Pseudo Nym

Oh, and I think for Kendal Briles, the ideal situation for him is to be promoted from within to a HC spot. It's a lot different when he's been somewhere like Arkansas, done well, earns the promotion, been on campus already, no issues at all..... If people come out in protest once he's promoted into a HC spot, or the media tries to push an agenda, they'd be a little late and it would be seen as an opportunistic attack motivated by a outside agenda - hard to feign outrage about someone being on campus when they've been on campus for a year or two already, have done well in their job, no issues, and earned the promotion. That's just my take on him being on the staff somewhere and I think Kendal is deserving of an opportunity and/or will continue to prove that he is deserving, but I think it's both the most likely and best case scenario for him to get a HC position, all things considered. I hope it happens for him and for his family.

I'm good with it, but it's different being on the staff vs. HC. FWIW, I could get behind either Briles, but I'm in the minority and I'm not so moved to try and change anyone's mind on the matter. There's plenty of reporting on the issue, including two independent reports that clear him (and Baylor staff including Kendal) of any wrong doing. I don't want to get too political on it one way or another, but being in the minority, I think not only does the majority against win the day, UNT get's a lot of bad publicity on a national level, and it will bring into question those who thought it was ok to bring him in, in the first place. I think they know that and aren't willing to take the risk.

Yeah the biggest problem with bringing in either Briles to UNT in a HC position is you're going to have a significant portion of the liberal student population (and I'd estimate to be a good number in the thousands) get loud, very, very loud and we don't have a PR machine big enough to shut that down in my estimate. I think you'd be looking at national coverage and condemnation across sports and news media outlets, student protests being shown to a national audience, neither of which do we have the clout to combat or shutdown. I'd make the argument for Art Briles on the merits and beyond football, I'm referencing the two independent investigations and reports that cleared him of any wrong doing, condoning, or covering up of any illicit or sexual assault/harassment allegations, but it seems the liberal pulpit is just lying in wait to trounce on anyone who goes near him. Maybe less with Kendal but you're still going to have to have a plan to handle and manage the Baylor baggage that will follow and I think (I cringe at even typing this as on a human level it sucks) his father would have to steer clear of the program completely and remain out of sight (out of mind).

I think the over-arching point, at least how I read it from what folks have been saying, is that guys are leaving here for better programs and having success that were evaluated out of our program. If our program was having success, it would validate the personnel evaluation decisions by the coaching staff (Aune over Bean) but since our program is not having success and those personnel moves/decisions are exposed when guys play well elsewhere and questions also surround the ability to retain guys (money exceptions with the twins notwithstanding). On balance, when this happens, it highlights shortcomings of the coaching staff. If Aune was better and the team was winning, we wouldn't be talking about Bean like "what if" but only "glad he got a chance to shine as well." And I think with that, it renders the "wrong place, wrong time" as self-inflicted, caused by internal errors in evaluation, that are controlled by the coaching staff. In essence, on a microlevel I think the argument is (Bean/UNT) translates on balance as: Bean +1 SL/UNT/Aune -1

Here's a current (Updated Sept. 2022) FAQ from the NCAA Eligibility Center regarding one-time transfers: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Transfer/OneTime_Transfer.pdf I hope that helps get you closer to an answer.

This Herbstreit take regarding Jimbo/Texas A&M's struggles could be applied to UNT: "Herbstreit countered while bringing the program’s culture into the mix, completely disagreeing that youth on both sides of the ball can be used as the sole reason for the team’s immense struggles this season: https://sports.yahoo.com/according-kirk-herbstreit-jimbo-fisher-180125221.html Ultimately his point is that five years should be enough time to establish a culture that bares results on the field at a consistent high level. AKA: A Winning Culture! I think this is fundamental to the frustration and criticism of SL and leads many to question what our identity is if it isn't competing consistently at a high level (Who are we? Where are we as a program?). After seven years if you can't answer those questions (Who are we? Where are we as a program?) easily or the answer isn't positive, then is the coach even close to establishing that identity, that culture? In Herbstreit's analysis, based off his response above, the answer is no.

Just Because It's A Bye Week Doesn't Mean You Have To Miss Out On All Of Your Favorite Aspects Of Mean Green Football* *Not available at McDonalds locations outside of Apogee Stadium. Limited time offer with supplies expected to last through the season or end of promotion date, whichever comes first. If you're unfamiliar with parody posts, familiarize yourself before you complain to admin/mods, sometimes a laugh is just a laugh. Thanks. Go Mean Green!

Can't lose today boys!

