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Love me? Can I strut around with my green peacock feathers now? But seriously, when I came on this board nearly five years ago, somebody told me that I would make lifelong friends following UNT athletics. For all the trials, tribulations, losses, crappy uniforms, and arguments we go through, I am so glad I chose UNT for grad school, and I'm thankful for all of you that I've met through this thing we call sports. We fight, we call each other names, we challenge each other, but we all strive for the same thing, and we eat, we drink, we weep in the common cause. I'd have this no other way. Cheers, Mean Green Nation!

Our perpetually "underachieving" ex head coach is up 19 on Miss St and cruising toward 15-8. With "somebody else's players" and BEFORE his top ten recruiting class comes in. Remind me again Andrew, how many top flight recruits are lining up to live our "next year" dream?

I'm afraid you don't know much about our history. Our relationship with some of these schools (Louisville, Cincinnati, Houston, etc) goes back long before Fry. Others came out of nowhere and quickly passed us ( South and Central Florida, Boise State, etc). Some, like ECU were playing the forerunner of IAA ball when North Texas was playing with the big boys. When we complain about people still calling us North Texas State, that is because whatever success and visibility we had on the football field, it occurred when that was our name. We never set the world on fire other than a few seasons under Fry and earlier under Mitchell, but we were still respected and never at the bottom of the barrel as we are today.

Please stop with the paranoia … it will destroy you!!!! All the credit in the world to UTSA, but if their not in one of the largest cities in the country – THAT HAS NO FBS FOOTBALL PROGRAMS at the time they started they would of never made the moves they have made as fast as they did. Abilene is NOT San Antonio

Whether you guys realize it or not, Fraternities and Sororities at UNT have ALWAYS been held to higher standards than the rest of the general student population. A minor, isloated incident with a member of such an organization always becomes a much bigger deal than with an unaffiliated student. I'd post all the positives they bring to the table, but this has all already been done ad naseum and you either agree with it or you don't. What I will say, since this is a football post, is that MANY of the "big" schools everyone clamours to be like with respects to athletics and athletic support ALL have very strong greek systems. Every single school in the SEC. Most of the Big XII. A lot of CUSA. And part of that is because it's been proven greek letter members are more likely to get involved in their university as students and also because they are more likely to stay involved as an alumni. Boo hoo, they don't always go into the stadium. So what? They show up. And that's more than I can say for a lot of people, especially since this football team (that I love) has put a subpar product on the field for over a decade.

If you're not winning then experience is way overrated.

If those season ticket sales numbers are correct, I agree with you. But it does beg the question, what have we been doing?

I can see the script now. "Have you ever considered buying season tickets for North Texas athletics?" I have season tickets. "Have you considered joining the MGC?" I'm in the MGC. "Oh, I see. Well, have you considered giving more?" Shouldn't you be calling the thousands of graduates who don't give a dime? "We were told to call you"

BS58, Let me ask you something. I have surmised by some of your comments that you played HS football with one of the players currently on the team roster. When recruiters came around from other schools, what (if anything) was their negatives about North Texas? If you didn't overhear it from recruiters, then what was the negative perceptions that your team mates had about North Texas? And here is the toughest question, but I want a brutally honest answer....since you have come to North Texas, what has proven to be true, and what has proven to be false about those negative perceptions?

What's a little pertty larceny amongst friends???

