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(985) 264-5003
saltysouthfishingcharters@gmail.com
“I think everyone’s still a little pissed off today, quite frankly.”
Steve Sarkisian was talking about the reaction in the locker room to last week’s loss to Texas Tech on Monday … but he may as well have been speaking for every Longhorn fan.
Longhorn fans fully expected their team to go to Lubbock and take care of business in a matter of fact sort of way. Instead, they had to watch as it was the Red Raider fans who stormed the field in celebration after the game.
“Nobody likes to lose, it’s not fun at all,” Sarkisian said during his weekly press conference Monday. “It’s not fun for us. I don’t think any of us slept well Saturday night.”
Texas fans are pissed.
It’s not just that the Longhorns lost, it’s how they did it. Yet another lead blown in the fourth quarter led to a barrage of tweets like these.
People are questioning Sark, they’re questioning defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, they’re questioning the players … and I get it.
Texas fans had to watch what was statistically one of the worst seasons ever last year. The hope was that this year’s version would be better. And just about everyone thought the team was better after it played within a few seconds of beating Alabama.
But then Lubbock happened and all of the angst that built up last year came rushing back like a tsunami.
So why does Sark still think this year is different?
“I think we are better,” Sarkisian said. “I know sometimes the results don’t look that way but I do think we’re a better football team. I have a lot of confidence in the work that the players and coaches have put into this. Sometimes it’s easy to look at the result and say, ‘Oh, we’re not better.’ But I see a lot of improvement on where we’re at. Naturally, the consistency factor is critical and we can’t afford to have lapses in our consistency in play, in our preparation or we’ll get the result that we had.”
If I’m being honest, and I know that nobody wants to hear this right now, I think he’s right.
I don’t have any statistics to justify that this team is better than last year’s team. So if you don’t want to hear it from him or me, then I totally understand.
Yet, when I watch the team I can see all of the pieces are there for the Texas Longhorns to put it all together and still compete for the one goal they had coming into this season … a Big 12 Championship.
(ducking to avoid everyone throwing things at me after writing that sentence)
Yes, I know Texas just lost to Texas Tech. Yes, I know even Kansas looks like a better bet to win the Big 12 than UT. Yes, I know that Sark’s best win is the close loss to Alabama.
But let me just remind you of one simple thing. We STILL haven’t seen Sarkisian’s offense run the way it was meant to be run.
The truth is … Hudson Card and Casey Thompson are incapable of running this offense (and they’re the only ones we’ve really seen do it so far).
I am not making an excuse for Sark (he may not even agree with my assertion … at least publicly), but it’s the truth.
Hudson Card is incapable of punishing a defense with the deep ball. Sure, he can throw it deep, just not with any accuracy. That’s why when Xavier Worthy left the Tech game last week, the offense came to a standstill. Tech no longer had to even pretend to care about the deep ball and the run game came to a halt.
To that point, here is every completion over 15 yards that Card had last Saturday.
First Quarter:
Hudson Card to Bijan Robinson for 22 yards.
Hudson Card to Keilan Robinson for 35 yards (TD)
Second Quarter:
Hudson Card to Xavier Worthy for 39 yards (TD)
Hudson Card to Roschon Johnson for 23 yards.
Fourth Quarter:
Hudson Card to Tarique Milton for 28 yards.
Three of those went to running backs who picked most of the yards on the run, leaving only two completions for more than 15 yards.
The touchdown pass to Worthy was a legitimate deep ball that found a wide open receiver (but Worthy did have to cut off his run to catch it).
The only other deep ball to a receiver came on the last drive of the fourth quarter. Card had a nice pass to Tarique Milton who made a fantastic catch.
Every other completion to a wide receiver or tight end was for 15 yards or less which allowed Tech’s safeties to play shallow and pretty much shut down the running game in the second half.
With no deep ball and no run game, this is what the second half drive chart looked like.
RESULT, PLAYS, YARDS, TIME OF POSSESSION
Downs (4, plays, 8 yards, 1:50)
TD (8 plays, 75 yards, 3:49)
Punt (3 plays, 2 yards, 1:29)
Punt (3 plays, 0 yards, :55)
Punt (5 plays, 17 yards, 2:28)
FG (4 plays, 46 yards, :21)
OVERTIME
Fumble (1 play, 0 yards)
TOTAL:
10 points, 28 plays, 148 yards, (10:52)
Meanwhile, this was Texas Tech's second half drive chart.
