FirefightnRick

YES! November 26th................. Patrick "The Emerald Express" Cobbs day! Rick

A very bold call at that point where ULL had it on our 10 with 2 minutes and counting, would have had our tired D to LET THEM SCORE. ULL couldn't stop us either for the most part at that point of the game. Had we let them score, (It's not illegal), we would have only been down by 3 and had over two minutes and two time outs to work with to either move down the field for the win or get within Baz's range to send it into overtime. Instead, we let them run off nearly 2 full minutes inside the 10, leaving us with 30 or so seconds left prior to the kickoff fumble. Had we had more time to work with maybe Johnny wouldn't have been so compelled to try and do it all himself on the return, which ended with the fumble at the end? Who knows? I commend his efforts just the same for trying to do just that. God Bless Johnny Quinn. Rick

That's because there was not "A lot" of people there with us to see Scott play in 2000. I predicted we would see a different offense this past weekend and we did. Much improvement since the Troy game. And for now, improvement is all we have. Danny is going to be very good for us these next three years. He faced a very tough LSU defense on October 29th and didn't once looked rattled or intimidated. He is one of our many bright spots to look forward to next year. Rick

StanR I'd say a public apology from RF would be a starter for one thing, and I'll leave it up to DD for the rest as MedPilot has already suggested. By the way, I like Guinness Stout which I would happily accept over a full $10. Rick

What many here may not realize is that RF is extremely, extremely lucky in who he chose to get into it with in the stands. SilverEagle is one of the most calm, level headed, non-violent individuals I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He's worked for the state CPS department nearly 30 years, training others on how to intervene and avoid such violent encounters between individuals. He also currrently continues to teach and train a class to future foster parents on such subjects. Had RF chosen someone who had been drinking too much and/or was an individual who stands to be a more reactive and aggressive personality with a short fuse, someone would have gotten seriously hurt, and this would have ended up as a HUGE ordeal involving national press and all. LUCKY, LUCKY, LUCKY! Also to make mattters more embarrassing for RF in this case, SilverEagle was one of the 4 guys who stood out in the 100 degree heat back in August cooking and cutting up lunch for Coach Flanagan and his team. Silver would give his shirt off his back to anyone and has been one of our more active contributors to this program over the past several years. RF couldn't have piled on a better supporter, but lucky for him, he chose Bill. I'm sure DD will do the right thing with this matter. He's a class act and demands that from his staff. Rick

To have a little over 14K show up to see a 2-5 team this past weekend was very surprising to me considering just a few of the other options people had for their entertainment dollar: Opening day hunting season weekend. Bush/Nascar race weekend(125,000 attendance reported for the Nov 5th race). Mavericks opening night vs current NBA champions. TCU winning their first outright conference championship in over 50 years(36,284 in attendance). If you think 14K was a poor showing, wait until November 26th. Some of you who are new to the program and were not around in 2000 are in for an eye opening experience for sure. God bless Patrick "The Emerald Express" Cobbs. Rick

Babb has waited three years to finally get the Mean Green monkey off of his back and he played an incredible game last night. Coach Bustle, what can you say? We have all anticipated that the guy would eventually come in and start to do some great thigs at ULL after leaving Virginia Tech. He showed me this season what he's made of by installing a brand spanking new offense this past spring, taught it to his team and has now started winning with it. That was an excellent bit of coaching there in my oppinion and it showed last night. And to the Cajuns, they have always, always treated us with respect and pure class in Lafayette. Two of their students came by and spoke to us in Tiger Stadium last week and remembered us from the previous year. They haven't seen one of their teams beat the Mean Green in 24 years, and prior to last night not in 4 straight seasons. So last night had to be pretty good for them, and they deserve it. I am hoping they continue to improve and finish the season strong. Congrats to all. Rick

