TheFranchise

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

Man, I'm going back and forth on this one. So, in the instances where my head has a chess match with my gut, my gut gets the benefit of the doubt. Give me: Meanie Greenies: 27 RobertCats: 20

No, I meant the Mariners. They've never played in the World Series, we've never played for a National Championship . . . TCU has but it was ages ago, while the Rangers have had some good success lately and actually have played in two World Series still have as much to show to their name as the Mariners do. It's late and I'm towards the end of a work shift, so forgive me if I'm not making sense.

Exactly my point, sir. How good or bad the high school football teams in the area are/were, while it may contribute a tiny bit, has nothing really to do with anything. I mean, they had LaDanian Freaking Tomlinson playing there in the late 90's and still couldn't get butts in the seats. I grew up as a TCU fan and was big-time into them during his years, but he'd score a TD and you could hear crickets at AGCS.

I really don't get you, man. I mean, it's not like this is ponyfans.com or anything like that. In fact, if you'd read around here (I'm surprised you haven't since you seem to be so obsessed with sticking your head in here and trying to p*ss all over us) you might actually see that most North Texas fans actually look up to and respect what's going on over in Fort Worth. Let me put it this way: I know for certain a majority of your purple-blooded buddies over there harbor ill feelings towards the University of Texas because of the way a lot of their fans talk to you guys. Don't become one of those guys. Nobody likes those guys. Most Texas fans I know actually don't like those guys. You've been to a couple of big bowl games lately. Awesome. Wear your "Rose Bowl Champion" t-shirts with pride. But that's really it. It's not like you have an outstanding tradition built on decades of National Championships to hang your hats on. It's like a Rangers fan going in and bullying Mariners fans. In the end, it's really not much to brag about until you've actually reached the top. (I'm actually a Rangers fan, so let's not turn this into a Rangers v. Mariners thing) Just please hear me out and understand that you're going around picking a fight with the little kid that wants to be like you when he's older. In fact, just point your anger at teams that actually play you this season. How about that?

I dunno man. I'm as big of a high school football fan as there is out there, and if my wife would either be cool with me going or was interested in tagging along, I'd catch my Trinity Trojans on Friday night and then the Mean Green on Saturday as well. I know a LOT of D/FW high school football fans like to make it to college and high school games in the same weekend. My love for high school football has never kept me from making it out to a college game that same weekend. In fact, if I had to choose between the two, I'd still take the college game over high school. But maybe that's just me.

Yeah, anyone calling North Texas "One Dimensional" from a passing perspective simply looked at a boxscore from last week and hasn't researched anything else. This guy needs to do a little more homework.

Food for thought: Everyone keeps bringing up TCU's attendance. You might be interested to know that they didn't have regular sell-outs until the Utah game in 2009. At the time, ACS had a capacity of 44,000 and had only gotten about 60-75% full regularly until then. It wasn't until they hosted an undefeated Utah that night, that Fort Worth really recognized what they had on their hands. I mean, for crying out loud, they'd flirted with "busting the BCS" a couple of times already and had put up huge winning seasons. But they still only averaged about 31-34k. My point? Winning a crapload of games and playing a big-time opponent does a lot for attendance. In fact, if I remember correctly, that was about the time that the City of Fort Worth started marketing "purple Fridays" and literally painted the town purple -- even the Trinity River. Marketing the heck out of this thing certainly doesn't hurt. In fact, Emmitt has excellent ideas to do so. But none of that will compare to what playing big-time college football at Apogee would do. That trumps everything. On second thought, I guess it all goes hand-in-hand, really, and is all kind of cyclical. Winning gets the fans/students/alumni fired up --> the fans/students/alumni start showing up at games --> the ever-present and loud crowds fire up the players and athletic dept. --> athletic dept. starts putting more into the program --> bigger opponents start coming to Apogee --> The Mean Green start winning big games --> winning gets the fans/students/alumni fired up . . . wash, rinse, repeat . . . Hopefully that all made sense to someone. -- Stephen

The first one was partially blocked as well.

I stood in awe as that thing flew

I should add that I think Manziel is an enormous d-bag.

Here's my take on the issue: I agree with Stan that a "reasonable stipend" is not too much to ask. Granted, I know there will always be shenanigans that goes on, but that's going to happen no matter what the system is. If each student athlete received $175,000 a year (That amount is NOT EVEN CLOSE to what I'm suggesting, it's just an exaggeration to illustrate my point) there would still be boosters making sure some of the "favorites" received probably twice that. So, don't use the "people will still break the rules" argument. That's a red herring. I think tossing them something like $200-$400 a month is not too much to ask at all if they are on scholarship. Walk-ons should get something like $100-$150. These players help bring $millions$ to the Universities and should be given back a little bit. When a kid gets suspended for a full season because one of his coaches paid for his gas to visit his family over Christmas vacation, something is wrong. (That's a true story that happened to a personal friend of mine) Something to think about, is to look at scholarship students in other departments. Band is the easiest example. A high-level trumpet that's on a full ride from his University's band can go out and make as much money as he/she wants while he/she is in school. This person could give private lessons (which makes really good money as far as a per-hour service goes). They could play gigs anywhere in the world and receive compensation for it. Recording deals, studio musician gigs playing background music for other "bigger" musicians is totally allowed . . . the list goes on. There are infinite possibilities for that student. A business/marketing student on scholarship totally has the opportunity to start a business while in school and make a ton of money doing it. (Hello Mark Zuckerberg.) As for athletes, there are limitations to the part-time jobs they can get. Basically, they can receive no more than $2,000 for the year if my research is correct. (the official rule is the student's scholarship plus income cannot exceed the amount of a full grant plus $2,000). So basically, less than $200 a month. But those limitations don't exist for other students on scholarship. Those are just a few thoughts I have on it. It's not to de-value the education they receive and the handful of perks they get. Shoot, even some kind of trust for each athlete that they aren't allowed to touch until graduation would make sense to me.

For what it's worth, I played the UNT-Idaho game today on NCAA 14. Thompson wasn't very accurate, stuggling to find the right guy. The playcalling was aggressive. On the ground, Jimmerson seemed to be the most effective back, amassing 108 yards while Pegram put up 43 of his own. Byrd's pound-it-out style was not as effect YPC-wise but he still grabbed 38 yards. The defense looked fantastic, refusing to yield a TD and the Mean Green cruised to a 21-6 victory. The fact that Coach Mac wasn't afraid to pass the ball a lot gives me hope . . . *Random guy off to the side*: "Psst, hey, Steve . . . That was YOU calling the plays, not Coach Mac." Oh . . . forget everything I just said.

I can confirm this. Both yesterday and today there was plenty of parking, both there and over by The Village Church. In fact, throughout the spring I never had to search for a spot in either place. Of course, showing up at least a few minutes early for your class certainly won't hurt things, either . . .

Couple of FCS wins tonight . . . interesting.

I'm a student and I support this. So, I think my vote should count twice since it would affect me. Sign me up!!! -- Stephen

"So I Married an Axe Murderer" 1993 -- Directed by Thomas Schlamme

"You know, what this room needs is a really big over-sized poster of Atlantic City . . ."