Notes from the Austin Longhorn Club – Duane Akina

The Austin Longhorn Club had their pre-Red River Rivalry lunch today. The speaker was originally scheduled to be Major Applewhite, but he had filled in earlier in the year for Manny Diaz. As a result, Duane Akina spoke today.

As usual, opening statements were made by Bill Little. Remember, this should be considered a paraphrasing, not a direct quotation. The talk will be on the Longhorn Network at some point if you’d like to see the real thing.

Here’s what …

Random Thoughts on the Longhorn Season Thus Far

Four games into the season, Texas has beaten one bad team solidly, lost badly to two mediocre teams, and squeeked out a win against another bad team. What does that make the Texas Longhorns?

It makes them a bad team as well, although one with a bit more heart than I thought before yesterday.

The K State game was badly officiated from top to bottom, but the last few minutes were ridiculous. It really got the crowd fired up, however. …

Notes from the Austin Longhorn Club – Darrell Wyatt

The attendance was down a bit at today’s Austin Longhorn Club, but not as much as I had expected given the team’s showing (or lack thereof) the last two weeks. The featured speaker was wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator Darrell Wyatt.

Notable attendees included DeLoss Dodds and Ronnie Brown. I talked to Ronnie briefly afterwards, and he’s really slimmed down since his playing days. He’s working for the Longhorn Foundation now.

After the usual opening festivities (opening prayer, door …

Notes from the Austin Longhorn Club – Major Applewhite

The mood was a bit grim walking into the Frank Erwin Center today, after the embarrassment in Provo. Hook ‘Em worked the crowd, trying to discourage negativity, but he didn’t have a whole lot of success.

The scheduled speaker was originally to be Manny Diaz, but he obviously had to be replaced. While we would have received very interesting answers to our questions from Coach Diaz, they sent Major Applewhite instead.

I anticipated lots of hard questions for Coach Applewhite. …

Notes from the Austin Longhorn Club – Mack Brown

I attended my first Austin Longhorn Club lunch today. It’s held the Thursday before every Texas Longhorn home game, and features a speaker from the coaching staff. This week, it was Coach Mack Brown.

The event is held at the Erwin Center. On the way in, I asked how many people were expected.

The man at the name tag table hemmed and hawed a bit. He said that it’s usually 250 to 300 people, and usually about 500 when Coach …

Sorry Texas A&M – Johnny Football Is Just Not That Into You

Here’s a little something I’ve been working on for the last week or two:

I’ve been trying to decide when to put this out there, but with today’s news that Johnny Manziel is under investigation for signing autographs for a fee, I realized that now was the time. It’s possible that JF won’t be an Aggie too much longer.

On the other hand, it could all blow over. Perhaps Manziel is innocent, or perhaps he’ll return the money he was …

Met Hugh Freeze

I’m in New Orleans this week for PubCon Spring 2013. My family came along, so we had Monday to run around the French Quarter together.

We ended up at Grand Isle Restaurant for dinner, and decided to sit outside, since there was a nice breeze. Across a narrow courtyard from us was the sports bar Manning’s, which was hosting an alumni event for Ole Miss.

My father-in-law is an Ole Miss alum, so I follow their football team a …

Video: Texas Longhorn Enhanced Team Walk-in

For several seasons now, a crowd has been gathering to watch the Texas Longhorns walk in to Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium before home football games. As the event has grown in popularity, it’s been harder and harder to actually see.

This year, they’ve expanded the event. Instead of being dropped off right at the north gate, the team is being dropped off at the corner of 23rd Street and Robert Dedman. They then walk about half a …