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Thank you for recognizing that some of us can no longer stand for the game. Hopefully, no one that wants to stand will be in front of me. I'd sure hate to have paid $160 (wife and I) and not be able to see the game. Backs and knees have a way of deteriorating over time.

RV has been quoted that he will not hire a telephone operator that has not been a head operator previously.

and he had to have "North Texas" on the side of the phone.

I'm not buying it. One game in the central time zone is a mighty small sample size to say, "UNLV doesn't travel well to the Central Time Zone." One might consider that the reason UNLV lost by 28 to Minnesota is that Minnesota had a pretty good team this year. The week after Minnesota, UNLV lost at home by 45 to Arizona. Are we somehow going to blame that on the Central Time Zone as well? The time change might be a slight factor, but the team will probably be in Dallas a few days before the game, which should be plenty of time to adapt to a two-hour difference.

I hadn't seen that one. That just looks unspeakably wrong.

It's not a matter of his mother-in-law's rules, it's a matter of common courtesy. If you find yourself in a place where you can stand without obstructing others' views, by all means, stand the whole game. But try to be considerate of others.

Thread loser.

Would be interesting to see if he had gotten suspended had he used vulgarity but not the gay reference. Agree coaches should be above trash talking to players. My guess though is that there would have been no suspension.

Great job yall. Please take lots of pictures. Rick

I don't plan on sitting, at all. GMG

Look fraageely, must be Italian.

Says it all. What an exciting year watching all three phases of the game...

I don't agree. DT, in no way, "has been bad over the span of his career" as you say. DT has done what he could to better this team and program. Seems to me UNT with DT under center is playing in its first bowl since 2004 and the first Jan. 1st bowl since the 1940's. DT is the QB of the team and an integral part of helping to turn this program into a winning one once again. DT is one of the leaders of the Mean Green. We have seen lots of UNT QB's unable to lead the team to a bowl game. DT us not one of those. DT will lead the Mean Green out on Jan. 1st in the HOD Bowl. That, in itself, is enough to counter the "bad over the span of his career" thinking. Good luck to DT and all the Mean Green! Beat UNLV!

I don't know that UNT would've been any better with any of its other quarterbacks starting over DT. However, that doesn't change the fact that he's been bad over the span of his career with the exception of a couple of games and just because the other quarterbacks might be even worse than him doesn't mean he's been remotely good.

Competition being equal, Derek Thompson only lost one...maybe two games in his career...'13 Tulane certainly and maybe '12 Troy. Every other loss he's been starter for...unless I'm forgetting something...doesn't rest on his shoulders. That said, I honestly can't think of a game he's won. It's very simple. He's Trent Dilfer. He for the most part drove a bus and rarely into a curb. I think there's little question that when we went with a tempo offnse and got DT out of the pocket and into a rythem that he was a more than servicable quarterback, but for whatever reason that wasn't who he was the majority of the time and that won't...and shouldn't...be his legacy. Talk of HOF is ridiculous. Orr and Chancellor...and I'll listen to arguments on Trice...but let me remind you that there were those hoping Trice wouldn't win a starting safety spot out of camp before this season. You start considering DT for HOF and you may as well just lower your HOF bar to every 3 year starter who helped you to one winning season and bowl game. Derek Thompson is just a dude.

Still haven't received mine in Garland.

Chair backs? We planning to spend the majority of this game sitting? (Unless of course you have to, which is cool. I get that.)

Got a HoD shirt, a North Texas Alumni hoodie, and a Lance Dunbar Cowboys jersey.