I'll be going to Smoke (its a good BBQ joint and bar) next door to the Alamodome to drink and discuss the game until the bar shuts down..... if we lose, I'll be going to Smoke next door to the Alamodome to drink until I shutdown. So there's that!

Cheers to that, well put!

Vito's got his own style. Hated it when I was a student but have become rather indifferent towards his style now and can appreciate his perspective/insight. I think he does a pretty decent balancing act in his role as a beat writer for UNT. At the end of the day, "sports journalism" has been forced to move into the realm of entertainment media to survive. It's more about garnering clicks, likes, and impressions, to pay the bills and make the advertising dollars. Traditional coverage of teams/games that existed before social media came on the scene has little value now, as any player, coach, or "insider" can break news without going through a media outlet or channel.

BAD ASS....... What's the back story here? I get more of a middle-aged UNT Letterman Stone Cold Steve Austin vibe....

Someone should let them know, it's currently showing: As someone who has built and managed multiple websites and platforms on the side, it's a simple fix and I can help a little bit here: 1) Rest assured, the website was not hacked 2) Take some of the money already raised and upgrade your bandwidth/plan with your host (I think it's WordPress) 3) Identify someone on the board who has experience in these matters and put them in charge to avoid further lapses in management For those unfamiliar with bandwidth: What is bandwidth? Website bandwidth refers to the measure of maximum data that can be transferred in a specified time, usually in seconds. That’s why your bandwidth is often expressed as Megabytes or Gigabytes “per second.” The higher the MBPS, the more data is sent and received at the same time. To use another metaphor, if bandwidth is the size of a water pipe, then the data transfer is the amount of water flowing through the pipe. How wide the pipe is, determines how fast the water flows. If you employ higher bandwidth, more data (volume) will be carried. Thus, as mentioned above, bandwidth is simply the data carrying capacity, i.e. the maximum data that can be carried at any given point of time. You can read more here: https://www.hostgator.in/blog/hosting/what-is-bandwidth-in-hosting-and-how-to-check-bandwidth-usage-of-websites/#:~:text=Website bandwidth refers to the,received at the same time. #GMG

Same - I feel like if he's given an opportunity to present to decision makers, say they ask the top 5 to make presentations, he'll knock it out of the park and set himself apart from the pack. Not sure how it'll go from that standpoint (interview, finalists, or just select and sign someone) but I think he can deliver the goods for our program!

Found it, thank you!

LOL, Really? I see it's completely gone from the message board unless I'm looking in the wrong place. Oh well, gone (kind of) but not certainly never forgotten (I saved a copy to use as a real-life example/teaching tool). First time I've seen the level of sensitivity rise to a thread being.... covered up, swept under the rug, deleted, removed so quick...... Perhaps a little bit of honest feedback and constructive criticism was too on point and ruffled a few feathers! #GMG

What happened to the thread from the other day on this topic?