Let me first say that, I was completely blown away at the show of support from so many tonight in the stands, and so quickly too. I don't know how to describe it, really? It was amazing and I was really moved. You all mean so very much to me and my family, thank you. The incident in queston. Right before half I walked up one section to let someone know that another alumn in my area was looking for him and then he gave me a stack of tortilla's. I then walked directly in front of a tall security guard that was standing at the top of our section's stairs, the same stairs the coaches and media staff travel to get between the stadium ground and the press box. I had the stack directly in front of me and in plain site as I walked past the security guard. As I sat down to talk to someone on my row I see the tall security guard go down past me to talk to the bald-headed security guard who alway's stands below the gate. Then I see the bald headed fella point up at our area. He's done it before so I thought nothing of it. The next thing I know the tall security guard comes up the stairs directly to me and points at the stack of tortilla's and states: "You have tortilla's and you have been throwing them on the field. You either can get rid of them or leave". I said, "I haven't thrown a thing, much less a tortilla". He states next "My Supervisor saw you throw them onto the field, either get rid of them or leave, I'll give you 5 minutes to get rid of them". So I simply handed them to him and said "Here, take them then.". He immediately said "No, I don't want them either, you go ahead and get rid of them", and he walked off. So everyone in my section and in other sections walked over and took the tortilla's, the bag and everything. About one minute later the tall security guard comes back down to me and asks "Where's the tortilla's?". I said "I did what you told me to do, I got rid of them". He asked, "Where are they, I didn't see you leave?". I said, "People came by here and took them with them". He got angry then and asked "What people?". I said, "People all around you". He then asked "Your going to show me who all has them and your' all going to leave, right now". I asked "Why?", I didn't have any tortilla's, I didn't bring any in and I have not thrown any?". He said "My supervisor saw you throw them onto the field, so you have to leave". At this point I got confused because no one had said a word to me before about having a tortilla in my hand, and since I had not thrown one at all much less onto the field, nor had I ever seen one thrown onto the field, I didn't think I had done anything wrong. So then I told him "I haven't done anything wrong, I did what you asked and I have not thrown a thing and I'm not leaving until I talk to "YOUR SUPERVISOR". He then said, "Then we'll call police and MAKE YOU LEAVE", which I figured, at least maybe PD might understand what the sudden fuss is about holding a tortilla is, so I stated "Fine, call PD", and he did. When PD gets there it got extremely loud with all the hollering at PD and security. The CO asked me what happened and I tried to tell him but couldn't because of the shouting and all, so he said, "Let's go, you gotta leave". So I collected my F5 and walked out. But when we got to the end of the portal the CO stopped me and said he wasn't walking me out, he only wanted to difuse the situation and get me out into a quieter place so that I could tell him what had happened and I did. He then said he would try and get a clearer view about it and asked me to return to my seat. Which I did. After thinking about it for second and hearing everyone yelling it was amazing to me at how many hundreds of folks care about the tortilla's? And of course, when I get back to my seat I find out Ramone Flanagan threatened one of our guys...ON MY ROW of course, while I was out talking to PD earlier? Someone stated that it's a policy written in our season tickets that does not allow for people to throw tortilla's any more. I haven't seen anything posted at the gates yet about it, but I looked in my season ticket information and just for the record it say's on the back of each ticket "No outside Food or drink allowed into stadium". Well, I didn't bring any outside food into the stadium nor have I ever brought outside food into the stadium. Also in the "Fouts Field Stadium Information & Policies pamphlet under "Fan Conduct" it states: Fans using foul or abusive language or gestures will be ejected, fans appearing intoxicated will be ejected and fans interfering with the progress of the game, throwing objects or going onto the field may be subject to ejection and possible citation and/or arrest University disciplinary action. I also had not thrown an object tonight, nor did I throw an object tonight onto the field. At the back of my parking ticket it says to "Please visit meangreensports.com for the most up to date game day policies", but I have checked the site and couldn't find any "game day policies at Fouts Field" on the site. I have already spoken to a department official on the matter tonight and asked if throwing tortilla's is against the rules or not? He stated there is a policy now in place to ban throwing tortilla's. He also stated that it is in no way the intention of the department to start having people hauled off to jail for it either. I think they want to faze it out slowly. He also stated to me that he did not know that it was a 17 year tradition, that he figured it started a couple of years ago and that it was only a copy from Tech. I let him know that was not the case at all. Regardless, they want to faze it out because of two reasons. One, the cheerleaders have complained about it in the past and the department has a responsibility to protect them.(and we wonder why we can't pay them to do a unified, controlled chant?). I saw the cheerleaders throwing tortilla's at each other tonight on our side, by the way. And two, the tortilla's end up getting crushed on the track and the track team ends up having to spend needed practic time getting it off, which is difficult when they turn into little pieces from being stepped on. And I'm sure they have recieved some other complaints that we don't know about? I suggested that we could possibly get a volunteer group to help pick them up off the track before we leave. A group with some blowers could do it pretty quick. And I don't know what if anything will come from my suggestion. Hopefully RV will consider it for next year. I think it's a simple solution. In closing. I'm a traditionalist that believes without tradition, we forget who we are and how we define ourselves. Lose that and you lose it all. It's been a huge struggle to help the University of North Texas remember it's traditions these past 20 plus years for me and many of you. Without me, the Swartz family and many others here on this board there would be no Model A, No Spirit Bell, No "Boomer the Cannon", and even though there is currently an AD employee who DOES NOT LIKE IT, there would be no NT Battle Flag at the games or for sale in the bookstores. And throwing tortilla's to honor one of our football teams greatest come from behind, underdog victories in our history is no different. I am the last person who would stand by and let someone from the outside who didn't attend NT tell me what my traditions are now going to be. I didn't with Helwig when he tried so hard to do just that, and I won't with this current administration. But we finally have a group in the AD dept who knows what they are doing. They are so far ahead of the Helwig days it is crazy to even think about. Game day at North Texas, for the first time EVER in 80 plus seasons, feels like a college game day. And if it's going to be such a danger to others, and such a problem for another team and a problem to some individuals in the stands who may think twice about coming back because of it, and if there's not a comprimise that can be found with the above suggestions, then so be it. I'll go and get a large nacho order to toss in honor of Corky's '88 squad. My final thought: I want everyone here to know one thing about tonight. After all of this, I did not throw a single tortilla during this entire game tonight. NOT ONE. The entire fiasco tonight in the stands over the tortilla throwing was created by one man who decided he would take it upon himself to go after me, for.......whatever reason, I haven't the faintest clue? The bald headed CSC? employee has been agitated over the tortilla throwing from the beginning when he came to that section. He has made sarcastic comments to the kids below at the railing because of it and to other kids who sit behind them. However, he's seen adults walking all over the stands for many games now with tortilla's in their hands, but until tonight he has never spoken a word to them concerning the issue, that we know of. Not once. But the most sorry part of it all was he chose to creat a lie about the situation to one of his subordinates, then unfairly placed him(the taller security guard) at the point of the chaos while he himself sat back and watched from a distance. For no reason at all he saw an opportunity to create a mess that could have easily turned very, very ugly with my 4 year old and many other small kids unfortunately right in the middle of it. And this wasn't the end of it for Mr. Clean. After the game while I walked with several of you across the field and stood in front of the tunnel, the same CSC empoyee walked by our group, and as he did, he then turned and walked backwards while staring at us the entire time as if to dare anyone to say something to him? I couldn't believe it. That's about it. I had a lot of phone messages immediately afterwards and didn't get back with everyone and thought you should know what occured. Rick

