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That was un-warranted jab against me. My intent was never to dis-respect the past. I have been to pretty much every home games since the Trilli era so I would say that i have a little pride in my school. All I did was list the facts. It has been bothering me that people were complaining about JJ considering this hasnt really ever been a powerhouse but that doesnt discount the past teams. I was just calling a spade a spade. And as far as you go FFR, i dont know why you dont have the same pride for our current team, head coach and program as you do about the past teams and players. Just this year you have said that we play no defense and that is all coaching. You have said that JJ has figured out a formula that has him schedule just enough patsies in 29 game schedule to keep his job until 2025. After a big win at WKU your first comments were "we stole that game." Instead of saying what a big victory it was and giving the team credit. JJ gets an extension and your first comments are "i dont understand the timing." Which to me made it sound like you didnt agree. Then you say when Thomas leaves, "how in the hell can a coaching staff let a kid leave with 3 weeks left." Come to find out he had a serious situation. I consider you one of the biggest fans of UNT and i didnt understand why you werent more enthusiastic about what the b-ball program has going.

I hesitate to point this out, because I don't know that it will do any good. And I'm not now (nor have I ever) tried to make the point that JJ is the greatest coach we've ever had. Frankly, if the worst anyone can say about the man is that he isn't quite as exceptional as Bill Blakeley, I think that even Johnny Jones would say that's probably fair and it's no insult at all. But the only top 7 conference (the modern ones) team that we beat on the road in the Blakeley era that we haven't also beaten on the road under Johnny Jones is Baylor. And we did beat Baylor at home under JJ (like we also did under Blakeley) back in 2003. I'm not saying that JJ could smoke Texas if we got them in the Pit. Even if we have beaten every other non-conference opponent that's played us more than once and made at least one trip to the Pit under JJ's tenure. What I am saying is that even Blakeley couldn't beat Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State... ON THE ROAD. Which is the only chance we've gotten at most of those teams in the Jones era. The ones we've gotten at home, we've beaten, too. The same place Blakeley's teams played them when they beat them. It's not a knock on Blakeley, I'm not disrespecting that era at all. But if you're upset that we're not beating those guys on the road... Well, even Blakeley couldn't do it, 30 or more years ago. And if you're upset that we're not beating opponents like that at home, then your gripe isn't with JJ. It's with whoever works relationships with other programs and negotiates premium OOC games. Because the only top 7 conference team that's played us at least once in Denton and not lost to JJ is Indiana, and that's an 0-1 series that hasn't been renewed in the past 6 years. As for needing Mapquest to find our opponents this year... I know you're not talking about Oklahoma State, A&M, Boise, or Rice. I hope you don't mean SE Louisiana, Houston Baptist, UTA, Texas Southern, or Cameron, because we played all of them under Blakeley, too. Any student of history would know and respect them as historical rivals established 30+ years ago, and geographic location of those schools would be no mystery. And any student of our history would appreciate that at least JJ managed to BEAT Texas Southern, unlike BB (or Jimmy Gales, who lost to them at the Pit by almost 20). By elimination, you must be talking about Jackson State and/or University of the Southwest. Jackson State is a SWAC team from Jackson, Mississippi. Johnny Cash sang a song about that town, I highly recommend it. As for the SWAC, that's the same conference that former Blakeley opponents like Alcorn State and Texas Southern came from. As for University of the Southwest, I'll admit that I'm not very familiar with where they are. Wikipedia tells me they're in Hobbs, New Mexico. I'm not sure where Hobbs, NM is in relation to the classic road trips of the BB era... It doesn't have the name recognition of Henderson State, Roosevelt, Central Oklahoma, McMurry, Carolina A&T, Trinity, or Texas A&I. Wait, wait... I DO know where Texas A&I is... It's in Kingsville. It's named Texas A&M-Kingsville now. That's what they've been called when we played them under JJ and everyone bitched about us scheduling weak OOC opponents. But University of the Southwest does sound a lot like Southwestern, a patsy that Blakeley's teams played (and lost to) back in the glory days. Maybe Hobbs is somewhere close to Georgetown, Texas. I think I'll have to check Mapquest. Anyway... Bring them to the Pit, and JJ seems to beat them. Play them somewhere else, and neither JJ nor BB did it. As for the lack of name recognition... Either you're forgetting your history, or you're just not familiar with Southwest and Jackson State. In either event, I'm sure there's Blakeley-related history you can relate them to. EDIT (because I forgot one mistake): We've played Houston at home once and never beaten them in 3 tries under JJ. That's the one exception to something I wrote in the beginning of this post.

