bandwidth to address things, even the defensive play calling and tendencies improved. 
 

as for the offense, I don’t agree at all on sets of plays when Herman was actually calling the offense, and my whole point was he hired so many shitty coaches that he was constantly having to put out fires by calling plays, convincing WRs and misused defensive players to not quit on their coaches, etc., that we may not know the full extent of his ability to self-scout at this point, but we should know by the end of 2020. None of that is meant to absolve him for those issues, because they were all self-inflicted, but those problems do interfere with our ability to know how much of it is him being a stupid meathead versus him not having the bandwidth to self-scout. 

I’m not super optimistic about that question based on Herman’s entire demeanor and response to the OB article about tipping tendencies, but I think we’ll have a much more definitive answer after this season. 

 

36 minutes ago, golfclap said:

I think a pretty good case can be made by watching the defensive playcalling in the Utah game that there was plenty of quality self-scouting going on and available and that Todd Orlando is a fucking lunkhead who ignored any and all external sources of information. Which is bolstered by the fact that he didn't hire more QC staff when it was offered to him. 

My expectation is that playcalling will be better on both sides of the ball this year because the coaches are better. Not based on hope but on the fact that we've seen this OC and this DC scheme better than their shitty predecessors not a huge bar to clear, I admit. 

Guys, you're p-hacking the premise. My post below, which spawned this, was a simple missive that represented a broad argument which I don't *think* either of you are trying to dispute - playcalling and personnel choices since Herman's arrival at Texas have represented evidence that the program hasn't self-scouted for shit. Parsing game by game on one side of the ball or the other wasn't the point, nor assigning specific blame to a particular coach on the staff. The notion that self-scouting hasn't been a broad fucking problem under Herman is absurd. His complete lack of self-awareness has permeated every facet of his org, including on game day. 

That doesn't mean some games haven't represented good game plans or that the team hasn't looked good in bowls. It just means self-scouting isn't something that the Herman regime should get any credit for up to now. Every game has represented idiotic and predictable tendencies somewhere in it, or damned near every game (caveat because Surly and some lawyer or accountant undoubtedly cares enough to claim the exception verifying the rule).

Does it matter that Orlando was an idiot? Or that Herman had other morons on staff? No. The end result reflects a program that doesn't do shit for understanding its own behaviors. Maybe that changes with the new staff in the future, but it doesn't change the past. 

15 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Yeah, the only problem with the notion of self-scouting is every single game Herman has coached since arriving at Texas. One of the reasons I’m certain that Herman is a typical idiot is the repeated patterns of predictable personnel choices coupled with predictable play calling. We’re looking at a special level of horrific on both fronts. 

 

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12 minutes ago, Tex Long said:

The real puzzler, for me, is why does he even bother at this point? Five, six, seven years of multimillion-dollar salaries - I'm guessing he's got a few million left in the bank, so... why bother?

Just because guys like Chuckles are functioning imbeciles doesn't mean they lost their drive, interest, and energy for the thing that took them to a high point in the first place.  I assume Strong would coach junior high football for free if it was his only way to stay connected to the game.

 

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6 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

The notion that self-scouting hasn't been a broad fucking problem under Herman is absurd. His complete lack of self-awareness has permeated every facet of his org, including on game day. 

That doesn't mean some games haven't represented good game plans or that the team hasn't looked good in bowls. It just means self-scouting isn't something that the Herman regime should get any credit for up to now.

I agree completely. I was at the ugly, ugly Iowa State game in November. 

I think Herman gets in his own head. He made the decision to hire a JV staff, then he just had to prove everyone wrong. In the meantime, he was so sure he was doing the right thing that he missed the obvious. He's borderline autistic. The gameplans in the middle of this season reflected it.

Orlando similarly became wed to his crazy scheme. He couldn't even imagine simplifying things because he was right and everyone else was wrong, dammit. Couldn't see the forest for the trees. Like Manny Diaz.

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18 minutes ago, Tex Long said:

The real puzzler, for me, is why does he even bother at this point? Five, six, seven years of multimillion-dollar salaries - I'm guessing he's got a few million left in the bank, so... why bother?

He doesn’t knowing anything else, and his other option is to sit at home while his wife glares at him and taps her finger on this picture all day

CbsKE18UEAAuKkw.jpg:large

7 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

 

 

Guys, you're p-hacking the premise. My post below, which spawned this, was a simple missive that represented a broad argument which I don't *think* either of you are trying to dispute - playcalling and personnel choices since Herman's arrival at Texas have represented evidence that the program hasn't self-scouted for shit. Parsing game by game on one side of the ball or the other wasn't the point, nor assigning specific blame to a particular coach on the staff. The notion that self-scouting hasn't been a broad fucking problem under Herman is absurd. His complete lack of self-awareness has permeated every facet of his org, including on game day. 

That doesn't mean some games haven't represented good game plans or that the team hasn't looked good in bowls. It just means self-scouting isn't something that the Herman regime should get any credit for up to now. Every game has represented idiotic and predictable tendencies somewhere in it, or damned near every game (caveat because Surly and some lawyer or accountant undoubtedly cares enough to claim the exception verifying the rule).

Does it matter that Orlando was an idiot? Or that Herman had other morons on staff? No. The end result reflects a program that doesn't do shit for understanding its own behaviors. Maybe that changes with the new staff in the future, but it doesn't change the past. 

 

Hey, screw you man. I don’t care if we’re replying ad nauseum while being basically in agreement. This is Surly and arguing in circles via long-winded missives is what we do, dammit!

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19 minutes ago, Tex Long said:

The real puzzler, for me, is why does he even bother at this point? Five, six, seven years of multimillion-dollar salaries - I'm guessing he's got a few million left in the bank, so... why bother?

Likely because his USF contract says that in order for him to continue to collect his salary he has to at least attempt to find employment elsewhere.  There was an article recently that talked about Saban using the analyst position as a way for fired HC's to collect their salary without having to take a Coordinator/position coach spot on a staff.

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4. Once a Longhorn ...: Former Oklahoma and Auburn assistant coach Jay Boulware said he didn’t discard all his Longhorns clothes from his years as a Texas football player and grad assistant. In fact, Tom Herman’s new tight ends/special teams coach said, “My wife has Longhorn slippers that she wore around the house. I just told her to hide ’em when the players came over.” ... Boulware said he never stopped loving his alma mater. “This is my heart,” he said. “This is my home. I love this place.” ... He also said he’s on board with all the Horns Down gestures seen at every Big 12 stadium and said he considers them the ultimate compliment. “I agree 100% with it. There’s always been the Horns going up and the Horns going down. This is respect. That’s what it’s about. We’re living in their heads rent free.”

 

https://www.statesman.com/sports/20200218/bohls-big-12-itrsquos-your-turn-to-step-up

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On 2/18/2020 at 1:46 PM, Burt Macklin said:

He doesn’t knowing anything else, and his other option is to sit at home while his wife glares at him and taps her finger on this picture all day

CbsKE18UEAAuKkw.jpg:large

Hey, screw you man. I don’t care if we’re replying ad nauseum while being basically in agreement. This is Surly and arguing in circles via long-winded missives is what we do, dammit!

Tappin’ dat ass

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