TheFranchise

If I'm recalling correctly, we used him on a fake end around early in the first quarter against Ball State. It was awesome. A sea of white just followed him all the way across the left side of the field as either Byrd or Pegram (Can't recall) busted right up the middle for a gain of like 12 or something. We then ran the reverse later in the third quarter on the drive that set up the game-tying field goal and Ball St., being hesitant to follow him this time, let him run for ten yards before they finally brought him down. All that to say, it's effective and we definitely need to see more of it! GIVE CHANCE A CHANCE!!!!

Well, leave it to me to mess up a little thing like that. Glad you liked the rest, though! **Searched a little further** Looks like they're a network provider. M'kay.

Well my friends, I've had some time to process this and really think about what we witnessed on Saturday and count me in with the "happy" camp. Granted, I'm not planning any parade routes or anything ridiculous like that, but I am feeling overall "pretty decent" about what took place in Athens. And while I'm feeling pretty "not sucky" about the whole thing, there are definitely some areas for concern. Here are some things I took from that game. 1. Jub Jub can make one heck of a football call. Due to a family trip on the bride's side of the family that was planned several months ago, I listened live while cruising down I-20 towards East Texas. While I was disappointed that I couldn't see it as it happened, I knew George would not disappoint me with making me feel like I was there. His call of Brelan's kickoff return was greatness. The signal gave way moments after our blocked punt, which was kind of fitting since that's where our chances started to give way. 2. Brelan Chancellor is electric. If there's not one already, we need to get a nickname for this dude. Considering Apogee is an electricity provider, and we play at Apogee, something like "ABC" (Apogee Brelan Chancellor) or something like that might be nice. I dunno, I was never really good at the nickname thing. 3. We MUST get better man-to-man coverage. This was our glaring weakness. We keep leaving the corners alone on islands and they have to learn the first thing I learned as a defensive back -- WATCH FOR THE BALL!!!!!! (I realize this has been stated quite often around here, but what's one more time, right?) It was literally the first thing I learned as a young Jr. High DB -- if you turn and look for the ball, you can literally land on the receiver backwards and not get called. Why? Because if you position yourself right, you can actually make the receiver try to go over YOUR back. PLAY THE BALL. I know it's sometimes easier said than done, but if you see a receiver put his hands in the air, TURN AROUND!! 4. This team has guts. For that brief period of time after the blocked punt, I felt like we had a shot to take this thing. I'm not going to lie -- there was a bit of doubt there, too. But man, it felt really good to be playing meaningful football late in the third quarter against a top 10 team! And not one single time did they give up out there. I truly feel like they left it all on the field Saturday, and for that I am dang proud of our guys! I don't know how many heard the sideline reporter talking about Coach Mac's halftime speech, but it was exactly what the guys needed to hear. And out of the gate, it looked like they took it to heart. 5. We need depth. I believe this was another key difference Saturday. And in FBS football, it's typically what separates the big guys from the smaller guys. I believe in Coach Mac though, and think he'll get us there. Let him keep recruiting his kind of players and keep coaching them and I think we'll like what we see. 6. It's easy to over-react. As many have already said in the past 50-something hours, Saturday's performance meant nothing if we don't take care of business from here on out. "One game at a time" needs to be this team's mantra, and I think it will be. There's still a lot of football left. Some think that's a lot of opportunity to screw things up. Some think it's a lot of opportunity for good things. I believe in the latter. 7. I'm proud to be a Mean Green fan/student! That's all I've got to this point that hasn't already been said. I did get to watch this last night after we made it back home. I want to see that same energy in two weeks against Tulane. And then again here against MTSU . . . etc. I think they can do it. I think the good far outweighed the bad Saturday. Let's hope the boys in green prove me right from here on out!

I played the game earlier this week (like I have each game week now this season) and consider myself to be pretty decent, but I lost. Don't get me wrong. It was a pretty good game up until halftime. Despite a forced throw that led to a key interception for Georgia, I had them within seven at the intermission, 14-7. My defense was stellar in the first half, and the lone UNT TD came off a beautiful bomb to a wide-open Carlos Harris for a 59 yard TD reception to tie the game early in the 2nd quarter. But, (as I really could only expect going into the game) Georgia went into beast mode in the second half. Their depth and stamina wore me down and even though my guys put up a great fight, I had to keep telling myself in my mind, "I really didn't expect to win this." Despite the valiant effort, we fell 38-7. I got desperate in that 4th quarter (still only down 10 at the time) and started forcing passes. That led to my demise.

Trim the hedges, huh? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCC_i_PyEog

Couldn't help it . . . we screened "Citizen Kane" last week in film class.

Tim, that's some fantastic writing. Please keep sharing!

I honestly see us keeping them at arms' length until halftime. Then they slowly pull away late and we lose by a respectable score of 35-21. I would LOVE to be proven wrong as far as whether or not we win, though!

