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Holiday Gifts: what are you giving / asking for? (🧑‍🎄 🕎 etc)

I’m hard to shop for. Generally I am a pretty obsessive deal hunter so I get annoyed when someone buys me say, sneakers for full price when it was blown out at some random boutique for 40% a few weeks prior.

I’m trying to make a list of small gift ideas for my wife and family to make things easier this year. Curious what you guys are asking for?


Also: I’m curious what you’re gifting others! Help me be a good husband by making my gifting easier.

I’ll start with a couple small things I like to gift, or stuff I own that would make a good gift:

Quoddy slipper socks - American made from up in Maine. I own a bunch of their shoes, their ‘true loafers’ are the best. The slipper socks seem like a nice cozy wool and supporting American production is important to me. Getting these for my wife who loves a cozy gift.

Tom Bihn travel tray - for anyone who likes to travel. It converts from a pouch to a bedside tray which is great for organizing stuff so you don’t misplace things in a hotel room. Tom Bihn is another great American manufacturer. They stitched and donated over a quarter million face masks during covid. Their laundry stuff sack is another fantastic travel accessory, and their bags are expensive but ‘buy for life’. My aeronaut bag has flown 500k miles with me easily and still looks brand new. All the stuff they make rules. Perfect for a kid who is studying abroad, or a spouse who doesn’t like to roll a suitcase.

Fischer space pen - I worked for a place that gave these away as client gifts and I still get photos from old clients when they use them. It’s not fancy / fussy, just a nice quality pen that comes in a variety of sizes.

Cortier bottle hook - great gift for college kids. My favorite keychain. Nice solid weight, not too cumbersome and it will hook right in to your belt loop if you like that vibe. I’ve had mine for 10 years and it has developed an awesome patina.

Bellroy zip wallet - this is imo the best wallet if you don’t carry cash. Keeps your wallet tidy and clean looking and fits a ton. I currently have 7 credit cards / IDs, an AirTag and a little baggie of Xanax in mine with room to spare.

Filson’s original brief is on sale. If you need a briefcase and you want to give a hint to your spouse OR maybe you have a kid about to enter the workforce.. this bag rules. I’ve had mine for 6 years and it has broken in wonderfully. Just needs a few mods (DM and I can advise) to modernize it a bit! It is a ‘buy for life’ bag. I wouldn’t spend more than this $300 sale price.

Anson belts - ratcheting belts are weird but I’m in love with mine. They’re modular, so the buckles swap out and the ratcheting system means they adjust to any waist size. these are really high quality and have lasted me for 4 years now, so I’m confident recommending. Also good for travel, you can bring 2 straps and one buckle and change them out as needed. Funny enough the owners are ECU NIL guys

Smathers and Branson needlepoint stuff - they make small goods with neat little designs. I got my wife a beach key fob last year and she loves it. The baller move is to get the custom belt for your dad with all the dad stuff he likes, they license NCAA so you can get a UCF logo on there :)

Thermapen makes the best instant read thermometers imo, for cooks in ur life

I’ll keep updating as I think of things. Hope this helps others

2023 UCF Football Assistant Coach Salaries 🏈

I missed this originally, but USA Today posted the Assistant Coach Salary Database a week or so ago.

For UCF, it has the old salary listed for DT coach Kenny Martin. He initially signed a new contract in January and then got another raise in March. Here is that post from May.

So, based on USA Today and my updated numbers, this is how things stacked up:

Addison Williams (defensive coordinator, secondary) - $700,000
Darin Hinshaw (offensive coordinator, quarterbacks) - $600,000
Herb Hand (co-offensive coordinator, offensive line) - $500,000
David Gibbs (co-defensive coordinator, secondary) - $475,000
Kenny Martin (defensive tackles) - $450,000
Grant Heard (wide receivers) - $425,000
Brian Blackmon (tight ends) - $300,000
Kenny Ingram (defensive ends) - $275,000
Ernie Sims (linebackers) - $250,000
Kam Martin (running backs) - $200,000

Total salary budget for the 10 assistants = $4,175,000

OT: Coach Prime Time wants new recruiting rule after losing more commitments

Coach Prime just lost 2 QB verbal in recent days and now he wants a recruiting rule change.

From article below:

Asked about the development last week (losing commitments), Sanders proposed an NCAA rule change.

“A kid ain’t even faithful to his girlfriend. You think (he’s) gonna be faithful to a school? Come on, man. That’s an emotional thing,” Sanders said. “What I wish the NCAA would do, if you’re committed somewhere, you can’t go on any other visits. If you’re committed, that means you’re committed. You can’t go on no other visits. Why would you be committed but you’re still letting kids go on other visits? That means you just playing.”

(What he doesn't say is that it was ok for Prime Time to shop around while he was under contract, aka committed to Jackson State.)


NOTEBOOK: Sons of UCF on Championship Weekend and Playoff Observations.

