1leggedduck

I was certain he was done at Texas but the recant is already in place and we will have to wait for it to come up for trial, but when they call her to come start trial preparation and she hangs up the phone, Beard will be back. Wow!

Well, when I presented affidavits of non-prosecution in the assault/FV cases I had in Travis County, the cases were not dropped and I was explicitly told that the case would remain on the docket until time of trial and then if the complaining witness refused to cooperate, it would be dismissed. The complaining witness doesn't have to testify to the grand jury for them to get an indictment. Maybe you're just a really skilled jurist. Did you go to one of those fancy law schools up in the East?

I hadn't looked at it as a temporary problem. So the criminal trial approaches, the lady makes her deal, Beard's case gets dismissed when she declines to testify. This is before the start of the next season. So it is evident, though unspoken, what happened. Does the University keep Beard? If he was exonerated, I would be good with that. Knowing that he likely beat up a woman, albeit an apparent bitch on rails, and paid his way out; I'm not real comfortable with that. Would I enjoy a dominant basketball program? Certainly I would. But that's condoning abuse so long as it benefits UT basketball, and I'm not OK with that. Bad message. I would say slapping a bitch around is not our standard.

The problem with the "pay the lady" concept is the Travis County D.A.'s office. People believe that the alleged victim has the right to file charges and thus, unfile charges. It doesn't work like that. The alleged victim is not the compalining party in a criminal case. The State of Texas is the complaining party. If he's indicted, which is a pretty easy burden on the state, the opportunity for her to elect not to cooperate with the prosecution will not come for months, while the case slowly grinds its way to the top of the docket. That would mean having a coach waiting for trial on a felony indictment. I just don't see the University doing that. I hope Beard was merely defending himself and is innocent, and takes UT to the final four. I just don't think it will happen.

Lowell Galindo is ESPN's sheltered workshop project. I'm sure they get a major tax credit or something.

It didn't end well, but pig sounds a lot like sand aggie, right before we took what we wanted.

It's been years since I represented anyone on assault/family violence in Travis County, and even longer since I had a restricting breathing felony case, but when I did this kind of work, I could present the assistant D.A. handling the case with an affidavit of non-prosecution, which is generally a "I overstated the severity of the event, I don't want the defendant prosecuted, he's really a swell guy" affidavit from the alleged victim, and I would be told that the policy of the D.A.'s office was to move the case to trial and if the victim refused to cooperate and testify against the defendant, then, and only then, would the case be dismissed. This was more than 5 years ago, but I doubt any D.A. is going to risk losing an election because the defendant goes back and chokes the shit out of the victim after the case is summarily dismissed. It would likely take months if not a year for the case to get to trial. I don't think there is any way you will ever see Chris Beard coach the Longhorns ever again. I don't see the university waiting for a year when the outcome could be really embarrasing. I'm sure there are some lawyers on the board who actively doing criminal defense in Travis and if things are different, please correct me.

This is the kind of shit that CDC is thinking of when he can't sleep. One minute he's the guy who brought Beard from Tech and the future is so bright.......

I don’t know the solution. There are lots of ways people can be broken and still find ways to fix themselves given time, a desire to change and some compassion. Like I said, I don’t have any faith in the criminal justice system. If the result of someone’s failed attempt to reform is having something stolen from me, that’s a risk worth taking. If the result is an 8 year old girl getting fucked on video, then no, the risk is too great. We can agree that there should be a better approach to trying to help the KP watchers and child molesters change, if they want to change. But the risk analysis is simple until that is a real thing.

Generally, I agree with this. We aren't doing the convicted or ourselves any good by sending them to crime college and expecting them to somehow reform there. However, because of the vulneability of children, and the life long impact this kind of shit can have on a completely innocent human, I see this category differently. Those who have no capacity to protect themselves should be protected and until I am convinced that there is zero chance of a person repeating the offense, that person should be apart from society where they would have access to children. I don't hate the offender so much as I don't want them fucking up the lives of innocent little kids.

Not trying to defend kiddie porn fans, but I get the argument that those who have sexual contact with children should get the harder sentences, not the easier. Nonetheless, for every kiddie porn image, there’s a kid that was abused, so handcuffing both varieties to a chain link fence and one .45 round to the back of the head sounds reasonable. I’m sorry they’re “broken” and I understand they were likely victims themselves but I can’t find it within me to care about the perpetrators.

No idea if this has even a little bit of truth to it considering the source, but I want to believe the players are taking ownership and recognizing and removing the cancers from the team. That would be an incredibly good sign.

