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I understand the tenor of your posting and largely agree with you. Perhaps the only point of contention would be that the current administration turns a deaf ear to its alumni and fans. That was so true for many years but I am beginning to notice a turnaround in the administration's stance. The administrations prior to Norval Pohl, with the exception of Jitter Nolan and to a lesser extent Joe McConnell and Carl Matthews (basketball), have all turned a blind eye and ear to athletics. Their excuse was that they were building academics and couldn't afford guns and butter. Now, academics has been vastly improved. We offer more than 200 fields of study in the three degrees offered and have and are adding more each year, often with outstanding professors. We shouldn't slight academics but at the same time athletics can do a lot to advance the perception of the university that it shouldn't be ignored. Personally I believe that Norval Pohl got it, Gretchen Bataille got it and I know that Lane Rawlins understands it. The only one that doesn't seem to get it is chancellor Lee Jackson. His thrust has been UNT Dallas and the UNT Dallas Law School (which diminishes the prestige of the flagship university in Denton). He is building his legacy to the detriment of the Denton faculty, students and alumni. Only the Board of Regents can control him and they seem reluctant to do so.

As a Professor, I always find it helpful to listen to my students. I am there to serve them...not the other way around. I am there each day to provide them with a valuable product which of course is education. I am in the business of sales. I sell education and my college profits off of it in several ways. I like to think I improve lives. These results of a quality product are powerful....they sustain themselves. They lead to growth. If my product at some point is not up to par, my "customers" notice quickly and I see the negative results. My "fan base" declines and they become detached. My enrollment declines. Bottom line, I am very fortunate to have the students I have in each of my classes. I am appreciative and I am happy to serve them..for they are what sustains me on many levels. If they have an idea that overall helps improve my class, I listen. How does this relate to UNT football? This whole concept has me thinking about the current state of the football program and our future. Notice how I say "our" future. Unfortunately, I feel the past and current UNT admin have missed this entire concept in some areas completely. As a Alumnus of my beloved UNT, I have always felt the administration ignored some great ideas the student body conceived in a variety of campus projects and programs. Due to the current state of our program, I believe it is critical at this point that we are listened to. They run the show, we follow right? Wrong...the students and alumnus run the show. We are what sustains them. We buy their product. We help grow their product. We contribute and they are supposed to listen. It's a form of assessment for them etc etc. Look at the alumni program for LSU....wow. Truly magical sustainable pipeline of contribution. How do I know, well...I am an indoctrinated LSU fan...my wife and her entire family all went to LSU. I have learned so much from them. So when they have their Purple and Gold flying and even though UNT football is tattered, torn and frayed, I wear my Mean Green Garb...with pride. They respect my loyalty even though we suck and they hope I can experience what is the norm for them each week....even when LSU loses. How do we go about sending our message to UNT that we want to help? Well...I'm not talking about blind, angry rants about this or that..I'm talking about sincere solutions and ideas to help grow the program into a symbol of sustainable pride and growth. We get more involved. The alumni right now is so deeply divided which of course is a problem. Some are loyal and some are bitter. Even though I do not agree with some of the admins decisions over the years, I am appreciative of their improvements (The Stadium, Basketball, Golf etc.) to the athletic program as a whole. However, it's all about marketing to your customers. There is absolutely no reason why UNT can't be a powerhouse in the area of athletics. Yes...it comes down to funding, but solutions can be found. From small to large, I feel some of our problems can be solved by growing the alumni program and leadership making better decisions about the details. Ideas?...well....simple decisions like taking the redundant name "North Texas" off the helmet (when it's on the jersey) and replacing with the attacking Eagle would be a small yet great detail. Choosing a less puke laden shade of green for the jerseys, better concessions, more in game traditions, not playing the screeching Eagle three times where it sounds corny (one time will do)etc...I can go on and on...we have all read the posts. We know what we all want. I still care about growing this program out of the laughing stock that it has earned on the shoulders of the current leadership at UNT. I will not pretend to have all of the answers to solve our woes because I don't. My goal to is for our alumni to be heard by those who make the decisions. UNT admin....serve your customers. Listen and you will be rewarded. It's that simple. Have a great end to your week and as always. GO MEAN GREEN!! and Go STARS!! Best, MeanGreenEagle1

J.J.

Ya'know, I've never been a head coach, but all this "can Riley play with a soft cast" stuff is counterproductive to getting your next QB ready to play. If I were head coach, I would never hesitate. I would look Chase Baine in the eye and say.."Chase, the team is in your hands now, let's get ready for Ark St.". Anything else just sends the message that the coach doesn't think he can do it. It sends the same message to the rest of the team as well.