Derek Thompson exploded onto the Mean Green football scene like a cannonball fired by the Talons. With the Mean Green trailing 30-20 at Arkansas State with two minutes left in the 2009 season finale, backup quarterback Nathan Tune separated his shoulder and could not re-enter the game. Starter Riley Dodge had been lost earlier in the contest to a broken arm and the third-string quarterback hadn’t even made the trip because of the flu. This wasn’t a bowl game. No championship was on the line. It wasn’t against a hated rival. It wasn’t even a chance to get the team to a winning record. But North Texas was staring at a 10-loss season and head coach Todd Dodge needed a win to build job security and carry positive momentum into the offseason. The Mean Green had a chance to pull off a victory and Thompson was sitting there like an unopened present on Christmas morning. Thompson was being redshirted and would lose an entire season of eligibility if he played those final seconds. Knowing the full consequence of his actions, Thompson tore off that redshirt like it was Hulk Hogan’s tank top and charged into the huddle. The next possession was absolute magic. Thompson completed all three passes he attempted while driving the offense down the field and capped it off with a 19-yard touchdown pass. North Texas never got the ball back and lost the game. But the Derek Thompson era of North Texas football was underway. Since the glory days of Scott Hall, the Mean Green quarterback position had been a black hole of tragedy (Andrew Smith), ineffectiveness (Daniel Meager), quitters (Giovanni Vizza) and injury (Riley Dodge). North Texas was the Anti-USC. Not Quarterback U but Quarterback Who. The next Scott Hall was always coming but never arrived. In the early months after Thompson’s debut, an angry posse was hanging a rope over a tree and waiting outside the office of Todd Dodge. This would be the part of the hero’s journey where the helper appears. In one story he is Yoda. In another he is Gandolf. In this story he is Mike Canales, the new offensive coordinator from South Florida Canales had transformed Matt Grothe, a lightly-recruited quarterback, into the Big East’s all-time leader in total offense and had tutored Philip Rivers into a 1st round pick. Around this time it was announced that Riley Dodge, a high school legend who had chosen to play for North Texas over the most powerful institution in college football, was being moved from quarterback to receiver because of injuries. But nobody was freaking out because we knew we had Derek Thompson. For that one drive he had been on the field, he had been perfect and the Mean Green had been invincible. Mean Green fans started fantasizing about what this quarterback coach/Jedi Master could do with Thompson. We only had one drive of evidence, but we believed. In the Spring game, Thompson completed his first seven passes for 113 yards and a touchdown and the anticipation grew like the commercialization of Fry Street. “Derek Thompson was an all-district point guard in high school.” “Derek Thompson’s online bio says he runs a 4.7 40.” “Derek Thompson grew up in Glen Rose next to the nuclear power plant and has some kind of X-Men mutation in his right arm.” But the 2010 season fell apart quicker than a Tony Benford game plan. Thompson never really separated himself from Tune, a walk-on from a small high school, and only played in three games before breaking his leg and being granted a medical redshirt. North Texas finished 3-9. By the start of 2011, Thompson was the toy you opened on Christmas morning and never really wanted to play with again. Todd Dodge was fired and replaced with Dan McCarney. The ex-Iowa State coach retained Canales on his staff but brought in his own recruits to battle for the quarterback position, junior college transfer Brent Osborn and a high schooler from Iowa, Andrew McNulty. After a heated three-man battle for the spot, McCarney, in a surprise move, named Thompson the starter one day before the season opener. Thompson’s job was just to hand the ball to future Dallas Cowboy Lance Dunbar, but he had moments that season that made you believe he was a guy UNT could build an offense around. Three touchdown passes in a win over Indiana. Two touchdowns, 331 yards passing and a UNT single-game record for completion percentage in a win over Troy. Three touchdowns and 332 yards passing in a victory over Louisiana-Monroe. Thompson finished his sophomore season with 14 touchdowns and six interceptions while the Mean Green closed out McCarney’s first year with wins in five of the final nine games. There was finally stability at the quarterback position for the Mean Green. With Dunbar off to the NFL, 2012 was going to be the year Thompson really took off. Except he never really did. McCarney had won at Iowa State with a mobile quarterback. And the Canales offense was supposed to be predicated on having a quarterback who was a threat to run. Thompson just wasn’t that type of quarterback. Instead of becoming Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, Canales and Thompson seemed to have the chemistry of Queen Amidala and Anakin Skywalker. Natalie Portman and Hayden Christiansen were fine actors, there just wasn’t a spark when you put them together. North Texas started the 2012 season with a 1-2 record then Thompson completed just 12 of 28 passes in a 14-7 conference-opening loss to Troy. He had three interceptions in a loss to Middle Tennessee. He tossed two interceptions as Western Kentucky came back from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to beat the Mean Green, 25-24, in the season finale. Thompson finished his junior year with 2,629 yards passing with 14 touchdown and 14 interceptions as UNT went 4-8. It was the eighth straight season North Texas had a losing record. Though he still had his senior season in front of him, the Thompson era seemed over. Kansas-transfer Brock Berglund, who the recruiting services had once rated higher than Johnny Manziel, would be eligible and it was assumed the starting job was his. Then a funny thing happened. Spring practice rolled around and we kept hearing about Thompson. Where was Berglund? Limited by an injury. Supposedly. Summer practice got going and Berglund was quieter than Willis Library the night after final exams. But a new challenger had emerged: Dajon Williams, a raw freshman who was tempting the coaching staff and exciting the fan base with the promise of his strong arm and quick feet. Yet here comes Thompson on the season opening drive against Idaho. And he proceeded to have another Derek Thompson season. Sometimes he was great. Other times bad. Most of the time he was ok. Only this season, NORTH TEXAS WAS WINNING. Now it is almost Christmas and we have certain rules at my family gatherings, which includes a weirdly disproportionate number of North Texas alums: Talk all you want about politics or religion. Everyone in my family both hates Obama and loves Jesus. And yes, I see the irony. But no talking about Derek Thompson. That is too controversial. Even the Devil can find a Scripture to quote to support his argument. And there is plenty of Scripture to argue when discussing Thompson. “Thompson’s completion percentage is tied for second-best in school history!” “He killed our comebacks against Tulane and UTSA with game-ending picks!” “He led us back from 18 points down against Ball State!” “He’s tied for 10th in the country in interceptions!” “He’s leading us to our first bowl game in a decade! “He’s never even been all-conference!” “He’s never had an all-conference receiver either!” “That proves my point!” “I am going to capture you and hold you hostage in my sex dungeon!” Well, maybe it doesn’t get quite that weird. Or maybe I am holding a family member who disagrees with me about Derek Thompson hostage in my sex dungeon? You’re just going to have to wonder. We are all wondering how the last game Derek Thompson ever quarterbacks for North Texas is going to go. He went from being “the unknown redshirt” to “the next big thing” to “the guy who still might be good” to “the guy who is definitely not good” to “the guy who can win games but we would like to upgrade” to “the guy with one more opportunity to define his legacy”. January 1, 2014 vs. UNLV in the Heart of Dallas Bowl at the legendary Cotton Bowl. I hope Thompson finds as much success when he runs on the field for the final time as he did the first time.

