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...at all of the developments and whatnot over the past few weeks. I've been busier than a hound dog in room full of raccoons at work, but I've been trying to at least read up once a day. We've got an excellent coaching staff and they are landing some good recruits. I'm very pleased with this guy Bowen. The only downside is that we now have a coaching staff full of coaches young enough and good enough to be picked off by bigger fish year after year. Canales and Bowen are already legitimate potential head coaches. Mike Grant could develop into an offensive coordinator and eventually a head coach. What I love about Grant is his knowledge of the game is such that he's been able to coach - and coach well - on both sides of the ball. Grant's coached running backs, receivers, tight ends, linebackers, the secondary, and the special teams. Each unit he's coached has improved from their prior performances. He's also been a recruiting coordinator. It's difficult to quantify what having a pair like Bowen and Grant on the staff will do for recruiting. I mean, we'll see the results on the field in a couple of years. But, we've got guys with heavy ties into Big 12 territory as well as Texas. Canales picking off a QB from the Southeast already. Another lineman landed from California. I'm excited because I've always claimed this thing should be recruited the way OU and Nebraksa, and now Oklahoma State and Tulsa, have done it - looking anywhere and everywhere. As noted earlier in the year, Oklahoma State starts nine Texans on defense, and the other two are from South Carolina and Mississippi(? maybe Lousiana). I've loved the kids we've landed out of Louisiana and Mississippi with coach Gandy. I'm sad to see him leave, but excited about now having a coaching staff where every coach legitimately has a broad network of recruiting. A decade from now, people may be looking at UNT the way they now do at Iowa and Kansas State - as a place that great coaches developed before they became head coaches. It's all good these days, yo!

Info from a combination of National Champs & Rivals Mean Green sites OC GAMES 2011 @Alabama @Tulsa Houston Indiana 2012 @LSU @Kansas State @Houston Texas Southern 2013 @Georgia @Ohio Ball State Army 2014 @Tulsa SMU @Army @Texas 2015 @SMU @Iowa 2016 SMU Tulsa 2017 @SMU @Iowa NATIONAL CHAMPS FUTURE SCHEDULEShttp://nationalchamps.net/NCAA/future_schedules/northtexas_future.htm

They looked damn good in this game... Fought back well, played better than in any other game of theirs that I've seen so far. But, bold predictions aside, I'd bet money that the 2nd place team in the west will be coming from the state of Arkansas, not the state of Louisiana.

Finally...back in the office...time to talk SBC hoops on the company dime again. 25. Louisville @ Western Kentucky Florida A&M @ Florida International UALR vs. Oral Roberts @ Las Vegas Idaho State vs. Troy @ Logan, Utah Northern Colorado @ UL -Monroe Arkansas State @ Missouri State Florida Atlantic @ DePaul As John and I mentioned...IN THE PODCAST...Western has beaten a better Louisville team very recently...2008 when the Cardinals were ranked #3 in the country. The only two holdovers from that WKU team are Pettigrew, who went for 17 on 7-11 shooting and pulled in 12 boards last time out against Louisville, and Sergio Kerusch, who struggled to the tune of 1-10 shooting, 5 points and 8 boards. Certainly he'd like to go out better. Louisville's top 3 scorers are guards...Preston Knowles at 6'2", a streaky perimeter shooter...Peyton Siva at 5'11", an at times absolutely dynamic playmaker, but one who is also turnover prone as he prefers the flashy play to the easy one...and Mike Marra at 6'4", a do-everything wing who is really struggling with his stroke right now. Terrence Jennings (6'9" 220), Rakeem Buckles (6'8" 200) and Gorgui Dieng (6'10" 215) will see the most minutes upfront...nobody of just overwhelming size and strength...good for a bit of an undersized WKU team. They also have a kid named Jared Swopshire at 6'8" who has yet to play this season...I'm not sure if its an injury or academic, but if it is the later this would be right about the time he could be eligible. I watched most of Louisville's loss to Drexel (I know, I need a life...) and Drexel did 2 things to win that game...slowed it down and dictated pace to a Louisville team that wants to run, not something that really suits WKU...and dominated the glass, especially on the offensive end. Despite WKU's lack of height they have been very good on the glass. If WKU takes this, they get through their murderous OOC schedule at .500...oh...and this is at Diddle, just their 4th home game of the year...2-1 so far with the only loss coming in the 2OT game to South Carolina. FIU should win...and perhaps if the SHST game is an indicator...should win big. I hope with Legion in that they've figured it out. UALR had some early OOC success...but I think they're coming back to reality. They've now lost 3 straight when after they had a chance to really make an impression...they have to play back-to-back nights following a game they were never really in against Akron...and against a team they've already lost to by 26 this season. Don't hold your breath. Troy beat a D-1 school last night!!! Toss up if they can do it again tonight. ULM is fresh off a heartbreaking conference loss to FAU...but they get a mediocre N. Colorado team on game 4 of a 6 game road trip. Would be a nice building piece of a win for Keith Richard. Arkansas State just lost second leading scorer Daniel Bryant (kicked off the team) from a team that is lacking any real perimeter scoring threat...and they've already lost to Mizzou State this season. This is without question the most disappointing team in the SBC this season. FAU closes out a 5 game road trip (already 3-1) with a trip to DePaul...the team that will unquestionable own the cellar of the Big East this year. Whatever the reason for Ray Taylor's early season benching and limited minutes, Jarvis has turned the diminutive one loose on this roadie to the tune of 17ppg, 5.3rpg, 4.5apg over their last 4. Big chance to make a statement tonight to for FAU.