I would rather watch The Money Pit.

Aside from the Urban plane tracking debacle, who were other coaches seriously considered for the job when Sark was hired? Is Kirk's position on Dykes supported by any facts? I'm just curious who the real alternatives may have been and if Etlife was really the determining voice, or was he one of several advocating Sark? Assuming Sark continues the downward spiral and he is at risk of being shown the door at season's end (I do not think this would acutually happen), who are the coaches Surly would interview for the job? It really does look like the wilderness wandering is the fault of those making the final decision on who to hire. Can that ever get fixed? How will a decision contrary to the decison makers' decision ever count? I've read that Sark was not CDC's first choice, but I don't remeber who was.

I've got no problem with his roster building and acknowledge it was a tall order. I would not expect him to have won 10 games this season. However, there are some strange, backwards trends that I would not expect from a coach who was getting the best out of what he has to work with, even if the best he has to work with are talented freshman and RS freshmen. If the defense is suddenly "fixed" only to have the offense trending backwards, something isn't right. I don't know why the early progress has either stalled or reversed, but I don't think he knows either, and that is what bothers me the most. My speculation, which is all I have, is that he is a very good to great OC who is having trouble keeping it all moving in the right direction as a HC. I hope he can figure it out. The odds of that would also be speculation.

So at this point, we are fucked. Not aggy fucked, but fucked. Getting rid of a HC after his 2nd season would make the program even less likely to attrack top tier HC. So in the meantime we have to hope Sark figures it out, and/or it really is the roster, the number of freshmen and RS freshmen, attrition, etc. Maybe the team matures and deveolpes under the position coaches to the point they can win inspite of the HC. Worked once. That was a very special group. As for Ewers, someone needs to get hold of him quick and get him straightened out. That deer in headlights thing never works out for the deer. He is an elite arm talent who is starting to look like less than elite head talent. Sam got away with it as a freshman because Herman's offense valued him as a fullback and he could move the chains. A QB who can't throw accurately in this offense is just a wasted uniform.

I've seen nothing to indicate Jimbo would go away if the bags go empty. His bag has a contract stapled to it so he's going to giberish all the way to the bank. Only a live boy or dead girl (or a really ugly DWI arrest) would uproot him. I would really feel sorry for any other program that was so stupid as to tie themselves to that has been hack hillbilly. But again, aggy is the undefeated champion of stupid.

Being potentially the next B Rob is a tremendous compliment. Dude could straight ball. Vasek's tape is pretty impressive.

My bad; he's an Edge guy, not listed as a LB. I disremembered.

Did the 4* LB from Katy ever show us any interest? We likely have a spot for him, no?

Great get! Great timing. We have Burrell and Lefau as LBs coming in, and Walton, Gullette, and Vasek as Edge. We are going to need some portal help at LB until those guys get some reps, but the future looks much brighter now than it did.

Your point is not lost on me. Learning to finish a game would be trending in the right direction. This season needs to get better at the end for us. If that happens, and the incoming class remains intact, year 3 should be vastly improved. Something has to give on the D side for that to continue into next season.

How many seasons will it take to be able to evaluate Sark with players he recruited? O line is trending up. offensive skills is trending up. I honestly can't tell on defense although some of the D line recent and near future guys should make a difference. That, and upgrading the defensive staff should be the weighpoints, I would think. After X years of recruiting there should be upward trending. It is pretty clear now that recruiting under Herman had completely failed, and the attrition was epic. I can appreciate that being a tough situation to step into. However, there needs to be a time when that no longer applies, and I assume it would be after year 3. That gives his first class time to be RS sophs or Jrs. Enough time in to have "his" experienced starters starting and changing things. LB is a real problem. I don't know if the defensive schemes are problematic as no one seems to be consistently doing their jobs. I realize we need upgrades at a lot of positions, but how can a coach not impress on a kid to shadow a QB? The defense has to get fixed, whatever that takes. So that kind of goes back to the question I posed much earlier: what role does Patterson play? It is impossible for me to believe that he doesn't have an opinion as to what needs to be done on defense. I don't think he wants to take the job, but surely Sark is using him as a resource to analyze the problems on that side. Maybe his response is that the schemes are sound but the current group is a mixture of blah talent and thick skulls. Maybe he is helping with a DC wish list. I just want to begin seeing a trend upward. Being fair and realistic, how many seasons before you continue riding with what you have, or come to the conclusion that it's time to move on?

Aged well, huh?

Have you spent much time in the RGV?