Sure. The place for that is the football forum.

When you buy a new car you don't insist they put 3 of your old tires on it. They usually don't fit anyways.

Normally I am against interim coaches. However, I believe that this has some unusual circumstances. If the job has to be posted 30 days prior to a hiring then it would hamstring the new coach in recruiting for the 2011 season if the current coach was allowed to finish. With the record of the past five years and the opening of the new stadium a new coach will need all of the advantages possible to deliver our needs. The new coach must have the freedom to select his hires so I'm not sure what advantage that would give an interim coach. Leavitt already knows what Canales can do so if he's the hire the remainder of the season may hold little value for the interim coach if it's Chico but say it's anyone else. What Canales can do in the last games could have a great bearing on the new head football coaches' choice for an OC. That could be good for our future. None of this should take place, however, until Todd Dodge has been mathematically eliminated.

I really did not think it was possible for you to move any farther up the douche-meter, but you have done it. Bravo! Attacking the merit of the recruits that WE GET that YOU CANNOT does not make your basketball program any better. But on the bright side for you, I'm not sure it could get a whole lot worse...unless you lose to Mcmurry on the road...which is a strong possiblity.

That's not necessary because what matters is this: North Texas Mean Green Basketball > SMU Mustangs Basketball

More than half of this board thinks it is qualified to evaluate future coaching prospects, and Greene has much more experience than any of us.

With Drew Smith, it was obvious that we shouldn't drive under the influence. With Germain Dawson, it is also obvious that dealing/delivering drugs is dangerous/ I say this without judgement and fully in the spirit of learning from every mistake -- Josh should have been wearing a seat belt. His life would likely have been spared. I am disappointed that not once have I read how he wasn't wearing his seatbelt and how important it is and how this could have been prevented. I have a couple of friends who don't put on their seatbelt if they aren't driving over 35 miles an hour and/or going further than 5 miles from their home. Plain stupid. It is beyond ignorant -- it is selfish. I will be incredibly mad at my friends if they die in a car accident by being thrown from the vehicle. It takes 1 second to pull the belt over your lap, but takes years to get over losing a loved one. I hope that all 104 remaining players on this team learn the lesson about seat belts. Also, I hope that we can get over the negative stigma of donating organs. Young healthy adults who die in a hospital should absolutely be proud to donate their organs to save others. It is the the ultimate way to honor the life lost, to save another person. It is so rare to have a healthy person die (and you must be in the hospital to donate) and in a position to donate. Buckle up, it really is the difference between life and death.

Some of you close to the stadium scene have an answer for the future expansion of our new stadium when that day arrives (and it will). And then...at what part of our new stadium would you put a 5,000 or 10,000 seat expansion (which would be more likely)? Prediction: A new "name HFC" will cause this expansion to happen much sooner than later. GMG!

Yeah. Our offensive production is up from those last Dickey* years. Everything else is way down, unfortunately. I think ol' Papa Dodge would make a decent o-coordinator someplace, though I think he'll run back to HS once he gets the boot. *wrote 'Dodge' at first.

Michael Young when he threw an outside slider at which Young had a check swing contested, but an appeal down to first base said he didn't go around. The count went full, and the next pitch was an inside fastball that Young drilled deep to center field for a backbreaking three-run homer. An infuriated Joe Maddon stormed out of the dugout to argue following the home run. Not surprisingly, Maddon was ejected after a few choice words it looked like alot of f-Bombs

My wife said it was for arguing a check swing.

Ya'know Joe, please don't take this as being critical. But I've noticed that since you've included "no more injuries" in your posts,....there have been record injuries at NT. Please stop.

I still like Deloach. After the nightmare Mendoza left over, he has made great strides. Gandy and Peterson are great recruiters. I feel Peterson should be moved back to offense though. Gandy has done a great job with the backs too. Clean house other than these.

Blasphemy from the mouth of a non-believer...off with his head!

