Just a few fun tidbits: UNT Logo is up on the stadium and the USMC is

[meangreendork]

Most of you already know about the "University of North Texas" and diving eagle being finished on the stadium. Coming from 35, north of campus, you can see it nicely from a few miles out and the stadium from even further.

And this morning, I was greeted by a large red truck and HMMWV with the USMC sabre on the side of each, with a US flag and USMC flag in the middle of the practice field. There something between 6-8 Marines out there today giving our team the run through in some different workouts.

[letsgiveacheer]

Unless this is a recruiting tool, there is no possible justification for Marines spending their time conducting workouts for a university's football team.

[bstnsportsfan3]

Unless this is a recruiting tool, there is no possible justification for Marines spending their time conducting workouts for a university's football team.

are you really griping about this? its awesome to see the marines and our team working out! USA USA!! and Go Mean Green!

[Green Mean]

I could care less whose training and who isn't. Just produce some W's on the field this fall.

[meangreendork]

Unless this is a recruiting tool, there is no possible justification for Marines spending their time conducting workouts for a university's football team.

You should see what they're doing. It's a lot of conditioning workouts that I didn't see them run last season, and it's all run at a quicker pace, too. The great part about a lot of these drills, all of the resistance is either from the player's own weight or from the weight of another player. These aren't just laps run around the field, it's body drags, teamed pushups, shoulder carries, and all sorts of endurance and strength work.

After the Carey release, this also shows how serious our new staff is about getting these guys conditioned and motivated for the next season. I recruiting tool or not, a change of pace in workouts and change of intensity is usually good.

[LongJim]

Shrewd. Not only a conditioning exercise, but something to shake up routine and build teamwork and accountability.

[greenminer]

I understand we are the first NCAA football team in history of histories to get help from a military unit like this.

We are that big of a deal.

[FloMoGrad]

And it might just offer a small paradigm change for a group of privileged student athletes.

These dudes workout this hard to stay alive. Literally.

So after a tough workout and you head to the training room for treatment, then to the caf for some food and then your room later, all in A/C and first class facilities, these guys are sweating their asses off in the shit holes of the world, eating freeze dried crap and sleeping on cots and all the while will get no glory like a fall Saturday afternoon.

[letsgiveacheer]

are you really griping about this? its awesome to see the marines and our team working out! USA USA!! and Go Mean Green!

Lest you think I'm an old curmudgeon, let me say I am retired from the Air Force, been shot at many times, deployed to various hell-holes around the world for many years, etc etc.

As I said in my post, if this is a recruiting tool, fine. The military is sworn "to support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" and to do that, you have to have to recruit. Providing color guards at football games, sponsoring race cars, etc are all effective in this effort and justified.

But what part of the Marine's mission involves training football teams? There is so much waste in our military budget and this bothered me tremendously while on active duty. I did whatever I could to reduce this, especially as I became more senior.

Unless the university reimbursed the Marines, here is what this probably cost: federal per diem in the Dallas area is about 200 a day. If there are 8 of them and they arrived yesterday and leave tomorrow, we are speaking of 3000 in addition to their wages. I'm not aware of any Marine bases in the DFW area but if there are, then we are just speaking about the time away from their normal responsibilities.

3000 is nothing to the federal budget but as I told my troops when I saw waste, think of it as a citizen's entire year of income tax. In other words, your year of hard work paid for a football workout.

Off my soapbox now and back to football!

[MeanGreenTexan]

Lest you think I'm an old curmudgeon, let me say I am retired from the Air Force, been shot at many times, deployed to various hell-holes around the world for many years, etc etc.

As I said in my post, if this is a recruiting tool, fine. The military is sworn "to support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" and to do that, you have to have to recruit. Providing color guards at football games, sponsoring race cars, etc are all effective in this effort and justified.

But what part of the Marine's mission involves training football teams? There is so much waste in our military budget and this bothered me tremendously while on active duty. I did whatever I could to reduce this, especially as I became more senior.

Unless the university reimbursed the Marines, here is what this probably cost: federal per diem in the Dallas area is about 200 a day. If there are 8 of them and they arrived yesterday and leave tomorrow, we are speaking of 3000 in addition to their wages. I'm not aware of any Marine bases in the DFW area but if there are, then we are just speaking about the time away from their normal responsibilities.

3000 is nothing to the federal budget but as I told my troops when I saw waste, think of it as a citizen's entire year of income tax. In other words, your year of hard work paid for a football workout.

Off my soapbox now and back to football!

What about "Toys for Tots"? That's not necesarily a recruiting tool (unless we're starting to recruit little kids), would you call that waste?

As far as recruiting, it could possibly be a recruiting tool as well. As we know, most of these guys will not be playing football professionally. So with their degrees, they could enlist,go to Officer Training, and become an officer in the Marines if they wanted to. Maybe in order to have this workout, the Marines provide a presentation post-practice?

[UNTFan23]

I'm not aware of any Marine bases in the DFW area but if there are, then we are just speaking about the time away from their normal responsibilities.