Harry, thanks for reviving this. I'm reading through this thing and rolling. Coach Wintrich's glare once killed a man . . . before he was born.

I would click the green up arrow on this one if I could. This is awesome news!

I saw that! My buddy and I were trying to decipher what we were seeing. Since we were near the south end zone it was hard to tell with the naked eye what was on those cards. So, we started making up labels for what we thought we saw. At one point I yelled "Al Sharpton, taco, battleship, Eva Longoria!"

DirecTV says channel 21, at least on my guide, it does. "North Texas at Georgia." It isn't even named the generic "College Football" like it says for me on ESPN at that same time slot.

I should first state that I'm a current RTVF major and love football (actually, sports in general) and there were some pretty pumped up students around me yesterday throughout the game. Having said that, after Jimmerson's fumble (Emmitt was right, he never saw the field again afterwards) there was a gaggle of students around me that took off. One dude even said, "This sucks! Hey guys, wanna go crush some beers!?" A herd of students then left with him. It's ok though because the loud, rowdy and supportive students stuck around and were rewarded for their efforts. And yes, we did get pretty dang loud towards the end of the third quarter and it stayed that way til the end.

I was giddy seeing us start the game by passing relentlessly on our opening drive. This was certainly a team win but DT stepped up and did what he ha to do. And Chance? That dude is just downright electric. I kept anticipating him busting loose every time he touched the ball. And if course the defense. Yes, they surrendered an early 20 (those if you saying 27 forget the offense gave up 7) but holy crap, they went into lockdown after that. It was a tale of two teams.

You make a good point there. For the record though, I was pointing out that TCU led the nation defensively for a few years. Our defense looked THAT good. But make no mistake. That was North Texas football that I witnessed yesterday and I loved it!

I was there pretty much at field level in the student section and I can attest -- we were hitting with a level of ferociousness and tenacity reminiscent of the early 2000's TCU defenses. And while they still have some room to go before they get to that kind of a level, they did not appear to be simply gunning for anyone's head or maliciously targeting Ball St. players. What I saw was a defense that had allowed a team to quickly march down field in a little over five minutes and they bore down and tried to make up for that by making big hits and jarring the ball loose. It wa also quite hot for a team from Indiana and that took a toll on them late while our guys continued at that same pace. Sometimes you just get eat by the bigger, stronger and more conditioned team. That's what I saw Saturday afternoon. My hats of to Ball St., though. They played a heck of a game and I wish them the best from here on out.

Early start's fine with me! A little heat is nothing a few sodas and some extra water can't cure. Plus, I'll still be home in decent time for dinner with the family, a night-night story for the kiddos while I tuck them into the bed and some quality time with Mrs. Franchise. I love it.

*looks curiously at the crowd with Eli Manning-esque "dumb face" . . . Speaks into the mic . . . "One dollar!"

I can guarantee at least two . . . Me and a buddy that I'm bringing along to try and convert to Mean Green fandom!

In the spirit of my success last week, I played out this game on NCAA Football 14 today and it was awesome. Ohio won the toss and decided to kick. I was fine with that. Using a bruising combination of Brandin Byrd right up the gut and Peagram around the tackles, the Mean Green marched 79 yards on the opening drive to take a 7-0 lead. Carlos Harris made a key diving 12-yard grab over the middle to convert a midfield third down and kept the drive alive. The Bobcats tried to keep the defense off-balance with a hurry-up attack. It failed for most of the first half but a worn-out Mean Green secondary yielded a quick drive late before going to the locker room to knot the score at 10. In the second half, Ohio settled for two field goals while the Mean Green O-line continued to punish the Bobcat front seven and by the end of the third quarter it was 28-16, UNT. The Bobcats marched downfield for another late score and then actually missed an extra point to make it 28-22. On the final Ohio drive, with about 2:00 remaining, Bellazin came up with a huge sack on a midfield play on 2nd and 4 to push the Bobcats back eight yards. This stunned the crowd and the Bobcat offense. Two incomplete passes later, DT was kneeling on the ball to secure a 28-22 Mean Green victory. I'd be happy to see that become a reality tomorrow! Player of the game: Brandin Byrd, 22 carries, 152 yards, 2 TD. Side note -- DT was 12/18 for 205 yards and a TD pass. He did throw an early pick, though.

Hang loose, UTSA.

I just set up the record for the entire series. I also had to do a double-take when I saw the image associated with it on DirecTV -- the putter on the green. It's even labeled as a "golf" program.

I've gotta say, this feels like a low-risk, high-reward game. At the very least, I expect us to hang with Ohio for all four quarters. But there's a big part of me that feels we have a good chance at going up there and beating them. I really like our chances. If we lose, but played a good game I will feel alright about it. But if we win, I'll be on cloud nine. For you financial guys, this game feels like we've bought a call option at a very low premium. If we lose, we're out the premium price, which was not much. But if we win, the profit could be through the roof. -- Stephen