RESULT, PLAYS, YARDS, TIME OF POSSESSION
Downs (4 plays, 5 yards, :22)
FG (15 plays, 59 yards, 4:32)
TD (10 plays, 75 yards, 2:32)
Downs (13 plays, 66 yards, 5:08)
TD (5 plays, 30 yards, 1:29)
FG (11 plays, 56 yards, 5:05)
OVERTIME
FG (5 plays, 23 yards)
TOTAL:
23 points, 63 plays, 314 yards, 19:08
Texas’s offense couldn’t stay on the field in the second half, leaving the defense out there for a whopping 63 plays.
Again, I’m not making excuses. The defense could have helped itself by stopping more of those fourth down plays. But I’ve got news for you, any defense is going to struggle if it has to defend 63 plays in one half.
Of course, Texas’s defense could have helped itself by actually making a few more tackles. Multiple times Donovan Smith trucked Longhorns defenders to pick up additional yardage on fourth downs when the initial contact would have taken him down short of the marker.
In all, Texas defenders missed 16 tackles last week. (Thanks to @Alex Dunlap for all of the time he logs in the basement.)
The defense better remember how to tackle this week because West Virginia’s running backs pack a punch.
The one benefit the Horns have going for them this week is that JT Daniels, unlike Smith or UTSA QB Frank Harris, is that Daniels is not a running quarterback. I’m fairly convinced that the mobile QBs are the ones who give the Longhorn defense the biggest problems.
I suspect, without any proof, that the defense will look much better this week against JT Daniels than it’s looked the last two weeks.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire has already accomplished something that Sarkisian has yet to achieve himself…a win over a top 25 opponent. But to do it, all he had to do was follow the game plan laid out against Texas last year. It’s what enabled him to stand in the locker room after the game and say this;
Now is when we find out if the culture change that Sarkisian talked about so much this summer is real or if it was just hot air.
It’s easy for teams to play well when things are going well. But now we get to see how the Longhorns respond to adversity.
“Everybody needs to create a mindset of just dominance,” said star running back Bijan Robinson. “You can’t let anything like that happen again.”
It’s important to remember that this is still a young roster and this was the first true road game for many of the players.
You have to give Tech fans credit, they made a difference.
“We were just letting things get in our heads,” said tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders. “Miscommunications, letting the fans or the crowd noise affect us on both sides of the ball.”
A lot of what happens the rest of the way will depend on the health of Quinn Ewers and Xavier Worthy.
I suspect there will be some good news on that front.
“Quinn is a tough player, for sure,” said Sanders. “If he wants to come back this week, he’s gonna be ready, for sure.”
DID LAST WEEK’S LOSS REALLY CHANGE ANYTHING?
I came into this season without predicting a season total win/loss record. I just couldn’t go game by game and figure out which game would likely be a win and which game would likely be a loss. In fact, I even said on one of the Modcasts, that outside of the first two games, I could see Texas winning every single game on the schedule and I could see them losing every single game on the schedule.
@Ketchum actually did predict before the season started that Texas would lose in Lubbock. His reasoning, which was definitely sound, was that Texas would be making its first road trip and Lubbock is always a tricky place to play.
So if you look at where this team is right now, through the lens of what we thought they would be coming into the season, are things really all that different?
The answer is, yes. In no small part, because like I mentioned above, I do think this team is better.
But now is the time for this team to put up or shut up. If it can’t right the ship quickly, then we may be in for a rough ride the rest of the season. There are a lot of tough games still left to play. In fact, are there ANY easy wins in the Big 12 this year?
The answer is, no. There are no easy wins left on the schedule.
Yes, Texas has the talent to win every single game left on the schedule … but to do so, they’ll have to man up and play to that level and not fold when punched back.
That means we need to see something from this coaching staff … and not just a lot of hot air.
A SAD FAREWELL TO A TRUE LEGEND…
On January 4, 2006, Vince Young took the snap on fourth-and-5 with :26 left in the game. He dropped back to pass but was immediately flushed out of the pocket. No problem, Vince just took off and sprinted to the right … outracing all of the USC defenders into the end zone and immortality.
I was in the press box for that game, covering the national championship for channel 33 in Dallas. That wouldn’t have happened if not for the generosity of one man.
Dave Crome convinced the news director of the station to let me go cover the game instead of him.
Crome was diagnosed with a stage 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive, fast-growing brain tumor, in April. On Monday, he lost his battle … and the world lost a legend.