I, too, think that we are a 4-6 win team. My guess is 5-7 just based off the schedule and an improved QB in Berglund, especially as the season progresses. IF we have poor QB play nad major injuries on the lines, then I think 2-10 is appropriate. 2-10 or worse gets McCarney fired after the season, but 3-6 wins get him another season. And I think that 7+ wins gets him an extension, as it should. I think Berglund, JImmerson, the OL, and being completely settled in with McCarney's ways for the third year will give us improvement from last year. I think his initial 5-7 season really made people feel like we were further along than we really were, but the 4-8 record from last year in the SBC didn't surprise me too much. If you look at teams that have left conferences, their last year doesn't exactly go well, from a w/l perspective. You aren't exactly the best friends to the conference officials, both on the field and off the field. We have a low bar here, only because we haven't given anyone a reason to believe differently. If it were up to most of us, a 4 win season or less should be fireable at this point, but, sadly, this place doesn't have the $$$ to do this unless it is just a total disaster and you have to buyout a second year. If that happened, though, we are probably hiring an assistant coach who has never been a HC for about half of McCarney's salary. When everyone else around is paying higher amounts for a head coach, that won't exactly give any of us any hope for a big turnaround any time soon, but the budget (or lack thereof) is what it is. Plus, a firing of Coach Mac, if that has to happen, should mean the firing of RV, as well, so I doubt that happens unless the BOR forces it to happen, which again is highly doubtful unless we have an absolutely horrible year with double digit losses. I'll say this. I bleed green. I've been watching UNT sports for 23 years now. But this is all an important time for a lot of people as far as UNT athletics goes. For me, once the university finally figured out a way to get a stadium funded, I figured that this would tell us how serious this place really is about its sports teams. The stadium had to get built or the sport was going to get eliminated here, its that plain and simple. Fouts needed so many generators just to function on a gameday that it wouldn't have even made it for another decade. So, that to me, was our chance to finally say, "ok this is important and we now have great facilities for football and basketball to move forward." Then, we went out and paid for a head coach with previous head coaching experience and was well respected throughout college football. To me, as a fan and alum, this is what I expect from a university of our size and having built a nice stadium for its team to play in. However, the next step in proving that athletics matters to the university and that it will be used properly as a window to the rest of the school is to do the necessary part in funding the program by recognizing WHEN to buyout your mistakes. I don't believe McCarney to be a mistake at all. I expect that this is a moot point. But a 10 loss season in year 3 wouldn't be acceptable anywhere else in the country. If it costs money to rectify that mistake, then do it. If your basketball coach, even in year one, looks like he couldn't coach a YMCA team, then rectify the situation and move on. This is how they do it everywhere else in the country, even our peers in this new CUSBCA. Our new stadium has now proven to not be a reason for attendance or support to be much different than we were at Fouts--its all dependent on the opponent for UNT fans and Denton citizens to care. We can argue on how wrong or right that is, but the point remains simply that it is the way it is. So the only thing that remains to be seen is if a winner can change that now, as compared to the Dickey years of 2001-2004 or even Fry's years of 73-78. But the reality is fairly simple here. If we don't see any marked improvement in football, and it coincides with mens hoops continuing to flounder back to Trilli-esque seasons, and we don't see any changes at any positions at the top because it costs too much to correct the situation, I'm afraid that the university will forever lose more fans again.

Ya, because he should be heralded as a national hero, right? I mean, forget about grown up problems of paying the coutry's bills and all, let's just focus on some gay guy coming out so we can all tell ourselves how accepting and compassionate we are for his "plight." That makes us FEEL so much better about oursleves because we are so enlightened and compassionate.

... Man we need wins and baseball. Threads about Abilene? Really?

No. I've never said that. I would love to see the SOW on the helmet. I was just trying to explain that merchandise sales are not tied to the helmet design.

The average age of the people on the alumni side is 118 years old. You mean trick or treating with their great great great grandkids?

I agree with this. C-USun Belt will be more difficult, and we weren't even handling the original Sun Belt very well. I'm more than a little shocked that this thing isn't further along. Mac hasn't been magical. He's gotten the thing righted off the field. That's a thing to be proud of; but, no one but us really cares about or even notices that stuff. It ain't like ESPN is going to come do a story about things being done right behind the scenes. No one cares. Everyone acts like they care, but they don't. Also, Apogee isn't selling the way everyone hoped - to either recruits or alumni. It's a great stadium. Hard to believe it can't be filled up everytime. And, remember, some folks here were tweaked that it wasn't big enough. Seriously. There's no telling what will happen with conferece realignments. Once the Big 12 either splits up or takes on more, dominoes will start falling again. I'm tired ot if all. Very tired. Hard to believe that 2014 will be 10 seasons from the last bowl appearance. I've tried to be more positive than during the Dodge era, but it just doesn't work. I just don't feel like it's going to happen for us...ever. We're always, always, always a step behind in everything we do...getting back to I-A/FBS, getting facilities, hiring real coaches.,,we're the ultimate case study in missing the boat. One of four schools currently with eight losing seasons in a row, along with Tulane, New Mexico State, and...f*ck it. I can't even f*cking remember the fourth one. It doesn't matter. F*ck it. Just keep clean. That's where I've now set the bar: I'm happy as long as there are no drug-related arrests or child molesting. That's where the bar has to be set to feel like we're accomplishing something positive.

Just what we need--strangers who know nothing about North Texas calling us.

