Spring Football Coverage (drc)

89sFolks · March 1, 2006

I live in Oklahoma City, the heart of Sooner country. The Oklahoman has a daily blow by blow on Sooner football spring drills. Usually three or four articles per day. Injury reports, features (players/coaches), etc

If it weren't for "the report" a fan that's unable to have an inside or be local would never really be able to know what goes on.

I'm a teacher/coach/dad. My crimson blood turned green three years ago and I can't get enough info on what goes on.

I was just wondering if I was alone in my disdain for "the record."

H-towngreen · March 1, 2006

I agree, but it's not only spring ball, it's NT football in general. For being a hometown paper you would expect more. The only time I find anything out about spring drills is through GMG.

pollock · March 1, 2006

I think the 3-4 GMG.com volunteers are running journalistic circles around Brett Vito.

The Denton Wretched Comical usually steps it up to daily coverage during summer practice, but you can always count on the last 3-4 paragraphs to contain the exact same information.

UNTLifer · March 1, 2006

The problem is only Vito is assigned to cover North Texas. He has been busy covering the bball teams, and I would assume that he will be at the SBC tournament this weekend and miss out on all of this week's practices. The new sport's editor doesn't seem to do too much, so maybe he could cover this in Vito's absence. An email campaign requesting coverage might help to let them know there is a demand for spring ball coverage.

rgoodall@dentonrc.com is the email address for Russ Goodall.

emmitt01 · March 1, 2006

As much as I hate to demonize them now because my wife works for them, blame Belo. Vito turns in the same articles to the DMN that he does for the DRC so all of his articles are short and general. Plus, he does cover every NT sport....football, basketball, softball, soccer, etc. I just think it's great that we have "insiders" on this board.

LoveMG · March 1, 2006

pitiful coverage fotr a college town. Vito wont ask the tough questions. time for another UNT beat writer.

H-towngreen · March 1, 2006

Vito wont ask the tough questions. time for another UNT beat writer.
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Wait a second here. Vito is allowed to ask questions? Since when? Some one should inform him of this.

Edited March 1, 2006 by H-towngreen

mad dog · March 1, 2006

Ok... i think it's far past time to set the record straight on Vito. I've spent a good deal of time around the guy, as we're both at as many NT sports functions as we can manage.

If you don't like his writing, fine. That's totally up to you, and I'm sure Brett would be the first guy to concede that you're entitled to your opinion on what he writes.

That said, he knows a lot of what goes on, and has more information than anyone I know outside the program except Harry. The trouble is that he can't use most of it, because only certain things are worthy to be written of in the traditional newspaper jouralistic sense.

Please don't get the impression that Vito's a bum who could care less about what happens around here, and spends all his time lollygagging around instead of covering UNT sports. The guy busts his butt harder than just about anyone I know. He works weekends, nights, late nights, and late weekend nights, and does the best with what he has. You guys see his recruiting page? The preseason report page? That is some impressive stuff, and he works his tail off to get it done.

I've also heard the deal about Vito not asking the tough questions, or not having any "real," hard hitting pieces. Guys, it is exactly because he DID ask the tough questions and run the tough stories that impresses me. He was locked out of the team for weeks after he ran the Andrew Smith story. He got on the wrong side of a lot of officials after he ran the cost of ice story in the summer, as well as the coaching salary stuff. All that has earned him something of an reputation among the NT brass as a guy that has to be carefully watched, or he might see something he's not supposed to.

If he was writing exclusively on NT football, you'd see him do what Harry and I have time to do. We have no deadlines, no editor, no subscriber base that we rely on for our very livelihood to be accountable to. What we do is amateur at best, and, though our information is good, Brett's the professional. I get to go home at 6, right after practice. His day then is just beginning.

Travis · March 1, 2006

Ok... i think it's far past time to set the record straight on Vito. I've spent a good deal of time around the guy, as we're both at as many NT sports functions as we can manage.
If you don't like his writing, fine. That's totally up to you, and I'm sure Brett would be the first guy to concede that you're entitled to your opinion on what he writes.
That said, he knows a lot of what goes on, and has more information than anyone I know outside the program except Harry. The trouble is that he can't use most of it, because only certain things are worthy to be written of in the traditional newspaper jouralistic sense.
Please don't get the impression that Vito's a bum who could care less about what happens around here, and spends all his time lollygagging around instead of covering UNT sports. The guy busts his butt harder than just about anyone I know. He works weekends, nights, late nights, and late weekend nights, and does the best with what he has. You guys see his recruiting page? The preseason report page? That is some impressive stuff, and he works his tail off to get it done.
I've also heard the deal about Vito not asking the tough questions, or not having any "real," hard hitting pieces. Guys, it is exactly because he DID ask the tough questions and run the tough stories that impresses me. He was locked out of the team for weeks after he ran the Andrew Smith story. He got on the wrong side of a lot of officials after he ran the cost of ice story in the summer, as well as the coaching salary stuff. All that has earned him something of an reputation among the NT brass as a guy that has to be carefully watched, or he might see something he's not supposed to.
If he was writing exclusively on NT football, you'd see him do what Harry and I have time to do. We have no deadlines, no editor, no subscriber base that we rely on for our very livelihood to be accountable to. What we do is amateur at best, and, though our information is good, Brett's the professional. I get to go home at 6, right after practice. His day then is just beginning.
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I guess what we wanted to see more of... is the stuff that Tim Macmahon did like calling out Dickey and Trilli on the poor play. Or not putting in this guy or why did they make that bad decision. I absolutely loved when Tim called out Dickey and told him that it was stupid not to play Branch at reciever. Sure enough his first pass as a wide reciever come next game was a 60+ yard scamper against Oklahoma.

One article of Vito's that I did appreciate was him saying that they should start Phillips over Meager at the end of the season.

pollock · March 1, 2006

The problem is only Vito is assigned to cover North Texas.
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That's a good point. I'll cut him some slack there.

Monkeypox · March 1, 2006

I guess what we wanted to see more of... is the stuff that Tim Macmahon did like calling out Dickey and Trilli on the poor play.
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Well, there are two different tracts within the journalistic community for covering sports. Vito is a beat writer. While he might make some comments, he mostly is there to provide people with inside information on the program. Judgement really isn't suppposed to be there. He'll upset people only by stating the truth objectively. If we didn't have this website, perhaps he would be more appropriately appreciated, because his info would not normally be out there.

An easy example would be Rangers' coverage. Someone like Kathleen O'Brien provides you with useful information on the Rangers, but generally refrains from making her own judgements.

Randy Galloway takes that type of information, makes a judgement, and spends weeks spewing his opinion onto the sports page.

While I would like to see someone doing more opinion/columnist type work on NT athletics for the press, we fulfill much of the requirements of being grandstanding blowhards with keyboard access. We perform the editorial functioning just fine.