untgirl04

To my seats, please add the names forevereagle (husband) and UNTFan23 (bro-in-law).

Mr. Chopsticks? Really? I'll give them that Recycled Books is an awesome store, but.... How did the writer come up with this?

I don't think Kelvin Martin was still the WR coach when Brent was looking at North Texas.

Just for fun, let's do a Photoshop contest, FARK style... As posted in a previous thread, most advertising groups provide their clients with multiple campaign ideas, then let them choose the best. So if "Pony Up" was the best offering from the Richards Group, let's see the campaign ideas that didn't win. I'll start things off... Why all the bullemic girls go to the SMU games. (picture idea by forevereagle)

My husband and I went to the game in 2002(?), and they scatter shot us then. I think that's a common practice at Zero-U.

Oh, I don't think he should start. But at some point you have to just throw him in there, close your eyes, and hope it works. Here's my line of thinking: true, the OK game will be tough, but there's no pressure to win. Mind you, I'm not saying that Todd Dodge doesn't want us to win or that he won't do everything in his power to give us the chance, but alumni, the university, and the media don't really give us much of a chance. For the SMU game, there's a totally different philosophy. Beating SMU is important for recruiting, important for our own team confidence, and is against a CUSA opponent against whom a win can provide conference prestige (a win against OU probably does more there, but again, we could improve conference/team prestige just by keeping it close with OU). With that being said, if TD doesn't play Vizza against OU, and starts DM, Tune, Phillip, or Wilson against SMU and it's a close game, would he really pull the starter just to give Vizza some PT? That would go against what he said about not having the starter looking over his shoulder all season. So then, you have to look to FAU. Since it's a conference game and we've never actually beaten them, if the game is close, would he put Vizza in, again, just to get some PT? So what I'm saying is that if TD decides to burn Vizza's 'shirt, it makes sense to just put Vizza into the game at some point during OU, rather than bank on North Texas pulling out wide-margin victories against the next few opponents. Now, if we are in the game in the fourth quarter against OU, I think TD could safely assume that we'll be able to put up numbers on the board against SMU, and I could see him saving Vizza's first appearance until SMU.

Based on what everyone is saying about how Vizza seems to handle pressure, it might be a really good idea to put him in against OU. If nothing else, it's a great measuring stick: If you can keep your head against OU, then you should have no problems with any other teams. And without a doubt, I know that Todd Dodge expects us to be playing in some pretty big games in the future, so might as well break the QB in.

While A-Rod is a mercenary and a jerk, I doubt he's on steriods, given the consistency of his performance. Barry*, however, went from a skinny little guy with a solid swing (she grudgingly admits) to a freakishly disproportionate meatbag with a volatile temper and a soprano voice. If I were a Major League pitcher, I would have intentionally walked Barry* for the rest of the year.

Having experienced the "festival parking" in previous years (the reason we wanted the Blue Lot this year - to avoid that mess) all festival parking does it create more concerns. The way they have everything set up, the heat from the smokers and the sun gets trapped under all the tents packed in so tightly, and if an ambulance or fire truck were to ever need to get to someone in the middle of the row, they'd end up having to cart most of the row off to the hospital. After the first year of this, I e-mailed my concerns to RV, but nothing ever came of it.

I would applaud South Carolina if they hadn't caved on the issue.

Spoke to Todd Dodge last night (one of the most personable people you could ever hope to meet), and he seemed very excited about the start of the season. The players also seemed quite excited about getting underway.

We're in Section F, Row 34, Seats 9-11 and Section F, Row 35, Seats 9-12 (I think). We've been there for the last few years (we're loud, but not the ones yelling "Go Mean Black") and although a little ways from the field, we have a good angle.

Welcome to the board. A few years back, North Texas did a study to determine whether or not we could renovate Fouts. They found out that because of the water table, it is impossible for us to lower the field.

Don't forget the announcers totally dropping the ball on mentioning North Texas when talking about the top ten high schools teams for next season. Okay, so maybe I'm a North Texas homer, but it seems just natural to mention that although Southlake Carroll is in the number one spot, they've got a new coach due to their former coach of note taking the head position at NORTH TEXAS. *sigh* When does the season start?

