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Really funny and charming segment with Jaylen Guyton trying to find his first class in the tombs of the Colosseum and having trouble. I honestly remember having the same problem trying to find a class down there. Really enjoying BTG so far this year. The production quality is markedly better, and the focus on the different personalities on the team has been really cool. Also Brandon Garner cracked me up: "New Denton. We got more Polynesians on the team now"

Those very few of us who kept season tickets throughout the Benford years are sure to recognize Ryan Vargo. I'll admit I had no idea how much he has had to overcome.

In podcast #156 Evan, Harry, and Ashton talk about the hiring of new head football coach Seth LIttrell and the excitement it has generated for the fanbase. UNT Athletic Director Rick Villarreal joins the conversation and offers his thoughts on Littrell as well as other items of interest. Brandon Berens joins us from his the UNT campus where he gives us a student perspective on the challenges a student faces during finals. Ashton shares insight from his day spent with Coach Littrell as well as some thoughts on the future of his Beyond the Green series. Click here for the Audio Link to Barbershop Podcast #156

I wanted to give everyone an update on the status of Beyond The Green. Unfortunately, the series will not be continuing. The athletic department may be moving forward with something similar, in-house, but I will not be producing. My relationship with the department and coaching staff is still very strong and has nothing to do with the decision to discontinue the show in its previous format I would like to thank everyone for their support throughout the series. I thoroughly enjoyed producing the series and being able to cover my alma mater was an extremely enjoyable experience. Coach Mac and his staff were always very inviting and the show’s success should be attributed to them and the athletic department for allowing me the access. The good news is that I have another project in the works that will involve North Texas football. Harry Miers will be a part of this as well and I will be able to share more about the project as we finalize all the details. So stay tuned for more information. Again, thanks for the support and Go Mean Green. -Ashton Campbell

As many here know, our own alum Ashton Campbell put together an awesome television documentary series called Beyond the Green. This show chronicled the 2013 and 2014 seasons of Mean Green Football. It was an award winning series and was extremely popular with our fans and alumni base as it aired on Fox Sports Southwest. I have been in contact with Ashton and I know that he is working independently on putting together a really cool box set DVD of the entire series including some behind the scene footage and other items never seen before as well as some other extras. I would like to gauge interest in the this DVD and would appreciate your feedback. I know that there were a lot of inquiries about this in the past. Ashton is still finalizing the details of the DVD but I would like to get an idea of the interest in this project and any feedback on who would buy it. I know that since Ashton is doing this independently, there is some about concern how interested the fanbase would be in something like this. Thanks for your time and Go Mean Green!

If you haven't watched the series you should as I think it gives great insight into what a great coach and person John Skladany is. I hope that Ashton will do a special segment on Skladany to honor his outstanding career. Thank you Coach Skladany for your contributions to our program. We wish you only the best. GMG

With the having Ashton Campbell (creator of the series), and the season about to start, it seems like a good time to relive last year's season and discuss. I'll post one episode per day, starting tomorrow, in this thread taking us up to the return of Beyond the Green and opening night for college football, both on August 28th.

Sometimes the best stories are the most obvious ones. 2013 was a memorable year for the University of North Texas football team. A 9-4 campaign took the program to its first bowl game in nine years and first bowl win in 11 years. There, with the golden opportunity to chronicle it all, was freelance videographer and producer Ashton Campbell. Hired by his alma mater to shoot and produce an intimate, behind-the-scenes television series titled Beyond the Green, Campbell was tasked with telling the stories of the captivating players and coaches who made up the 2013 Mean Green. One of the team’s leaders was Brandon McCoy. A unique personality in college sports, McCoy was a 28-year-old Army veteran, whom his teammates affectionately nicknamed “Sarge.” “You really can’t write that kind of stuff,” says Campbell. “It’s right in front of your face. To not do a story on McCoy would have been stupid. It would have been criminal.” Campbell did that story, and the final product, “From War Vet to Defensive End,” turned into an inspiring look at a likable man who helped lead the Mean Green to one of its best seasons ever. It also claimed the College Sports Media Award for Outstanding Special Feature in Collegiate Athletics. Luck of the Freelancer “I love that show!” Campbell had unexpectedly struck gold while sitting down for a lunch with a member of the North Texas athletic department. Meeting purely as a season-ticket holder and a regular donor to the department, he happened to mention that he worked in video production and, earlier in his career, had helped produce the Big Ten Network series Big Ten Icons. Two weeks later, Campbell received a call from the university asking him to come down for a meeting to discuss a potential documentary series on North Texas football. He was thrilled to jump on board. “I got very lucky on this one,” laughs Campbell, who worked at post houses for about five years after graduating from UNT before going out on his own as a freelance videographer. “Normally, you’re not going to get recruited. You have to go out and get it.” Over the previous half decade, Campbell had produced behind-the-scenes features for college football programs across the country, including Southern Methodist, Tulsa, Texas Tech, Southern Miss, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Coastal Carolina, Mississippi State, and Baylor. Now he would be bringing his talents home to North Texas. He worked collaboratively with members of the athletic department to outline a production schedule and a list of individual stories both sides knew they wanted to tell. Naturally, McCoy was high on the list. “The school did give me a lot of freedom to do what I wanted, when I wanted,” says Campbell. “They didn’t force any issues on me. I developed an early trust and relationship with them, and, if they trust in what you’re doing, then they are going to tell you what to do and what stories are unique. Nobody knows these players like the coaches and the department. You could be the biggest fan in the world, and you don’t really know who these guys are. You need to have a back and forth with the department to get information like that.” - See more at: http://sportsvideo.org/main/blog/2014/08/csma-master-class-freelance-alum-turns-lens-on-north-texas-football/#sthash.46u75HWR.dpuf