Everyone knows when those guys sign with a big-time program like UNT their star rating goes up, but as soon as they sign with us... oh wait..

Aikman is the right call here. Both his high school and OU were run-based offenses. OU attempted to switch to an I-formation when they landed Marcus Dupree. He abandoned them in middle of the 1983 season, and they went back to an option attack. Aikman signed in 1984 and spent a year behind Danny Bradley - with Mack Brown as the offensive coordinator. OU had a shot at winning a national title that year, but lost to the Washington Huskies - who had Gary Pinkel as their offensive coordinator. The two former offensive coordinators from that game now battle OU in the Big 12-2. Anyway, Aikman got his chance to start in 1985. OU, although still mainly a run-based team, had a couple of pass catchers who later spent some time in the NFL - Derrick Shepard and Keith Jackson. Aikman broke his leg in the Sooners' only loss of the season to Miami. The offense was handed to true freshman Jamelle Holieway and OU switched back to the Wishbone option to accommodate his skill set. The Sooners won their remaining games and the national title. Switzer then helped Aikman transfer. A little known fact: Switzer even called new Texas head coach David McWilliams and told him he should call Aikman since the Longhorns - with Todd Dodge at QB - had begun to throw the ball more. Aikman chose UCLA, which isn't so shocking when you consider he was born in California and actually spent more of his childhood there in West Covina, a suburb about 20 miles from Los Angeles (think downtown Dallas to about the Richardson/Plano border in distance). At UCLA, of course, the offense was long a passing school. Aikman thrived and the rest is history. This kid who just committed, he's gone where he thought he'd best fit. You can't blame a kid for transferring if the offense doesn't fit his style. This board is full of ridiculous people who call 18 to 20 year old kids quitters because they transfer to other schools. It's absurd. If the coach who sold you one thing during recruiting is gone, and another comes in with a totally different scheme and way of doing things, there's no harm in a kid leaving. The kid and his family have only five years to play four. If things don't turn out as they were promised during recruiting - and, there is overselling in recruiting - then they have every right to leave without a bunch of old fatasses on computers questioning their commitment. Commitment is a two-way street. OU committed to the run, and in the process helped Aikman become a star passer when he transferred. This kid from Alabama, who also played in a run-based offense, went close to family in his first college commitment - to a coach who had a passing offense. I've got no beef with this kid. You're not going to get noticed in high school very often as a passer if you're handing the ball off 2/3rds of the time. He was a team guy back home and did his part. He wasn't one of these kids from a family that transferred him around to different high schools just to suit his needs. His local high school ran the ball and he played without complaining. A coach at Georgia Southern gave him a shot despite the offense not matching his high school offense. That coach left and so did he. No harm done at any level. Not even close. Quit pile driving what appears to be a good kid. He's got every right to use his college eligibility to his own advantage. He's been a good solider everywhere he's been. He's got three years to give us, and appears to have the arm strength of Derek Thompson. I'm all for that. The only knock I have on him is the same knock you could give half or more quarterbacks that age - he locks onto his primary target too often. You can do that in high school and lower divisions of college football. But, up here at FBS, there is too much speed in opposing defense to do that. Canales will have to break him of that. Welcome the kid aboard and be glad we've now a coaching staff with enough sense to recognize we needs some more quarterbacks in the arsenal. I'm plenty happy about this kid, and hope that Canales and McCarney land a couple more QBs before signing day.

