Thanks for the outstanding post, SLX. You have always been one of our best on these boards. It is great to see another fine offering.
As usual, your post articulated many of my thoughts, particularly:
* Despite his outrageous physical gifts, Vince's greatest attributes are the intangibles: competetive spirit, willingness to do whatever it takes, charisma in the locker room. The "Vince vibe" makes everyone around him better.
* This was going to happen for Vince in the NFL. The only surprise is how soon.
* After a decade of utter apathy, I too am once again interested in the NFL because of you-know-who. It is a pleasure watching "the man do what he does" as Justin Blalock aptly described after the Rose Bowl.
* I count myself privileged to have been a Texas fan and have a player like Vince come to Austin. He will continue to make us proud for the rest of his life.
* Vince's legacy will continue in Austin for years to come in ways over and above recruiting. As an example, I think Colt McCoy reaped benefit this season from the previous year of watching and working with Vince, particularly in his summer work which reportedly put him past Jevan Snead in their competition for the QB job. He lacks many of VY's physical gifts but his poise, resourcefulness and resiliency are reminiscent of his predecessor. Certainly Colt brought some of those qualities with him. His time wih Vince had to help in bringing them out way sooner than most other players.
That resiliency seemed to spread to the whole team. Despite the losses at the end of the season, I will remember this year's team for those qualities. Despite crippling injuries and questionable schemes on both sides of the ball, they found ways to win in Lincoln, Lubbock and again yesterday in San Antonio in what easily could have been deflating losses.
Before Vince, Texas tended to fold a bit when things went wrong. That is no longer true and I give a lot of the credit for changing the team's culture in that way to Vince. That is the quality that I hope to see endure.