[Green Brigade]

I have no earthly idea why the band has ballooned up to it's current size (supposedly about 350 to 400). You can make the same "big sound" with a much smaller unit (250 will get it done). And as KRAM1 speculated, you can be much more.....nimble. As of Saturday, they have gotten pretty unwieldy.

The only reason that I can think of to let the band balloon up in size is that if you have 400 instead of 250 or 300, then you have the family and friends of 100 to 150 more band members coming into the stadium to watch their friend/loved one perform.

Just to make sure I understand you.... Adding to your list of complains about the GB is now "the band is too large"? Give me a break.

[Uniform Talk]

With all due respect to you and all GB alums, the band may be getting bigger, but it's certainly not really getting any better. And it hasn't for some time. It's larger size seems to have made it more unwieldy than anything else. It has no energy when it enters the field. Both for pre-game and for half-time. THAT is what gets the students and alumni pumped up and into the game. It's the same old 50 yard mosey, both on and off the field.

Now, when they plant their feet and put their instruments to their collective mouths, the Green Brigade is pretty much without peer. But being musically superior is only part of SHOWMANSHIP AND PAGEANTRY. The Green Brigade doesn't start things off with a POW! They mosey onto the field and eventually get around to a somewhat muted POW. By then, only the friends and family of the band members are still paying much attention.

You say the Green Brigade has evolved since the 60's-early-70's, but I say that as a TRUE SHOW PIECE FOR THE UNIVERSITY they have somewhat devolved. The only improved aspect of the GB performance, post McAdow, was the development of the drumline. In the 80's they used to win national competitions AND regularly perform with the Band. Now that doesn't happen any longer.

The North Texas band of the 60's/early 70's didn't concern itself with fashion statements. They let their music and showmanship make their statement.

And if people mainly volunteer to be in the GB because of the unique uni's, then I say the the GB needs to be smaller.

I say back to the Unis of the 60's (with updates) and get back to REAL SHOWMANSHIP.

FLOURISH! FLOURISH!

I love when any GB thread devolves into SilverEagle talking about the good old day (BTW, if you read the last post as Nathan Lane in the Birdcage, the post is way harder to argue with).

I have to agree with the majority. As a former member of the GBin the early 2000's... Nick Williams is a the reason why they band is so larger and improved

[Uniform Talk]

The football forum has been a little slow lately and I know I've missed some of the ranting of the good old days...

So here are the first mock-ups of the new Green Brigade Uniforms that are going to come out next year that I saw on the GB Facebook page(not finished products... just different concepts in developement) Your welcome.

North Texas Breast Plate w/ Black Pants:

North Texas Breast Plate w/ Green Pants:

Son of Worm Breast Plate w/ Black Pants:

Son of Worm Breast Plate w/ Green Pants:

Back with Black Pants:

Back with Green Pants:

[Penalties]

I'm loving the open field tackling we have this year. All the the quick passes FAU threw last night would have gone for 30-40 yards last year when the first defender missed his tackle. This year the first defender to the ball is almost always taking down or holding on to the runner.... Thank god for improvement!!!

[Going to a game alone?]

Haha. I don't know about depressing.

Haha. I'll try to come by and say hi sometime during the game as well.

I'd say it's more networking than depressing.. I need more UNT friends that go to games. All of my UNT friends are band directors who have marching contest every weekend and my wife and son can't come to night games because our son goes to sleep at 7:30.

[Going to a game alone?]

Well, a friend of mine gave his ticket and he's a student. I'm not sure I can use that ticket, so I may have to buy one once I get there. I don't hold season tickets. Where exactly is sect. 210?

Upper bowl alumni side closest to the wings. Good seats for the price.... I think next year I'm going to try to get seats a little lower. Actually standing in the handicapped areas / Concourse is a great view of the game.

[Going to a game alone?]

True. I'm just one of those people that feels strange if I go alone. But, I definitely don't want to watch a baseball game in lieu of my mean green!

My friend bailed on me this morning as well (wife spending time with him or something). I can't seem to give my extra ticket away today. I'll be sitting in section 210 by myself as well it looks like. You have better seats?

[Green Brigade]

Watching ASU/USC game and the bands are wearing tshirts and pants on national TV!!! And the TCU band made the WFAA news with tshirts on.... So sloppy

By the way, love how the GB can play Emblem of Unity march, some pop song I can't remember after the 1st quarter, and it's other standards and still have people complain about the lack of variety.

