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This video has been making the rounds for several weeks but I resisted posting it as I did not want to sound like a broken record. In the old days, this was how all marching bands performed, and no one did it better than North Texas. At any given halftime, you could see an eagle flying across the field, a typewriter complete with a movable carriage with keys going up and down, a tiger in a cage, a steam boat sailing across the 50 yard line, etc, etc. And the crowd ate it up! And as I have said, we presented a new show every game. Kudos to Hawaii for having the vision to realize that this corps style of marching that permeates almost every marching band, including our own, is about as exciting as watching a house plant grow.

It takes a while to cool the court after 94 feet of heat...

I also haven't been attacked by sharks since I added the "Shark-Away" app to my smart phone.

Umbrellas are allowed because you are not likely to need an umbrella indoors. They are not allowed in football stadiums because they block views and they are a hazard to eyeballs.

Yes, but I'm afraid that our opponents may start to figure out that all they have to do is send him to the line.

The good- 1)We came back from the break and won by 20 in easily our worst game in several years. 2)Knox continues to be serviceable. 3)Reserves got some minutes and early ones to boot. The bad- 1)This is ateam that should have been mercifully put to bed EARLY in the second half. 2)We showed that we cant afford to go to our bench a lot. Starters are gonna need to log mucho minutes against teams like UALR and WKU. 3)We sleep-walked through about 25 of the 40 minutes. All in all I'm not worried, not encouraged.

At least we can still sneak in a flask

Is that how it go, Ron?

Half of the conference's problem is it's just not a great football conference. The other half is that the teams don't just play any AQ team, they play the very biggest programs to earn the biggest paychecks. So basically, outside of the one or two nationally televised SBC games a year, what people see is this conference getting pasted by scores like 52-7. Whenever we schedule lower to middle tier AQ games, we usually post respectable scores, eg. KSU@NT, FIU@aTm, Troy@Okie State. Until the conference can start winning those games, and keeping games against the top 25 respectable, you'll see articles like this.

Knock-a-Knox

I think the Sunbelt's perception of being the worst conference has nothing to do with talent or ability on the football field. It's the simple fact that this is where schools enter D1. Our schools are the least recognizable and to the average football fan are all directional schools that are barely in division 1.

I hear he doesn't want to bolt days before the Suckstangs fake bowl game. Check back on this story Friday.

Its starting to click for him. If he can give 15 minutes a night in conference with the kind of line he's had in the last 3 games I'll be elated. Concerning though, Kedrick seemingly has not responded well to a bench role. Not sure if its some lingering effects from the knee issues after the Jackson State game, but his three worst games of the year have been his last 3...all coming off the bench.

Ok, read through that thread and the only mention of UNT was by an obvious UNT supporter. So, my question is this: Why does anyone think UNT is being considered for the MWC? I don't see it...not that just one message board thread is the end-all/be-all, but I really haven't seen much talk concerning UNT to the MWC generated by anyone other than UNT fans. I think the focus for UNT needs to be to DOMINATE the 'Belt....in as many sports as possible. We are still WAY behind TCU, SMU, Houston, Tulsa, etc in terms of public perception. The easiest way to change that is to dominate in a weaker league. Put a few 11/12 win seasons together so that we get into the "BCS Buster" discussion as Boise, TCU, Utah and Hawaii have done. How did they do it?...by beating up on some of the weakest schedules in all of college football for 10 years. Our scheduling philosophy is there (wasn't in 2001-2004 & really, it has been for the last couple of years but we shot ourselves in the foot by hiring a HS coach) and hopefully we now have the coaching staff in place to duplicate those school's success'. The reality of the situation is that conference invites are mostly just the same as invitations to anything else....if you have to beg, you're probably not going to get one.

disgusting

Who cares, build the Sunbelt. The Belt has a legitimate chance to go 3-0 against the MAC during this Bowl Season. The Mountain didn't do anything for TCU that they couldn't have done in C-USA other than waste millions of travel money every year(that North Texas doesn't have) and distance their true fans(what few they have) from ever getting to attend away conference games. Again, build the Sunbelt! Rick

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/opinion/26cohen.html?_r=1&ref=opinion The Global Warming crowd never gives up their agenda.

Henderson State 3245 Texas Tech 7105 Rice 3453 UTA 2652 Grambling 2446 Jackson State 3177 Texas State 2362 Oklahoma Panhandle 2662 Total 27,102 Average 3,388

I hope Draylon Ross gets a chance like Waters did. Their careers at NT, to me, are eerily similar with both moving around from D-Line, to O-Line to TE and never really finding a home. My favorite thing about Waters is that he appears to be a better man than a better person, and that is saying something.

