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I NEVER want to have a player who LOVES being an Eagle, leave. Period. He had one year, as a freshman, playing for a coach who didn't recruit him, where he struggled. It's crazy to think that he would have continued this the remaining 3 years of him playing here.

I'm a fan. Will always be a fan. But goddamn I could use some good news from Mean Green Athletics.

Either drugs or stupidity

The NCAA BB tourney with 64 teams is arguably the greatest event in college sports. Compare it to the weak FB playoffs starting in 2015 with just 4 teams. Is there really much difference from the present mythical "National Championship"?. I say it's not even close to a true playoff w/o at least a 16 team tourney.The new system like the present one just makes the rich richer.

Comparing what JJ did at LSU to what Benford did at UNT this year and implying its the same is really kinda ignorant, don't you think? Lets compare: JJ- most conference wins in several years Benford- a disastrous conference record JJ- top 10 recruiting class in the nation for his 1st full class. Benford- what is shaping up to be one of the worst classes in CUSA and losing recruits to all-powerful programs like Eastern Michigan. Scraping the bottom of the JUCO barrel to complete a class that is still absent a true big man.

Probably could have been a good college coach as well, if he would have taken the Todd Graham route rather than the Gerry Faust route.

I think if there were a way to get Northern Ill, that would be the team I'd like to see join. With Marshall in WV, and now if WKU joins, we would have a bridge to Miami or Ohio.

I'd say that Bergland has the potential to be the best passer/runner since Scott Hall. Daniel Meager would be a reasonable comparison too. Although he didn't get enough playing time and he never enjoyed playing behind a line like Bergland will be playing behind. The best comparison would be Scott Davis who was our best ever runner/passer (check out his all-purpose yards stats). Second best would be Mitch Maher, I also agree with you about Cantley. I always hoped that he would reach his potential, but he never did.

Great write up thanks a lot! I hope we have some guys step up at DT, I think we are pretty solid at DE and I think Bellazin is going to have a 8+ sack year. Being the first year in the Mac era that we are even close to the scholarship limit, this is the first year that I really have high expectations for this team. I expect a winning record this year.

Hope I'm wrong, but I feel we are going to struggle - again - to stop people due to lack of pressure by DL. We are going to be amazing on the OL and probably move the ball with ease, but I need to see someone emerge in the DL 2deep.

My bracket....

Thank you very much for the insight, Harry. I think you said the opposite of what you meant when you mentioned the "dearth" of talent at WR. A lot of encouraging things to take from the write-up....But you sure didn't alleviate my anxiety about the DTs. Thanks for taking the time--we all appreciate it.

The real question is, who's gonna feed his babies now?

Still waiting Harry!!! I need updates!!!

That's just mean! I don't think he does drugs.

I'm not going to do the research... But I think you'd be hard pressed to find any posts criticizing the quality of walkons we've had in the past. As somone pointed out earlier our location and cost of tuition aid us greatly in attracting some very strong talent through the walkon program. Really what you're doing is using an invalid argument to combat those who believe we should be recruiting (giving out scholarships) to a higher caliber of athlete.

I'm not currently interested in a multi-year Christmas job at the mall.

What gives you the optimism???

7-25

Not if I could go to Eastern Michigan or Tennessee Tech...

Why would anyone criticize a walk-on for not having any other D1 offers?

Benford = Hindenburg - Giant Blimp

We really need our DTs to weigh 300 not 265

I think are only goal should be to look like a "TEAM" should, no matter who we have on the floor.

Will this be an increasingly common occurrence going forward? With the growing knowledge of long-term injury impact for football players, will guys be advised by their families to cut their college careers short (1) when the pros aren't in the future and (2) the family can afford to pay tuition themselves (especially if 2-3 yrs was already paid for)? It seems a trend of this sort would certainly hit a program like ours more prominently where on field success has been hard to come by.

Really great article.

The Eagles will beat the Gators.

# questionsforbenny

Great article. Thank you. Wish our beat writer was this thorough. Any word on McDorman?

I'm not disagreeing that defenses win games and championships but Alabama had a very sexy offense to go with an outstanding defense. A.J. McCarron had the highest rating (175.28) of all of the regular quarterbacks. Bama also had a couple of the best running backs in the country to go along with them. A bad defensive line may lose some games but they can't win any unless they're running fumbles in for touchdowns. You still need a relatively good offense to win games.

Ohio State has now pulled two games out of the fire right at the end.

Ok, thanks...is it still possible to add names to the list?

Our walk-on program is strong, but I fail to see how you can argue that our players we sign are not D1 caliber due to their lack of stars or D1 offers and then celebrate a walk-on that had neither. Seems hypocritical to me, a valid point to support my arguement and proof that the rating system is not an accurate assessment for all athletes. I fail to see how being a scholarship player or walk-on matters when I could do a little research and find a multitudeof posts being critical of our athletes that did not have other offers or a certain number of stars given by a biased website.

Man, Marquette should have lost to Davidson, very easily could have lost to Butler....and now are blowing away Miami. Well, there goes another Final Four team in my bracket.

Bartles.and James fuzzy navel isn't.bad...

My how far we've fallen. This time a year ago we would have bristled at a 14 or 16 seed in the NCAA tournament. Now "14 if not 16" is a possible win total for next season . . . and that's the extremist view. If only there were something we could do to restore hope . . .