Sometimes I get frustrated by Johnny's scheduling of 'tiny' non-conference opponents, but I must say that we are certainly getting our money's worth with Coach Jones. He is a good man who is always competitive in league play and he graduates players (who seem to stay out of trouble). Congrats to him for the contract extension.

We're having our greatest continued run of success in about 80 years Rick. That's not denigrading anything. Did Spika have some teams that were better? Undoubtedly. We all know Blakeley had some great teams. Gales made the NCAA tournament. Hell, Shands obviously had some good seasons(even with his carrer mark under .500). But if a book was witten about our basketball history the big sections would be Spika/Blakeley/Jones(probably in that order if you agree with GrandGreen - and I often do). That's the list. And if JJ stays here another decade making the tourney a few more times - maybe we'll think of him as #1.

I don't think it's unfair to say that if we win this game the WMD's will be found and Obama won't win re-election.

Respecting the magnitude of Thursday's matchup, I'll keep this simple: Yes. Oh Yeaahh!

I just can't concede the DFW market to TCU and SMU. As a teacher in Fort Worth I can tell you most of my students are very indifferent to TCU. They feel TCU is a school most of them are excluded from having any chance of attending. They see North Texas everywhere in my room, and many prefer to support our large public school, even though we have been struggling. I think much of the population in Dallas probably feels the same way. We must do more to become more visable in DFW.

Some independent thoughts w/o jumping into anyone's personal battles: 1) I don't believe you have to have seen someone play to have an opinion on a team, player, or era. 2) They're exactly that - opinions - and we're going to have a lot of differing ones here or in any large group. In stuff like college sports, the toy department of life, no one is ever "right" or "wrong" (quotations copyright KRAM school of journalism) in these things, and even if they could be, it's sure as hell not that important. The fact that we're all here posting on a NT athletics forum alone makes us a rabid minority with more passion about an often insignificant entity than just about anyone else. 3)It seems to me that in most cases, people tend to favor the era they came of age with. Period. This is across the board in any sport, and is the source of many good natured Griffey Jr./Mays, Celtics/Bulls arguments I've had with my dad. In twenty years, those who are in their 20's or so right now will have a greater appreciation for the Johnny Jones (and.. gasp! Darrell Dickey) eras than those who are the students of the future. It's just the way things work, and no one is right or wrong, and no, you can't really compare eras.

Just a question. How does Notre Dame's intention to stay an independent in football indicate that they are "putting themselves above the national good"? How does what football conference (or not) one is in have anything at all to do the the "national good", and why shouldn't ND do what they think is best for ND, their alumni, fans, students, etc.? I know there are plenty of folks who don't like ND for one reason or another...I tend to be neutral to somewhat positive on ND, but I really don't care if they are independent or in a conference. ND football seems to me to be doing what they think is best. Should ND or any other college/university "big enough" to go it alone join just because some see it in the "national interest" that they do so? Like I say, I am just interested in hearing from those much more "interested" in what the Big 10 and ND do or don't do than I am on this one.