Wish we would go back to recruiting the Greater Houston Area harder. I went through their top 86 recruits, and besides the usual commits to UT, ATM, Baylor, Rice, UH, etc., I'm amazed at the number that commit to the likes of La Tech, Texas State, and now utsa. Boise State has taken at least one player over the past several years, and even UNLV has a commitment out of Houston. We used to do a decent job when Bruce Bell(I think) was recruiting the Houston area. Sure wish we had a steady pipeline from that football rich area of Texas.

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I am surprised that we haven't hit Houston hard this class, but we did get Connor Means from Deer Park and Kishawn McClain from Rosenberg. They just aren't very highly rated. We did however straight up raid East Texas this year. Maybe we raid Houston next year. We'll continue to recruit Houston. That much is all we know.

Mean Green Santa, sporting a perfectly manicured mustache, wearing a sweater vest and piloting a sleigh that doubles as a Dominos Pizza delivery vehicle, climbed down your chimney and left you presents under your Christmas tree. Here is what he left you (Except you, FireFightn Rick, all you get is a lump of coal in your stocking and a donation being made in your name to the Aledo football booster club)… A BOWL GAME: It might not be the BCS, but it is probably the next best thing for North Texas. Playing in a local bowl game that won’t cost our school too much money to participate in and allows our fans to attend without having to make a large financial or time commitment on national television against an opponent (UNLV) we are favored to defeat is just a win all the way around. Also, the American college football contest between the University of Missouri and Oklahoma State University on Jan. 3 at Jerry World is not the Cotton Bowl. The Cotton Bowl is played on New Year’s Day at the Cotton Bowl. A GOOD OLD FASHIONED QUARTERBACK CONTROVERSY: Nothing makes for better message boarding than a quarterback controversy and we got a good one that is about to be stirred up. I don’t know if any of our returning quarterbacks are any good, but I do know there are A LOT of them. FIVE scholarship quarterbacks will fight it out in the spring and summer to win the honor of becoming the most scrutinized person on GoMeanGreen.com. The quarterback competition will have more characters and storylines than an episode of Game of Thrones as Andrew McNulty (don’t call him a career backup, he will only be a junior), Brock Berglund (has underachieved at three colleges now, can he finally get it together?), Dajon Williams (he allegedly almost won the job this fall), Josh Greer (JUCO transfer who has been led to believe he has a legit chance at the job) and Connor Means (one of two quarterbacks to be named 2nd team All-District 21-5A!) compete to take over the crown from Joffery, I mean Derek Thompson (I kid, I kid.). Everyone will choose their favorite. Opinions will be required. Enemies will be sworn. Good times ahead. A NFL DRAFT PICK: Now that the bowl drought has been broken, Zac Orr can be the rainmaker who ends the Mean Green’s other dry spell. North Texas hasn’t had a player drafted since Cody Spencer was taken in the 6th round of the 2004 draft by the Oakland Raiders. Orr is no lock to be chosen (NFLdraftscout.com currently ranks him as the No. 51 draft-eligible inside linebacker), but a good showing at a college all-star game, the UNT pro day or NFL Combine (really hope he gets an invite) could boost him into the late rounds. Orr does not have prototypical size at 6-0, 240 but his college production (114 tackles, including 11 tackles for loss this season) and pedigree (his dad played in the NFL for eight seasons) could intrigue NFL teams. Brelan Chancellor and Richard Abbe also have an outside chance of being drafted and will definitely be in a NFL mini-camp this spring. North Texas coach Dan McCarney knows how to develop players into NFL picks and getting players drafted should be the beginning of a trend as McCarney’s own recruits progress through the program. TALENTED REDSHIRTS: While several true freshmen are already contributing