MeanGreenTexan Storytime (ignore if you don't like heartwarming stories about the Mean Green): I grew up a UT fan my whole life. My uncle graduated from there. When I came to UNT, I must admit I fell into that trap and would wear my UT cap all the time(everyone else was doing it!!). I went to a few UNT games and was very excited about our team getting to the NO bowl in 2001 after "The Miracle in the Desert". In 2002, I went down and visited some friends in Austin and went to the UNT game there. I was going to root for UT AND UNT at the same time. Once there, I couldn't make myself wear burnt orange. I wore red. Neutral. UT was playing well and we couldn't get anything going in the first half. By the 2nd quarter, my heart was tugged and I began pulling for North Texas in my head and under my breath, trying to stay neutral on the outside. By the time we sacked Sims for the 4th or 5th time in the 3rd quarter, I was openly pulling for my alma mater and was rubbing-in the fact that Benson was going nowhere on my defense, and that Booger was going to be in Sims' nightmares that night. I got razzed a little by the longhorn students around, and my friends were shocked that I would root against UT, but mostly there was alot of, "Hey, your defense is really good..." and "Good luck the rest of the year...". Then, after the game I remember Davis saying that the UNT defense didn't deserve any credit and that they beat themselves on offense. That was all I needed to hear. My heart belonged to the Mean Green Eagles from that day forward. I still pull for the Longhorns as well, though I don't like Davis. I was going crazy when Vince ran in to seal the Rose Bowl game. I think Barnes is a brilliant b-ball coach. I don't own any Longhorns apparel, so I can't be a T-Shirt alum, but I have somewhat of an allegiance to them. I'm a FAN of Texas. I own all kinds of UNT gear. I'm an actual alumnus. I have a diploma that I'm incredibly proud of. I AM Mean Green I wish all of the other UNT alumns had the kind of experience I did. I'm glad I have you guys to share my love with. Maybe winning a few ballgames will give some students that experience.

Totally agree!!!!

New coach gets to name his staff. If it is an utter and complete failure, new coach should be replaced by new new coach, who should then be allowed to name his staff.

Like TD did.

Not in Softball it isn't!!! Go get em girls!

Before the season, there was no reason not to be that optimistic. Every one of our Sun Belt foes had major losses due to graduation except Western Kentucky - and, we'd already proved we could handle up on the Hilltoppers! Meanwhile, we were going to field lots of experienced players on both sides of the ball. We had an offensive coordinator and receiver coach to round out a coaching staff that would finally be comprised of college coaches. And, we thought we'd signed a kicker who could walk onto campus, take the job, and help make our special teams respectable again. Then, the injuries came. And, injuries do what they do - tell the world how deep your team is. And, the truth is, behind what was a very shiny surface before the season laid a team in ruin. Which is too bad. Not getting blown out against Clemson and playing a Rice team that beat us by 56 two years prior to a one point loss had it looking like this thing was going to get off the ground. Everybody takes a side. I've long taken the side of not being as forgiving to Dodge for riding out the 2006 high school playoffs instead of turning Southlake over to Wasson and getting out on the recruiting trail for us. I've been told not to count the 2007 class against Dodge because of those circumstances. Well...whether you personally count it against him or not, it shows up on the field when you have the type of circumstances we've had this year. I think in the end, when we look at the condition this program will be in after this season - when we are the ones with many graduating and moving on - we'll have to just shrug it all off as a high risk gamble gone bad. We've been plugging in JUCOs in many places this year and last to make up for Dodge's 2007 and 2008 classes. The next coach will have to find bona fide JUCO players at QB and along both lines, and probably in the secondary again. Otherwise, we head into the new stadium with a very inexperienced, unproven bunch. In short, Dodge's four years will not have rebuilt the program as many had hoped. The new coach will be starting even further down below Darrell Dickey's seemingly elusive 3-win benchmark set in his final season. Amazing.

jealous is a bad word to use....I don't give two flips about what schools the kid at the Firestone Station wished he had gone to before succumbing to a blue collar life (college is not for everybody). Moreso...I don't give two flips if he wears a UNT shirt as a bandwagoner of our sports programs. What I would like to see is more of the 100k Alum in North Texas engaged in their school and sports programs. Just think... if DFW has 6 Million people and it were "UNT day" and all 100k in the area wore a shirt. That means per every 100 people you would see 1.6 wearing a shirt...and that's allot of visibility.

False. Some are still complaining about it.

I believe that the rash of injuries buys Todd another season. Plus RV will save on the buyout of Todd's contract.

Oh, the shine has worn off the old "8 win, hello Coach Chico" TFLF and once again hindsight reigns supreme!

Good question, and one I've asked myself about others. Honestly, I'm just looking for things to feel good about related to North Texas football, and Joe Greene fills the bill for me right now.

