TheFranchise

I'm fine with going through this in four years . . . if said young P5 coordinator has turned this program around and is now getting poached to be the HC at a P5 school.

Like I've said before, it's absolutely GARBAGE that we don't have some kind of local broadcast deal in place with TXA-21, KDFI, CW-33, or any of the local broadcast channels. It's absolutely stupid that a top 5 media market school cannot be watched locally but is airing in effing Des Moines, Iowa. Des Moines!?!? Are you serious with this crap? It's unacceptable. I mean, if this was a home game, I could kind of understand not airing it locally, but man, it's a road game! In fact, I'd venture to say I could go out there, myself and swing some kind of local broadcast deal with one of these channels. But if I did that, I'd want all the money from it and see that RV sees none of it.

I'm pretty sure that's not the article he's talking about. However, doing a google search of Jenna Duncan's name and searching the DR-C's website yields me nothing but this article for me as well. So yeah, unless KRAM can find a link, himself, I'm not sure we'll be able to see it. Exactly.

I want someone who's done well as a HC with "not much" or "next to nothing." Whether that means he's won at the G5 level or the FCS level, it really doesn't matter to me. Just someone who's had some coaching experience and made things happen by having a few winning seasons. I'd also prefer Texas ties, although that's not totally a deal-breaker to me if he's proven at other jobs that he can get out and get to know the HS coaches in Texas and get them talking about UNT to their kids. If we can get a guy that does that, we'll certainly be headed in the right direction.

That's a really nice-looking ring, too! I debated the thought of the white spinel, but ultimately went with the emerald because I wanted some green. A few of the other recipients and I were looking at each others' designs and loved what we saw. But as with your bride's and mine, I still favor the original design that has all of the traditional trademarks of our ring. Just awesome.

As promised, here are a few pics of it . . . The very first one I took that night, via cell phone . . . Then, I took this one that night after I got home . . . And finally, a pic that was generously taken for me by a professional photographer friend of mine . . . Caw, baby!! GMG

Congratulations to her! It was a really cool evening. (although, weren't "adult beverages" free in the past?) Pics are coming soon of mine.

My apologies for drudging up an old thread, but I specifically remember this discussion taking place on here when I transferred to UNT and joined this site. So, I searched for it and pulled it back out in order to participate in the stories. The day has come, and tonight I will be getting my UNT Class Ring, as I graduate in just under four weeks. The time has finally come, 18 years after graduating from high school, I'm going to have my Bachelor's Degree. My wife, parents in-law and I all agreed that the money spent on this ring was going to be money well-spent as a father of two that works full-time and has attended UNT full-time over the last two and a half years to make this happen. Indeed, it's a monument to the amount of hard work I've put into my education since returning to school and my gracious in-laws wanted me to get it so badly that they offered to pay for half of it. I'm ecstatic, overjoyed and cannot wait to see this beast tonight when I put it on my hand. Considering my brother-in-law is an Aggie grad, you can bet your butt that I opted for the XL in order to trump him. I went white gold without the antiquing and the emerald atop the star. Yes, there will be pics and there will be beer. Sweet, glorious beer. GMG

It's crazy. As I sat watching highlights of college football games across the country, I came to a realization. They flashed some brief clips of our Tennessee game and yeah, I'll admit . . . it hurt to look up and see that (1-9) behind our name on the stat-wrap page. There's nothing fun at all about that. But, I've dealt with it and have come to grips with it. But what came next really got to me. They began to show highlights of Navy-SMU. I'll be honest, I grinned a bit seeing them get humbled as badly as we did. But then my grin quickly turned into a grimace on that stat-wrap page. It was that (1-9) behind their name. That freaking ONE!! A single tear trickled down my right cheek. My wife, seated in the bed beside me put her hand on my shoulder. That single tear soon had a buddy coming down the other cheek and I let out a brief whimper. Her hand began to pat my back. She dropped her book and asked me, "What's going on? You dealing with something?" Suddenly, I couldn't form sentences very easily. All that could come out was, "One! Just one!! It was us, dang it!! Freaking Schmoo!! We suck! They suck! But they suck better! Stupid Gerald J. Ford! Craig James can suck it!!" I woke up the next morning with six empty beer bottles around me and I was still wearing my clothing from the day before. Yeah, that stupid one beside SMU's name really got to me. The fact that we gave them that lone number is a really tough thing to swallow. Apparently the six Shiners were not. P. S. -- The previous story is true. However, the facts were changed to make the story more entertaining.