Same dude that made us all scratch our heads when he moved our most productive DE, Eddrick Gilmore, to DT in his first year here? Lost just about all confidence in that guy when he did that. But, Nelson is Mac's guy. He ain't going anywhere.

Who you play does not really matter if you can't beat them.

Neither did the results.

Lots of times, coaches are brought in and told they won't be back next year at alot of places except UNT, that is. We accept failure.

I wish it was as easy to run off a coach.

Clarke just got Benford'd

And we're off...

The Dodge hire definitely was not the issue. I think the 1-AA exile was. The Dodge issue was a manifestation of the struggle to get back to relevance after the 1-AA days. We're on our way... It's painfully slow. Unfortunately, we're encountering monstrous potholes along the way that cause us to have to pull over and put the donut on until we can get to a discount tire, get a new, better tire, and get back on the road. I believe we won (early 2000's) too early. We weren't ready to sustain that winning culture. I think we're ready now. Get on a streak like we were on in the early 2000's today, and we'll be just fine.

UNT90 is just passionate about UNT--we sorely lack this from an athletic standpoint from almost every angle possible. He wants us to be the best we can be in an area he cares about. He's a man--over forty--and he likes sports. Most guys do. He sees his other buddies and colleagues that went to colleges across the state and region always talking about their teams performances over the last decade and he asks why is it that I can't ever brag about anything that happened the weekend before. Then he realizes that Rice, SMU, TCU, Texas, Tech, A&M, Baylor, UH, OU, OSU, Tulsa, La Tech, ULL, ULM, LSU,etc..have all done MUCH better on the field than we have over the last 8 years. Its tough when you are talking about 5-7 as your best year in the eight years and prognosticators are suggesting that we are going to win around 2 games this upcoming year. And its embarrassing. I hate it --and I know you all do, too--when I hear some TCU fan in FW talking about winning the Rose Bowl over Wisconsin or some SMU fan talking about their bowl wins over the last 4 years and then they laugh at you because you went to North Texas and they ask you how it felt to lose to Florida International Airport or Western Kentucky this past weekend. I've read FFR post on here before about getting constantly razzed about our poor performance all the time at work. It gets you down. A lot of negativity tends to come out when this stuff seems to never end. I've been right with UNT90 and his posts recently--and I'm sorry for that negative tone. I get down, too. I shouldn't, but I do, because I want for us to be the best we can be. And I know that yall do too. Sometimes we all let our frustrations out in such a negative way, though, that it loses its message because it comes off as griping and moaning. Its tough when you see the university make poor hires and get stuck with it for years on end, but in the end, we just have to accept that it is how it is here. Maybe the "value" approach here is the best thing for the university and it doesn't merit complaints about it because they know its what the university's core wants. I will say this, though, about our football future--I trust Coach Mac and I truly believe he knows what he's doing in building us up from the ashes. I think this program has a better chance of becoming a winner under him than it did under anyone we've had since Fry as a FBS school. We won under Corky as a 1-aa program with absolutely no care at all to athletics. We had some years of success under Dickey, three to really be exact, but he wasn't the answer for a program like ours that needs fans. Obviously, Dodge was in waaaayyyy over his head from the start. I think Coach Mac knows what needs to be done and he's trying to do it the right way. And I think we will win 5 or more games this year because of the steady improvement. He got here and had no lines or a QB. Last year, the line play improved, but the QB play didn't. Hopefully, he gets more line improvement and the QB can make an impact that will propel us toward a competitive season. The biggest reason I want to see this thing take off is because I believe that if Mac does fail here, we aren't going to put a decent salary out there again for a coach and his staff. And at a school like ours, if we've learned anything in the last 35 years, its that an unknown coordinator or high school coach cannot build a successful winner here. Just as Fry did after his only losing season here, his plan finally started working and he left us with a ranked program for the only time in our history. I believe McCarney can do that, too. But this is the year that he has to start showing us that he can do it here.

The article says it all. We need Brock to win the job for the offense to take a step forward.

Great... Let's get ULM in here, also...

I like that. Make no mistake, I want us to win, but despite not achieving all we should have, after 100 years of trying, I have met some terrific people and had some wonderful experiences following North Texas football. But I want to win. I want to win now. GO MEAN GREEN

90 makes coming to this board a whip but in the spirit of Covey - seek first to understand. I understand the frustration he and others have, but unless a rant comes with a solution or suggestion for improvement that he/she can directly contribute to I just can't take their message seriously. 1. 90 rants because he cares - love that 2. just add some suggestions and solutions to the rant for more effectiveness At this point it looks like we should just pack up the tent and call it a Mean Green life. As long as UNT is fielding a team and tailgating is encouraged I will be there with diehards in tow. If I have stood in a hurricane against against Nevada, sizzler at OU, debacle at Rice and heartbreak in Austin, I sure can enjoy a beer in the Alamodome and some Mexican food in the Sun Bowl. Man the Mean Green helped me see Jake the Snake at ASU, taken me to the best tailgate in the nation at LSU on multiple occasions, observed a miracle in the desert, shocked by a hog call and many beat downs of ACU early on. Awesome times to come! GMG