Norm on Bennett

[LA_Mustang]

Norm had a segment called “Headlines for Next Year” today on The Ticket and one of his headlines was “Bennett leads SMU to 6 wins” He talked about how he had a pretty good recruiting class last year and that this year’s was even better....giving the Mustangs a solid foundation for the future. With all this being said in typical Norm fashion.
Bennett is getting peoples attention.

[DallasDiehard]

Bennett and Norm have been buddies for a while. But a lot of people also view Norm as a real expert, and hopefully having him praising Bennett will help counteract the trash talk from the other idiots on that station

[HPAlumni]

Diehard, are you refering to the Hardline. You know those guys just say all that stuff to get you fired up. Look at what they say about the Cowboys. Now granted, saying Ford Stadium is a great stadium for soccer is pretty low, but don't take it hard.

[DallasDiehard]

You're right, I shouldn't take it personally, but I do. When they badmouth my alma mater, I take it personally, especially when we PAY their awful station to broadcast our games. Wouldn't it benefit the station and its ratings if they were to tout SMU as an exciting, up-and-coming team that everyone should listen to? Of course it would. But Greg Williams, little froggie that he is, and Rhyner, who calls himself a journalist based on that lofty career as a morning DJ on the now-defunt Zoo, continually denounce SMU as a non-entity. A dollar or two of their grossly over-inflated salaries comes from the SMU athletic budget, which in turn comes partially from donations from you and me, the alums who earned our degrees at SMU.

I feel bad for Rich Phillips. He's done a very good job becoming knowledgeable about SMU and its athletic department, and he does a very good job broadcasting our games. Yet at his station, he constantly has to listen to those morons ripping the only D-I team in Dallas, when you know full well they haven't bothered to attend a game (except when we played at TCU, perhaps), or a press conference of any kind. They don't know Coach Bennett, they don't know Jim Copeland, they don't know Vic Viloria, they don't know Keylon Kincade - yet they feel better about themselves by badmouthing the guys who work so hard to represent our school, not just on those Saturdays in the fall but year-round.

When Coach Bennett gets this program where it should be - and that day is rapidly approaching - I hope Rich Phillips and Norm Hitzges are the only two people from that station who ever get an interview. Those other clowns will try to gravytrain our success for interviews, and they don't deserve the priviledge of covering our games or interviewing our coaches and athletes. They're an embarrassment to their station. If they want to be paid for what they're good at, they should go to a cable TV station and talk about bands, girls, movies, etc. That they call themselves "sports media" is nothing short of a complete joke.

(While we're on the subject, I'll go back to my long-held stance that PonyFans should boycott all Ticket advertisers until the higher-ups at the station make Greghole and Whiner change their treatment of the Mustangs. I don't know that it will happen, but it might help send a message.)

[M Street Stang]

I agree 100%. The Ticket absolutely sucks. I only listen to ESPN, which is too bad, because they are TCU's station. Norm is the only person on The Ticket who knows anything about sports. We need to start a letter-writing/e-mail campaign directed to the station's program director.

[Johnny Rock]

It is this simple. SMU Football will receive praise and recognition when it starts winning games. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The guys on the Ticket who insult SMU bring up some good points and arguments. In the past, the school administration did not fully commit to the football team. The Ticket guys had every right to criticise the program for it. The criticism also comes in part from jealousy. I find it humorous that they go out of their way to criticise SMU. When we start winning the praise will come.

[LA_Mustang]

[email protected]

[DiamondM]

I wrote to Dan Bennett a while back on this issue and got a snide response that basically said "we have the best ratings in the 25-40 year old male market so shove it." I don't know if it will be any different now that he has competition. But I've had some other complaints lately, and not just with the Ticket, which I rarely listen to anymore anyway. I was listening on Wednesday or Thursday when Rich Phillips
(!!!) was doing a ticker and mentioned TCU's 21 person signing class but did not even utter the letters S-M-U.

And ESPN radio would be great if not for the fact that apparently there is some clause in the contract covering TCU sports that requires its local sportcenter announcers to pretend that SMU doesn't even exist. Just this morning their local sportcenter mentioned all the games taking place in the Big XII this weekend, and then mentioned that TCU is hosting some spare tomorrow at 1 pm, but nary a mention of the televised game against Hawaii at Moody Coliseum later that same night. And this is not the first time this has happened. I have not had the time nor the energy to write to them about this. And no one has any excuse during the basketball season to say that SMU doesn't deserve coverage when they are covering the inept TCU basketball team this year.

