NM Green

This is culture building.  You only stay behind the privates if you convince yourself you are not worthy of a tcu or smu level opportunity.  You have to believe in yourself to be our true self so why not aim high.  Backseat to no one. Go Mean Green!!!!!

I know it is easy to bag on RV and he deserves a lot of criticism for many things. But let's be solution centered on this glorious Mothers Day in North Texas.

I train hotel staffs striving towards reaching high end goals and one of my messages to the leaders is that they can't and should not do it alone. The leaders in that room will never have all of the answers and more importantly the creativity lies in the frontline staff of the operations. The best of the best I train find ways to unleash that creativity and quickly a culture of energy, freshness and impact emerges. Just on this board alone there is such incredible talent. Imagine unleashing the students ideas, skills and talents - bringing all of these elements together to move Mean Green Marketing and Promotions to heights never seen in my 29 years of following North Texas.

Right now on May 10th organize committees for the following:

1. Game day shirts. Look at all the buzz one upside down green and white pony generated. At USC and ASU you can buy a game day shirt for every home game before the season even starts. There is at least $100 waiting to be handed over for the "Game Day Shirt Pack," even in a five home game season. I never forget the game day shirts at LSU and Tiger fan wanted our game shirt to read - Smoke the Mean Green. Certainly you can get some creative juices going for a Viking, Owl, Red Blob - I vote for "Whats A Hilltopper" with a big green question mark, dirtybird and Miner. In the bookstores you could also buy rubber bracelets that simply said, "Beat Stanford," Beat UCLA, Beat, Washington...While your at it Committee please put together the Pennant packet with all the different schools so I can decorate my home office and tailgate tent. Better include UAB for now.

2. Away game extravaganza. I know there is already some effort here, but I am talking about the travel agency who negotiates room blocks for the Mean Green hotel. We are traveling to some new destinations this year like West Virginia and Knoxville so include tour and site data for the surrounding areas to make a weekend of it. I saw this done out in Fresno and it was great that you could contact one agency who had already collected tour data, had room blocks and airfare information for Bulldog fans traveling to their team. This was also an effort done well at Hawaii when the Warrior fans would travel to the Mainland.

3. Game Day pageantry Flags. How awesome would it look for the Green Brigade to be marching into Apogee and onto the field with large CUSA flags representing each school. Similar to what you see with the Big 12 schools when they are lined up showcasing their institutions as one. Of course we could lead with a North Texas Flag and have a Mean Green flag at the end.

4. Game Day pageantry Fatheads. The ROC student section at BYU is awesome (Roar of the Cougars) and they hold up ALL kinds of fatheads during the games. You see Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, famous alumni, politicians, mascots...during the games and at kickoffs. This is more of a basketball thing but it could work at designated times during the game like when they play that annoying 3rd qtr song - ughhh. But at the end of the game all the fatheads go down to the front of the student section for the ROC coordinators to collect until next game. I could see the Talons coordinating such an event. Also they unwrap and move the BYU flag from the bottom to the top of the stands at a designated part of each game. It is quite a buildup and something I look forward to when I watch them in person. But we need a HUGE flag that needs to be bought and maintained. We need a donation coordinate for fatheads. We need the fathead creators - We have to have coach Mac, Coach Macs glasses, Mean Joe, Dunbar, Smastrek...to name a few.

Rick could look like a savior and genius if he would simply UNLEASH the creativity of the Mean Green Nation - alumni, current students and friends of the University.

GMG

I took an unnecessary shot at tony in my post. Not cool. I agree that a change of scenery and game refining can take a player to incredible new heights. This has happened to me in my hospitality career. It can happen to anyone.

TM thank you for your contributions to our university and go get'em!

GMG

I want energy, intensity, creativity and I want a lot of it.

There are many things I like about Rick and the AD, but the marketing piece is ridiculous. You reach an age or a tenure where you just don't get as excited as you once did. You burn out and there goes the creativity you arrived with. I want some young creative marketing geniuses that stir the pot. Heck they flip the pot up in the air and then mix up another stew. My longhorn friend said he was surprised we didn't bring more to Austin. I take same longhorn fan to Denton last night and while we had a blast and he loved his cold beer inside the stadium, he sees that experience unfold.

I called the athletic department to inquire about Indiana tickets for the game I am going to in a few weeks. I was hoping for a "Beat La Tech" opening or reminder about the game this week - nothing. Dude couldn't even rattle off the prices for the tickets off the top of his head - again Energy Intensity, consistency. I asked about the Indiana game time which has yet to be announced and crickets. Again what about follow up - Mr. X while I do not have that information handy I am going to contact IU to see what the status is - what number may I reach you back on?" I mean guys this is customer service 101 and we are running that office like its a corporation in the middle of Las Colinas in one of the most challenging competitive environments in the country.

I have not seeing their best effort. I don't receive weekly digests like I do from Univ of Hawaii and every other week from UNLV. A house cleaning is in order and you need relentless enthusiastic aggressive people bugging people all over the metroplex. Thinking of energizing the alum is so incomplete. I am a sports nut and there are others out there waiting to be engaged and invited to a pretty incredible experience off I-35.

I hear a lot of excused in this thread. Have a standard - make it a high standard - ask for ideas and make it happen.

GMG

I met Dr. Smatresk when I was living in Las Vegas and he is a class act. I would love to have him come to Denton because he is passionate about sports. He was a HUGE UNLV Runnin Rebel supporter and was easy to connect with. He was involved in the community and supportive of efforts to build the Rebellion (student section, great name by the way) into a force to be reckoned with in the Thomas & Mack. The crazy thing is that Dr. Smastrek was in Hawaii when I lived a mile from UH (University of Hawaii). I was in Las Vegas when he arrived in Sin City. I moved back to Dallas last year so book it - Here comes Dr. Smastrek!

GMG