Indirectly related, but I noticed the channel 5 report tonight about "Race or Hunt". It was about the second TMS race falling on opening deer season weekend and race promoters asking Texas hunters to put off opening day for one week and attending the race instead. So this home game against ULL is competing with: TCU trying to win their first outright conference championship in 57 years against Colorado St at 7 pm. Thousands attending the 5th biggest payout race weekend of the NASCAR season. Mavericks opening night against the defending NBA champions. Opening day deer hunting season. You would think that anytime we talk to the media we would take the opportunity to sell the Mean Green program in a positive light, thus giving the general football fan something encouraging to come see? Rick

Personally, there is zero reason the bonfire cannot go on as continued if it is watched correctly. I have never understood why the riffs between the university and the county and city fire marshalls have existed and why the two have never worked out a plan. The university should offer to pay the city the overtime to have a continued two man, 12 hour watch on a brush truck following the lighting. The unviversity can add extra precaution by doing extra mowing and then have a watch placed on it afterward. they could go even further by having the surrounding area watered down by using the water from the pond as a supply. That's all that is needed. Do whatever it takes to get it done and safely continue the tradition. The entire location north of the bonfire is surrounded by short grass, concret, pavement and freeway. To the south is short grass with plenty of access. To the east of it is a lake, and to the west is a paved road with plenty of access on both sides. Forestry officials have to do controlled backburns to help bring some of the worst wildland fires under control. Nothing in or around the area of the bonfire is remotely similar to that level of concern, especially if like most years, the light breeze is out of the south. For there to be a true concern of it getting out of hand the grass would have to be 6 feet high which it isn't, there would have to be extreme high winds and everyone within eyesight would have to be asleep for anything to have a chance, which is where the brush truck comes into play. The fire marshalls throw this redflag up EVERY damn year at this time. Their last ban on the bonfire was goofy and this is no different. It's my theory that their all aggies. Rick

I'd like to see the response on the truck fleet manager's face if I walk in and ask if I can order the F150 Mean Green '06 Limited Edition while handing him my Credit Union's completed loan application for $30,000? Rick

That's pretty cool Perry. Rick

I've got some if you can find me prior to the game. Rick

JohnDenver I'll second that. Rick

LOL, my Bushism for the day. Rick

Brad and I with Baton Rouge FF's FFR vs LSU fans pose down. Tiga Bait!, Tiga Bait! You gotta love their T Shirts. Talk about Tiga Bait? Road Warriors...Thank you for flying Owen's Air, we will be cruising at an altitude of.... LSU's Mike V, the Tiger passes by before game. Great hat, but no, I can't trade ya! Notice the Purple sky in the background. Beautiful! FFR and Road Warriors with NT Battle Flag at half time. I wished we could have spent more time in BR as we had a blast. Hopefully the Mean Green will be headed back that way to ULL in December. Rick