This is just my theory on the subject, but when Dr. Bataille did her tour around the world, I doubt she was just selling North Texas academics.

While they're at it, they should hire a proofreader for all official communications...

I wouldn't say that those season tickets are steep. Perhaps if you include the $500 MGC donation, it's more than the casual fan wants to spend. However, ticket prices at North Texas are still considerably lower than in other D-1A programs. A good friend of mine is an Aggie alum, and his single-game tickets are somewhere around $80 apiece!

I'm with you on Doug Melvin. John Hart did a terrible job.

I think Fernando Tatis might be out of baseball right now (or at least not on a major league roster), but he certainly was a beast. What we really need is to get back Chris Young and Francisco Cordero. Watching Rangers' pitching is like watching a train wreck.

I was a student when we played Oklahoma in '02, and I seem to remember that they did set aside a certain number of tickets for the students. I would stay up-to-date with the ticket office and get the tickets as soon as you're able, however.

I think you're underestimating the number of Mean Green faithful. There are plenty of very active fans who don't read this board daily. For instance, our gameday tailgate has typically 15-20 regulars, and only about 3 of them (myself included) actually post on this board. From my experiences with getting fans to games, what really brings them in is the before-game experience, which is where we can all have an impact. Food is typically the quickest way to garner interest, and many members of this board have been feeding students for years. The second thing is general friendliness. We've had many opposing fans come up to us during the tailgating and compliment us on such a nice atmosphere. It stands to reason that if a school gets a reputation outside of the city that it's a great place to spend a few hours on the weekends, that reputation will grow within the city as well. I doubt anyone here is saying that the traditions you listed above are gimmicks. But many of your suggestions were. A gimmick is something done once to get people in the door. It's not a "tradition" to aution off free tuition or books or something to students at the end of each quarter (this may have been someone else's idea). If the school did that, half the student body would attend classes for free (yes, that's an exaggeration, but you see my point...). It's not a "tradition" to yell when we're driving inside the 15 because, as has been pointed out several times, the offense needs to hear the snap counts...unless you'd like it to be a tradition that we always have 3 false starts and a bad route every time we're in the red zone. And actually, the Athletic department did print stuff on towels and hand them out. In 2002 when Brandon Kennedy was up for a couple of awards, they printed "Booger" towels. I still carry mine to every game, but the idea never really stuck. And actually, traditions can get started when 50 people (or less) do something. The First Down chant that you hate so much is an example of that. I agree that organized attempts are best, but even if it's just everyone on GMG getting together, we can still get things started. In fact, Rick, I think it would be a great idea for us all to start using your chant for the kickoffs. We've got some fans on the students side, and even more on the alumni side. It'll be harder to coordinate, but usually, if some people start yelling something, lots of other people join in just to fit in. Finally, it doesn't matter whether or not another school has a tradition we share. Those traditions didn't happen because someone started griping about how their school needed a new tradition, but rather someone in the heat of the moment took some action.

+1

*sigh* I'd like to see those "lot of people" who think Dickey's heart attack was because he was coaching at North Texas. Most likely (and he'd probably agree with me here, based on statements he made shortly after the heart attack), Dickey's heart attack was the result of being overweight and having several other unhealthy habits. While I will agree that he most likely did experience some stress from coaching at North Texas, have you ever heard of a high profile, stress-free job? Yes, the timing was somewhat unfortunate, but I really don't see this major PR hit you're talking about. Yes, we were on the news for several weeks about the firing, but since we've hired Todd Dodge, where are all the media mongers, ranting about Dickey's unfair treatment? I'll bet half the casual fans you poll about North Texas football hardly even remember the incident. I didn't realize you spoke for Dodge, but thank you for outlining his two major expectations here at North Texas. Forget the joy of building a program into a national powerhouse, or rejuvenating a lackluster fan base, or staying close to family, or proving that his brand of offense can be highly successful in college - all Todd Dodge wants is a stadium and a new conference.

The important thing is not whether or not we think Riley could have played at UT. The important thing is that Riley felt that he had a better opportunity at North Texas. Keep in mind, Riley was recruited as an athlete, not a QB. UT wasn't even guaranteeing him an opportunity to tryout for the QB position. At least at North Texas, he'll have that opportunity.

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