Our goal as a Collective is to create opportunities for student-athletes and build a Collective that will help retain and attract top athletes so how would those messages advance that effort? They don’t and that is why people were/are upset that the individual responsible for the twitter account behaved in such an irresponsible manner and called it out. We are still working with Twitter to remove the messaging and hope it will happen soon. It’s one thing to lie, but to then double down on it with a patronizing statement that “we are actively doing something to remedy the situation” is absurd to everyone that understands social media and an entire generation who grew up with it. My question is why do some of you take this misinformation, totally unsubstantiated and beat the drum one more time? Just because you don't like me. if that's the case then there is nothing I can or want to do about it. I can only speak for myself, I don’t have a problem with you as a person, at all. Professionally, I think your leadership is lacking in the areas of project management and fundraising, at times in leadership roles at UNT you have proven to be untrustworthy. This NIL Collective was always going to be challenging for many schools, particularly UNT, so the roll out of any collective for UNT was going to be a monumental task with little room for error. If you want a gold star for starting the collective, kudos to you. The criticism in this thread is specific and warranted. Shortcuts, lack of attention to detail, frivolity, poor messaging, and lack of awareness are no longer tolerated in the world of athletics or fundraising. Over the past decade, the bar has been set higher because there are more people capable of doing work of a higher standard with little margin for error; move aside and let others who are more capable with a more refined skillset and more serious approach take the reins. There is a good chance there are people on that board already who are more capable. But how do you think that breeds anything positive about this collective and its' importance? Criticism is part of growth. I imagine when interviewing folks for positions in the athletics department, a standard question is “how do you take constructive criticism or feedback?” There is nothing positive of adolescent misuse of social media when it pertains to a serious venture such as an NIL Collective. The damage was not done by those who pointed it out and perhaps had the individual in question had a track record of strong attention to detail, accountability, holding and living up to high standards, then a pass would have been given. In the minds of many who expressed their opinion, this is not the case, thus criticism and feedback was warranted and given. As long as I have started, I am going to address some other things in this thread. I know many of you will not like it and probably create more threads to demean the comments, but in all honesty it won't bother me because I know the information to be true. Really? Sure, let’s talk about you some more shall we. This is part of the criticism of your leadership, it’s more about shining a spotlight on you. First I took this position not because I love the University, but more because I believe in young people and want the best of them to come to North Texas. No one has the monopoly on love for the university or belief in our young people or student-athletes, it is shared in the most passionate way by many of this board who are also capable of holding opposing views in the best interests and paths for our department, teams, and student-athletes. I believe in the men who asked me to take the challenge on because together we built nearly every facility our student-athletes play in today. To use a word from a younger generation, this is one of the “cringiest” statements I have ever read. To take “we” not “you” stance when it comes to facilities being built flies in the face of every student that has ever attended the university. I did it because, despite your beliefs, I knew I was capable of making this happen becasue everywhere I have been in my life I have done so. And while I don't count you in that number, there are a lot of people, coaches and administrators who do believe in me and I am doing it for them. And I do love this University. Wow. We talked about servant-leadership when I was in school at UNT and not just in classes, but also in departments all across the University. It’s the refrain from one to all, this permeates “me over we”. One of the quotes that I still use today with my teams is: “A Leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done. His aim fulfilled. They will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu Secondly, I did raise money while I was here...lots of money. We convinced Ron Warranch to donate the entire amount, right at $1.5 million to build our tennis facility shortly after I arrived and we never stopped. Check the list of people who are our largest donors and you will see that they were brought on board during our tenure. Families giving million and multimillion dollar gifts to help build the Athletic Center, buy and renovate the Liberty Christain property and eventually erect Apogee Stadium. That cultivation has fueled their continued participation. The naysayers will try to say someone else did all this but if that's so then why didn't they do it before we got here. All that needs to be said here, is the degree to which you did your job in raising money, was not up to the standard of which the University Administration and Board of Regents deemed adequate. Your job performance in this area was deemed to be substandard. You were rewarded for doing your job, that’s how it works, for everyone. It was your job to raise money, cultivate donors, grow the MGSF and so forth. You were paid for this work; this was not done out of the kindness of your heart of pure love for the University. It was determined that you were not meeting the expectations of your job, including in the areas of fundraising, and because your job performance was substandard, the decision was made to replace you with some one else who could do the job better. The naysayers will say you did your job with regards to raising money and the report card issued by the Administration and Board of Regents reported a failure on your part, in your abilities, and lack of confidence in your leadership. Effort and passion was there, but the results fell short of expectations. Kinda like the Dodge-era teams scoring a ton of points on offense but then giving up a bunch on defense, the results weren’t favorable, and he was replaced. As far as my ability to lead, in under 60 days, we incorporated an organization, went through the appliaction process for tax exempt status, built a new website from scratch, created banking relationships, put together a strong board, traversed through the many steps required to run an NIL, created a business platform, initiated a successful kickoff event, developed programs and partnerships to provide student-athletes with opportunities to earn compensation, created and then offered contracts and raised a significant amount of money to meet those obligations. People with experience in this area can appreciate the work that was done; however, they would not try to build up incorporating paperwork, applying for tax exempt status, building a website, working with a bank, organizing a board, formulating a business plan, and planning a launch event as more than it is. Non-profits or animal rescue, homeless programs, community church organizations do this all the time, infect in a shorter amount of time, with less experience and have more success. There is one area that deserves recognition here and that is developing programs and partnerships as the world of NIL Collectives is still in its infancy and we are seeing many creative ways and programs in how to do this. Many schools took 8-10 months to do the same thing. Not bad for someone that, according to you, can't run an organization effectively. And when we get that $300,000 donor we will have no problem holding a press conference. Doing it fast and doing it right whilst maintaining high standards are two very different things. (I can’t believe I actually have to point this out). Finally, I am not going to quit because you think I should. As a matter of fact, I think the board should have the ability (fortitude) to see through the nonsense of hacking, and how this was addressed with a farcical lie and if it had any standards at all would hold the individual responsible accountable and remove them from the collective. Further, if the individual responsible had any sense of dignity, pride, and integrity, they wouldn’t try to pass off poor judgement, I’ll even go so far as to say a momentary lapse in poor judgement and lack of understanding social media and twitter, as anything more than it is, and take accountability for it and certainly not run out the “I was hacked” line. Many people don't feel the same way and are helping us grow. Many people do feel the same way and are also working to help us grow, again, no one holds the monopoly on passion for the University or working to help move the program forward. So now go and take all the shots you want, make remarks about syntax and perpetuate myths for your own benefit. What I would humbly ask is that you lose the personal grudges and think about the future of the program because it's not about me or you. It is about North Texas. I hope you’ll find in the preceding responses, fair and accurate criticisms and as constructive and honest feedback, void of any perceived personal grudge as I simply don’t have one. After spending a significant amount of time in this post making it about you, we can all acknowledge that it is indeed not about you. In fact, many of the views you may perceive as slights against you are more about UNT moving forward in a better direction that may not include you in a leadership role. There are fair distinctions in that. So back to passing on information. Since the Twitter account was compromised, we have created a new Twitter site - The Real Light The Tower Collective@LLTCED2022 and will begin posting regularly soon with student-athletes providing a lot of the content about the process but also the nonprofits and charities we will be working with. I hope you will check it out and also hope you will consider joining our group to help complete the already fast start we have had. You can go to our website www.lightthetowercollective.com to get more information or make an online donation because every dollar really does help. One hundred $100 donations adds $10,000 to the fund and 200 at $500 gets us an additional $100,000. Those kinds of dollars paired with an already impressive balance from higher level gifts will help us create a solid and strong Collective so important to our athletic program. If you would like to talk about a recurring gift, please fill out the Contact Us section on the site and I will get right back to you. No serious person is buying that the twitter account was “compromised”, and I’ve made a separate post explaining that. I mean, do you really take people to be so foolish, I can’t believe for one second WB and Smastresk can continue to take you seriously after this clumsy attempt, let’s just call it what it is: a bold face lie. Serious people up and down the administration and board of regents, see right through this, it pains me how desperate of a joke this has become. I expect this from an immature student-athlete who made a mistake, but from someone in your position to flat out lie, it’s disgraceful. It’s sad. It’s just pathetic. I feel sorry for you, as the respect people had for you before, including myself, is certainly diminished now. I’m sure many, myself including, will be watching, following, and identifying ways to continue supporting the University, the Athletics Department, as well as new initiatives, including NIL collectives. In closing, we don't have to agree, we just need to make a difference. Again, no one person has the monopoly on passion, pride, or wanting to make a (positive) difference for our University, Athletics Department, and student-athletes. Clearly there are many things we all don’t agree on. Let's Light The Tower and Go Mean Green! P.s. By the way, we had the box for that Garth Brooks concert "donated" by a gentleman who comitted $40,000 and two others who committed a combined $30,000. Here’s a thought: Since that box was donated, why didn’t you sell raffle tickets (you can even do this online now) for, I don’t’ know, say $5 a piece, maybe more, give each board member a goal to sell 100 of those tickets, if ten people meet their goal of selling tickets at $5 a piece, that’s taking something you got for free and making $5,000 for the collective, to say nothing of the notable PR and buzz this would of generated. Isn't that the idea of fundraising, starting with nothing and turning into something! Surely such a strong board could of handled selling some raffle tickets to prime seats to a huge concert! Instead, and now since you’ve made the point to mention it, it was used for self-serving purposes. I suppose that picture was also strategically posted by a hacker.

