Daily Short #43, August 16th, 2017: R.I.P. Jean Delance Truther
The Jean Delance truther has gone on to be with his Lord and savior. His death was sudden and unexpected. May God rest his soul.
Today, we gather to pay our respects.
He is preceded in death by his father, the Taylor Bible truther and his favorite cousin, the Darius James truther. Earlier this summer, he painfully bid farewell to his dear brother and best friend, the Erick Fowler truther. He leaves behind their remaining older brother, the Alex Anderson truther, who is inconsolable in his grief.
But anyone who knew the Jean Delance truther knows that he would want us to come together today not in sadness of his passing, but rather, in celebration of his life. A joy to all he came across all the way up to a troublesome final chapter in his life, the Jean Delance truther was full of optimism for the future regarding the Texas offensive line. An offensive line that would feature Delance as its crown jewel among numerous members of the 2016 Texas recruiting class once their time came: Zach Shackelford, Denzel Okafor, Patrick Hudson, Tope Imade and J.P. Urquidez.
"I love his size, frame, apparent core-strength and above-average flexibility and balance," the truther will be remembered as saying, "He's a limber player. Delance's recruitment blew up through this last season, and he would represent a huge get for Texas at a position of dire need as the other two offensive linemen ranked in my top-20 (Greg Little of Allen and Patrick Hudson of Sillisbee) are both currently committed elsewhere. Delance is, without question, the top OL prospect still on the board for Texas to pursue."
While it was not always a consensus opinion, the Jean Delance truther will always be fondly remembered as making frequent claims that Delance, despite need for development during his initial time at Texas, had, by far, the highest long-term upside of any offensive lineman in what was an impressive 2016 class. His optimism was, in some ways, validated during Delance's freshman season, as Delance was one of only three players within the class to take snaps on offense.
However, those three snaps came in reserve duty versus UTEP in a largely meaningless situation. One ghost that the truther took with him to his grave was a great disdain of Charlie Strong's lame-duck staff at Texas for burning Delance's redshirt in return for such a small contribution. He muttered in moments of weakness that the decision was "inexplicable" and moronic, much like most of the decisions that took place during Strong's fraudulent tenure as head coach.
The Jean Delance truther's spirits were high coming into 2017 spring football, though, and his usual positive attitude was as contagious as ever. It was a period where there was massive uncertainty at the right tackle position which gave rise to the idea that Delance could possibly come in and compete in a youthful push for playing time alongside fellow 2016 tackle prospect Denzel Okafor.
In the worst case, Tom Herman's new staff would see Delance as the heir to Connor Williams' throne at left tackle. "And maybe that's best, after all," he would say. "Let Connor play his last year and let Delance continue to develop. Give him a full season of coaching from (new OL coach Derek) Warehime. He'll be 100% ready to go next year instead of being thrown into the fire in 2017. Then -- watch out!"
But as spring wore on, the truther's spirits began to dissipate, and in retrospect, those close to him should have recognized the warning signs of depression. The truther found it, again -- "inexplicable!" -- that Delance was not being given the same opportunity to push at a depleted right tackle position that Denzel Okafor seemed to be. When Denzel Okafor was unable to push a pedestrian option at the position in Tristan Nickelson, the Jean Delance truther would stay awake at night wondering why Delance wasn't even getting a shot. Not even the smallest chance.
But there was always the backup plan; the consolation prize: the delayed-gratification option which would present a perfectly developed Delance as the team's starting left tackle for 2018. ("Watch out!") The truther could find some solace here. But as spring turned to summer and summer melted into fall camp, that solace was interrupted violently. The truther began to come to the realization that even his worst-case scenario wasn't in the bag.
It started with a shakeup along the offensive line which supplanted Nickelson at the right tackle with Elijah Rodriguez. This shakeup moved Nickelson to the second offensive line at the left tackle, relegating Delance to third-team duty. The truther, now clinging to mere hope alone, was spiraling into bleakness. He'd say that it doesn't matter because Tristan Nickelson was a senior and would be gone next year when Delance would take over at left tackle, and we still have that.
"We still have that," his shaky affirmation.
But soon, that would even be gone. Elijah Rodriguez, in the coming days, would go on suffer a high-ankle sprain, sufficiently ending his 2017 season. In response, the coaching staff addressed this new conundrum with a series of further OL shakeups resulting in Denzel Okafor and Tristan Nickelson fighting for the starting right tackle job. And instead of Delance being re-inserted with the second offensive line at the left tackle, the truther was horrified to find it was instead redshirt freshman J.P. Urquidez.
Not only had Denzel Okafor left Delance in the dust by emerging into what appeared to be at least some sort of co-starter situation, Delance's job with the second group now appeared to be at-risk at best. The truther realized that there was a distinct possibility that Delance could have used up half of his eligibility at Texas by the end of a sophomore season spent playing on the scout team.
He closed his eyes and he slipped away.