You gotta be kidding me? When has tU ever gone without anything? Rick

So if I get upset with 1 or 2 people on the football forum, is it acceptable for me to hijack (remember how much you hate that concept?) every thread on that board? Maybe I'll just start posting in every single football thread. Every time someone starts talking about the 2010 team, I'll interject and imply or flat out say that everyone is a moron, because Mitch Maher was really good and all anyone is talking about is Riley Dodge. Anyone want to talk about Todd Dodge's chances of getting to 7 wins? Well, shut the hell up, everyone. Because I think Corky Nelson was better than Dodge. And you're all going to hear it, whether it's relevant or not. This is the definition of thread hijacking, Rick. You can't get upset at anyone else over humorous or serious thread hijacking if you're going to keep doing stuff like this. I'm not calling you a bad guy or a bad fan. 3 years ago, the whole reason I met you was because you made the down-and-back drive so you could be there to see JJ and the '07 boys earn the tournament bid. And we celebrated together on the way out to the cars, which we all climbed in to immediately drive back to Dallas. As I recall, you and Emmitt were on the phone with someone right after that game, talking about another forum member who had been grinding some ridiculous axe all season long. Again... I'm not trying to insult you here, or anything like that. But I think you're really off base with this stuff.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/andy_staples/02/19/two-star/index.html Lance made the list. He is a real playmaker!

I would not say it is used for decision-making either, but if a person reads and are exposed to ideas/opinions on this board I think it is hard to say they have no influence especially if the person reading agrees. Maybe we are the "GMG.com think-tank".

With out a doubt I used to think this board was nothing but a place for fans to congregate, debate, vent, celebrate and share thoughts. Really just an entertainment value of sorts, but this board seems to be a litmus paper test for many in the AD to reflect what the community thinks is going on with sports. I am now sure of it. While I doubt Lee Jackson spends much time here, if any. But of course this is really a football board, first and foremost just look a the thread count. I know that others here know as well as I do how many connected to the Football program read this board regularly. I am not saying they don't do it with a touch of salt. And I don't really know about recruits. Just check recent events on the VIP board, as the latest in evidence to how strongly our little forum here hits home with our team and staff.

All them stars just went down the drain

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022310dnspoltrelease.2688726.html Anyone have any guess where he might end up

HOT SPRINGS! HUH! MAKE YA SWEAT!

I think you're going to take this much worse than I intend it, but I have to ask: is this about appreciating the past, appreciating the way you saw the past or just appreciating you? If this is just entrenching into an unpopular side of an opinion just to enjoy some debate, I get that more than most people, but that's not usually how you roll. We've bantered and gone back and forth quite a few times in the past and always been able to shake hands and laugh in person, but - and it might just be reading your last 4 days of post all at once - you seem like you really have a deeper issue here that we don't know about. You can get frustrated that others may not know their history like you do and see that as devaluing it, but isn't devaluing the present the exact same "sin" reversed? We still get hate mail at the long-defunct TY site over the Hayden Fry article where we applied the methods used to devalue our modern coaches to Fry's record by people who missed the point, so maybe generational satire is just too touchy a subject for any fan base with people more than 15 years apart in age. I may have to bring a "free hugs" sign to the game Thursday, because we can't be down a fireman once the flaming hot hoops in hot springs commence.

It's all about the $$ and advancing the brand. Notre Dame has the best deal of any team in the nation right now. KRAM, IMO every school should do what's in their best interest, and that includes what is good for their school, students, faculty, and alumni. No, it shouldn't have anything to do with what's in anyone's "national interest".

When OSU came to town a couple of years ago, I printed maybe 30 flyers that I made and taped them to doors around campus. I consider that the reason why we had such good attendance. People notice flyers posted right in front of their face, little signs at shin-level don't tend to catch the average person's attention

Facts are important if you truly want to help people.