There is the Carswell Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, so it likely the Marines came from there.

I'm not sure how accurate this is but I think the units based at Carswell JRB are:

• Marine Air Group 41
  
• Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 234
  
• Marine Fighter/Attack Squadron 112
  
• 14th Marine Regiment
  
• 8th Marine Corps District
  

[bstnsportsfan3]

Lest you think I'm an old curmudgeon, let me say I am retired from the Air Force, been shot at many times, deployed to various hell-holes around the world for many years, etc etc.

As I said in my post, if this is a recruiting tool, fine. The military is sworn "to support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" and to do that, you have to have to recruit. Providing color guards at football games, sponsoring race cars, etc are all effective in this effort and justified.

But what part of the Marine's mission involves training football teams? There is so much waste in our military budget and this bothered me tremendously while on active duty. I did whatever I could to reduce this, especially as I became more senior.

Unless the university reimbursed the Marines, here is what this probably cost: federal per diem in the Dallas area is about 200 a day. If there are 8 of them and they arrived yesterday and leave tomorrow, we are speaking of 3000 in addition to their wages. I'm not aware of any Marine bases in the DFW area but if there are, then we are just speaking about the time away from their normal responsibilities.

3000 is nothing to the federal budget but as I told my troops when I saw waste, think of it as a citizen's entire year of income tax. In other words, your year of hard work paid for a football workout.

Off my soapbox now and back to football!

I appreciate your service, my grandfather and father were both in the Air Force. But honestly i think its awesome that the marines are helping our team train.

[UNTnewbie]

The team was under the impression that the workout today was just going to be a light workout. Surprise!!

A few quotes from players after this morning "Light" workout.

"That was freakin BRUTAL!" You really had to see the kids face when he said this!

"I have a completely new respect for those guys after going through one of their workouts and we didn't even complete it!"

"I've never seen so many people tossing their cookies at one time"

The Marines were all active duty but the vast majority were volunteers on their off day. Sounds like they were based out of Arlington, not sure about that information.

[FloMoGrad]

Lest you think I'm an old curmudgeon, let me say I am retired from the Air Force, been shot at many times, deployed to various hell-holes around the world for many years, etc etc.

....

Off my soapbox now and back to football!

I absolutely appreciate your military service and unique perspective, its one I had not considered. I retract my -1.

[jquincy]

But what part of the Marine's mission involves training football teams? There is so much waste in our military budget and this bothered me tremendously while on active duty. I did whatever I could to reduce this, especially as I became more senior.

Unless the university reimbursed the Marines, here is what this probably cost: federal per diem in the Dallas area is about 200 a day. If there are 8 of them and they arrived yesterday and leave tomorrow, we are speaking of 3000 in addition to their wages. I'm not aware of any Marine bases in the DFW area but if there are, then we are just speaking about the time away from their normal responsibilities.

3000 is nothing to the federal budget but as I told my troops when I saw waste, think of it as a citizen's entire year of income tax. In other words, your year of hard work paid for a football workout.

okay, first of all, i was active duty USMC 1st light armored recon division '95-'99. secondly, MAYBE 1 or 2 of these athletes will go on to be in the pros. MAYBE. the rest will go on to who knows what. there's always a need for commissioned officers in the corps, and you never know what lasting impressions might be left on these young men.

secondly, MAG (Marine Air Group) 41 is stationed at carswell JRB in fort worth along with a few other non-combat reserve units.

thirdly, while i was in the marine corps, i was assigned to recruiter assistance duty for about a month in the D/FW area. my per diem was exactly $0. i have no idea where you got this $200 a day figure.

in conclusion, what if their "normal responsibilties" are in fact recruiting? time/money well spent? they could just be a group of area recruiters. in the USMC when your assigned to be a recruiter, that's all you're assigned to do. you have no other normal responsibilty. trust me, this isn't two moonlighting tank crews out yucking it up with some college athletes. just hearing the words 'marine corps' and 'per diem' in the same sentence sounds really funny together. maybe officers get some sort of per diem. i wouldn't know, i worked for a living while i was an active duty marine. somehow, i seriously doubt any of these eight marines were officers.

[jquincy]

There is the Carswell Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, so it likely the Marines came from there.

I'm not sure how accurate this is but I think the units based at Carswell JRB are:

• Marine Air Group 41
  
• Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 234
  
• Marine Fighter/Attack Squadron 112
  
• 14th Marine Regiment
  
• 8th Marine Corps District
  

your are correct. excellent research.

[MeanMag]

your are correct. excellent research.

Those guys probably do that type of stuff for fun.

[UNTflyer]

Unless this is a recruiting tool, there is no possible justification for Marines spending their time conducting workouts for a university's football team.

Shut the front door...

[jtm0097]

I understand we are the first NCAA football team in history of histories to get help from a military unit like this.

We are that big of a deal.

Service Academies?

[FloMoGrad]

Service Academies?

sarcasm.