Dave was a Chicago native, but he is well-remembered by many for his time covering sports in Dallas as an anchor and reporter at channel 33 in Dallas, as well as KRLD radio. Some of you may even remember him from his time working for the CBS affiliate in El Paso. He also worked as the media relations manager at the Texas Motor Speedway.
But more than all of those things … Dave was my friend and mentor.
It is not the least bit hyperbolic for me to say that I would not be where I am today if I had not been blessed enough to meet Dave Crome.
I was a young, wannabe journalist in 2000 when I landed a job as an audio engineer at KDAF television in Dallas. It was a part-time job paying $15 an hour. But when we weren’t on-air, I began hanging out in the sports department, and my life changed for the better.
Dave saw the hunger I had to learn and he nurtured it. He taught me how to write for television, how to edit video and how to put together stories and rundowns.
Crome sent me out with a photographer to cover a story and then had me write a package based on what we shot when I got back to the station. As luck would have it, an interview for the Sunday night show fell through and they needed to fill time. That’s how the very first report I ever filed ended up making it on-air in the fifth largest television market in the country.
From that point on, I became a de facto member of the sports department. I became their producer and fill-in reporter. I covered the NFL Draft from the Dallas Cowboys headquarters (back when Chip Brown was actually covering the Cowboys for the Dallas Morning News … although he wouldn’t remember me from the man in the moon). I did live shots from Dallas Mavericks playoff games. I covered the Battle for the Iron Skillet between TCU and SMU.
I also covered the Byron Nelson and had an unfortunate accident in the tent where they were feeding the reporters. I went to get an ice cream cone and when I pulled down on the handle of the soft-serve machine, it literally pulled out in my hand. Ice cream started flowing freely and I stood there, dumbfounded. My camera man had the presence of mind to pick up the camera, white balance it (to make sure the colors were correct) and then start shooting. Needless to say, Crome loved it and aired the video of me, standing next to the ice cream machine looking clueless as to what to do while an old lady who was volunteering there was yelling for someone to bring a bucket.
I absolutely love that Crome aired that video (and I wish I still had a copy). You see, sports are supposed to be fun and Crome never forgot that.
He had a standing challenge that as he walked out to the set, you could give him any word (as long as it was safe to say on-air) and he could work it into one of his scripts. It was an absolute master class in ad-lib skills. It was also something that he did just for us. Nobody watching at home knew he had just managed to work in some bizarre word (seamlessly) into a sports script. He did that so that all of us behind the scenes could have some fun.
Then there was the famous “Night of a Thousand Coats.” Crome had someone behind the desk handing him a new coat every time we went to a tape so that when he came back on camera he was in a different outfit.
In addition to being funny, Dave was a talented journalist. When the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, Dave came into the office just like the rest of us and took turns reporting and anchoring on the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history. When I think about that day, and the days that followed, I also think about a story Crome did when he went to a flag manufacturer in Dallas who ramped up production of the American flag in order to show that our nation would never perish.
I will never forget those things. But what stands out to me the most when I think of Dave Crome is who he was as a man.
In addition to teaching me how to become a journalist, Crome taught me what it looked like to be a Christian man who didn’t shy away from his faith. Crome didn’t beat you up with his faith or evangelize in the newsroom. But we all knew how important it was to him and he lived it every single day.
Whenever I had problems in my life, I knew I could talk with him and trust that what he was telling me would be good advice. I didn’t always take it … but I also think I’ve pretty much established that I was kind of a dumbass when I was younger.
Crome was the one who counseled me as I struggled with a long-distance dating relationship with a girl I met when I worked in Albuquerque. He advised me to stay calm and stay true to myself and things would work out in the end.
Crome was standing by my side as a groomsman several years later when I married that same girl (and we celebrated our 15th anniversary this month so things have worked out so far).
Incidentally, it was also Crome who, at that same wedding, very smoothly swooped in and caught another of my groomsmen who had locked his knees and passed out during the ceremony.
There just aren’t enough words in the English dictionary to properly describe what an incredible man Dave Crome was.
So I write this column today in his honor … because you wouldn’t be reading this if it weren’t for him.
And if you are a person of faith, I ask you to say a prayer for his wife Janet and their four children; Nick, Christy, Connor and Lexie.
I mourn for them. And I mourn for all of you who didn’t get to know the man that we lost this week.
