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The reason the engagement puzzle never gets solved is because any time this topic comes up a significant number of folks around here trot out their favorite whipping post (apathetic students, disengaged alums, lazy administration, Denton, frats, etc.) instead of taking a sober, empirical look at the numbers and starting the conversation from there. Let's take a quick jaunt through this list: Apathetic students: Dude, if you think student participation is bad now, you should have been here, oh, I don't know, any time in the last 20 years. I've been around for most of that time period and if you don't want to believe that students will turn out to watch a good team, then I don't know what to tell you. Student school spirit is getting better because it's become a bigger part of recruitment and orientation and dorm life in the last few years. Change doesn't happen overnight. Disengaged alums: If you aren't already a football fan before you come to college and you don't become a football fan in college, why would you come back and go to football games 5, 10, 15, 20 years later? Expecting alums who rarely (if ever) attended games while they were here to suddenly show up now simply isn't realistic. On the plus side, do what I've done: be the change you want. We all know alums who fit this category. Offer to buy them a ticket to a game as a way of catching up. I'm bringing one of these folks to ULL, two to Homecoming, and another to South Alabama. Reach out to these folks and bring 'em in! Lazy administration: I've been critical of the lack of official outreach in the past, but the admin is taking steps in the right direction. For example, check out http://meangreenprid...t.edu/discounts and the other parts of the Mean Green Pride initiative. Also check out what micahgb and her group are doing; these are the kinds of smart moves that the administration can make that will help us build the community of Mean Green fans we want. Denton: Of all the whipping posts, I have the least understanding for Denton bashing, probably because I grew up here, in a NTSU/UNT family, and I now live here and work here. Yes, Denton and UNT have had plenty of issues through the years, and both sides deserve some blame. The attitude of some here on GMG that the city government and every resident of Denton should be collectively kissing the boots of the university's athletic program is silly, equally as silly as the attitude of some here who will blame everything from to Darrell Dickey's freak out to Todd Dodge's defense on Denton. If you think Denton sucks, show me a similar community with a comparable situation who you think is the tits, then we can talk. Frats: They'll come around. Trying to herd them or anyone else who would rather tailgate than come in for the game into the stadium is not good PR. The saying is "if you build it, they will come," not "force them into it while you build it." There ought to be room for all of us on game day, those of us who want to go in and yell for our home team, and those who want to stay outside and tailgate. Those who are tailgaters now will start coming inside when "it" gets "built"; running them off before that happens seems to me to be a luxury we can't afford. Oh, and what CurveItAround wrote! GMG!

Skiver, do you drink heavily in the evenings?

Oh, the irony.

It would have won an Oscar if it wasn't for SMU.

Do you hate being wrong that much? I said the kid was 6'8" and every recruiting cite I read has him at 6'9" ..... Why would believe you over coaches, recruiters and people who do It for a living? And honestly got her (because the iPad won't let me type his name right!!!!!) is a legit sg. That is all we need! Je was solid before he was injured. Who do you expect we get next year when a lot of the class is already Verbaled in at a school.

You should research our "history" with blackout games...

Welp, this is awkward.

Dickey would've done a much better job of covering this up.

Just kick their A$$!

Olen

Trice

Jeremy Phillips or Zach Orr.

Nice to see a kid that works his tail off and contributes so much to his team even though he doesn't get a lot of time on the field. http://www.meangreensports.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?&db_oem_id=1800&id=1063836&DB_MENU_ID=&SPSID=9058&SPID=562&DB_OEM_ID=1800

I'm so confused right now..

made out with this girl last night, asked her sister out (who owns the bar a block from me) about 45 minutes later. Sister says yes, then an hour later realizes I just sucked face with her sister. Asked me why I would do such a thing I reply "sometimes you just gotta have it... even if it is in the middle of a busy street corner"

The Karen Aston before Karen Aston?

You know what they say , get Green or get Out !!!

That sucks for St. Louis. I wanted to beat them at their best and I don't think they'll be at their best without Majerus. Regardless I'll be very happy with a win against St. Louis.

I'm really pumped about renewing our series with Cameron.....

I cannot stop watching that gif. +1

I definitely missed a bit of the sacrasm on the first read. No harm intended. Apologies. I am just at the point that instead of trying to be someone else, I am ready to just be UNT. We are not going to get invited to their party anytime soon so instead of hanging around and letting them think we are desperate and let them get their jollies by watching up jump through hoops, let's go our own way. It's like chasing the hot girl who isn't interested because she knows you are willing to chase her. You have no chance. But, go off an be successful on your own and don't pay her a lot of attention, and guess who all of a sudden starts showing a little interest. TCU is a great example, look at what they did. After they got over the shock of being left out after the SWC breakup, they decided 'to hell with all of you' (in a very christian like manner of course). They went off an built their own success, built from within, and didn't try to be someone else. Lo and behold, all the hangers on that have been waiting for conference expansion were passed over and little old TCU was there to step in. Good for them. UNT does not have to become a/the state of Texas flagship school for me to be happy. I can be perfectly content if they build a program that consistently has winning seasons (probably means giving up the body bag gams against top 15 types and becoming the payor instead of the payee), occasionally has 9 or 10 win seasons, frequently competes for conference titles (and even wins a couple), is able to average 25k (or more!) per game. These all seem to be attainable goals. Please, do that for a decade and let me see if I become bored with it. I would love to complain about yet another 8 win season, losing/winning conference championship game, how weak our OOC sechedule is, etc... GO MEAN GREEN!