Random thoughts and musings from the college football world (mostly)

Can’t wait for that UCF and Duke re-match
Wait, what?
Can’t wait for that UCF and Duke re-match
Forget you read that
Can’t wait for that UCF and Georgia Tech matchup
The O’Leary bowl
It will give me an excuse to call GOL again, because the last time I did went so well
Thanks ACC for taking your sweet-ass time deciding bowl matchups

Click here to read more from the Sons of UCF.

NOTEBOOK: Sons of UCF on Championship Weekend and Playoff Observations

Random thoughts and musings from the college football world (mostly)

Can’t wait for that UCF and Duke re-match
Wait, what?
Can’t wait for that UCF and Duke re-match
Forget you read that
Can’t wait for that UCF and Georgia Tech matchup
The O’Leary bowl
It will give me an excuse to call GOL again, because the last time I did went so well
Thanks ACC for taking your sweet-ass time deciding bowl matchups

Click here to read more from the Sons of UCF.

NCAA football conference champ game schedule

Friday Dec 1

CUSA
New Mexico State @ #25 Liberty 7pm CBSSN

Pac-12
#6 Oregon @ #4 Washington 8pm ABC

Saturday Dec 2

Big-12
#20 Oklahoma State @ #7 Texas Noon ABC

MAC
Miami @ Toledo Noon ESPN

Pacific West
Boise State @ UNLV 3pm Fox

SEC
#1 Georgia @ #8 Bama 4pm CBS

AAC
SMU @ #23 Tulane 4pm ABC

Sun Belt
Appalachian State @ Troy 4pm ESPN

Big Ten
#3 Michigan @ #17 Iowa 8pm FOX

ACC
#10 Louisville @ #5 FSU 8pm ABC
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2024 Schedule Maker

Let's see what you come up with

Rules
1. Must have 1 weeknight conference game
2. No more than 2 consecutive road games

Fill out the schedule

Home: Arizona, BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, Utah
Away: Arizona State, Iowa State, TCU, West Virginia

Thursday 08/29 vs. New Hampshire
Saturday 09/07 vs. Sam Houston State
Saturday 09/14 .
Saturday 09/21
Saturday 09/28
Saturday 10/05 @ Florida
Saturday 10/12
Saturday 10/19
Saturday 10/26
Saturday 11/02
Saturday 11/09
Saturday 11/16
Saturday 11/23
Saturday 11/30

Brent Key: "Watch tape with me at 4 a.m."

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Brent Key returns to UCF this Saturday. He's the Assistant Head Coach/Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line coach at GT.

This was an all-time media moment... In September 2015, with UCF 0-3 and coming off a loss to Furman, Brent Key did an interview in his office with myself and Shannon Green of the Orlando Sentinel. Might have been someone else in the room too. Key snapped at Shannon's question regarding criticism of putting Nick Patti in as the "Wild Knight."

Look, coaches are never going to appreciate anybody - especially someone in the media or a fan - questioning their coaching decisions.

One of those criticisms in the last game was about the usage of the Wild Knight as far as Bo not being able to get into a rhythm because [Nick] Patti would come in for that package. What is your response to that as far as what the philosophy was?

"I'm usually here, I probably have more free time around 4 to 4:30 a.m. if anybody would like to come in and sit down and watch tape with me and give me their response and how they'd like to handle the situation. Feel free to come in here between 4 to 5 a.m."

You come in that early?

"It depends if I've left yet."


===============

This is actually what I posted at the time because people were roasting him about the 4 a.m. comment:

As for the quote about fan criticism, I think it's unfair to jump on that. The rest of the interview was great, IMO. Some of his past interviews are a little too much "coach-speak" at times and this was a lot more candid, passionate and relatable. You can tell the slow start has affected him. The comment about fans coming to his office at 4 in the morning was quick and off the cuff, he had actually answered a similar question at the beginning.

Towards the end, I thought he was also quite honest about the injury situation. Everybody repeats the "next man up" mantra but the losses really are piling up. I know that's not a complete excuse because the offense struggled just the same against FIU, but it's not an ideal situation.


I know things obviously unraveled that season. And it was sad to see what GOL/Key had helped build sort of crumble towards the end. Key was a great OL coach that didn't deserve some of the flak he got.

  • Poll
Poll: Are you a member of The Kingdom?

Poll: Are you a member of The Kingdom?

  • Yes

    Votes: 168 36.9%
  • No

    Votes: 287 63.1%

In light of SJ Tuohy's recent letter, I'm curious how many Dungeon members also support The Kingdom?

In case you hadn't seen it, this is a snippet from SJ:

When we merged with Mission Control in May, subscribers did not roll over: people were required to re-enroll. We’ve doubled our inherited monthly membership, and while we are proud of the growth we have one of the smallest monthly membership numbers among Big 12 collectives – something we can really improve with our passionate, young, and ever-growing fan base. This will be a point of emphasis you see us push come fall.

I'm probably an expert in the UCF market in terms of understanding the dynamics of the fanbase when it comes to offering a monthly/annual subscription product, though obviously The Kingdom product is a little different. Widespread fanbase adoption of NIL collectives was not going to happen overnight, though it seems some fanbases have been more receptive than others.
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