Contact Austin to book your trip today!
(985) 264-5003
saltysouthfishingcharters@gmail.com
“I think everyone’s still a little pissed off today, quite frankly.”
Steve Sarkisian was talking about the reaction in the locker room to last week’s loss to Texas Tech on Monday … but he may as well have been speaking for every Longhorn fan.
Longhorn fans fully expected their team to go to Lubbock and take care of business in a matter of fact sort of way. Instead, they had to watch as it was the Red Raider fans who stormed the field in celebration after the game.
“Nobody likes to lose, it’s not fun at all,” Sarkisian said during his weekly press conference Monday. “It’s not fun for us. I don’t think any of us slept well Saturday night.”
Texas fans are pissed.
It’s not just that the Longhorns lost, it’s how they did it. Yet another lead blown in the fourth quarter led to a barrage of tweets like these.
People are questioning Sark, they’re questioning defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, they’re questioning the players … and I get it.
Texas fans had to watch what was statistically one of the worst seasons ever last year. The hope was that this year’s version would be better. And just about everyone thought the team was better after it played within a few seconds of beating Alabama.
But then Lubbock happened and all of the angst that built up last year came rushing back like a tsunami.
So why does Sark still think this year is different?
“I think we are better,” Sarkisian said. “I know sometimes the results don’t look that way but I do think we’re a better football team. I have a lot of confidence in the work that the players and coaches have put into this. Sometimes it’s easy to look at the result and say, ‘Oh, we’re not better.’ But I see a lot of improvement on where we’re at. Naturally, the consistency factor is critical and we can’t afford to have lapses in our consistency in play, in our preparation or we’ll get the result that we had.”
If I’m being honest, and I know that nobody wants to hear this right now, I think he’s right.
I don’t have any statistics to justify that this team is better than last year’s team. So if you don’t want to hear it from him or me, then I totally understand.
Yet, when I watch the team I can see all of the pieces are there for the Texas Longhorns to put it all together and still compete for the one goal they had coming into this season … a Big 12 Championship.
(ducking to avoid everyone throwing things at me after writing that sentence)
Yes, I know Texas just lost to Texas Tech. Yes, I know even Kansas looks like a better bet to win the Big 12 than UT. Yes, I know that Sark’s best win is the close loss to Alabama.
But let me just remind you of one simple thing. We STILL haven’t seen Sarkisian’s offense run the way it was meant to be run.
The truth is … Hudson Card and Casey Thompson are incapable of running this offense (and they’re the only ones we’ve really seen do it so far).
I am not making an excuse for Sark (he may not even agree with my assertion … at least publicly), but it’s the truth.
Hudson Card is incapable of punishing a defense with the deep ball. Sure, he can throw it deep, just not with any accuracy. That’s why when Xavier Worthy left the Tech game last week, the offense came to a standstill. Tech no longer had to even pretend to care about the deep ball and the run game came to a halt.
To that point, here is every completion over 15 yards that Card had last Saturday.
First Quarter:
Hudson Card to Bijan Robinson for 22 yards.
Hudson Card to Keilan Robinson for 35 yards (TD)
Second Quarter:
Hudson Card to Xavier Worthy for 39 yards (TD)
Hudson Card to Roschon Johnson for 23 yards.
Fourth Quarter:
Hudson Card to Tarique Milton for 28 yards.
Three of those went to running backs who picked most of the yards on the run, leaving only two completions for more than 15 yards.
The touchdown pass to Worthy was a legitimate deep ball that found a wide open receiver (but Worthy did have to cut off his run to catch it).
The only other deep ball to a receiver came on the last drive of the fourth quarter. Card had a nice pass to Tarique Milton who made a fantastic catch.
Every other completion to a wide receiver or tight end was for 15 yards or less which allowed Tech’s safeties to play shallow and pretty much shut down the running game in the second half.
With no deep ball and no run game, this is what the second half drive chart looked like.
RESULT, PLAYS, YARDS, TIME OF POSSESSION
Downs (4, plays, 8 yards, 1:50)
TD (8 plays, 75 yards, 3:49)
Punt (3 plays, 2 yards, 1:29)
Punt (3 plays, 0 yards, :55)
Punt (5 plays, 17 yards, 2:28)
FG (4 plays, 46 yards, :21)
OVERTIME
Fumble (1 play, 0 yards)
TOTAL:
10 points, 28 plays, 148 yards, (10:52)
Meanwhile, this was Texas Tech's second half drive chart.