Man when I saw this last night, I laughed so hard with a friend who has no connection to UNT what-so-ever, I mean on the floor laughing...... Some of you may be unfamiliar with the working of hackers as it pertains to social media so I'll share why we were laughing so hard: 1) An account a few months old with so few followers (28) is worth neither the time or effort to be hacked 2) The replies in question that "the hackers" posted, two of them, were on July 28 and August 1, the only other replies since then (2) are responses with a name and an email address regarding the business of the collective and response to a UNT student athlete saying Congrats on Sep. 13: 3) The work of hackers for political motivation is to cause chaos, spread mass information, to defame some or an organization, or frame them in some way, I refer you to point #1 as to why this is nonsensical 4) In the 16 years since Twitter launched, the multi-billion dollar company has improved it's account security ten-fold and account hacking is a claim they take seriously and have taken many steps to combat account hacking as many celebrities, politicians, news organizations, and accounts with millions of followers are targeted often, 28 followers isn't moving the needle for anyone 5) Claims of account hacking when tied to one or two absurd tweets on large and significant accounts is met with severe skepticism as a hacker (or group) has a clear message they want to spread to a large amount of people (millions of people), usually in opposition to what the account or person stands for - again, no ones hacking an account with 28 followers and replying to two people where that message is less likely to be seen as apposed to an actual Tweet/Post 6) Timing. Within 24 hours of these tweets being discussed on here, all of a sudden "hacking is discovered" but not before the two tweets mentioned in point 2 (give me a break!!) After recovering from laughing, in conversation I shared how arrogant I thought it was that someone would claim the account to be hacked and that people would actually believe it. I too had not intended to respond any more to this thread as I thought it was pretty self-evident how farcical this episode had become. It dawned on me however, that some folks unfamiliar with Twitter, social media, and the "I got hacked" claim may not understand how absurd this claim under these circumstances really is. I then realized that the answer to the question passing through my mind last night of "Does anyone really think people are that stupid to believe this account was hacked?" Wasn't just "yes, someone believes people are to stupid too see through the lie and absurd claim" but realized it shows the arrogance of the individual to prey on peoples naivety and lack of understanding surrounding social media and hacking. No on likes a liar, and the claim that this account was hacked is a lie. More than liars, there's one thing I simply can not stand in life, and it's when people who know better, attempt to take advantage of people who don't know better. There's a reason honorable men (or women) fall more than most, and it's because they have the integrity and dignity to hold themselves to account for any shortcomings, mistakes, or momentary lapses in judgement. It's what real leaders do, it's called accountability. This episode was a joke from the start, with folks who have seen enough through the years to raise awareness that there are some real red flags in the areas of PR and management, and point those out to the faithful. At that point, people can make up their own minds. Regretfully, at the hands of those directly involved and with a platform to fix it, it has now devolved into a sad, undignified, cheap, and dishonorable lie.

