>>Figured it out. The userController was firing the index method and not login. When I added an index override with [httpPost] it works like a charm. Thanks for the help. There will be many more requests I'm sure... LOL
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>Since the view you are using is the index view, and you aren't specifying a different post action in your begin form, it will post back to the same controller/action that originated the view. If you want to direct it to the login on the postback, use the overload of the BeginForm method that specifies the controller and action: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd492692%28v=vs.118%29.aspx

Thanks... I ended up watching a series of pluralsight courses on asp.net mvc and learned a lot about how it all works. Trying to progress....