I think Beerman should do a solo with the GB at the next home game.

[Exciting numbers]

There is a drumline in the GB, and it is already better than any other battery (field ensemble) out there. What I want to know is, do you miss a specific performance routine, or is it merely being able to say "we have our best out there"? If we put our A-line out there, and you don't hear anything different than our B-line, what then?

Maybe you'll be happy, but if the line odes not win PASIC again, where do you think they'll first put the blame?

What routines? They (the drumline) haven't done "routines" in well over 10 years. However, when they WERE part of the GB, my favorite routines were "across the heartland" and "the 747".

Here are the A-lines competitive shows from PASIC (national drum competition that UNT has owned basically every year since it started):

There are tons of videos of different years. It's pretty cool to watch, especially when you consider thus is the gold standard of drum lines EVERY YEAR since they started doing this.

[Exciting numbers]

Hear through the GB Facebook page that they had 370+ students come out to the first day of summer band. I'm excited to hear how loud they will be in the bowl of the stadium!

(please don't turn this into a GB bashing topic, just trying to share some more good news)

[Goal Posts Going In]

I guess this means we will have padding along the back of the endzone wall... Shame to cover up that nice brick with padding, especially if it fades in the sun like the conference title things did in the endzones of Fouts

[Activity On The Deck]

It's a tour of the stadium for the Green Brigade and GB alums. There is also going to be a speech by the new coaching staff and food and drinks provided by athletics. Nice job putting this together by Dr Williams and Rick V. Wish I could have been there this afternoon

[Smoothing Out The Field?]

It looks like they are leveling out the field and moving all of the construction equiptment out of the playing area. I wonder how close they are to installing the play surface. Didn't the installation of the playing surface at Fouts take about 2-3 months?

Also, did anyone else notice the sidewalk being installed on the field level by the wall. At first I thought it was for drainage, but that looks fairly wide on the camera. I wonder if that will all be visible once the turf is unstalled or if some of that will be covered up.

[Live From The Ticketcity Bowl]

The TicketCity Bowl is a great example of why there are too many bowl games. A 11-1 Texas Tech team played at the same stadium just two seasons ago against a 8-4 Ole Miss team and the game pulled in 88,175. After a disappointing season for two 7-5 teams, I wasn't that surprised to only see the Cotton Bowl half full.

Looks half empty to me...

[Field Access]

Well there isnt much room on the sidelines for the band to assemble before the end of the half so I dont think direct access from the stands is needed. This isnt Fouts that has a track. The distance from the sidelines to the stands isnt far. I think the area between the AC and stadium is a perfect place a band to assemble and that 'narrow' entrance to the field is going to be a heck of a lot wider than stairs/gates/direct field access from the stands.

Not too worried about the assembling before halftime (as someone who's marched at OU's stadium with 5 feet between the wall and the sideline), what I'm worried about is the time it's going to take to move 300+ people from the stands to the sidelines and back as fast as possible.

For example, this past year the GB usually started exiting the stands with about 4-5 minutes left in the half, got down on the track and into position, did half time, and got back into the stands and ready to play within the first few minutes of the 3rd period. Without easy, direct accessto the feild, how much more time is going to be wasted at the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd quarter moving the band through the crowd under the stadium and around to the endzone field access? (not to mention staying out of the way of the team going to and from the locker room). With the complaining that a lot of people do on the board about the music selection and volume of the band, what do you think they are going to be saying after the band dissappears for a large chunk of the game?

[Field Access]

No that the lower bowl is starting to take shape, it doesn't look like there is going to be stairs/gates/other direct access to the field from the stands. While I don't think this will be a problem for students rushing the field after a big win, I wonder what the plan is going to be for the band to get quickly on and off the field before and after pre-game and halftime. Right now the only option I see it back through the narrow entrance by the AC, under the stands of the student side and then back to their seats. That seems like it would leave the GB out of commission quite a bit during the course of the game.

Also, as a band director who's VERY excited to see some big marching contests use the new stadium, I've really excited to see the sight lines from the press box (judges seats) and the home field side. I'm just concerned that the narrow entrance to the field (and the fact that there is only one entrance) might hamper the stadiums use as being the "it" place to do marching contests (yeah, I know... it's a football stadium first, but renting the stadium out for other "stuff" like this could mean big money for the school and athletics)

Thoughts?