JesseMartin

I'd be happy to be in conference with any of the service academies

Okay, now I'm officially depressed.

Oh, I can see what you mean by that now, okay. I'm just always glad when our athletes get good grades, no matter who is in the AD.

That's if she teaches you.

I don't get how or why any of you are being snarky about this or making it about new vs. old coaches and admin. Giving our guys an education and the tools to use it is the single most important part of the program, and the reason that it exists in the first place. Can't we just be glad that it's working?

I just got the email about that...I just sent a message to @sgmthompson about it. He was the first to invite, and my girlfriend is open to whatever, so if he wants to do his own BBQ and we can't hit both, I'm sticking with him. If he does his own thing and it's efficient to stop by the Alumni Tailgate, we will try to swing through on our way to the game if time permits.

@emmitt01 I got a room at the Super 8 on I35, about 15 minutes from the stadium. Nothing fancy since we're just going to be sleeping there and want to do fun stuff in SA, and it's not too far a drive from everything. There were cheaper ones, but the reviews of those were pretty bad and I'm going to be there with Crystal, and didn't want to get anything that was likely to be gross. Why do you ask? Are you thinking of carpooling or something?

Isn't the practice field in Irving? Or has that moved since I left as well?

Gross.

Definitely. The defense has gelled, and the offense has a solidly talented leader. I'm sure Morris provided a great sense of senior leadership, but whether he had too much rust from not playing live games or just never got to cruising altitude at the collegiate level, he hasn't performed in his limited time thus far. I do think the score would be different...probably right around what the final was, but switched.

Someone else brought this up a long time ago. This is one of the saddest stories I've ever heard as it relates to our history. Does anyone know what happened to his family? Did his children go to college?

Somebody on here linked to a study a few years ago that showed statistically significant improvement from "cusp" teams (those around .500) the season after bowl games, even if they lost their bowls. The extra practice time, especially for young teams, is a huge opportunity to improve during what is normally a "dead period." I don't remember the exact formula...somebody here shared a link to that a while back as well. If I recall correctly, it's something like an amalgam of GPA, graduation rate, and academic progress (on track to graduate, not on academic probation, etc.). I think there are a couple of non-academic factors included as well. But this just gives us another reason to be proud that our program treats our athletes as students first and tries to ensure their success in the classroom translates to a career in the field of their choice after graduation...especially since we actually graduate such a high percentage of them.

Turns out group rate for UTSA is only for over 20 people...so unless a bunch more chime in, we may as well just get our tickets when we get there if GA is indeed cheaper than the visitor section.

WacKY has been up and down...I still think UTSA will be tougher than that one. But we'll see.

There were some changes to the HOD Bowl and some others right around when we played ours. I forget if the contract had the champ being offered and then switched to committee preference or vice versa. Somebody on here had the details...some of the bowls are fairly locked in contractually and others aren't. I don't have the time to keep up with all of that, but I do remember a couple of people posted as things changed so that we could better understand our chances to land in given bowls that year and the one that followed.

Yeah...I mean, it's a gorgeous stadium, but if we roll the dice and get lucky and Michigan or somebody needs to fill an OOC spot quickly...it's not likely to happen. I hadn't considered that but it makes sense. I'm all for using well-known mid majors to fill that baby up and eventually expand, but we haven't even tried much of that yet.

And your address is...?

Ooohhh...yeah, that should be our opening "demand," but I have an idea for a compromise if it's an annual series against SMU or La Tech or such...alternate years where each team gets 6 actual home games, and on the years where this is considered the 6th, have it included in the season ticket package...and sweeten the deal with a special package for season ticket holders even when it's considered an away game. I don't even know what their thoughts would be, just thinking ahead as to how we could ensure die-hard fans don't get screwed if we don't get exactly what we want. Oh God yes. Especially if we could start getting their fan base to make the trip by knowing they could plan around that. It could be a bust, who knows, but it could be AWESOME.

Just sent you a message!

What confuses me about the opposition to this idea is that everyone says that we want to build into a big-time football program...they all have great big modern stadiums, but many play a neutral site game every year. So...we want to grow to be considered in their league, and we're going to do that by doing some of the things that they do, but not other things that they do?

Ugh...another cricket attack on Denton? I remember a couple of years where the whole campus stank of dead and rotting crickets. Another year it was grasshoppers. I think there was even something else at one point. Are we just a focal point for biblical-type plagues? So gross.

Not the first time this season we've shown up on the list. Honestly, with as up-and-down as the performance has been thus far this year with our remaining opponents, we could reasonably end up anywhere from 4-8 and 9-3. And I don't think the Bahamas Bowl is a terrible idea overall, but they have to figure out a better way to market it and probably try to get some more regional teams. It's nice for the players and staff and any fans who can get there, but try to use teams from the Carolinas or Georgia or Florida whenever possible. I'm hoping for the Gildan New Mexico Bowl...or of course one in AZ, just because it's an easy drive for me and not insanely far for the rest of you...but HOD would be awesome as well and if the next couple of months are as lucrative as I hope they will be, I could hop out for a visit for that one. But really...any bowl in Seth's first year would be so nice.

Exactly. I probably should have worded my original response in a less confusing way, but just assumed everyone would get where I was going with it but it probably came off a bit more vague than I'd intended.

Haha more just general perception stuff, but he's included in the ones that don't matter.

The first was just in his response to what he said "doesn't hurt anyone"...the rest was just my 2 cents about perception overall, not specifically in response to any of the other replies since some were similar and some were not.