Just to set the record straight, this is my first time to actually "coach" a GMG team. And if Benford is the coach of the other team, we will spot him the first 2 picks of the draft, 15 points, and still beat him by double digits.

I don;t disagree, Harry, but don't assume this kid will come in here and be the next Johnny Football. We don't know anything about his on-field decision making. I hope for the best, but it is a huge question mark.

Ya, 9-4 is easy. When was the last time we were 9-4? Beating Penn St. in Pedophile Valley is easy. When was the last time we beat a team of that stature on their field (have we ever)? Ohio beating ULM means nothing. Whooping the crap out of a ULM team that whooped the crap out of us is easy, right?. ULM 42 UNT 16. Ohio 45 ULM 17? Fans do this every off-season. Be prepared for heart break.

Deep, the way I see it if rv's so comfortable this act alone will give him an excuse, an out for failing this year. Now there is someone to blame when there is a Capital Campaign going on & people are supposed to be producing revenue. Now can we see it, the real picture. PS someone needs to get Kram a seeing-eye dog.

No. Nobody liked Fry when he left. He's barely welcome back now.

Another way to look at the CFN pre-season, spring prediction is... There are only two guaranteed wins on the schedule (Idaho, UTSA), and there is only one guaranteed loss (GA) everything else is going to be a fight. But isn't that want you want as a fan? Don't you want to see your team come out ahead in these 50/50 games?

I predict at least 10 bowl threads after we beat Idaho

I'll be disappointed with 3 or less, expect 4 or 5 and will be thrilled with 6 or more.

While we're at this, can we get the folks ordering shirts for the bookstore/team store to sell this shirt but with an actual sport in place of "Athletics"?

I would kill for a much greater selection of UNT stuff than we have online and would admit to it for it to be available south of Denton by about 3.5 hours. So... someone who can, please make it so.

Our embarrassing losses continue tonight. End the pain RV....or you deserve to be fired.

At least six wins. We just have to, thats all.

How has it worked for others? Whatever they have been doing hasn't been working and since the one thing that will work, wins, seems to be elusive, then this can't be any worse than what we have been doing.

GMG

And to my team: There will be a full practice held at 8AM on gameday. I refused to be outcoached.

Apparently we only have contact information for 40% of the ticket buyers over the last 10 years.

It'd be nice if Nike did, but we're not Oregon, and we're nowhere close to a national championship. Which is something else that a lot of people miss as an important point. The SOW isn't going anywhere. It's an appropriate design, it's catching on, and UNT would be foolish to instate yet another mid-stream change to any of its primary brands. But beyond that, no matter if the helmet logo is designed at Saatchi & Saatchi or GDS&M or ripped from a clip art book, it will only be as strong as the product it represents.

He didn't come out during his playing career. He announced he was gay and that he was quitting soccer.

Can Benford be one of the coaches? He needs the practice.

Basketball will likely be an uphill battle to increase season tickets after this season.

Fixed.

I don't often +1 you, but this is smart-assery at its finest.

I mean to be be fair, you don't think we'd be getting Iowa updates from someone if GMG had existed when Hayden Fry left?

Just for the hell of it....here are the standings. East MTSU 15-1 23-4 USA 12-4 15-9 FIU 9-8 14-12 WKU 7-9 13-14 FAU 7-10 12-16 Troy 6-10 11-16 West ASU 11-6 17-9 UALR 9-7 15-12 ULL 6-10 10-17 North Texas 5-12 10-18 ULM 3-13 4-18 We're the 10 seed at the moment...slated to play FAU.

Women , right ?

its been over for awhile, but we still have games on the schedule

New coaches come in every year all around the country. Many struggle at first...because they are taking over lousy rosters. Some get lucky and get good rosters. If Benford had inherited a ULM type of talent and won 9 games I'd think he was doing a good job and setting things up for the future. He's won 9 games with a loaded roster!

If JJ didn't run much of a system and we made it as far as we did then why can't Benford just roll the ball out there and tell them to play too? His job is to win games. He can try and teach them a system, but guess what, if they don't catch on its HIS job as a coach to make it work. A coach can't keep trying to jam a square peg in a round hole. That simple. As a coach you need to make changes as the season goes. Like with Dodge not making 2nd half adjustments, same thing, you change as the season progresses.

We were preseason favorites to win the league. We were returning our best talent from a team that nearly made the NCAA's last year. We had arguably the most talented basketball team we've ever had. We are a joke this year. Benford must go.