Here's the link, and the actual article. Recruiting: on the rise and decline On Monday, Football Outsiders analyzed the value of recruiting. Today, with recruits in-house, they look at trends over time. Now that the ink from the signatures of (most of) the Class of 2010 has dried, what can we derive from this year's class rankings? Who has seen the biggest upgrade (or downgrade) in their overall talent level? On The Up And Up These squads have seen their recruiting talent improve the most since 2005-06. Rank Team ESPN Rivals 1. Oregon 22 13 2. Utah NR 32 3. West Virginia NR 19 4. Baylor NR 39 5. Houston NR 45 6. BYU NR 40 7. Missouri NR 21 8. Stanford 18 27 9. Washington 20 28 10. Georgia Tech NR 43 To determine this, we must compare a team's incoming talent to its outgoing talent; 4-5 recruiting averages both correlate at similar levels to team success, and since a majority of players departing after the 2009 season came from the recruiting classes of 2005 and 2006, we will combine each team's 2010 haul to their averages from the 2005 and 2006 recruiting classes. (Once again, all data for this exercise comes from Rivals.com because all FBS teams are assigned grades/ratings.) Since most of the top-ranked recruiting classes went to teams who have always recruited well, the teams who have seen the biggest upgrades are not necessarily the ones at the top. In the top chart to the right, you can see the ten teams who have most improved their overall talent level as compared to the 2005 and 2006 recruiting classes. These teams have taken strong steps forward in terms of talent, though experience could still be an issue. As mentioned earlier this week, experience matters more at the non-AQ conference level, but it still does matter to some degree at the major conference level. Slipping and sliding These squads have seen their recruiting rankings decline the most since 2005-06. Rank Team ESPN Rivals 1. Florida State 6 10 2. Michigan 14 20 3. Ohio State 16 26 4. Miami (Fla.) 13 24 5. Nebraska NR 23 6. Virginia NR 67 7. Arizona NR 36 8. Wisconsin 18 86 9. Georgia 12 16 10. Oklahoma 5 7 Being that recruiting is a zero-sum game, if some teams have improved their talent levels as it pertains to recruiting, others have likely slipped. And since college football's power structure changes so little, a lot of the names on the list to the left still managed strong classes in 2010 -- just not as strong as those from a few years ago. Here are the top ten teams according to recruiting talent lost: Recruiting is an accurate predictor of success, but there is obviously no perfect predictor. Every year, teams both overachieve and underachieve compared to the "talent" level they supposedly possess, and some teams do one or the other rather consistently. With that in mind, let's look at those who have done the most and least with their talent at hand. The top ten overachievers for the last two seasons (2008-09) compared to recruiting rankings can be found in the next chart. (and as with Monday's column, on-field achievement is measured by the Football Outsiders measure, F/+, a combination of FO measures FEI and S&P+). Overachieving These squads do the most with the least. .Rank Team 1. TCU Horned Frogs 2. Boise State Broncos 3. Cincinnati Bearcats 4. Florida Gators 5. Navy Midshipmen 6. Air Force Falcons 7. Alabama Crimson Tide 8. Penn State Nittany Lions 9. Texas Longhorns 10. Connecticut Huskies Some of these names are predictable. It doesn't take strong data analysis to realize that Boise State and TCU have performed at a level much higher than their perceived talent. The same probably goes for service academies and teams like Connecticut, who has not had a class grade higher than a C in ESPN's recruiting ratings in the five years of class data available at ESPN.com, yet has seen three straight winning seasons and four in six years. Some of the names, however, are unexpected. Despite a long series of strong classes, Florida, Alabama, Penn State and Texas have still managed to overachieve as compared to expectations -- which says something about both the coaching staffs on hand (it is hard to come up with a list of coaches more respected than Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Joe Paterno, and Mack Brown), and the level of performance these teams (especially the Gators, Tide and Longhorns) have achieved the past two seasons. Of course, there are also underachievers. Here are the teams who have struggled the most to achieve at the level their recruiting rankings suggested for them: Underachieving These squads have been unable to live up to their recruiting results. .Rank Team 1. Washington State Cougars 2. Washington Huskies 3. Texas A&M Aggies 4. San Diego State Aztecs 5. Michigan Wolverines 6. Kansas State Wildcats 7. UCLA Bruins 8. Colorado Buffaloes 9. New Mexico State Aggies 10. North Texas Mean Green Washington State has not recently graded high in the realm of recruiting, but they make the top of the underachiever list due to their historically poor level of recent play. Meanwhile, quite a few teams with reputations for disappointment show up on the list as well, particularly Texas A&M, Michigan and Colorado. As a whole, certain conferences have managed to exceed recruiting expectations with their performance on the field. The Mountain West has done quite well, with TCU, Air Force, Utah and BYU all vastly overachieving. Powered by steady performances from Cincinnati, Connecticut, Pittsburgh and South Florida, the Big East has also surpassed its perceived talent levels. Meanwhile, the Pac-10 has been the biggest recent underachiever in the last two seasons. Wazzu and Washington are powerful anchors, but UCLA, the Arizona State Sun Devils and the California Golden Bears have also struggled to keep up. Meanwhile, the Sun Belt conference has inexplicably also underachieved; despite failing to register any major recruiting hauls, six of the conference's nine teams have failed to live up to their average recruiting rankings. Only Troy has overachieved, while Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic have basically broken even.