Or...

Nice promotion. This has been needed. In fact, they should do it EVERY game until they sell that section out.

We'll be seeing 3 of the top 15 players in the country...Doug McDermott (2), C.J. McCollum (4) and Rodney McGruder (15). Who knew the Irish were still such good basketball players?

I totally agree with that. Yes, Olen was putting in a pretty sucky performance, but it was almost as if he was pulled out of anger and spite. He should have been allowed to keep on kicking, and that includes the two times we went for it on fourth. All in my perfect 20-20 hindsight opinion of course.

I think there was an era when that was an attitude that accounted for some of the best and brightest students at UTA, perhaps ten years ago. Only speaking for myself, I never considered Arlington a stopover, unless it was a stopover on my way to law school. Now that about 5,000 students live on campus, with a majority of the others in apartments within 5 miles of campus, it's hard to apply the old paradigms. During my era when we were playing winning football (late 60s), attendance was good, interest was high, and community support was significant. If you came later, your reality was different, and I get that. As for whether or not UTA would support football, I doubt that UNT had good crowds during the latter years of the Dodge era. That doesn't mean North Texas cannot or does not support football. I'm sorry to hear from any UTA exe who thinks we could not support a competitive team. That's absurd.

I was looking but I didn't see him do that. I was hoping!

I don't know about that... I mean, he's only 1a in the ranking of Sun Belt players...

What do you do with him this year if he transfers? He would need a ship NOW, not just for 2013-14. Doesn't even matter right now, since he hasn't indicated he wants to transfer.

$&@#! Bah!

Impressive academic success! Obviously has the respect of teammates and coaches. A great honor to carry the MGF flag. I'm happy to see him on the field more this year.

I love that akward moment when you both realize that one of her friends is someone you hooked up with or dated (I mean she doesn't know for sure, but I'm sure she assumes it when your like "Oh ya, I know her, gulp"). Oh man, love that akward giggle afterwards.

Guess this is what happens when I'm not online much -missed the schedule finally being released. Gonna be really tough early, that's for sure. Here we go.

We have a 4 star recruit already: http://rivals.yahoo.com/arkansas/football/recruiting/player-Cam-Feldt-84716

Say my name .... Sun shines through the rain....

It was always burning since the worlds been turning.

The Fire ?

Pretty long article http://northtexas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1414563 Pollard, who also plays for the Meanstreets AAU team, has a final five of Virginia Tech, Colorado State, Rhode Island, Dayton, and Tulsa. All five have offered.

Call it "The Tony Mitchell Effect".

I like the potential this thread has ...

Don't really see a reason to schedule any Sun Belt teams in any sport in the near future. What Belt team would really be attractive to Mean Green fans as an OC game ? Need to just move on and make a clean break from the conference.

Maybe.

If Thompson struggles again the same thing better be said about QB 1 for the game against Houston.

If you'd like to donate to the American Asthma Foundation, please send a check to: American Asthma Foundation 4 Embarcadero Center #3150 San Francisco, CA 94111 Thanks again, guys. This has been a rough time, but the support and love has helped make it a little easier.

Daniel McKinney Marcus Camby

rep·e·ti·tion    [rep-i-tish-uhn] noun 1.the act of repeating; repeated action, performance,production, or presentation. 2.repeated utterance; reiteration. 3.something made by or resulting from repeating. 4.a reproduction, copy, or replica.

Yes, but not playing in the SEC yet, we don't need 4* and 5* DTs the way Bama does. We're in the Belt and going into the C-USA. We need 3* and 2* for sure...and we need six or seven over the next two signing classes. Like SilverEagle, I thought McCarney being a D-Line guy that this wouldn't be a problem. If we bring in two or fewer with the next recruiting class, it'll be disappointing.

Not sure it matters what he does, cause it won't be good enough.

Something new that I've been tasked with in my new role at UNT is to start a Student Alumni Association. My goal is to get as many students involved and excited as a STUDENT so that when they graduate, it's an easy transition to being an involved excited ALUM. Wish me luck in this endeavor as there are so many apathetic hurdles to jump. Had 20 students at the first meeting. Second meeting is this Friday night. Let's hope the numbers continue to grow!!!

You're talking about maybe 10 programs in the country that will show up no matter what. I went to a Longhorn game when I was in highschool in the 90s....there were plenty of seats available. I'm sorry Silver, it is wins and only wins that will get this turned around. Do you think the Rangers were sitting around trying to figure out how to get people in the stands when they were finishing 3rd and 4th every year? What have they done differently from a marketing standpoint to break the 3 million mark in attendance this year? Their marketing department is Ron Washington. Just like our marketing department is Dan McCarney. Watch what happens in Boise, Idaho the first time they go 6-6. The Cowboys will not sell out that stadium if they go 7-9. Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX is and always will be a winners town, period. I understand what you're saying. It frustrates me too. But what the hell is the AD supposed to do to get people to choose to show up to the games when we've been so bad for so long? It's going to take more time. Go 8-4 followed by 10-2 with a bowl win in between and you'll all the sudden see the culture magically change. Gonna take wins and nothing else. We had a run from 2001-2005 but crappy facilities. Then we had nice facilities with crappy football. We have never seen the two hit at the same time and I think when we do....this thing is going to explode.