My favorite thing about Malik Jefferson has nothing to do with his ability to make sideline-to-sideline plays on the football field.
Or his ability to rush the passer.
Or anything related to him putting on a helmet and pads.
No, it turns out the thing that Jefferson provides me the most has nothing to do with the exhilaration that brings us all together on Saturdays. Instead, it has everything to do with the rest of the days that we all live together and navigate life in a very complicated world.
Malik Jefferson gives me hope at a time when I feel like that four-letter word is needed the most.
In the last few weeks alone in college football, we’ve seen an up-close look at one of the worst college/NCAA scandals and cover-ups just 100 miles down the road from Austin, indications that Joe Paterno protected an animal over children for at least a quarter-century and everywhere you look are cheats, liars and enablers of the worst kind. The sludge seems so sick that I’ve even questioned my choice in life to engage in a life’s work that takes advantage of the same passion that often bears so much responsibility in so many of these ugly situations.
Earlier this week, I was putting together a show sheet for two hours of radio and realized as I was writing it all down that every single segment was full of some sort of college football ugliness and none of it was actually related to something on the field. And right when I’m ready to scream, “No more!”, Jefferson is there to remind me of the best parts of my job.
It’s him taking pictures with others or showing kindness to a smiling child that glowingly looks up to him.
It’s him always seeming to lift up his teammates with words of encouragement or kindness.
It’s him wrapping his arms around the word “potential” and turning it into realization.
One of the best things about my job is watching kids change their lives through this little game that we all love to obsess over, knowing that years and years of hard work can eventually translate into a life forever changed. Yet, when I talk about Jefferson’s “potential” being realized, I’m speaking more about him as a man than athlete. In this time of division and conflict in our country, it’s refreshing to see someone like Jefferson engaged in discussions and working to be part of the solutions in this world that is in dire need of a few.
In all, Jefferson is just a really good young man that seems to genuinely cares about people… all people. We’re in an age when everyone can be so angry and mean on social media, yet I can’t ever remember seeing him write something that would make me cringe.
I hope I’m not putting too much pressure on the kid in writing this, but he should feel zero pressure because all he needs to do is keep being himself.
Stay gold, Malik. We like you just the way you are.
No. 2 – My question for Charlie Strong at Big 12 Media Day...
“Coach, after two seasons of sub .500 football, can you set the bar for success for the upcoming season right now and tell us how many wins would define a successful season? Obviously, the obvious answer is all of them, but what’s the real answer? What is the minimum bar for success in your mind, so that we all have an idea of how to follow the season as it unfolds?”
No. 3 – Advice for Sterlin Gilbert...
At some point during the pre-season or during the season, Texas offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert is going to be asked about his thoughts on his mentor Art Briles.
Although he certainly hasn’t asked for my advice on what to say, I’m going to give it to him anyway.
“No comment.”
Period.
While his instinct might be to defend Briles, like so many others that have worked under the former Texas high school coach, Gilbert needs to stay out of the fray. There’s nothing to gain at all in any comment made and there’s enough on his plate this season in his first season in Austin without adding any kind of added pressure.
Don’t defend him. Don’t claim he’s misunderstood. Don’t tell us there’s another side to him.
Frankly, if Art isn’t willing to come out of the shadows to speak for himself and answer some critical questions, he doesn’t deserve to have others attempt to do it for him.
No. 4 – Ryan Newsome’s departure proves patience is not a virtue...
If a college football player transfers in the woods when he can’t crack the two-deep, does it make a sound?
Barely a year removed from his arrival, Newsome’s name has been on the transfer-watch list seemingly as soon as he signed with the Longhorns last February. Unable to make a dent as a true freshman last fall and unable to create a true niche for himself coming out of the spring, Newsome made the decision that we’re likely going to see more of in the next year.
The bottom line in college football in 2016 is that if a kid can’t meet unrealistic goals early in his career, he’s likely going to transfer as soon as the depth chart seems too high to climb. Now this isn’t the only layer to the decision, but the fact that Newsome wasn’t projected to play a lot this season did have a big part to play, as the news of his unhappiness lingered in the grapevine for the last couple of months.
With enough wide receivers on the roster to go three-deep in five-wideout sets, there’s just not enough reps and balls to go around for this many players. It’s a game of survival of the fittest and those that can’t be the fittest will likely transfer to a school that gives them a second game of survival to play.
If there’s a silver lining to losing Newsome, It’s that it should open up even more reps to incoming freshman Devin Duvernay, who everyone is itching to give the ball once the team reports.
Transfers are part of the current landscape in college football and when you have 60 sophomores and freshmen on the roster (make that 59 after today), something has to give.
On Sunday, it was the former star from Aledo.
