Some Thoughts On Vizza

[Brett Vito]

Mean Green Blog

[VideoEagle]

Wow. I never realized Brett Vitto came to Denton with such a chip on his shoulder. Clearly, his goal is to hurt the North Texas athletics as much as he possibly can regardless of any facts.

If you are a business in Denton County, you should be calling your sales person to complain about the self admitted hatred of the North Texas by the "reporter."

[NT03]

He's just reporting the facts : it's always a 2 way street.

[VideoEagle]

He's just reporting the facts : it's always a 2 way street.

No, he's not any more. In that blog he dug out an article ancient from the Abilene Feed and Seed to try to put North Texas in the worst possible light. He is not reporting fact anymore, he's writing an article to get some kind of imagined revenge. This is just something legitimate reporters just don't do. If you took Journalism, pull out that ethics textbook and read it for yourself.

Edited January 14, 2009 by VideoEagle

[NT80]

The examples Vito uses are two different situations. The Insall deal was only verbal, never consummated so to speak, and the offer was withdrawn and both parties went on their way. The Vizza deal was a signed commitment, a trade of playing ability for eduation and playing time, and it was signed and has now turned into a nasty divorce situation. Two totally different things.

[good_ken]

No, he's not any more. In that blog he dug out an article ancient from the Abilene Feed and Seed to try to put North Texas in the worst possible light. He is not reporting fact anymore, he's writing an article to get some kind of imagined revenge. This is just something legitimate reporters just don't do. If you took Journalism, pull out that ethics textbook and read it for yourself.

It's a BLOG! Blogs aren't news (with one exception)! They are the opinions of the bloggers.

[keith]

I don't get all the consternation and hand-wringing over a player. At, what, 3-17 as a starter I'm not sure we are losing that much to be honest with you. Usually all the love in this situation is reserved for the back-up QB. Based on the reactions, Vizza must be the greatest 3-17 quarterback in the history of football. The University and football program are bigger than any player or coach. They (players and coaches) come and go all the time.

I do think it's funny how Vito takes every opportunity to pat himself on the back -- "breaking" stories and all. Based on reading this board over the last 5-6 weeks this has been swirling around for quite some time. I'm not sure how taking something that gets handed to you and printing it is breaking a story, but whatever floats his boat. If he really wants to do some reporting, how about getting the story behind the story?

Keith

[OA5II]

Great Blog Vito. The ignorant haters on this board refuse to look at the facts. I don't hear them throwing the coaches under the bus when they pull a player from his scholarship b/c he isn't performing. Like you stated in your blog, players not given a 4 year scholarship. They are only guaranteed year to year.

[NT03]

The examples Vito uses are two different situations. The Insall deal was only verbal, never consummated so to speak, and the offer was withdrawn and both parties went on their way. The Vizza deal was a signed commitment, a trade of playing ability for eduation and playing time, and it was signed and has now turned into a nasty divorce situation. Two totally different things.

I agree Insall wasn't a good example by Brett. He should of used Darrell Dickey's divorce from the university as comparsion. He still had a signed contract to UNT did he not ?? We all cheered when he was given the boot with 2 years remaining on a written contract. What's really the difference that we boot DD out the door with 2 years left and Vizza leaving on his own with 2 years left ??

I'm not saying I agree with how work out , but my point is this happens all the time. Coaches get fired , coaches bolt for other jobs. Players come , players go , it's not the end of the world. Like Vitto said this is a cut throat business.

Edited January 14, 2009 by NT03

[meangreenbob]

I don't get all the consternation and hand-wringing over a player. At, what, 3-17 as a starter I'm not sure we are losing that much to be honest with you. Usually all the love in this situation is reserved for the back-up QB. Based on the reactions, Vizza must be the greatest 3-17 quarterback in the history of football. The University and football program are bigger than any player or coach. They (players and coaches) come and go all the time.

I do think it's funny how Vito takes every opportunity to pat himself on the back -- "breaking" stories and all. Based on reading this board over the last 5-6 weeks this has been swirling around for quite some time. I'm not sure how taking something that gets handed to you and printing it is breaking a story, but whatever floats his boat. If he really wants to do some reporting, how about getting the story behind the story?

Keith

Hey, thats what I was gonna say!

[Censored by Laurie]

Clearly, his goal is to hurt the North Texas athletics as much as he possibly can regardless of any facts.