My kiddos, wife and I will be there. Thankfully, my three year-old son (turns four the day after this game will be played) knows NOTHING of the current problems with the administration, let alone the fact that we've only won one game so far. All he knows is, "Daddy loves the Mean Green so I love the Mean Green." The same can be said with my nine year-old daughter, too. We'll be there yelling and shouting as if we're 11-0 heading into it.

Yep, it's truly sad what we have to resort to as fans/alums of an FBS Football Program.

How is it that we can't swing at least some kind of local broadcast deal with TXA-21 or KDFI or a local independent station like that? I mean dang! It sure would be nice to actually be able to watch a road game without having to pay for extra broadcast channels or stream from a not-so-credible website? I mean, "listen to the radio?"

I'll try to wander through there Monday between my evening classes and will give an account as well. Maybe a pic or two.

You can't discount that this was a 6 PM kickoff on Halloween night. Anyone with kids is going to have a hard time selling that to their family -- especially when we're talking about a team that was 0-7 taking on a 1-6 team. Had this thing started at say, 1 PM or so, then I know I'd have taken the family and then we'd have gone home for a night of glorious candy hunting. And before you say, "They handed out candy at the game," let's be real here. My understanding is that there wasn't much, and there was opportunity for so much more to be done. I mean dang, offer half price parking to anyone that brings a bag of candy and then have a huge "Trunk or Treat" tailgate in the parking lots. It doesn't seem that hard to organize. Give out free wing zone tickets to any kids in costume. Maybe even half price wing zone tickets to any parents in costume. Make it worth the price of coming out. At this point, getting as many butts in the seats as possible is more important than receiving full price for the seats you sell. An unsold seat gives you nothing. But a free seat still makes you money on parking, concessions, souvenirs, etc. Honestly, these are pretty easy concepts to understand. Having said that, I hate that I missed a great game but with such a late start, my three year-old son would've been done by halftime. He loves the Mean Green with all of his little heart (which is awesome!) but that only works for so long for him. And once he's done, Mrs. Franchise is done and suddenly we either leave early and I get depressed having left early from such a great game, or I'm in the dog house for the rest of the night because the family is being held hostage. So, taking the kids Trick-or-treating, getting them to bed at a reasonable time and then listening to Dave and Hank afterward was my best play.

Hey now . . .

Well, it's a well-known fact, Sonny Jim, that there's a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, known as "The Pentivirate," who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado, known as "The Meadows."

I sent mine now as well, from my student e-mail address as to make the most impact. I won't post it because it's rather lengthy.

Dude, I love it . . . Begins drafting an e-mail suggesting @greenit receives consideration as V. P.

Roughly 400 lbs. of baggage? I'm sorry, that's probably a little mean. I keed, I keed.

Took the wife and kids up to the ticket office last season to buy tickets and Reggie was walking around the Spirit Shop. The dude kneeled down and talked with my then-two-year-old son and gave him high fives and fist bumps because my son wanted "Mean Green Stuff." That's really all that needs to be said about him. You make my son smile and feel like a hot shot, then you're a probably a good guy. He and I shot the breeze as well about the upcoming game (it was SMU last season, so the outlook was pretty positive) and it confirmed how genuine he is. I love knowing we have a guy like Reggie helping run things around the department.

Heads need to roll after this. No excuses. I Think the dead body of Generalissimo Fransisco Franco could be up 28-21 on us right now.

Man, Game 1. That was a feast of baseball awesomeness. Diekman was lights-out. Took the mound in mid-postseason form and completely shut the Blue Jays down. Absolutely killed them. And then, the interesting call to put Dyson in as a groundball guy to neutralize the Jays sluggers paid of huge. What a win. Now we have Cole Freaking Hamels going for us and David Price is now 0-4 against the Rangers in the playoffs. This is fun. And those 25 ESPN guys that picked Toronto can suck it. #NeverEverQuit