Under Johnny Jones, we're 4-1 vs. MVC competition. The only loss came against Missouri State, and we beat them twice (home and away). So... Creighton. Not SWC, not Power 7, not what you mentioned as wins you missed in your original post. But if you want to talk MVC teams... We're doing pretty swell against that conference under JJ, too.

Or Florida, or Alabama or Penn State? All of those schools get so many top recruits that the under rated players who break through must be great players.

I might not think you were bashing per se, but I would kinda wonder what you were getting at. Sure, we had some marquee wins in years past. Did we have a sustained run of any sort tho? The point when I relly realized how crappy our overall history in basketball was - was a few years ago when Quincy's class graduated, and MGSports had some article that said he was the first player in like 50 years not to have a losing season(this is among kids who played 4 years).

It's not about that, really. I get why Rick would be so frustrated with thinking people don't know or respect the history of the school... But it really isn't relevant in any way in this thread. And bringing up other frustrations here doesn't really accomplish anything for anyone.

Rick, for crying out loud... Who here said anything about George being the best anything in any period of our school history? I'm 100% sure Ronnie Morgan isn't eligible in this discussion. You're really tilting at windmills here, and nonexistent ones at that. You know I love you and all, but this is really getting unstable.

Just curious if the team strength records are available online. I know we've had some very strong players over the years ( Jonas Buckles weighed 200 and benched over 400) but it never seemed we were strong or well conditioned as a team. Would be interesting to see results of having a full-time dedicated coach for the FB team.

Because Rick Perry benefits finanacially from Toll Roads. Ed Wallace's column in the FWS-T about ten days ago.

Rick, you know should know me as fairly reasonable guy. That said, you really are coming across bizarrely angry. I don't mean to be condescending, I'm just starting to kinda worry about you.

Wow. Another good season, with the team getting hot down the stretch, and one of our own player's father is seriously ill, and the most important thing to sort out is what classification West Texas State was several decades ago (not a shot at you Calvin). Wow. Just wow.

I am not really sure if you are saying i was belittling the past teams or not but I never belittled them, i was just pointing out facts. And what do i not get? Please point out when we were a consistent winner in the last 30 years? We had a stretch where we won 20 games 3 straight years in the 70s and had 2 seasons where we won 17 games. So in 30 years before JJ we had 5 seasons where we won 17 games, thats it. So that means we had 25 basketball seasons of 16 or less wins. In the last 4 years we have won 23, 20, 20, and at least 19. Is there something you have against JJ ? Seems like anytime you get a chance to sneak a shot at JJ or the team you do and to me it doesnt make sense. He may not be what you want or what you expect or the team may not be what you want but how can you argue with our sucess? Remember, men lie, women lie, but numbers dont lie. Also i have no problem admitting that i had no clue about West Texas State and other things like that. I was completely wrong. But it is funny to me that you wont admit you were wrong about criticizing the staff about the Richard Thomas situation.

It's easy to say no to someone like this , but I bet if he came here everyone would be all about the 2nd chances in this game of life

Just because his attempted act of violence didn't result in the mass-casualties he had hoped for doesn't mean this wasn't an act of terror with an agenda. He alluded to himself following in the footsteps of other patriots hoping others might follow suit. He doesn't need to advance an agenda; his intent is what matters. This was an act of terror, plain and simple. It was an attack against an agency of the United States of America. It was meant to provoke fear and it was meant to make a statement. In my opinion, it accomplished neither, however he will forever be remembered as a complete and total dickhead. I feel sorry for the family he leaves behind and the families that were affected by his inability to deal with life's routine frustrations.