Brett hates winning, New Orleans...and like most local reporters, seeing his name attached to a national article or news story...thats why he's schemeing to keep UNT down.

[emmitt01]

I don't get all the consternation and hand-wringing over a player. At, what, 3-17 as a starter I'm not sure we are losing that much to be honest with you. Usually all the love in this situation is reserved for the back-up QB. Based on the reactions, Vizza must be the greatest 3-17 quarterback in the history of football. The University and football program are bigger than any player or coach. They (players and coaches) come and go all the time.

I do think it's funny how Vito takes every opportunity to pat himself on the back -- "breaking" stories and all. Based on reading this board over the last 5-6 weeks this has been swirling around for quite some time. I'm not sure how taking something that gets handed to you and printing it is breaking a story, but whatever floats his boat. If he really wants to do some reporting, how about getting the story behind the story?

Keith

I don't get it either. I don't get the hypocrisy of this board saying that Vizza wasn't all that great to begin with...then turning around and cheering RV making his transition to another school as rough as possible. I don't understand the elation we always express when a transfer comes in...then the utter and complete lack of understanding of the fact that scholarships are renewable year by year by BOTH parties. I don't get the bashing of Brett Vito when he posts his opinions in a BLOG which is where opinions should and do reside. Hell, I guess I should now expect Harry to make his every Mean Green Report fair, unbiased and down the middle. We sit back and applaud forcing a kid who did nothing but put his body on the line for this university to struggle to move on, and why? Because we think his dad handled it poorly? Because we are so accustomed to being lil' ol' North Texas that any chance we get to stick it to someone who we feel slighted by we jump on it? The kid wants to transfer, to break a "contract" that isn't binding for four years at all like so many want to hold it up to be. And do we look at it from a reasonable standpoint and demand that he be restricted from going to schools that we play (and who can therefore actually hurt us as we try to climb out of our tailspin)? No, we applaud his being told that he can't go anywhere. And why? Because it's acceptable to say "Well he can still go anywhere he wants as long as his dad pays for it. That's what he gets for leaving us in a bad position at the QB spot." Man, I sure hope nobody every takes our toys or refuses to share their juicy juice with us. Giovanni Vizza had his school paid for by this university for two years...and he put everything he had on the field for us for two years. For those scoring at home that means he upheld his end of an annually renewable contract the entire time he was here. But that's just not enough or fair to us...again, why?

Edited January 14, 2009 by emmitt01

[Censored by Laurie]

I don't get it either. I don't get the hypocrisy of this board saying that Vizza wasn't all that great to begin with...then turning around and cheering RV making his transition to another school as rough as possible. I don't understand the elation we always express when a transfer comes in...then the utter and complete lack of understanding of the fact that scholarships are renewable year by year by BOTH parties. I don't get the bashing of Brett Vito when he posts his opinions in a BLOG which is where opinions should and do reside. Hell, I guess I should now expect Harry to make his every Mean Green Report fair, unbiased and down the middle. We sit back and applaud forcing a kid who did nothing but put his body on the line for this university to struggle to move on, and why? Because we think his dad handled it poorly? Because we are so accustomed to being lil' ol' North Texas that any chance we get to stick it to someone who we feel slighted by we jump on it? The kid wants to transfer, to break a "contract" that isn't binding for four years at all like so many want to hold it up to be. And do we look at it from a reasonable standpoint and demand that he be restricted from going to schools that we play (and who can therefore actually hurt us as we try to climb out of our tailspin)? No, we applaud his being told that he can't go anywhere. And why? Because it's acceptable to say "Well he can still go anywhere he wants as long as his dad pays for it. That's what he gets for leaving us in a bad position at the QB spot." Man, I sure hope nobody every takes our toys or refuses to share their juicy juice with us. Giovanni Vizza had his school paid for by this university for two years...and he put everything he had on the field for us for two years. For those scoring at home that means he upheld his end of an annually renewable contract the entire time he was here. But that's just not enough or fair to us...again, why?

Perfectly worded, perfectly reasoned and perfectly expressed. Its bound to go right over the head of these people. Perfect.

[KingDL1]

Perfectly worded, perfectly reasoned and perfectly expressed. Its bound to go right over the head of these people. Perfect.

