joeyvee

Good tips. Thanks. The black suggestion is a life saver. We, in my small group, planned on the black Ts. Kiss that good bye. Out with the black and in with the white, or Vegas gold. Dang it. That black made my beer belly less of a big beer belly. But all of your suggestions are very helpful. Sun, heat and humidity. Chit, I will be missing these dark and dreary winters that I always cuss.

Throwbacks. I love it. I can't wait to see these. We have discussed this idea. Many thought our Battle of the Palouse, with neighbor WSU (8 miles west), would be neat if both schools got on board this event. Good for UNT. Well, now the thoughts of that sweltering heat-hmidity took a little pause with "throwback" uniforms.

Loved your account of your trips to Bronco Stadium. Your description of the temp with the high humidity fatigues me just reading about it. Maybe we will get a slight drop in both those areas? I know, wishful thinking. Idaho-UNT series is interesting to view. It will be fun adding another game to it. Your stadium is awesome. I got my tickets several days ago for the "visitors section". You will enjoy us. We love our Vandals and mix well with all opponents, except the jc (Who do we hate? Boise State!). LOL

We are going to be young in some position areas, that is for sure. Kicking game --- we have had a good run of punters, KO and FG kickers. But this 67 yard "famous" frosh is a nice pick up. He is a bit nervous right now. Needs to adjust, and I am sure he will. Your sweltering humidity is a concern. Moscow can get in the 90's, but the humidity is no factor. I guess a body wrap of the Dome and crank up the heat might give us a bit of an idea what to expect. WSU, only 8 miles west, is down the road (25 miles) at sea level, in Lewiston, Idaho doing their fall camp. Their renovation on the facilities on campus prompted this move. Now, Lewiston can get real toasty and has some humidity (the Clearwater and Snake converge there). I look forward to meeting you fans. It will be a unveiling of new Vandal program, so we are anxious. Petrino has got them focused and the fundamentals improved.

Right now, the down front seems tough. LBs are JC transfers and appear to be coming along. Corners-safeties are a question mark. Offense line needs to improve by game day. We have a few banged up, but still, a concern. RBs have good power and speed, but could get help with an improved OL. Three battling for QB. Senior, Junior (JC transfer) and RSF. All three are capable FBS kids. Receivers -- adequate with two looking very good. TEs --- solid. Kicking? Well, we have the frosh kid who made National TV news last fall (Good Morning America, etc) with his 67 yarder. (see link below) He will punt, KO and of course, FG. In scrim one, he was a bit nervous --- good outside 40; so-so in the 20-40, and not 100% on the PATs. He needs to get accuracy % waaaaay up. You run well it sounds. Right now, we all feel a helleva lot better than what the product looked like last November. Huge strides in conditioning and pride. Petrino has them believing, but he is tough love and not like Akey, who was more animated, cheerleader, sis-boom-baa. Petrino is definitely a whole new show. Hope we arrive and are ready to test the MeanGreen. Here's our frosh FG kicker, kicking his 67 yarder last fall for Central Valley H.S. out of Spokane, Washington: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgIKTJA_9kM

We are anywhere from 17.5 to 25 points dog. I believe you will see a Vandal team that is spirited and will not give up. There's a lot of new players that have added speed and depth. Like I said in a previous post, we looked great after the Bowl win in '09 and the '10 season was loaded with close losses, keeping us from bowl eligibility. It was the 2011 and '12 where all wheels fell off with off field issues and lack of team leadership. Coach Akey was fired at the end of game #8. Paul Petrino knows the UI, he and bro coaching there in the past, and he was an excellent fit for us in our "rock bottom" state. Our game with you will hopefully show us a good rebound in "product on the field." New HC, a bunch of new kids and an always spirited fan base can have surprises in early outings. For us, we hope for improvement with positive results. You will NOT see any smack talking, grab azz ing --- guarantee you it will be all business, focus and UNT preparedness. Get to know us by hitting those links I have posted above. My avatar is a pic of big Mike Iupati (SF 49ers) off of our '09 Bowl team. Sure need more like him on our OL, that seems to be our biggest concern right now.