The same school? You guys are crazy. TSU is in Houston fairly close to the UH campus, UTSA is one of those many, many UT satellite campuses, and I think this one is possibly in San Angelo. All kidding aside, I hope for the best for both these schools in their Division 1 endeavor. The WAC certainly looks unstable, but it should give each of these schools a chance to get started in the bowl subdivision. This is a big step for UTSA but the move is decades overdue at Texas State. Very likely the WAC will wind up folding in a couple of years from circumstances that are out of the control of these two schools. There are currently two openings in the MWC and the looming possibility that the Big 12 could expand creating additional openings. The MWC will almost certainly eventually grab USU and SJSU and the remaining WAC schools simply cannot continue as a division 1 football conference. I would like to see the Sun Belt expand at that time if there are no changes in Sun Belt membership. Add the four eastern WAC schools, La Tech, UTSA, TXSU, and NMSU to create a 14 team - two division Sun Belt. A western division with Arkansas State, North Texas, Louisiana, La Tech, UTSA, TXSU, and NMSU would be a fairly good grouping since they're all close enough for rivalries but distant enough that there would be exposure in multiple markets. It's not ideal, but for us it's better than what we have now and better than any probable alternative for the WAC remnants.

Head to head, UNT should never, EVER lose a recruit to ULM.

Why are we playing Texas Southern ?

So, I had the opportunity to talk with the parent of a highly recruited DISD football player recently. During that conversation I asked why more Denton kids don't consider UNT. I asked was it that UNT coaches never contact them? The guy was very candid. Said that his son was, indeed, contacted by UNT early in the process, and the UNT coach was told basically not to waste their time as UNT would not be in the mix. Why" (in no specific order): 1) The kid has grown up in Denton and wants to "get away" from home for college; 2) The recent record of UNT is a factor, as is the lack of TV opportunities offered through the Sun belt; ;3) The lack of support the community gives UNT especially the lack of any community involvement/excitement on game days (remember, these kids grow up and Denton and see it week in and week out) 4) The attitude of UNT grads and alums around town who do not support the program, do not attend games, do not wear UNT gear and who seem to always be more negative than positive toward their own University; 5)The fact that many of their friends who attend UNT do so only after transferring from another school or who never have UNT on their list of colleges they are thinking of attending; 6) The opportunity to play for a "higher profile" program and be seen by pro scouts and their friends (remember, lots of these kids think they have the chance to be pro players at this stage in their "careers"); 7) The lack of persistence by UNT coaches once they hear the initial reaction; and 8) Yes, some kids are simply not contacted by UNT recruiters at all for whatever reason. Now, I asked would the coaching change perhaps help. The answer was definitely "yes" IF they start to turn the program around next season and IF the community and alums turn more positive in their support of the program and the university. OK, folks, this coming from a local kid's parent, and a kid who has grown up in Denton. Is it all negative? ABSOLUTELY NO! Is there no hope for local recruiting? ABSOLUTELY THERE IS! But, both coaches and fans need to be realistic in their expectations. And, it seems the "attitude" of the local community and the UNT fans and alums needs some work as well. It does seem to matter. The new coaching staff and how it does on the field and around town will help...and, I was told that new stadium will be a BIG factor in recruiting...not only locally in the Denton area, but across the state as well. This guy indicated that "people are noticing" what UNT is doing these days. Interesting conversation...yes, it was! BTW...parent asked that both he and his kid's name not be mentioned. I am assuming that meant that several local folks and coaches actually read this board! GO MEAN GREEN!

Didn't I read that the game at Texas in 2014 has been cancelled as a result of the BigXII revamping its schedules resulting in BigxII teams having one fewer OOC game per season? Hopefully we can do something about the 2012 schedule, since as scheduled we would not have 6 home games that season.

I called SRO Sports Bar in Houston, who hosts game-watching parties for lots of different schools' alumni groups, and who seems to know more about college sports scheduling on cable & satellite than anyone else. They have the Full Court package, and while the game is listed on the schedule they received yesterday, it doesn't have a channel number, which seems to indicate that ESPN is waiting for someone to pick up the game so that ESPN can get the feed. In other words, the game isn't on Full Court - at least in Houston. I was told to call back around 5:30 to see if they had received an update to the schedule. I'm not optimistic that anything will change.

Y'think yer better than me? Huh? With your "counting"? HUH?!?

I like the idea of a duel threat QB. Gotta hope he's quick though... The speed of the game is much faster at the FBS level.

No difference to split? He said 5 (or 6 if WKU upsets) including us....so that is pretty much your prediction. I'm calling 3, you're thinking four.

Biggest North Texas disappointment for Timmy Mac: The failure of the Todd Dodge era? Or spending a night buying drinks for Quoner in Hot Springs but still going back to the hotel alone?

Who argues the greatness of the Belt? The most that people say is that it might be better than the diminished WAC. No one is putting it above CUSA or the MWC.

I've been meaning to tell you something... Remember those really long phone calls we had the past two weeks? When we talked about basketball? Well, it's sort of like all those girls you took pictures of with your cell phone...