Yeah, I get that you simply were not impressed with him. I was. Especially by the simple fact that his '82 team was recruited to a horrible facility in the first place and had gone 2-9 the year before, which included a loss to 1-AA UTA. Yet with 4 total weeks to recruit and another 4 weeks to witness and evaluate talent on the practice field his team nearly walked out of a Southwest Conference stadium with a win, and the next season won a 1-AA conference championship. Even more amazing to me is that with absolutely nothing in regards to facilities to recruit to, and even less in the budget to work with, while coaching North Texas during 8 of it's 1-AA seasons, Corky Nelson won exactly the same number of games against 1-A programs(9) as Dennis Parker, Matt Simon, Darrel Dickey and Todd Dodge won COMBINED against 1-A non conference programs(9). That's coaching your ass off in my opinion. Rick

You just tell them that, "it must be real easy to put on a shirt from a school you never went to and only do it when the team wins. I bet you do the same with your kids, too."

My boss grew up in Ohio as a huge Ohio St. fan... He attended Kent St. (was even on the quad the day of the shootings), but says he never went to a game while a student there and has no idea what conference they currently play in or anything about the program... I SORT of understand that... I grew up in El Paso a huge UTEP fan and it wouldn't have mattered where I went to college, UTEP was already in my blood... But, I can't imagine attending a school and not supporting their teams... It is completely alien to me... In my opinion it is a HUGE part of the college experience... After graduating from UTEP I was accepted for grad school at Mississippi St. and I was all ready to support the Bulldogs every Saturday... I guess what bugged me was seeing the thousands of t-shirt fans that came out of every nook and cranny when UT won their National Championship... These people would strut around with their gear on and you just knew they didn't have clue 1 about the football team or the university... But they sure were quick to point out how crappy UNT or UTEP or anyone else was compared to their "beloved" Longhorns... That kind of thing kind of pisses me off...

We had a couple of poor loses (Boise State and FIU leap readily to mind) plus the conference RPI was the worst I can recall...in large part to some soft schedules around the conference (including ours) and New Orleans being on the verge of dropping to D3. ULM will probably hurt the RPI this season...but as a whole it should be considerably better. I felt we were under-seeded as well, but based on RPIs, SOS and quality wins it was tough to argue with the committee. Just wish we could've been the 15 seed matched up with Nova...would've run through them like Corey Fisher ran through Scottie Reynolds' girlfriend.

I've been reading the board for a few years and signed up a few days ago, so I thought I should introduce myself and let people know what I think of some of the major controversies/threads that have been going on here. I get the impression that I'm the UNT fan in Denia, but I don't think the true haters are as numerous as some seem to think. Most people, like most people in Denton as a whole, just don't care. I think Dodge should be fired the instant a winning season is mathematically impossible. I think we need to go get a name guy to replace him, a al Coach Fran, who I prefer to Leach. I like windmills. Just thought I should be up front about these things. --Pedro

I heard this guy was his brother's keeper.

Rangers win a playoff game AND a playoff no-hitter? Calling it now...Chase Baine goes 20-23, 275 yards 3 TDs, 0 INTs and adds another 75 yards rushing with a TD to lead UNT to a 45-20 victory over ASU.

Could we save some bucks doing all this with Legos?

add texting to the list as well.

Noone disputes this....but when a Tshirt Alumni slams someone wearing a shirt from a non "T-shirt Alumni" type school (that they actually attended) as if to degrade them or be condescending...then it is game on on the taunting of them in return.