RESULT, PLAYS, YARDS, TIME OF POSSESSION
Downs (4 plays, 5 yards, :22)
FG (15 plays, 59 yards, 4:32)
TD (10 plays, 75 yards, 2:32)
Downs (13 plays, 66 yards, 5:08)
TD (5 plays, 30 yards, 1:29)
FG (11 plays, 56 yards, 5:05)
OVERTIME
FG (5 plays, 23 yards)
TOTAL:
23 points, 63 plays, 314 yards, 19:08
Texas’s offense couldn’t stay on the field in the second half, leaving the defense out there for a whopping 63 plays.
Again, I’m not making excuses. The defense could have helped itself by stopping more of those fourth down plays. But I’ve got news for you, any defense is going to struggle if it has to defend 63 plays in one half.
Of course, Texas’s defense could have helped itself by actually making a few more tackles. Multiple times Donovan Smith trucked Longhorns defenders to pick up additional yardage on fourth downs when the initial contact would have taken him down short of the marker.
In all, Texas defenders missed 16 tackles last week. (Thanks to @Alex Dunlap for all of the time he logs in the basement.)
The defense better remember how to tackle this week because West Virginia’s running backs pack a punch.
The one benefit the Horns have going for them this week is that JT Daniels, unlike Smith or UTSA QB Frank Harris, is that Daniels is not a running quarterback. I’m fairly convinced that the mobile QBs are the ones who give the Longhorn defense the biggest problems.
I suspect, without any proof, that the defense will look much better this week against JT Daniels than it’s looked the last two weeks.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire has already accomplished something that Sarkisian has yet to achieve himself…a win over a top 25 opponent. But to do it, all he had to do was follow the game plan laid out against Texas last year. It’s what enabled him to stand in the locker room after the game and say this;
Now is when we find out if the culture change that Sarkisian talked about so much this summer is real or if it was just hot air.
It’s easy for teams to play well when things are going well. But now we get to see how the Longhorns respond to adversity.
“Everybody needs to create a mindset of just dominance,” said star running back Bijan Robinson. “You can’t let anything like that happen again.”
It’s important to remember that this is still a young roster and this was the first true road game for many of the players.
You have to give Tech fans credit, they made a difference.
“We were just letting things get in our heads,” said tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders. “Miscommunications, letting the fans or the crowd noise affect us on both sides of the ball.”
A lot of what happens the rest of the way will depend on the health of Quinn Ewers and Xavier Worthy.
I suspect there will be some good news on that front.
“Quinn is a tough player, for sure,” said Sanders. “If he wants to come back this week, he’s gonna be ready, for sure.”
DID LAST WEEK’S LOSS REALLY CHANGE ANYTHING?
I came into this season without predicting a season total win/loss record. I just couldn’t go game by game and figure out which game would likely be a win and which game would likely be a loss. In fact, I even said on one of the Modcasts, that outside of the first two games, I could see Texas winning every single game on the schedule and I could see them losing every single game on the schedule.
@Ketchum actually did predict before the season started that Texas would lose in Lubbock. His reasoning, which was definitely sound, was that Texas would be making its first road trip and Lubbock is always a tricky place to play.
So if you look at where this team is right now, through the lens of what we thought they would be coming into the season, are things really all that different?
The answer is, yes. In no small part, because like I mentioned above, I do think this team is better.
But now is the time for this team to put up or shut up. If it can’t right the ship quickly, then we may be in for a rough ride the rest of the season. There are a lot of tough games still left to play. In fact, are there ANY easy wins in the Big 12 this year?
The answer is, no. There are no easy wins left on the schedule.
Yes, Texas has the talent to win every single game left on the schedule … but to do so, they’ll have to man up and play to that level and not fold when punched back.
That means we need to see something from this coaching staff … and not just a lot of hot air.
A SAD FAREWELL TO A TRUE LEGEND…
On January 4, 2006, Vince Young took the snap on fourth-and-5 with :26 left in the game. He dropped back to pass but was immediately flushed out of the pocket. No problem, Vince just took off and sprinted to the right … outracing all of the USC defenders into the end zone and immortality.
I was in the press box for that game, covering the national championship for channel 33 in Dallas. That wouldn’t have happened if not for the generosity of one man.
Dave Crome convinced the news director of the station to let me go cover the game instead of him.