He'll evolve. Its what the great ones do.

And yet the stat sheet nor the eyeball test indicate any reason why he is the reason. Not knocking Knox, but George still gets double teamed, Knox still struggles with footwork and rebounding. I know it must be something, but for the life of me I can't figure out what that something may be. Tomorrow should be quite a test of the Knox-infused lineup.

I'm much older, but even I can shoot free throws better than Knox. His FT shooting form is.......well, it's not a classic form.

Hate to lose him, but I can't fault a young man for wanting to attend a service academy.

We'll beat UALR by 22, we'll finish the regular season beating Denver by 37, and our first round NCAA win should be by 40 points. I love trends. More than global warming and illegal immigrants combined.

For the record... Utah Valley had the 6th worst RPI in all of D-1 basketball last year. 342 out of 347. One win, one loss... Two games that never should have been scheduled.

Let some CUSA games get in the books and we'll see where UCF finishes the year. They're good, they're playing well, they started hot... But you can still make a strong case that there are anywhere from 2 to 4 teams that will outperform them in their own conference.

Shavod Atkinson did the same thing. He was a "soft" verbal up to and including signing day. Can't remember who he held out for... Either West Virginia or Rutgers.

Obama needs to git sum pitchin'.

He doesn't have D1 speed.

Said it before but all this North Texas business will either drive you to the juice or religion. Lets all act like we of North Texas ain't interested in the slightest in the Mountain West Conference so another school so near and dear to our heats will not be either, OK? GMG!

Message boards don't dictate much. We have a wheeler and dealer in college sports as our president, a new stadium, and an AQ level football coaching staff. Also a decent BB program. It's not that these things guarantee our entry to anything, it's that those plus our location, plus the lack of options, make it a possibility. If the MWC wants to expand to twelve, their options are: SJSU, Idaho, NMSU, USU, La Tech, UTEP, SMU, Tulsa, Rice, Houston, Texas State-SM, UTSA, and North Texas: SJSU seems like they are strapped financially. Idaho brings nothing that Boise doesn't, and Boise probably doesn't want them in the same conference. The Lobos would shit bricks if they were in the same conference as NMSU. USU is an option. La Tech is too far away and even worse once you're off the plane. UTEP seems to be happy with CUSA, but they could be an option. Same goes for SMU, Tulsa, and Rice. Houston is banking on a Big East invite, and I don't see them leaving a conference they helped found to pretty much move lateraly. TSUSM is too far behind in both sports, and UTSA doesn't have a football team. Also, adding FCS schools would look weak. North Texas has been down in football, up in basketball, and has had decent attendance (for a SBC school) for a few years now. So looking at that list, you realistically have: USU, UTEP, SMU, Tulsa, Rice, and North Texas. Assuming that there's not a lot of benefit for any of the CUSA schools in going west, then it would pretty much be down to USU and North Texas for the remaining two spots. It's not a slam dunk. All most rational people are saying is that if the MWC goes to 12, and if the CUSA schools stand pat, then we stand just as good if not better of a chance than NMSU, Idaho, and SJSU.

I'm pretty sure its in Oklahoma and nobody should give a damn.

There were only 8 SBC home games between the last report and this one, but they did manage to change some things. WKU, still in first place, took over the top crowd of the year from North Texas with a crowd of over 7300 for their loss to Louisville. MTSU took over second place for overall average from UNT with a 6800+ crowd for their loss to Vandy, taking their overall average to 4000+. On the disappointing side of things, ULM dropped under 1,000/game in overall attendance. The overall SBC average is 2596. WKU and MTSU, because of those big home games are also in 1st and 2nd for winter break attendance with North Texas sitting in 3rd. Denver may be able to give UNT a run for their money for winter break attendance, and only sit several hundred behind UNT for overall attendance. Over the last week there were no changes in the SBC Conference game averages, but that is about to heat up. The most interesting thing of the week, in my opinion, is Arkansas State having two straight crowds of exactly 2215 . As if that is not odd enough, a couple days later, Denver reported a crowd of 2215 for one of their games.

The Global Warming thing is getting so funny. Why is it freezing? Global Warming. Why is it so hot? Global Warming? Why is there so many blizzards? Global Warming Why is there no snow? Global Warming. Hurricanes? Global Warming. No hurricanes? The same freakin' answer. It has become an answer for everything and it is getting stupid. Especially when you see that since 1998 there seems to be a drop in tempatures... Something that the prognosticators didn't even consider a chance of happening. I actually heard from a "scientist" that the consistent drop in tempatures is because of global warming. So... our globe is getting warmer by getting cooler?! Just ridiculous.