Good god people it is simple in a perfect situation usually with a guy riding the bench a team will give them restrictions of no conference teams and no teams scheduled while the athlete has eligibility. I feel we can safely say this was more on the nightmare side of the coin. Vizza's announcement had no regard timing wise for National Signing day, and it appears obvious that they did not set this up through proper channels.

This has nothing to so with us taking transfers, it has to do with what we had invested into a starting player.

And for Vito who do you think reads his UNT blog, I mean anyone that is not a UNT fan? He takes stances against UNT constantly and it is nothing more then a beating. This is not reporting it is blogging or basically opinion, like a columnist. He seems to want to beat up his audience and several here suck up to him. I would not mind if he was thrown out of Denton.

[MeanGreenZen]

The Insall/Vizza comparison is great, Vito! Good blog.

Vito is not out to screw North Texas! It is his job to write the most interesting stories with what he has to work with. Also, what no one understands is that it is in Brett's best interest for North Texas to be successful because that makes his beat relevant and makes his stories more in demand and allows him to showcase his skills so that he can move on to a bigger and better beat a la Tim MacMahon or Richard Durrett before him. If Vito is truly conspiring against UNT then he would be sabotaging his own career because if UNT football continues its one-win seasons then nobody is going to be reading his stuff and The Dallas Morning News will have no demand for his articles and he won't have a chance to impress those editors.

P.S. Vizza was below average. I am very excited to see what Riley Dodge can do.

Edited January 14, 2009 by MG Insurance Pro

[NT03]

Perfectly worded, perfectly reasoned and perfectly expressed. Its bound to go right over the head of these people. Perfect.

It's funny how when another player from another school says they are transfering there is seems to always be a thread about how much we would want that player ala Emmanuel Moody, Chris Perry , etc. but I've never heard someone refer those players as "quiters"

These are kids we are talking about people. I guess some of you would rather a 20 yr old kid to be miserable for the next 2 years (of what is supposed to be the funniest times of his life) so you can enjoy having him on the sidelines behind Riley or getting sacked time and time again from a piss poor play calling coach at YOUR university.

Can we please just get over this already ??? I wish Vizza the best and now I'm excited to see where Riley can take us!!

Edited January 14, 2009 by NT03

[stebo]

I imagine the restrictions are "no other Belt school" "no other Texas IA school" and "no schools on the schedule for the next 3 years (the amount of time Vizza would have had left at NT with his "sit out" year). These are very normal restrictions. They are the restrictions that Tech and every other Big 12 school uses. Vizza can go to Nevada or wherever else he was offered in the first place. But if he thinks he can go play for Rice after supposedly standing on their sidelines during their bowl game (that HAS to be a recruiting violation) - well, I am sure that our administration will not release him from his ship. If he is not released, it does not mean that he cannot go there and play - IT SIMPLY MEANS THAT MUCH LIKE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US, HE WOULD PAY HIS OWN WAY FOR ONE YEAR. I never get the gripe from a player about this. If you change your mind in life, there are consequences. This is a very good lesson to learn. Yes, you have the freedom to change your mind, but if you break a contract - there is usually going to be some sort of monetary penalty.

And I repeat what I typed the first day this was "officially" announced... I thank Gio for trying, I wish him well in his future endeavors, and I sincerely appreciate his efforts. I am not angry, almost relieved to be moving on. I have heard a lot of stories that conflict. There have been a lot of little stories that have come out... From the little birdies out there, it sounds like Gio knew he was leaving a couple of weeks ago.

[Green P1]

P.S. Vizza was below average. I am very excited to see what Riley Dodge can do.

Careful throwing quotes like that out. There's this guy around here who likes to put such things in his signature.

[untbowler]

If it makes anyone feel better UA-Fayetteville has now had 4 players leave at Mid-Semester so it could be worse. I guess Petrino just does not get along with his players.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

The NCAA has the power to step in if the restrictions become too...restrictive. Hopefully, our crack athletic department leaders will remember this and spare our alma mater even more bad press in the days and weeks to come. Hopefully.

[Green Dozer]

If we were winning, none of this would matter. Look on the bright side, there are still 3 billion Chinese who do not think any less of our program.