I don't exactly believe in regular Santa but I do believe in the power of the fan board Santa. We have asked on here for ice for drinks at football games, TVs in concession areas, basketball replay monitors, Green seats in the SuperPit, plays with QB under center, new coaches for different sports, more tailgating, a new football facility, and more availability to watch practices among just some things over the years...all granted. As a business manager, if you had access to your customer's concerns, likes and dislikes, wouldn't you be interested? You should ...

Life must suck in Mississippi.....welcome to the board.

I am so happy with the direction Dodge is going, I wonder if you are right about the "higher Power" and I am also wondering how much this board plays in to it. I used to figure the board had relatively no affect on any decisions. But after some conversations over the past year I think there is much more influence, especially with the recent events involving fans. It makes me wonder if posts by several on here like TFLF and Tasty that had some really compelling arguments for staff change. Again I am happy with the changes and I expect that practice this year will bring a whole new level of intense. I think we have a good shot at heading the big NO for a Bowl. 2010 its time to go back again!!! NEW ORLEANS, NEW ORLEANS. I am ready to break out my beads.

Do you really wonder? I have no doubt they were forced out and I don't think it could be more obvious without being announced. Plus in my industry this is pretty much how most departures are handled unless the person in question is just a complete disaster.

I don't see this as a bad thing if we asked these coaches for their resignations and agreed to give them time to find a job. This happens in the business world all the time. I figure it gives the released coaches a bit more bargaining room when looking for a new job if they are still officially employed. Especially when negotiating salary. Again I am fine with it and I can't see that this tactic reflects any weakness on Dodge or UNT. Plus it fits what I was hearing back in November, I even speculated after the announcement that "Dodge and all the assistant coaches would be retained" that this course of events maybe in the works. But for about two weeks in December my blood pressure would have been much better if we knew about the release a head of time.

That is par for the course around here, so it should work nicely.

Why can't we keep our sh#t together for one off season, what is the deal with Cole and Darien Williams? How the hell does this happen? I looked it up and as of January 26th, 2010 Vito still was commenting on Darien Williams coming back. I was counting on Cole being a big big big contributor, how in the heck to we lose a guy like this? I really want to know.

My top canditate : james He resigned at Tulsa last week

You're being funny, right?

I dont. The guy makes ~$300k to fail miserably at his job, and may get to do so one more year. Wish my job would pay me my full salary to blow up multi million dollar equipment, install known bad parts, & sleep for 4 of the 8 hours I'm required to work, then tell me I will probably get one more year to do it all over again.

Black Knights - 31 Mean Green - 20

How the hell does this affect recruiting?? Homophobia seems more like it, IMO. It's funny no one went up in arms when Teflon Todd had his racism fiasco come through. You want to talk mud on the face of the university, look there. You want to talk negative effects on recruiting, look there. The worst stint EVER by an NT coach, and I'm obviously not only talking win/loss percentages, has occurred the last 3 years under this man. I don't think homecoming nominations will mean 2 rat turds to any potential recruit.

Your sarcasm meter needs calibrating.

The BCS conference version of Todd Dodge?? Hell No. The dude's ego is bigger than his belly. Did you know this jackass actually had gastric bypass a few years ago? teh guy cant even follow teh directions of his doctors. Pretty successful surgery, Charlie. The Golden Showers think they're up there with the UF's, UT's, & OU's of the world, when in fact, they've been nothing more than an average mid-major program the last decade. NBC wont be giving them a crazy TV deal when this contract expires, book it. Kragthorpe, if he's canned, should be priority #1. If RV and this university are absolutely serious about taking this program to the next level, they need to do the right thing and hire a LEGITIMATE coach.

FIU- 31 NT- 21

At least we aren't Idaho??