Most people would reasonably agree with slight variation that football boils down to 40% offense, 40% defense, and 20% special teams. Now we can also agree that of these 40% for offense and defense that 80% of the value is starters, 20% second string. This is assuming that all positions are equal in value. We can use these numbers to calculate how many games Coach Dodge should have to win based on the total value lost of his team. So on offense we have lost: 6 First String: JJ Johnson, Nathan Tune, Conor Gilmartin-Donahue, Micah Mosley, Chris Bynes, Tyler Stradford 7 Second String: Derek Thompson, Nick Leppo, Greg Brown, James Hamilton, Breece Johnson, Riley Dodge, Benny Jones On defense we have lost: 2 First String: Dewaylon Cook, Steven Ford 3 Second String: Jesse Desoto, Chris Neal, Konockus Sashington Special Teams: Many of these players played special teams, but we can not determine accurately which of these players played. So worse case scenario none of them were of any value and we will keep the value at 20%. On to some hardcore math. So we can break down that the value of each unit(offense, defense, special teams) to be, a(.2) + b(.4) + c(.4) = 1, where 1 is a complete whole team and a = special teams, b = offense and c = defense. Now we must break up a,b and c into their respective parts. A is 1, because we ass(u)me no loss to special teams. B is broken up into .8 for starters and .2 for second string. Therefore the equation for the total amount of players lost is ((.8*(6/11) + (.2*(7/11))). This comes out to be (.44 + .13) = .57. . x = .57, the number of players lost so 1-.57, or .43 is the value of offense we have left. b = .43 players left out of 1 C is broken up into .8 for starters and .2 for second string. Therefore the equation for the total amount of players lost is ((.8*(2/11) + (.2*(3/11))). This comes out to be (.15 + .05) = .2. . x = .2, the number of players lost so 1-.2, or .8 is the value of defense we have left. c = .8 players left out of 1 So now we must apply these numbers to our master equation for the total value of the team. ( a(.2) + b(.4) + c(.4) = 1). So the new equation is, (1*.2) + (.43*.4) + (.8*.4) = Z. Z = .2 + .172 + .32 = .69 Therefore, assuming none of these players participated in special teams, and that none of the positions are valued different from each other and that the generous numbers given to second team, Coach Dodge should be responsible for winning 69% of the original 7 games expected from him which means 4.83 games, which you round down since you can't win .83 of a game. My conclusion is that 4 wins would absolutely guarantee Coach Dodge should keep his job considering the circumstances that have arisen.

how bout.....6 is to 3.5 yrs as w 's are to L's = x solve for x x=fired.

I heard a funny saying about this topic recently. It is probably common but I hadn't heard it before. If you see someone wearing an Aggie shirt, they probably went to Texas A&M. If you see someone wearing a Longhorn shirt, they probably went to Walmart.

I get it to a point, but then how many threads are on this board about people trying to bring friends from work with no association to UNT to games in hopes of turning them into fans? If those t-shirt alumni wore green, I doubt there'd be much of a problem. While I smirk at the near religious zealousness with which people follow the Longhorns, you've got to give their marketing department at least some credit for creating the brand that allows a $400 million annual budget.

Herein lies the problem with Todd Dodge, and keeping him simply for pity's sake because of this season's injuries - his recruiting of quarterbacks has been horrible. He stole Giovanni Vizza, a kid who had offers from Nevada and Army - both schools doing much better than we are at this point, four years later. Other than that, he's signed Derek Thompson. Yes, he signed his son. But, his son was never big enough to play college football. And, such has manifested itself in turnovers and injuries. As a result of his poor quarterback recruiting, we rolled into the season with former Darrell Dickey walk-on Nathan Tune in the lead role. And, he performed so well, you had to wonder if Todd Dodge was being completely honest by not giving him a shot to start in 2009. The remainder of our season is in the hands, let's face it, of a back-up who originally walked on and was playing receiver, Chase Baine, and another walk-on named Dodson, a kid who garnered no other offers. The bottom line is this - injuries or not, Todd Dodge has put us in a precarious situation at quarterback for 2011. If this season continues to wash out, he must go. And, his replacement has got to be a guy who can sign a couple of legitimate JUCO quarterbacks to provide authentic competition with Thompson for the starting job in 2011 and give us a chance to win immediately. OU did this with Bob Stoops and Josh Heupel back in 1999 when John Blake (even flush with cash apparently) left the Sooners with a big, steaming bowl of nothing at quarterback. We've got to hire big and get a guy in here who can legitimately spot and develop quarterback talent. This was supposed to be - we were told endlessly - Todd Dodge's strength. According to the Vizza's, that's what hooked Giovanni when obviously more experienced coaches were knocking at his door. It wasn't and hasn't been. Not even close. We absolutely must have a coach who understands the difference between what a high school quarterback is and what a college quarterback is. And, someone who can develop them once they take up residence in Denton. And, he's got to sign a JUCO QB. I said the same thing last year. This thing has always been on thin ice at QB. We needed another legitimate QB for this season. We just don't have it. The next coach has got to be one who signs a QB with every class.

I think it's time for Todd Dodge, the dad, to tell Todd Dodge, the coach, to tell Riley Dodge that he is concerned for his health and not put him in harm's way the rest of the season. Good God, how many injuries do you want to put Riley through?

Thank you for the positive support Pedro!

welcome. we will now proceed to attack you relentlessly.

A bit of some final day sputtering from Donahoe and Spinella, but all and all one hell of a showing. Quite the program being built, especially considering 0 seniors on the roster.