[OldTimer]

I don't get it either. I don't get the hypocrisy of this board saying that Vizza wasn't all that great to begin with...then turning around and cheering RV making his transition to another school as rough as possible. I don't understand the elation we always express when a transfer comes in...then the utter and complete lack of understanding of the fact that scholarships are renewable year by year by BOTH parties. I don't get the bashing of Brett Vito when he posts his opinions in a BLOG which is where opinions should and do reside. Hell, I guess I should now expect Harry to make his every Mean Green Report fair, unbiased and down the middle. We sit back and applaud forcing a kid who did nothing but put his body on the line for this university to struggle to move on, and why? Because we think his dad handled it poorly? Because we are so accustomed to being lil' ol' North Texas that any chance we get to stick it to someone who we feel slighted by we jump on it? The kid wants to transfer, to break a "contract" that isn't binding for four years at all like so many want to hold it up to be. And do we look at it from a reasonable standpoint and demand that he be restricted from going to schools that we play (and who can therefore actually hurt us as we try to climb out of our tailspin)? No, we applaud his being told that he can't go anywhere. And why? Because it's acceptable to say "Well he can still go anywhere he wants as long as his dad pays for it. That's what he gets for leaving us in a bad position at the QB spot." Man, I sure hope nobody every takes our toys or refuses to share their juicy juice with us. Giovanni Vizza had his school paid for by this university for two years...and he put everything he had on the field for us for two years. For those scoring at home that means he upheld his end of an annually renewable contract the entire time he was here. But that's just not enough or fair to us...again, why?

From what the FW Star Telegram reported he was not barred from playing any where. His restriction was to SBC schools and schools on UNT's schedule the next 3 years...IE he can't play on a team NT plays during his elgibility of sitting out one year with 2 years playing at the school he transferred to. ...this is a very common restriction from what I have seen.

The only thing I have commented on his situation is that he told his postion coach at the end of the season he would return...then waited until approximately 10 days before signing day to request a transfer....preventing Nt from recruiting a JC QB transfer at mid-term. I think these actions were wrong but otherwise wish him the best where ever he goes.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

I don't get it either. I don't get the hypocrisy of this board saying that Vizza wasn't all that great to begin with...then turning around and cheering RV making his transition to another school as rough as possible. I don't understand the elation we always express when a transfer comes in...then the utter and complete lack of understanding of the fact that scholarships are renewable year by year by BOTH parties. I don't get the bashing of Brett Vito when he posts his opinions in a BLOG which is where opinions should and do reside. Hell, I guess I should now expect Harry to make his every Mean Green Report fair, unbiased and down the middle. We sit back and applaud forcing a kid who did nothing but put his body on the line for this university to struggle to move on, and why? Because we think his dad handled it poorly? Because we are so accustomed to being lil' ol' North Texas that any chance we get to stick it to someone who we feel slighted by we jump on it? The kid wants to transfer, to break a "contract" that isn't binding for four years at all like so many want to hold it up to be. And do we look at it from a reasonable standpoint and demand that he be restricted from going to schools that we play (and who can therefore actually hurt us as we try to climb out of our tailspin)? No, we applaud his being told that he can't go anywhere. And why? Because it's acceptable to say "Well he can still go anywhere he wants as long as his dad pays for it. That's what he gets for leaving us in a bad position at the QB spot." Man, I sure hope nobody every takes our toys or refuses to share their juicy juice with us. Giovanni Vizza had his school paid for by this university for two years...and he put everything he had on the field for us for two years. For those scoring at home that means he upheld his end of an annually renewable contract the entire time he was here. But that's just not enough or fair to us...again, why?

All great points and excellent questions about how we seem to accept transfers with open arms, yet when it is the other way around the guy is a quitter.

[keith]

The NCAA has the power to step in if the restrictions become too...restrictive. Hopefully, our crack athletic department leaders will remember this and spare our alma mater even more bad press in the days and weeks to come. Hopefully.

Even the NCAA has restrictions....i.e. players transferring from one D1 school to another D1 school have to sit out a year. For the NCAA to step in on anything related to D1 football is IMHO laughable. Either reasonable restrictions are the norm and allowed or all restrictions should be completely removed and there should be a free flow of players from institution to institution without any restrictions whatsoever (wouldn't *that* be fun!).

Keith

[mad dog]

Careful throwing quotes like that out. There's this guy around here who likes to put such things in his signature.

UNTFlyer also got an all-inclusive signature pass when he claimed "The fee vote will pass or I'll eat my hat." When it did, I congratulated him and moved on. I look forward to doing the same thing next December.