Interesting little story on how we got our nickname. http://www.govandals.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17100&ATCLID=3734413 Our fight song has gotten good reviews too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqAlw3ruAmw

We had our first scrim. Here's a take from the Spokane newspaper: http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sportslink/2013/aug/10/petrino-first-scrimmage/#more and from the UI Athletics site, write up and stats link : http://www.govandals.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&CONTENT_ID=%23temp_CONTENT_ID&DB_OEM_ID=17100&ATCLID=209039063 Right now, our D front appears to be a strength, with our OL having a long ways to go before touching down in Denton. That said, from my observations at spring camp, a much better team overall in speed, physical conditioning and pride. HC Petrino is very demanding right now and has changed the culture back to the days when he and Bobby were in Moscow and our football was competitive and known for the next level athlete. and, our board site; http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=205 We are die-hard fans, through the good and not so good:

Here's some info on Idaho's beer-breweries. Sockeye, that is not too far from me, is the only one I have tried. Not listed, but popular in west Boise. http://www.ratebeer.com/BestInMyArea.asp?CountryID=213&StateID=12

Interesting beer names and visiting some breweries sounds fun. I am boring to most on here about beer, I usually stay with Coors Light or Bud Light. Since you open with the Vandals from way up north in Idaho, a little history of our reputation for the party. BSU (we Vandals refer to them as the jc) President called us the "nasty and inebriated culture". He went on about the perils and safety of his fans and team venturing into the Palouse, to Moscow. Well, the two schools no longer play each other. Hard feelings have developed of course. We had the early half of the rivalry in our hands and ran off 12 straight, but of course, as you know, they have a great program and have won 14 straight. But the banter is still loud and "nasty". You will see all Vandals who make it to Denton as great people who are proud of their institution. We do wear our colors well and we are unconditionally loyal to the school and the team. As we are playing Sat night, most of us will be anxious to hear how the jc is fairing in Seattle, against UW, an evening game. So, if you hear a little bark of approval from us, you know the Huskies are humbling the Donks. I live in Boise, as do many alum. It is hard, but we hold our own in the land of blorange. Loved the beer talk. And thanks for making me feel at home. Looking forward to Denton.

DE, we are in football only in SB, so with what, six to seven conference games, that means three to four trips down in SB (or to New Mexico). Texas State and NMSU have been with us in the now no-football WAC, so travel there is old stuff. Our other sports are in the Big Sky Conf starting 2014 and have one year left in the WAC. Basically, we can handle this. At one time, with UNT (I believe), all of our sports teams were in the SB for a run of 3 to 4 years before we went to the WAC. We are happy, along with NMSU, to just be Independent this season. NMSU has quite the Independent schedule of a variety of teams, as do we. We both survived that initial "scheduling challenge" going Indy.

Thanks DE. Will do the bbq for sure. We have a new HC and have things going in the right direction. I went to one spring scrim and could see a whole new culture there --- discipline, fundamentals, conditioning. He has a good infusion of JC kids to add depth. It will take time. We appeared to be going strong with that 2009 Bowl win over Bowling Green, then the wheels fell off and things got messy. I watched UNT play us when they would come up here in the past. Great school and great football tradition. We will be a much improved team, IMHO. The Independent schedule turned out nice. Then next season we are in the SB, thanks to you guys!!! LOL, you really did help us on the conference thing. Back to the SB for us and we are happy with that. Independent status would have been tough to keep. Good luck in your debut in C-USA.

I want to thank harry, greenpie and MeanGreenGem for posting on our site. I will be at the game, along with others I am meeting in Irving. I will fly into Dallas-FW on Thurs and leave on Labor Day. My Vandal niece living in Irving has all kinds of sites to see, as this is m first trip into Texas. Here is a pretty good primer that was posted by our mod, SeaVandal, today. It may give you all the basics as to what is going on in Moscow. Here's to a lot of fun, no player injuries and great "new Texas friends". http://idaho.scout.com/2/1313302.html