No. 5 – Buy or sell …
(As always, all of these questions were submitted by actual Orangebloods subscribers.)
BUY or SELL: If Malik Jefferson plays the way we all expect him to play this year and next, he still comes back for his senior year?
(Sell) I view Jefferson as a guy that is a serious candidate to depart for the NFL after the 2017 season, as should everyone. Enjoy him while he’s here.
BUY or SELL: The Cal game will set the tone for the upcoming season and tell us where the Longhorns are in the rebuild process?
(Buy) Whatever happens in the Notre Dame game happens, but how this team responds in the very next game that matters (its first road game) will be very telling.
BUY or SELL: The Longhorns will have a better than .500 record against their in-state rivals AND Oklahoma this season and finish with a bowl win that has us drooling for next year and administers a ball whack in recruiting that causes a shockwave that shifts the moon in its orbit?
(Sell) I’ll give the Longhorns two out the four games involving Oklahoma, TCU, Baylor and Texas Tech, but I can’t give them three.
BUY or SELL: Fans and media being too quick to write off Heard as the starting QB in the first game?
(Sell) I don’t want to say there’s zero chance that he starts the opening game, but I’m pretty comfortable giving him about a 3.3-percent chance.
BUY or SELL: It is not as significant an issue as it once was that we do not have an impact TE player now that we have switched to this offensive scheme?
(Buy) You’d love to have an OJ Howard is you can get one, but this offense doesn’t need that guy to survive and thrive.
BUY or SELL: The Notre Dame game, if we win, will mark the largest and most excited crown ever to rock DKR Memorial Stadium?
(Sell) Come on, man, I know it’s been a while since the stadium is rocked, but let’s not act like a Texas crowd has never seen a big-time win.
BUY or SELL: Major Tennison made a smart move?
(Buy) The smart move is to do what’s best for him and he seems to be doing that. Wish him nothing but the best moving forward.
BUY or SELL: With a gun to your head, you really believe the Big XII media poll is wrong and Texas finishes 3rd in 2016?
(Sell) Gun or no gun, it’s hard for me to put this team above 7-5 right now.
BUY or SELL: Jason Hall, Dylan Haines and Naaashon Hughes are all replaced by game 2?
(Buy) The smart money is to say that it will be two of the three, but I’ll go ahead and say all three. Even if I’m wrong, it might only be by a game or two.
No. 6 – A confession on the eve of Big 12 Media Days...
I’m fully supportive of Oklahoma being labeled as the team to beat in the Big 12, but you’ll forgive me if I don’t look at the Sooners as a fearsome favorite.
It’s impossible for me to wipe away both the memories of the butt-kicking a below-average Texas team gave them or the thrashing that Clemson gave the Sooners in the playoff.
In both games, I kind of felt like Baker Mayfield was far from an elite of the elite player and that team as a whole can be had if you punch first hard enough.
There … I said it.
No. 7 – As a member of the Phil Mickelson Fan Club…
All I can say is, “Hell of a job, Henrick Stenson. You weren’t just the better man on Sunday, you were flat out awesome.”
Lefty shot a bogey-free 65 on Sunday and it wasn’t even close to landing him his sixth major trophy. As was the case when he finished second to Jordan Spieth at the Masters last year, sometimes your best runs up against someone else’s all-time special and fate treats you as a footnote.
That’s what happened to Phil this weekend. He didn’t choke. There wasn’t a meltdown. His total score was good enough to win all but four of the British Opens in history.
In the end, I found myself pushing aside the disappointment of my favorite golfer losing and feeling good for Stenson, who was more than a deserving champion. What we all witnessed was a special moment in the history of golf and of all the disappointments Phil has endured over the years, I have a hard time calling what he did losing.
No. 8 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
… It was good to see Jordan Spieth break par on Sunday, ending a 10-round spell at major tournaments where he had failed to do so. Winning at the highest levels of golf should never be taken for granted.
… If Tom Brady hang outs in Cabo during one of the weeks he’s suspended at the start of the upcoming NFL season, would the NFL world lose its mind? Does it matter if it is in the first week vs. the final week of the suspension?
… Saw this the other day about former Longhorn catcher Cameron Rupp:
.... American heavyweight Deontay Wilder fought in prime-time on network television on Saturday night and as a boxing fan, I had no idea the fight loomed until about an hour before the fight started. That can’t be good.
… RIP, Nate Thurmond.
… smh… this guy.
No. 9 – Where have all the good movies gone?
Has anyone seen a movie this summer outside of Finding Dory that they would actually recommend to another person?
If you’ve got suggestions, I’ll take them because I’ve been a very unhappy movie consumer this year.
No. 10 - And finally…
I don’t mean to judge you if you’re playing Pokemon Go, but I am.