Will this podcast cost us $10 immediately or will it be free for the first two days?

Never heard of it.

Just please, no Phil Collins in the new stadium.... EVER.

They haven't had any ammo to speak of since their F4 days.

LSU has lost to Nicholls State (6-4), Memphis (9-1), Coastal Carolina (10-2), and Wichita State (9-2).

I would suggest running on to the field to the sound of continuous eagle screeches, for at least 2 minutes.

Shot of optimism plus glass of Mean Green koolaid = dyn-o-mite!

Well technically he is Cajun.

Secret to my parents' marriage.

I blame JayDub.

As long as they dont play "Fly like an Eagle", let them sit wherever they want

We're due for a strong conference night, right? Right? right...?

-4

Optimism. Get some.

Sigh...we may or may not like the SBC, but we are part of that conference. Let's worry about winning the SBC championship. After that, seems to me that lots of opportunities may well fall into place for the Mean Green. I just want the Mean Green to kick some booty in the SBC on the football field like the men are doing in basketball, our golf teams, volleyball, soccer, diving, cross country, tennis, softball, etc., etc. Many of our teams are doing quite well. Now, let's get football and women's basketball up to speed and things should sort themselves out rather quickly. Can't wait for that new stadium and the 2011 season to roll around. GO MEAN GREEN!

Tuesday Games South Grand Prairie (12-3) over Midlothian 65-49 led by Trey Norris with 20 Kimbell (10-1) beat Carter 83-61 with high scorer Jordan Williams with 22

I would jump all over that... But if I could get away from the in laws, I'd have gone to Baton Rouge. I appreciate the offer, though. And if I find a place, I will let you know.

Man, don't be trying to get someone to take our coach away CBS! Awesome story on Coach Jones.

Troy Aikman once transferred from OU to UCLA because he did not fit in the Sooner offense. Seems that move turned out quite well for all concerned--even for that other team just down the road from Denton. Welcome to Mean Green Country, Brent! Can't Wait To Watch You Zing Those Passes! GMG!

Jump rats, jump!

I'm almost positive that I heard RV say that the new jumbo-Tron will be the 3rd biggest in Texas (behind UT and A&M) and somewhere in the top 25 in the nation. This is only counting college stadiums. Their also thinking about placing a smaller screen in the space between the wing and home side.

I don't even see it listed on The Ocho.

I appreciate the suggestions. I did already look up the Houston and North Houston branches of the LSU alumni association, and every place they listed as destinations for football watching parties (that wasn't an hour or more away from where I am) has DirecTV. I'll keep looking around and if I find somewhere, I'll let everyone know.

I already tried calling Dish Network commercial services, but the people there can only look up places by address, and can't give me a list or names of any places.

When I was a bartender in Denton we used to have the Miller Light beer girls come in every other week or so...and over the course of a couple of months working you start to get to know a couple pretty well. I became pretty good friends with 2 in particular...lets use initials to identify them in case they're reading...B.O. and C.G. Well, B.O. was a smart, funny girl...cute...sort of a girl next door type...C.G. was also smart and funny...but she was a grade A stunner...smokin' hot. Being the single, flirtatous fella I was (am), I figured I'd try and see if I couldn't strike up a bit more than a friendship with one... I opted for B.O. thinking she was a bit more attainable...a safer play. We dated for a couple of weeks...it was fun, but nothing terribly noteworthy. Years later on one of my trips back home I ran into C.G. out one night...still, striking as ever...we had a few drinks, caught up and then she tells me she had the biggest crush on me and was a bit upset when I started seeing B.O. and that the two of us would've had such good times had I just asked her out instead. We ended the night with a kiss on the cheek and she sashe'd away and I've not heard from her since.

NT03 is right. UNT is in no position to be calling the shots right now. If we were to have a different conference affiliation, we'd be the bottom feeder in whatever conference that might be. Now, McCarney is here to change that. UNT is stepping up big time. If we don't start winning this conference, it won't matter what conference we want to be in.

I don't think UNT needs to recruit Denton anymore than other cities in the metroplex. With over 100,000 alums within a 40 mile radius, many top recruits' parents, grandparents, uncles and/or aunts attended NT. I would estimate that 1 in 5 households in D/FW have some ties to UNT. It would make more sense for a metroplex kid to come to Denton than for a Denton kid to stay in Denton.

who was the last Denton ISD player we had here? Raifu Dorodoye??

well if you have problem's with personal attacks....maybe you shouldn't go on someone elses message board and attack there school....your little PHD brain should have known that...

tastygreek mentioned SMU as possible rumored destination on the last page

wait....when did anyone start talking about SMU....

Get him here ASAP!