http://meangreensports.com/m/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/052814aaa.html For the feature on "Sarge" McCoy.

Big congrats to UNT Alumnus Ashton Campbell for landing TWO nominations for the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) media awards!!! The winners will be selected by a panel of judges and announced at the College Sports Media Awards ceremony on May 29 at the SVG College Sports Summit in Atlanta. The event will be hosted by ESPN’s Rece Davis. “I want to congratulate this year’s nominees in the 2014 College Sports Media Awards presented by SVG and NACDA,” says Tom Buffolano, Chairman of the College Sports Media Awards. “Each year we see an increase in the quality of production, across all Divisions and Categories. The growth in the number of submissions, especially in both Collegiate Divisions, bodes well not only in the short term for those institutions, but long term for the industry as a whole. - See more at: http://sportsvideo.org/main/blog/2014/05/svg-nacda-announce-nominees-for-2014-college-sports-media-awards/#sthash.NAdEmR5G.dpuf Link to UNT Beyond the Green Series:

http://www.meangreensports.com/beyondthegreen/ I lol'd at DT begging people for a cookie.

The next episode of Beyond the Green premieres today on Fox College Sports Central (5:00 PM CDT) and tomorrow on Fox Sports Southwest (5:30 PM CDT). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYgLzhQ7Bl8 Thursday, September 19 - 5:00 PM CDT (Fox College Sports Central) Friday, September 20 - 5:30 PM CDT (Fox Sports Southwest) Last Week's Episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNCJcByQHWg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-59trglt7S8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pzyF_a_QlE Fox Sports Southwest air times for September September 20 5:30 p.m. September 27 10:30 a.m. Time Warner Sports air times (every Thursday at 6 p.m.) Fox College Sports Central Verizon FiOS - Ch. 301 Charter - Ch. 282 AT&T U-Verse - Ch. 648 Time Warner - Ch. 181 DirecTV - Unavailable DISH - Unavailable Fox Sports Southwest Verizon FiOS - Ch. 76 / 576 (HD) Charter - Ch. 35 / 774 (HD) AT&T U-Verse - Ch. 753 / 1753 (HD) Time Warner - Ch. 36 / 184 (HD) DirecTV - Ch. 676 (SD/HD) DISH - Ch. 416 (SD) / 366 (HD)

The next episode of Beyond the Green premieres today on Fox College Sports and tomorrow on Fox Sports Southwest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNCJcByQHWg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-59trglt7S8 Thursday, September 12 - 5:00 PM CDT (Fox College Sports Central) Friday, September 13 - 9:30 AM CDT (Fox Sports Southwest) Last Week's Episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pzyF_a_QlE Fox College Sports Central Verizon FiOS - Ch. 301 Charter - Ch. 282 AT&T U-Verse - Ch. 648 Time Warner - Ch. 181 DirecTV - Unavailable DISH - Unavailable Fox Sports Southwest Verizon FiOS - Ch. 76 / 576 (HD) Charter - Ch. 35 / 774 (HD) AT&T U-Verse - Ch. 753 / 1753 (HD) Time Warner - Ch. 36 / 184 (HD) DirecTV - Ch. 676 (SD/HD) DISH - Ch. 416 (SD) / 366 (HD)

Just a reminder that the first episode of Beyond the Green premieres today on Fox College Sports and tomorrow on Fox Sports Southwest. Thursday, September 5 - 5:00 PM CDT (Fox College Sports Central) Friday, September 6 - 5:00 PM CDT (Fox Sports Southwest) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pzyF_a_QlE Fox College Sports Central Verizon FiOS - Ch. 301 Charter - Ch. 282 AT&T U-Verse - Ch. 648 Time Warner - Ch. 181 DirecTV - Unavailable DISH - Unavailable Fox Sports Southwest Verizon FiOS - Ch. 76 / 576 (HD) Charter - Ch. 35 / 774 (HD) AT&T U-Verse - Ch. 753 / 1753 (HD) Time Warner - Ch. 36 / 184 (HD) DirecTV - Ch. 676 (SD/HD) DISH - Ch. 416 (SD) / 366 (HD) This post has been promoted to an article