Sorry. I’ll try to be better.
Or his ability to rush the passer.
Or anything related to him putting on a helmet and pads.
No, it turns out the thing that Jefferson provides me the most has nothing to do with the exhilaration that brings us all together on Saturdays. Instead, it has everything to do with the rest of the days that we all live together and navigate life in a very complicated world.
Malik Jefferson gives me hope at a time when I feel like that four-letter word is needed the most.
In the last few weeks alone in college football, we’ve seen an up-close look at one of the worst college/NCAA scandals and cover-ups just 100 miles down the road from Austin, indications that Joe Paterno protected an animal over children for at least a quarter-century and everywhere you look are cheats, liars and enablers of the worst kind. The sludge seems so sick that I’ve even questioned my choice in life to engage in a life’s work that takes advantage of the same passion that often bears so much responsibility in so many of these ugly situations.
Earlier this week, I was putting together a show sheet for two hours of radio and realized as I was writing it all down that every single segment was full of some sort of college football ugliness and none of it was actually related to something on the field. And right when I’m ready to scream, “No more!”, Jefferson is there to remind me of the best parts of my job.
It’s him taking pictures with others or showing kindness to a smiling child that glowingly looks up to him.
It’s him always seeming to lift up his teammates with words of encouragement or kindness.
It’s him wrapping his arms around the word “potential” and turning it into realization.
One of the best things about my job is watching kids change their lives through this little game that we all love to obsess over, knowing that years and years of hard work can eventually translate into a life forever changed. Yet, when I talk about Jefferson’s “potential” being realized, I’m speaking more about him as a man than athlete. In this time of division and conflict in our country, it’s refreshing to see someone like Jefferson engaged in discussions and working to be part of the solutions in this world that is in dire need of a few.
In all, Jefferson is just a really good young man that seems to genuinely cares about people… all people. We’re in an age when everyone can be so angry and mean on social media, yet I can’t ever remember seeing him write something that would make me cringe.
I hope I’m not putting too much pressure on the kid in writing this, but he should feel zero pressure because all he needs to do is keep being himself.
Stay gold, Malik. We like you just the way you are.
No. 2 – My question for Charlie Strong at Big 12 Media Day...
“Coach, after two seasons of sub .500 football, can you set the bar for success for the upcoming season right now and tell us how many wins would define a successful season? Obviously, the obvious answer is all of them, but what’s the real answer? What is the minimum bar for success in your mind, so that we all have an idea of how to follow the season as it unfolds?”
No. 3 – Advice for Sterlin Gilbert...
At some point during the pre-season or during the season, Texas offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert is going to be asked about his thoughts on his mentor Art Briles.
Although he certainly hasn’t asked for my advice on what to say, I’m going to give it to him anyway.
“No comment.”
Period.
While his instinct might be to defend Briles, like so many others that have worked under the former Texas high school coach, Gilbert needs to stay out of the fray. There’s nothing to gain at all in any comment made and there’s enough on his plate this season in his first season in Austin without adding any kind of added pressure.
Don’t defend him. Don’t claim he’s misunderstood. Don’t tell us there’s another side to him.
Frankly, if Art isn’t willing to come out of the shadows to speak for himself and answer some critical questions, he doesn’t deserve to have others attempt to do it for him.
No. 4 – Ryan Newsome’s departure proves patience is not a virtue...
If a college football player transfers in the woods when he can’t crack the two-deep, does it make a sound?
Barely a year removed from his arrival, Newsome’s name has been on the transfer-watch list seemingly as soon as he signed with the Longhorns last February. Unable to make a dent as a true freshman last fall and unable to create a true niche for himself coming out of the spring, Newsome made the decision that we’re likely going to see more of in the next year.
The bottom line in college football in 2016 is that if a kid can’t meet unrealistic goals early in his career, he’s likely going to transfer as soon as the depth chart seems too high to climb. Now this isn’t the only layer to the decision, but the fact that Newsome wasn’t projected to play a lot this season did have a big part to play, as the news of his unhappiness lingered in the grapevine for the last couple of months.
With enough wide receivers on the roster to go three-deep in five-wideout sets, there’s just not enough reps and balls to go around for this many players. It’s a game of survival of the fittest and those that can’t be the fittest will likely transfer to a school that gives them a second game of survival to play.
If there’s a silver lining to losing Newsome, It’s that it should open up even more reps to incoming freshman Devin Duvernay, who everyone is itching to give the ball once the team reports.
Transfers are part of the current landscape in college football and when you have 60 sophomores and freshmen on the roster (make that 59 after today), something has to give.
On Sunday, it was the former star from Aledo.
No. 5 – Buy or sell …
(As always, all of these questions were submitted by actual Orangebloods subscribers.)