I know you guys are joking around, but I do think that North Texas should refuse to play against any school that will not schedule the games home-and home. The students of North Texas invest too much of their money to have the athletic department pad the budget by continuously scheduling embarrassing body bag games. Real division 1 programs do not sell games to the highest bidder. Real division 1 programs create the best possible product for their customers, then manage and promote the accordingly. Customer loyalty will develop.

This couldn't be further from the truth. The problem is on the supply side of the equation and guess who holds most of the cards in that hand? Every Lids and Hat World store I have ever been in seems to be low on Mean Green gear, especially around Christmas time. And when I ask for it they say they can't keep it in stock for very long. The truth is our fan base would buy more gear if it were available. A very recent case in point. Here is a photo taken by me at the gift shop at the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine last Sunday(December 19th). Notice all the Oklahoma and Texas and other Big 12 gear along with all the purple TCU gear? Look at the top of the tree shaped stand in the middle. . . . . . There was just this one lonely Mean Green hat remaining among all the other schools. And when I asked if there were others they said no, that the North Texas hats had sold nearly out and that this hat was all that was left. Gee, I wonder why that is? What did that billboard on I 30 say, something about ..."95,000 North Texas Alumni work in the DFW Metroplex"....? And notice the brand of the hat underneath it? It say's "TOW". That stands for "TOP OF the WORLD" hat manufacturer out of Oklahoma, who until a couple of regular guys who eat, sleep and breath Mean Green called and made a request for a product application back in 2003, didn't even have a CLC license agreement to make North Texas products. And it was REAL difficult to do. Took all of about 10 minutes and a phone call. And whose job is it to make those phone calls and keep our license agreement company on their toes and working for us and to sell and market our brand to new and innovative suppliers and manufacturers? I'll give you one guess who's job it isn't? Rick

What kind of crowd does it look like there tonight? I hope more showed up than the turnout they are sporting in Lubbock tonight on Fox SW? Pitiful! Rick

I can't help but think what happens next year having to replace so many seniors? Rick

Would Donna Capps still answer the phone? Rick

Courtland buddy, I was at a very emotional and draining funeral viewing tonight and of course didn't even think to check in on the game afterwards. And just wanted you to know, that at times it may seem to you that while your typing away here by yourself that no one is appreciative of your updates. But after getting home and collecting myself again and getting the kids in bed and getting a bite to eat I can come here and get caught up with your posts. I really appreciate your efforts. Rick

Denver and USU on Fox Sports DC, channel 282 on Charter cable. Rick

The coach can call a timeout for that you know? Why he just let's a team do that to us at times I'll never know?

What'd I say? Nail biter no matter what! Rick

This match up has been a nail biter the past 23 years that I have been watching. It has never mattered who was the better team on paper. Always close. I'm so pissed I can't be there tomorrow. First UTA game I've missed in at least 20 years that I can think of. Rick

Chris Rock/Barry White version Here's the original Cheech and Chong version from 1975. A bit racey animated video but a great song none the less. Rick

........"sigh"..... As much as it pains me to say so, I have to agree. This cracked me up though. Great job. Rick

I thought coming back from an 8 point deficit and tying it up with a hair over 2 seconds left to get it into OT made it exciting enough to rush the court. Then there was the snarky Tech people making comments about the Sun Belt as the banners were being raised earlier didn't set well with me either. So to me, rushing the court, if for anything else, to tell the players on the floor "Great Game" was justified, and helped rub it in a little to all the Techsters who were filing out with a....."That $hit sandwhich they just served up didn't taste so good" look on their faces. Rick

This was maybe the most fun I have had at the Fabulous Super Pit since the ESPN televised conference championship game in '88. The only suggestion I could make is to address the consessions. Other than that, It's All GREEN and ALL GOOD! Rick

One of the best atmosphere games in history. Crowd was in it the whole time. Our student section was unreal and they all will be spreading the gospel tomorrow in class. This was so much fun even though my head hurts from yelling and I'll suffer without a voice for a day or two. And I started the fun already by happily depositing one of the NT vs Tech posters that were handed out tonight with the score written on it into one of my Tech friend neighbors' mail box on the way home. Congrats to the team, Coach Jones and staff on a fantastic win. As I told several folks afterword, what makes this so nice is that we all work with Tech alumni. Tomorrow is going to be so sweet! From my iphone.. Rick

Was told tonight by two AD dept members that we sold 9,000 tickets. Tech bought around 1,000. And although not everyone showed who had a ticket obviously it was a fantastic atmosphere. Rick