R.I.P. Jean Delance truther
January 16, 2015 to August 15, 2017
The Jean Delance truther has gone on to be with his Lord and savior. His death was sudden and unexpected. May God rest his soul.
Today, we gather to pay our respects.
He is preceded in death by his father, the Taylor Bible truther and his favorite cousin, the Darius James truther. Earlier this summer, he painfully bid farewell to his dear brother and best friend, the Erick Fowler truther. He leaves behind their remaining older brother, the Alex Anderson truther, who is inconsolable in his grief.
But anyone who knew the Jean Delance truther knows that he would want us to come together today not in sadness of his passing, but rather, in celebration of his life. A joy to all he came across all the way up to a troublesome final chapter in his life, the Jean Delance truther was full of optimism for the future regarding the Texas offensive line. An offensive line that would feature Delance as its crown jewel among numerous members of the 2016 Texas recruiting class once their time came: Zach Shackelford, Denzel Okafor, Patrick Hudson, Tope Imade and J.P. Urquidez.
"I love his size, frame, apparent core-strength and above-average flexibility and balance," the truther will be remembered as saying, "He's a limber player. Delance's recruitment blew up through this last season, and he would represent a huge get for Texas at a position of dire need as the other two offensive linemen ranked in my top-20 (Greg Little of Allen and Patrick Hudson of Sillisbee) are both currently committed elsewhere. Delance is, without question, the top OL prospect still on the board for Texas to pursue."
While it was not always a consensus opinion, the Jean Delance truther will always be fondly remembered as making frequent claims that Delance, despite need for development during his initial time at Texas, had, by far, the highest long-term upside of any offensive lineman in what was an impressive 2016 class. His optimism was, in some ways, validated during Delance's freshman season, as Delance was one of only three players within the class to take snaps on offense.
However, those three snaps came in reserve duty versus UTEP in a largely meaningless situation. One ghost that the truther took with him to his grave was a great disdain of Charlie Strong's lame-duck staff at Texas for burning Delance's redshirt in return for such a small contribution. He muttered in moments of weakness that the decision was "inexplicable" and moronic, much like most of the decisions that took place during Strong's fraudulent tenure as head coach.
The Jean Delance truther's spirits were high coming into 2017 spring football, though, and his usual positive attitude was as contagious as ever. It was a period where there was massive uncertainty at the right tackle position which gave rise to the idea that Delance could possibly come in and compete in a youthful push for playing time alongside fellow 2016 tackle prospect Denzel Okafor.
In the worst case, Tom Herman's new staff would see Delance as the heir to Connor Williams' throne at left tackle. "And maybe that's best, after all," he would say. "Let Connor play his last year and let Delance continue to develop. Give him a full season of coaching from (new OL coach Derek) Warehime. He'll be 100% ready to go next year instead of being thrown into the fire in 2017. Then -- watch out!"
But as spring wore on, the truther's spirits began to dissipate, and in retrospect, those close to him should have recognized the warning signs of depression. The truther found it, again -- "inexplicable!" -- that Delance was not being given the same opportunity to push at a depleted right tackle position that Denzel Okafor seemed to be. When Denzel Okafor was unable to push a pedestrian option at the position in Tristan Nickelson, the Jean Delance truther would stay awake at night wondering why Delance wasn't even getting a shot. Not even the smallest chance.
But there was always the backup plan; the consolation prize: the delayed-gratification option which would present a perfectly developed Delance as the team's starting left tackle for 2018. ("Watch out!") The truther could find some solace here. But as spring turned to summer and summer melted into fall camp, that solace was interrupted violently. The truther began to come to the realization that even his worst-case scenario wasn't in the bag.
It started with a shakeup along the offensive line which supplanted Nickelson at the right tackle with Elijah Rodriguez. This shakeup moved Nickelson to the second offensive line at the left tackle, relegating Delance to third-team duty. The truther, now clinging to mere hope alone, was spiraling into bleakness. He'd say that it doesn't matter because Tristan Nickelson was a senior and would be gone next year when Delance would take over at left tackle, and we still have that.
"We still have that," his shaky affirmation.
But soon, that would even be gone. Elijah Rodriguez, in the coming days, would go on suffer a high-ankle sprain, sufficiently ending his 2017 season. In response, the coaching staff addressed this new conundrum with a series of further OL shakeups resulting in Denzel Okafor and Tristan Nickelson fighting for the starting right tackle job. And instead of Delance being re-inserted with the second offensive line at the left tackle, the truther was horrified to find it was instead redshirt freshman J.P. Urquidez.
Not only had Denzel Okafor left Delance in the dust by emerging into what appeared to be at least some sort of co-starter situation, Delance's job with the second group now appeared to be at-risk at best. The truther realized that there was a distinct possibility that Delance could have used up half of his eligibility at Texas by the end of a sophomore season spent playing on the scout team.
He closed his eyes and he slipped away.
R.I.P. Jean Delance truther
January 16, 2015 to August 15, 2017