BUY or SELL: If Malik Jefferson plays the way we all expect him to play this year and next, he still comes back for his senior year?
(Sell) I view Jefferson as a guy that is a serious candidate to depart for the NFL after the 2017 season, as should everyone. Enjoy him while he’s here.
BUY or SELL: The Cal game will set the tone for the upcoming season and tell us where the Longhorns are in the rebuild process?
(Buy) Whatever happens in the Notre Dame game happens, but how this team responds in the very next game that matters (its first road game) will be very telling.
BUY or SELL: The Longhorns will have a better than .500 record against their in-state rivals AND Oklahoma this season and finish with a bowl win that has us drooling for next year and administers a ball whack in recruiting that causes a shockwave that shifts the moon in its orbit?
(Sell) I’ll give the Longhorns two out the four games involving Oklahoma, TCU, Baylor and Texas Tech, but I can’t give them three.
BUY or SELL: Fans and media being too quick to write off Heard as the starting QB in the first game?
(Sell) I don’t want to say there’s zero chance that he starts the opening game, but I’m pretty comfortable giving him about a 3.3-percent chance.
BUY or SELL: It is not as significant an issue as it once was that we do not have an impact TE player now that we have switched to this offensive scheme?
(Buy) You’d love to have an OJ Howard is you can get one, but this offense doesn’t need that guy to survive and thrive.
BUY or SELL: The Notre Dame game, if we win, will mark the largest and most excited crown ever to rock DKR Memorial Stadium?
(Sell) Come on, man, I know it’s been a while since the stadium is rocked, but let’s not act like a Texas crowd has never seen a big-time win.
BUY or SELL: Major Tennison made a smart move?
(Buy) The smart move is to do what’s best for him and he seems to be doing that. Wish him nothing but the best moving forward.
BUY or SELL: With a gun to your head, you really believe the Big XII media poll is wrong and Texas finishes 3rd in 2016?
(Sell) Gun or no gun, it’s hard for me to put this team above 7-5 right now.
BUY or SELL: Jason Hall, Dylan Haines and Naaashon Hughes are all replaced by game 2?
(Buy) The smart money is to say that it will be two of the three, but I’ll go ahead and say all three. Even if I’m wrong, it might only be by a game or two.
No. 6 – A confession on the eve of Big 12 Media Days...
I’m fully supportive of Oklahoma being labeled as the team to beat in the Big 12, but you’ll forgive me if I don’t look at the Sooners as a fearsome favorite.
It’s impossible for me to wipe away both the memories of the butt-kicking a below-average Texas team gave them or the thrashing that Clemson gave the Sooners in the playoff.
In both games, I kind of felt like Baker Mayfield was far from an elite of the elite player and that team as a whole can be had if you punch first hard enough.
There … I said it.
No. 7 – As a member of the Phil Mickelson Fan Club…
All I can say is, “Hell of a job, Henrick Stenson. You weren’t just the better man on Sunday, you were flat out awesome.”
Lefty shot a bogey-free 65 on Sunday and it wasn’t even close to landing him his sixth major trophy. As was the case when he finished second to Jordan Spieth at the Masters last year, sometimes your best runs up against someone else’s all-time special and fate treats you as a footnote.
That’s what happened to Phil this weekend. He didn’t choke. There wasn’t a meltdown. His total score was good enough to win all but four of the British Opens in history.
In the end, I found myself pushing aside the disappointment of my favorite golfer losing and feeling good for Stenson, who was more than a deserving champion. What we all witnessed was a special moment in the history of golf and of all the disappointments Phil has endured over the years, I have a hard time calling what he did losing.
No. 8 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
… It was good to see Jordan Spieth break par on Sunday, ending a 10-round spell at major tournaments where he had failed to do so. Winning at the highest levels of golf should never be taken for granted.
… If Tom Brady hang outs in Cabo during one of the weeks he’s suspended at the start of the upcoming NFL season, would the NFL world lose its mind? Does it matter if it is in the first week vs. the final week of the suspension?
… Saw this the other day about former Longhorn catcher Cameron Rupp:
.... American heavyweight Deontay Wilder fought in prime-time on network television on Saturday night and as a boxing fan, I had no idea the fight loomed until about an hour before the fight started. That can’t be good.
… RIP, Nate Thurmond.
… smh… this guy.
No. 9 – Where have all the good movies gone?
Has anyone seen a movie this summer outside of Finding Dory that they would actually recommend to another person?
If you’ve got suggestions, I’ll take them because I’ve been a very unhappy movie consumer this year.
No. 10 - And finally…
I don’t mean to judge you if you’re playing Pokemon Go, but I am.
Sorry. I’ll try to be better.