Crome was diagnosed with a stage 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive, fast-growing brain tumor, in April. On Monday, he lost his battle … and the world lost a legend.
Dave was a Chicago native, but he is well-remembered by many for his time covering sports in Dallas as an anchor and reporter at channel 33 in Dallas, as well as KRLD radio. Some of you may even remember him from his time working for the CBS affiliate in El Paso. He also worked as the media relations manager at the Texas Motor Speedway.
But more than all of those things … Dave was my friend and mentor.
It is not the least bit hyperbolic for me to say that I would not be where I am today if I had not been blessed enough to meet Dave Crome.
I was a young, wannabe journalist in 2000 when I landed a job as an audio engineer at KDAF television in Dallas. It was a part-time job paying $15 an hour. But when we weren’t on-air, I began hanging out in the sports department, and my life changed for the better.
Dave saw the hunger I had to learn and he nurtured it. He taught me how to write for television, how to edit video and how to put together stories and rundowns.
Crome sent me out with a photographer to cover a story and then had me write a package based on what we shot when I got back to the station. As luck would have it, an interview for the Sunday night show fell through and they needed to fill time. That’s how the very first report I ever filed ended up making it on-air in the fifth largest television market in the country.
From that point on, I became a de facto member of the sports department. I became their producer and fill-in reporter. I covered the NFL Draft from the Dallas Cowboys headquarters (back when Chip Brown was actually covering the Cowboys for the Dallas Morning News … although he wouldn’t remember me from the man in the moon). I did live shots from Dallas Mavericks playoff games. I covered the Battle for the Iron Skillet between TCU and SMU.
I also covered the Byron Nelson and had an unfortunate accident in the tent where they were feeding the reporters. I went to get an ice cream cone and when I pulled down on the handle of the soft-serve machine, it literally pulled out in my hand. Ice cream started flowing freely and I stood there, dumbfounded. My camera man had the presence of mind to pick up the camera, white balance it (to make sure the colors were correct) and then start shooting. Needless to say, Crome loved it and aired the video of me, standing next to the ice cream machine looking clueless as to what to do while an old lady who was volunteering there was yelling for someone to bring a bucket.
I absolutely love that Crome aired that video (and I wish I still had a copy). You see, sports are supposed to be fun and Crome never forgot that.
He had a standing challenge that as he walked out to the set, you could give him any word (as long as it was safe to say on-air) and he could work it into one of his scripts. It was an absolute master class in ad-lib skills. It was also something that he did just for us. Nobody watching at home knew he had just managed to work in some bizarre word (seamlessly) into a sports script. He did that so that all of us behind the scenes could have some fun.
Then there was the famous “Night of a Thousand Coats.” Crome had someone behind the desk handing him a new coat every time we went to a tape so that when he came back on camera he was in a different outfit.
In addition to being funny, Dave was a talented journalist. When the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, Dave came into the office just like the rest of us and took turns reporting and anchoring on the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history. When I think about that day, and the days that followed, I also think about a story Crome did when he went to a flag manufacturer in Dallas who ramped up production of the American flag in order to show that our nation would never perish.
I will never forget those things. But what stands out to me the most when I think of Dave Crome is who he was as a man.
In addition to teaching me how to become a journalist, Crome taught me what it looked like to be a Christian man who didn’t shy away from his faith. Crome didn’t beat you up with his faith or evangelize in the newsroom. But we all knew how important it was to him and he lived it every single day.
Whenever I had problems in my life, I knew I could talk with him and trust that what he was telling me would be good advice. I didn’t always take it … but I also think I’ve pretty much established that I was kind of a dumbass when I was younger.
Crome was the one who counseled me as I struggled with a long-distance dating relationship with a girl I met when I worked in Albuquerque. He advised me to stay calm and stay true to myself and things would work out in the end.
Crome was standing by my side as a groomsman several years later when I married that same girl (and we celebrated our 15th anniversary this month so things have worked out so far).
Incidentally, it was also Crome who, at that same wedding, very smoothly swooped in and caught another of my groomsmen who had locked his knees and passed out during the ceremony.
There just aren’t enough words in the English dictionary to properly describe what an incredible man Dave Crome was.
So I write this column today in his honor … because you wouldn’t be reading this if it weren’t for him.
And if you are a person of faith, I ask you to say a prayer for his wife Janet and their four children; Nick, Christy, Connor and Lexie.
I mourn for them. And I mourn for all of you who didn’t get to know the man that we lost this week.