It's my wish someday that everyone who has never experienced the exhileration of watching a Mean Green team upset one of the big boys in their house, gets the chance to do so. It's why the win over Tennessee and those games against Texas and Tech in '88 are still remembered by those of us who were there. Folks from Troy nearly got to know what it's like last season against LSU, then did see it, although it was in their own stadium against Mizzou. It's like nothing you can imagine and it's what drives so many to fanaticalism. Is that a word? Rick

That's what it's all about. Rick

I learned this past weekend that the university has recieved over 4,000 responses to this. The last day to respond is Nov. 4th. Don't delay in letting them know how important it is that the new guy continues with Dr. Pohl's vision for our athletic program. Respond here. Rick

This is definately ULL's best chance to get a win over the Mean Green, which would be their 3rd overall, and their first in 24 years. I think we will see a much improved Mean Green offense at Fouts this saturday. Rick

Just a heads up. For the first time there is a second WHOOPEE DOO GO ROUND this year at TMS on I-35 W, and the second race event is this weekend, and there's a race saturday afternoon. People are already traveling up and camping out for saturday's O'reilly Challenge Bush league race. If it were up to me I'd promote it as the "Bill" O'Reilly Factor 200 Challenge Hoo Ha. (Ooo weeee!, Bill gonna run them damn liberal's into that turn 4 wall this saerday!). NASCAR just doesn't have enough fun with some of this stuff if you ask me? Anyhow, there has been considerable road work done in weeks past on I 35 W. So you may want to plan on leaving earlier than usual if you are going to attend the pregame tailgating events at NT this coming saturday as I 35 W has backed up pretty bad in recent weeks just from normal travel. No idea what it will be like this saturday? Saturday, November 05, 2005 7:00AM - 2:00PM Texas Motor Speedway Credential Office Hours 7:30AM NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Garage & Registration Opens 9:00AM Gates Open For Fans (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 11) 9:00AM Luxury Suites & Victory Lane Club Open 9:00AM HOT PASS IN EFFECT 9:00AM NASCAR Busch Series Garage & Registration Opens 9:30AM -10:15AM NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Practice 11:10AM -11:55AM NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Final Practice 1:00PM O'Reilly Challenge NASCAR Busch Series 200 laps, 300 miles; TV: TNT, Local Radio: Live 105.3 2:00PM NASCAR Busch Series Registration Closes 3:00PM NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Garage & Registration Closes

I'm very proud of our hometown Burleson Elk, Steve Warren. Before the season started I thought he had a chance at QB. But as it turned out, like so many from Burleson, and Harry and others said, he's a fast athlete who could end up on the defensive side and he's done just that. I asked him how his head was saturday and he stated he was good to go. I look forward to seeing him play this saturday. Rick

Idaho beat Boise by 1 point. Had Boise won that game it would have sent the conference into a three way tie between Idaho, Boise and North Texas, all sitting with a 3-2 conference record. I suppose then that, had that happened and since even though Idaho would have tied with Boise in overall record at 7-4, and even though Boise held the head-to-head over Idaho, that Idaho would have still gone to the bowl over Boise and NT since Idaho held the head to head against North Texas, and they had more wins against 1-A opponents than Boise did? I can't remember the specifics of that game between Idaho and Boise though? As it stood, Idaho finished the season 9-3 with the win over USM in the bowl game. As far as I can remember, had we beaten Utah State that 1998 season, we would have tied Idaho for wins in conference at 4-1, but Idaho would have still held the head-to-head over us and still advanced to the bowl? As it turned out, we tied with Nevada in conference record wise(3-2), but took second place overall since we held the head-to-head over the Wolf Pack. Rick

SouthBendGreen Your senses serve you well. SouthBendGreen I do too. I understand you disagree with me, as I do with your oppinion as well, which we are all well aware of by now. I still stand by the fact that had we been able to score on each opportunity that we earned, we would have only been down 28-20 at the 3:30 mark of the 3rd quarter. I know we didn't, but I saw our team earn the right, up to that point of course, to be considered competitive with LSU. It didn't last long, but I enjoyed seeing this team pull themselves up off the ground and progress as well as they did. Hmmm, I see. It has nothing to do with you, it only has to do with the rest of us. Regardless, it goes without saying that it takes a special group of people to be MEAN GREEN. Many in Baton Rouge told us they respected us for showing up for a re-scheduled game and showing some love to our team. We are all a little off, we are all fanatics for NT, and we all want the same thing. Rick

Saw the GMoney family dressed in their halloween best on channel 8 tonight after the game. The twins were dressed as eyeballs...LOL! Pretty funny. Rick