I lurked for a few years! I would check in every couple of months to see what the "word on the street" is so-to-speak. Finally, I had some thoughts I wanted feedback on and made a post about it and got a ton of feedback from all directions, some views I wasn't expecting, but have enjoyed the candor and conversing with other Mean Green faithful. I have friends who have been lurkers for a while and see posts before I do and text me. They're passionate, have strong feelings on things, some donate, some attend a lot of events, but they just don't feel like they want to contribute the way those of us that type out posts do. Definitely a greater than 2:1, lurker:poster ratio in my estimation as well. All things considered, the percentage of opinions/view points shared on here probable equates the same in the lurker crowd. This board has a very diverse representation of Mean Green Fans/Supporters/Alumni (however one decides to identify, haters too) in my opinion; it has a lot of value in that regard!

While it's true that these collectives are and must be separate entities from the University and Athletics Departments they support, they don't have carte-blanche to behave how they want to without consequence. Once WB and Smastresk catch wind of the tweets, self-serving/promoting concert photo, and the shoddy execution of initial letter to prospective donors with many typos, RV won't be the most welcomed guest in the near future. He will be kept at arms length and monitored closely from now on which may be for his own good if it is his desire see this collective through. A statement from the University denouncing the collective or people involved with it, even expressing disappointment would be a huge blow to a collective. A letter of admonishment will probably be drafted (and should be IMO) as a precursor and sent to RV and the collective board by WB/Smastresk. While not publicly posted or distributed, it would be a matter of public record via FOIA and general records requests as required of the collective. It would also serve to put the collective on notice that any future failings in the area of PR could lead to an official/public reprimanding of the collective, and/or denouncing its association with UNT Athletics and UNT student-athletes (A potential proverbial "death penalty" to collectives). While the NIL Collectives are still in their infancy stage, managing public relations on either side, the collective or a University, is of the upmost importance. The University wields more power in this area, and has a lot of options at its disposal to rid itself of individuals it deems are undermining or harming the Universities efforts. RV seemingly needs UNT and UNT has already made it spectacularly clear, it does not need RV.

If that was an official UNT team or department account, and someone wrote that (the politics and going after people) they would be fired. Absolutely be fired, there would be no discussion. That's what the consequences would be and ironically RV, with his previous experience as an AD and athletics administrator knows this. Also, the idea that admin support would be required to avoid mistakes like this is uninformed. We're no longer in the first decade of social media, there was no "hacking" or "mistaking for a personal account" this was/is piss-poor management and judgement.

Signs point to a "Rick V."?

🤣🤣🤣🤣 LMAO.... Indeed.... Low (loathe) and behold the artistry of RV in creating the first "NIL Collective PAC" Whatever will UNT endorse his association with next?