There are fans, and then there are "fans." This post is for you "fans" out there.

I’ve had enough.

Today I watched a young, tough, rising football team led by a passionate, dedicated, intelligent, sincere football coach get thoroughly hosed by the worst officiating I’ve ever seen. Scipio Tex did that issue ample justice in his post-game review – I won’t belabor it here. Suffice it to say that I believe Charlie Strong and his staff bear no blame for the result of what was laughingly called a football game at DKR today. I’m not here to write about the officials, except insofar as they are relevant to my larger point.

I’m here because I’ve had enough. Enough of being a member of the worst fan base in major college football. Because that's what we are - not each and every one of us, but in the aggregate. We aren't all terrible fans, but a staggering number of us are. A large enough number of Texas "fans" are so utterly and thoroughly worthless that they bring the aggregate crashing down. My slightly-less-fabricated-than-the-Poona-Ford-hold statistic for that number is thirty-five to forty percent - coincidentally, the rough percentage of DKR that was empty today.

This post isn't for the fans who brought the rage during the scandal at DKR today. It's for the "fans" who soiled the message boards afterwards with anti-Charlie commentary and haughtily and self-righteously suggested that we "can't blame this loss on the refs."

This post isn't for the fans who couldn't make it. It's for the "fans" who could have made it, but chose not to.

This post isn't for the fans who watch this team, understand its limitations and the source of those limitations, and continue to support it through any and all adversity. It's for the "fans" who are concerned only with the team's win-loss record and are content to babble "We're Texas, this is unacceptable" and call for Charlie's head one and one third of a season in.

This post isn't for the fans who honestly, sincerely, root for this team as it goes through the most difficult rebuild in the history of Texas football, accepting some present struggles in favor of a brighter future. It's for the "fans" who passively-aggressively gloss over every good thing Charlie has done for this program in favor of picking apart his every remotely questionable decision and then cover their asses by remarking that they "like Charlie a lot and hope he gets a chance to see his hard work pay off in 2017."

Make no mistake: Charlie Strong is not perfect. Then again, no coach is. Nick Saban isn't. Jim Harbaugh isn't. Urban Meyer isn't. Mack Brown sure as hell isn't wasn't. I'm not here to hit out at every fan who criticizes Charlie Strong - just the ones who do so while glossing over all the good he's done and keeping their support in a jar as though Charlie and his team haven't earned it yet. Today, I've already read no less than 15 times that Charlie needs to be held accountable for the missed extra point last week and the botched punt at the end of today's game. But nobody wants to talk about the fact that for the second straight week, a team full of true freshmen, redshirt freshmen, and sophomores went toe to toe with a talented, veteran, top-25 quality team.

Nobody wants to mention that Connor Williams, a true freshman, started at left tackle and more than held his own against a first-round NFL draft pick in Emmanuel Ogbah. Nobody wants to mention that before the refs got involved, Texas rammed the ball down Oklahoma State's throat seemingly at will. Nobody has anything to say about the creative deployment of Tyrone Swoopes--who can't run the ball--in a short yardage package that resulted in several conversions, a touchdown, and many fewer hits on Jerrod Heard. Nobody wants to mention that it took 2 negated Texas TDs, 3 negated Texas forced turnovers, an injury to Kent Perkins, and a phantom flag on Poona Ford followed by a pathetic technical foul on Charlie Strong to allow a ranked Oklahoma State team with a veteran defense to come through 58 minutes of football tied with Texas. Nobody wants to mention that all the officiating bullshit aside, the tougher, stronger, more complete, and better team on the field today was Strong's Longhorns - and it wasn't close.

I wonder why nobody wants to mention these things. It's one thing for fans of Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, TCU, Baylor, A&M, Texas Tech... (for the second time I note our absurd number of rivals) to dismiss the team that took the field today and the coach who built it. Rivalry necessarily spawns bias, after all. But why is Texas' own fanbase so hesitant to jump on board with these kids and this coaching staff? If instead of dropping the last punt of the game (after he made beautiful punt after beautiful punt throughout the game), Dickson completes his punt and OSU muffs it, allowing Nick Rose to kick a game winning field goal, changing 1-3 to 2-2, is the entire body of work this team put on the field today so drastically different? Because to an uncomfortably large portion of our "fan" base, that seems to be the difference between trusting and supporting Charlie and his team and turning on them. To an uncomfortably large portion of our "fan" base, the last 2 minutes of today's game trump the first 58. And all the officiating chicanery. That's mind-boggling - we're supposed to be the school where the smart kids go.

I’ve had enough of the ignorance. I’ve had enough of the blind criticisms of Charlie Strong after every loss. I’ve had enough of seeing our stadium half empty at kickoff. I’ve had enough of seeing the upper deck of DKR empty throughout the game. I’ve had enough of seeing idiots blindly spout "We’re Texas" on message boards like it means something when we can't get off of our collective asses and support the third-winningest football program of all time. I’m tired of seeing a young team and a dedicated coaching staff fighting its heart out each and every week with a fraction of the support it deserves. We bag on the Aggies, but today I admit, unflinchingly and to my everlasting shame, that they did a hundred times the job of supporting their team through tough times than we are doing right now.

Enough is enough, Longhorn Nation. No more excuses.

Pissed off because Patterson raised prices on you? I get it. Nobody likes to be exploited, and Patterson did that. I also understand that not everybody can afford to spend whatever it takes to attend a football game. But I also know that many, a majority even, of potential Texas ticket holders can afford them, and chose not to buy to protest Patterson's pricing policies. But Patterson's gone now: that excuse no longer holds water. Fan discontent over ticket prices has been acknowledged, and will be corrected for 2016. If you can afford a seat at a Texas football game and have the time and means to attend, you are not helping our program anymore by keeping your money. You're hurting it. You're hurting it because every time a recruit turns on the television or drives down to a game, he sees a huge patch of empty seats at DKR. The teams we're recruiting against sell out every week, folks.

Pissed off because of our won-loss record over the last two years? So am I. But I'm not going to bother trying to persuade you that it isn't Charlie's fault. I'm not going to bother because it couldn't be less relevant. Good fan bases pack stadiums even when times are tough. Aggy does it, and they've never been a truly elite program. Nebraska does it, and their glory days are likely over forever. Florida State and Michigan did it while they endured a full decade of mediocrity.

So take a good long look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you really have a good reason to stay home on Saturdays, or you're doing it because Texas won't win 10 games this year. Ask yourself whether you really have good reason to believe Charlie Strong isn't the right man for the job, or you're just in "wait and see" mode before you get off your ass and support this football team. Ask yourself whether fight, heart, and sweat are enough to earn your loyalty, or the only thing that matters to you is wins and losses. Ask yourself whether next year when this team returns virtually every starter, wins 10 games, and puts Texas back on the map, you'll have earned your seat - because if you aren't in that seat this year, I guarantee you didn't. Ask yourself - are you a "fan," or a fan?

If you're a "fan," I have only one thing left to say to you: get on board, or get out of the way.