Man, so much to say about yesterday and this season as a whole . . . Looking back at what I was feeling as a Ranger fan the day of Darvish's injury, then fast-forwarding to the end of an abysmal April and into what was became an eight game deficit on July 21 only to watch this team prove its resiliency . . . it's unreal. To see this blue collar (albeit goofy as all get-out -- which I like) group of dudes go out there and put together what I believe in my 30 years of fandom is indescribable. Look, we've not had MANY good seasons in 44 years of baseball. (I'm not counting the Washington years *not Ron, but the Nation's Capital*, why should I?) But there have been some good ones. That '94 team, despite actually being UNDER .500 was poised to break the team's all-time playoff drought before the strike. The '96 team eventually did that of course, and for the longest time set the bar for what I expected to see from later Ranger teams. To be honest, '98 and '99 are a blur to me, not because I didn't enjoy watching the teams, but simply because their lack of any ability at all in their ensuing playoff runs completely erased anything I could really remember from those regular seasons. The 2011 season was pretty dang special. I think that became, in my opinion, the best Rangers regular season at the time. I say this just because; as the year rolled on it felt like the team was really just one more season away from something special. But by the time September hit, I was suddenly watching the standings and the out of town scoreboard as I realized this team had a shot at finally playing October ball again. Once we clinched, I was just happy to be there. Everything after that was gravy! Following that, I EXPECTED 2012. I just KNEW we'd be back. So, when we finally steamrolled into the playoffs for the first time as something other than the #3 seed in the AL, I was ready. Again not to discount ANYTHING that group of guys did, but the bar had been set in '11. Enter these guys, the 2015 Texas Rangers. We had a new manager that, like many others, I liked overall but really wanted to see what he could do. He was saying all the right stuff and was quickly becoming the type of guy I, MYSELF would run out onto the field for. (Trust me, nobody would pay to watch that, lest they're in the mood for high comedy) But with all the injuries dealt to the team at the beginning of the season, by April it seemed the writing was on the wall. We'd lost our #1 and #2 starters and responded to that with an awful 7-14 April record. But then some funny things happened. For one, Prince stayed healthy. Granted, 2014 was really an anomaly if you think about it. The dude had been sturdy leading up to it with IIRC the longest consecutive games streak going on at the time. But having missed all that time, you didn't know if he'd be back to the "Old" Prince at the plate. Boy howdy, was he. He was the lone bright spot throughout April. The Rangers put together a FANTASTIC month of May, going 19-11 while the Astros came back down to earth. And while it doesn't sound like much, we'd trimmed the deficit of 7 games behind the AL West leaders down to 5. (Two games, remember that) In June, we kept pace and played a game above .500 Then came July. While it wasn't as bad as April, it was still ugly. We saw the deficit rise to 9 and of course the now-infamous 21-5 beatdown at the hands of the Yankees. But on the last day of the month, at the non-waiver trade deadline, we landed our dude -- Cole Hamels. An 18-10 August, followed by an 18-10 September set the stage for an awesome October. Meanwhile an 11-16 September for Houston nearly ended it for them. Derek Holland came back as well and was pitching for his life, and he played like it! Then, after nearly shooting their own season in the foot on Friday and Saturday, the Rangers put together one of the greatest regular season games I've watched in a long time yesterday. Hamels was the ace. Sure, Houston lost, too. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't keeping a close eye on that one. But gather those together and we won the AL West Division by two games. Those two games we gained back in May helped put us in the position we are now. Because of that comeback and because of the overall expectations leading up to this season (which were more about "survival" for me after the Darvish and Holland injuries), this team threw together what I believe was the greatest and gutsiest Rangers Regular Season I've ever witnessed. It was phenomenal. Bring on the Jays, now. I like our chances. And as I told a co-worker this morning, I'm giddy that we're even having this kind of discussion. See you guys Thursday! Oh, and for the record, I hope the Astros go into Yankee-town and embarrass them in their own ballpark. I'd love an all-Texas ALCS and a Rangers-Cubs World Series.

I want to be optimistic, I really do. And honestly, I have been for the three seasons I've now been a student. However, until I see this coaching staff make some changes that actually look like they're trying to win, I can't. And it hurts to say that. But if you're not willing to at least take a few chances and show us that you actually care, then I can't have faith. At 0-3, I'd be putting every single spot on the two-deep up for grabs for anyone that wants to come and take it. You literally have nothing to lose at this point. But holy crap, please prove me wrong. I freaking dare you, Coach.