[Bergermeister]

If Norm Hitzges is saying it, I'm not hearing it. Way too irritating for me. Only three people I will flip the channel/dial on and that is Norm Hitzges, [deleted] Vitale and Dan Rather. I really like ALL of the other Ticket guys. Some of you guys take them way too seriously.

[FloridaMustang]

The Ticket's humor must be Texas humor. And bad humor at that. It's not funny.

[StangEsq]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by DallasDiehard:
<B>Wouldn't it benefit the station and its ratings if they were to tout SMU as an exciting, up-and-coming team that everyone should listen to? Of course it would. But Greg Williams, little froggie that he is, and Rhyner, who calls himself a journalist based on that lofty career as a morning DJ on the now-defunt Zoo, continually denounce SMU as a non-entity. A dollar or two of their grossly over-inflated salaries comes from the SMU athletic budget, which in turn comes partially from donations from you and me, the alums who earned our degrees at SMU.
</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The Hardline would be making the same amount of money (highest paid on the station) regardless of whether our games are on their station or not. They can say what they want, because they draw ratings, and ratings are the name of the game.

How stupid would it be for them to heap false praise on our program while we're in the midst of losing our first 7 games by a combined score of 237-83? It would make them look not only like homers, but also dumbasses.

Unless you've listened to The Hardline over the years, you probably don't understand their humor. You also probably don't realize that the reason that they badmouth SMU Football is because we've had terrible coaches that have recruited below average athletes and we have had an administration that has placed restrictions on the program that have put us at a competitive disadvantage. That's why you hear Rhyner saying we should "give it up." To him, if the administration doesn't want to put a winner on the field, you might as well not even try. I think a lot of people probably share the same opinion. Rhyner's shock value/sarcasm stems from the fact that his alma mater (UTA) "gave it up" as well.

Now that things seem to be changing, i think you'll see a lot of people on The Ticket talking positively about the program (although Rhyner will be the last one to do that). On the other hand, if we have another 3-win season, get blown out by teams like Navy and Nevada, and recruiting dips next year, expect the negativity to deservedly continue.

[This message has been edited by StangEsq (edited 02-07-2003).]

[FloridaMustang]

I still don't "understand" their humor

[Ringer]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Bergermeister:
<B>If Norm Hitzges is saying it, I'm not hearing it. Way too irritating for me. Only three people I will flip the channel/dial on and that is Norm Hitzges, [deleted] Vitale and Dan Rather. I really like ALL of the other Ticket guys. Some of you guys take them way too seriously.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Hey burgerman, I have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. Granted Norm Hitzges can go a little overboard at time. But when he does at least it is with knowledge of what he is talking about. The Rhyno and that other guy are two lugs that have to depend on cheap talk to fill up the air time. They have nothing to add that is worth wasting anytime listening to. The mere sound of their voices is enough to make a person rip the darn car radio out and throw it out the window. I gave them the last benefit of the doubt along time ago. Everytime I tuned into their show the result was the same....a calausal disappointment.

[MUSTANGFOREVER69]

I remember when Norm Hitges first showed up in these parts. He hosted a weekly recruiting show on the precursor to FoxSW with his "expert recruiting analyst" Max Emfinger back during the mid-eighties. I, along with numerous other fools, would call in to ask Max questions about certain players and where they might sign. I remember vividly that whenever I could get through after waiting on the phoneline on hold for what seemed like an eternity, I would ask Max a question or two about certain prospects who were reported to be interested in SMU, and every time he would indicate that the recruit/s were not interested in SMU, but rather they were probably going to sign with Baylor. (See my earlier post about Max the [deleted]). Hitges would chime in with the same crap since he considered Max to be the world's greatest expert on recruiting and that was Norm's assignment. To listen to Norm's obsequious voice and comments today makes me want to throw up. He is one of the best examples of the Peter Principle of which I am aware.

[StangEsq]

Max was probably on every other sports talk show you could find at that time... don't fault norm.

The sports talk show hosts don't have time to keep up with recruiting, so they find an "expert" to give the listers info.

Norm is still the best source of sports knowledge in the Metroplex, along with Coop.