SteaminWillieBeamin

I wouldn't trust Leavitt with the Texas heat anyhow. He has proven himself unrealiable.

By your 'what if' logic, since RV is still here, it is proof that he isn't doing an awesome job and isn't worthy of a higher paying higher caliber job. I really wish RV did such a great job that Colorado or Kansas wanted his service. All we can do is 'what if' ourselves to death. We are lowly message board minions.

JD, It should push you away from GMG, not away from the UNT program. Thicken yo' skin dude. Hugs. And some kisses. Mostly hugs.

^ this Same words are said about Dodge and what he inherited and what he produced. They should be applied to the whole picture. Calling our opinions as uninformed, misguided, baseless, blah; almost made me feel defensive of my support for this program. Then I realized that you (oh wise ones) don't know my level (or no level?) of support with travel, money, fandom, recruiting MGC members, etc. That is fine. Truely. If it helps you sleep better or feel better about the program in general, then absolutely you can pass my words as baseless or just words of anger in general. It is absurd to big time me for having your join date on gmg being 8 days prior to my SWB account. You don't know my story, but certainly I deserve some respect for at the very least being around this program for as long as you can tell by simple appearances (9 years?). As far as celeb alums, it isn't about them talking up your school. It is about being an honest non-smarmy person who can call them up and ask how they can help the program. Maybe with some appearance? Maybe with a donation of some kind? Maybe with a fund raiser concert? Maybe by coming back and just being visible for some games -- let other alums in DFW know it isn't completely uncool to support you school. But, we will never know the depths of RV's work. He isn't even open a little bit to the AD boosters -- so how can we really see the direction of this program? I can respect your blind love for the AD. You can continue to think he is the greatest thing since sliced Domino's Pizza. I won't call your opinion uninformed. We can agree to disagree.

I completely agree with this. Dodge does 70% of his job right. He tots the line, does't bitch, talks up UNT's greatness and our potential. He never moans and always shows up where he is supposed to go. He has solid student athletes and has raised our APRs to acceptable levels. He didn't produce on the field. Now, compare that list to what RV has done, and they are parrallel. Most good, just not what he was really brought here to do. RV was supposed to bring the money. Period. RV has done good here with what there was. He has monumental blunders too.

That actually validates me. We have a top 10 media market. A top five metroplex population. Triple those schools student bodies. Tons more alumni and famous alums. Yet we don't even have their budgets after 10 years under RV? That is misguided.

Be smarter than the vast majority of casual college fans and the local media. Raise more money. Capitalize on a city that is growing faster than Mark Cuban's ego. Actually grow the MGC, instead of doubling the minimum donation (so it looks like he raised more money). ...

Women's sports facilities? It is probably a result of Title IX compliance. Softball being played in the Denton public park? Where is the baseball he started promising us 8 years ago? AC? Go look up where the remaining funding came after DD's BFF Matress Mac gave his 1M. It is well documented that the football stadium is on the back of the students to get it going. Even that took two elections to pass. The AD couldn't get the propaganda correct on the campus. That isn't saying those things aren't good or impressive. I don't think the AD should get the credit though. Since you were a student in the late nineties, the school has added a few new colleges (Honors, Engineering, etc), grown from 26k to 36k, expanded the housing and campus. It is almost unrecognizable. The whole CITY is expanding, yet the AD can't capture all those new students, their parents, Denton residents and all the new alums? Has the MGC blown up with the increased of alums and students? Where is this fund raising that was advertised as his strength? I guess we do have some restaurants the sponser the games and now we have American Airlines as a sponsor. 10 years in the making and we finally have a big game day sponser. Whew. It is a back handed compliment to say he is our best AD ever. Shaq is a pretty fast dude, for guys that are 350lbs. That doesn't make him fast. RV has done some things here and taken credit for even more, but that doesn't really make him a good AD. But to answer your question, yes, FIU, WKU, Troy, FAU and MTSU all have built new ACs and fields in the last decade. They are playing with a way smaller deck of cards than us.

You can only blame yourself for graduating in 4 years. Most people take 5. You should sand bag it until next year and see if you can break that streak. You really owe it to yourself.

I know you were going for easy hyperbole, but Baine was the leading offensive player.

How many years does he need? He has had plenty of years to produce. We have lost scholarships, had a slew of atheletes in jail, been the bottom of football, passed by in conference reallignments and a we suffer from his huge hand picked gamble. He gets too much credit for the stadium and AC. You should thank the student body and the UNT administration, not RV. He is a completely mediocre AD. Schools like FIU and WKU with WAY less means and advantages, somehow have ADs that produce more than ours. If Dodge gets punished for having to learn on the job, then RV should feel the same pain. He appears to still be learning on the job too.

The "government" didn't cause the financial meltdown. The didn't cause the tech bubble, the house bubble, outsourcing, etc. I don't understand your point. Besides just being angry at everything.

I really, trully, don't get the amount of anger toward Obama. TARP is paid back, except for the 50B that AIG owes, which they are set to pay back any minute. The US may even make profit on the TARP. The GDP has risen every quarter since Obama inacted the second funding for jobs. It started out at -2% and now is 6%. The recession is over(economically defined -- not anecdotally defined). We are pulling out of Iraq and making a play to actually win the war in Afganistan. The Patriot Act is still intact -- which the right should love. They passed some Wall Street regulations to make them keep more cash in hand, so they don't need the Govt. bailing them out. So, does it really boil down to Health Insurance Regulations that were passed? Seems like the left should be more pissed at him than the right.

Maybe allowing Oliver to continue after the first batter when he obviously didn't have his stuff. He was all over the place. I am surprised he didn't hit a batter. I don't think that is mismanagement. Maybe bad timing. I dunno.

False. Laws were passed that were supposed to prevent raping poor people who don't have much credit history or have damaged credit. No one was forced to give loans.

That is a terrrrrible show. Doesn't hold a candle to Man v. Food.

That is a miserable analogy.

Wow. Harsh. I don't think I know this TTG personality.

I had it on my tailgate playlist -- but it started to get me down. I had to remove it.

Maybe it shouldn't be called the "Monthly Letter" anymore.

My bad. It was weed. DUI ..

I think the only reason Teegarden wasn't in the running is because he is a true freshman. He seems like a solid QB recruit. I don't know the story on Baine -- besides having three quality QB going into the season should be enough and they wanted his ability elsewhere for the year. I don't really follow this criticism. We are in no way worse off at QB. Under the previous coach we started a walk-on safety, then had the 4A state champ, then back to the walk-on. Then a QB dropout. We effectively had one good QB recruit and he wasn't at the top of the HS world either, but he was a quality game managing QB. He didn't light up the scoreboard or win games on his raw ability. I think recruiting Vizza, Dodge, Thompson and Teegarden should be enough QB talent in four years. It isn't like we went into the season knowing we would be starting the walk-on fourth stringer.

It is directed at those that aren't immediately affected and wrought with emotion overload. Most the football team didn't know Rake, he just recently started suiting up for practice. It is still a powerful lesson, far beyond the "life is short" "live like there is no tomorrow" "better get to know god" generic talk about death. In Lewisville there is a billboard with the graphic of some HS student that killed himself driving drunk. It looks like it was put up by his family to help drive the point to the general audience how it is a critically poor decision to drive drunk. Be sure to tell your family that you are a registered organ donor. All the time surgeons are in a bad spot trying to tell a wife that her husband is an organ donor and there is a nearly violent reaction to say it isn't the case. Any how, carry on. I just thought it was important enough to talk about and get into the collective mind.