in minor roles (Sed Ellis, Fred Scott, Chad Davis, Darvin Kidsey), good programs redshirt good players, too. In recent years North Texas has not had the depth or discipline to redshirt a lot of kids. DL Sid Moore (Two-time All-State with a combined 72 tackles for loss as a junior and senior. And don’t say he is too small because he already weighs more than Ryan Boutwell) and DB Andrew Tucker (Rated three stars on Rivals and started both ways on a undefeated state champion) are two redshirts who could make an impact in 2014. GOOD RECRUITS: This Mean Green recruiting class reminds me of Mack Brown’s 2000 class at Texas when he signed receivers Roy Williams, B.J. Johnson and Sloan Thomas. McCarney has gone heavy at receiver with commitments from four. Touchdown Tee Goree is getting the most hype and he deserves it. But Fonzale Davis was DFW Class 4A’s leader in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. O'Keeron Rutherford is 6-5 and averaged a touchdown reception a game for Class 3A state champion Carthage. Jalen Adams had a down year statistically (maybe because his team was breaking in a freshman quarterback) but also held offers from Tulsa and San Diego State. North Texas is losing its top two receivers and leading rusher so it needs a couple of these guys to be playmakers immediately. Signing day cannot come fast enough. THE OFFENSIVE LINE WILL BE BACK: All of the starters will be returning next season from a unit that allowed the fewest sacks in the country over the last two years (16) and cleared the way for a 1,000-yard rusher in 2013. What else did Mean Green Santa leave under your tree?

Darn it!! I got a very slick long sleeve Green Never Fades Adidas dry fit but the picture wont upload for whatever reason... I will be sporting it at the game. I also would like to recommend to anyone out there the Frog Togg rain suit tops and bottoms and gloves if your a baby like me. They are 100 % wind and water proof. The gloves I can't vouch for yet b/c I just received them for christmas but, the pants and jacket I can vouch for. I have coached through Many a monsoon and freezing cold wind games, and let me tell you that stuff works and is well worth the 60 bucks for the suit. I just ordered mine offline.

Well since the deadline was the 18th I'm sure it was done within the couple of days following.

Where is this from?

Not a Derek fan but he won the Ball State game by himself. He was incredible. Not sure our coaches ever tailored the gameplan to his strengths. He ran the hurry up great and even scrambled effectively...I remember fretting seriously when he went out in the Ball State game.

So, just a cumulative statistical update of our three receiver commits from Texas (Goree, Rutherford, and Fonzale Davis), now that the stats are final for the Carthage boys: 229 catches, 4443 receiving yards, and 62 receiving touchdowns. Merry Christmas guys! I bet whoever wins the qb competition will enjoy having these new toys to work with.

Pretty much this. If we win - he'll be one of only 3 QB's that's ever one a Bowl for us. Our last one might have been great, but was taken from us too soon. Given all the numbers Derek put up, it'll be rarefied air he'll be walking in.

What is it?

Uhh...This dude is a fool.

Um.....i got the red sox world series dvd....... and negative points in 3....2....1 LOL My bowl tickets are my Mean Green Presents to myself

I haven't received mine in Denton

Wow. Just wow.

Only a low of 40 degrees predicted for the morning of the HOD bowl. Probably 50 by game time? Very sweet.

People read the DMN?

You drifted off into the accent colors. Like it or not, the official university colors are currently green, white, and black. Black has not always been included in the trim. Black used to be listed as a tertiary color, but was promoted at some point. There is definitely more tradition behind the green and white.

Their audience likes absolutely clueless broadcasts that give them false impressions about their opponent?

Merry Christmas ya'll.

End table turned Mean Green Mosaic. (Lights haphazardly added by myself late last night)

It won't matter even if he wins. We'll still have some putz come in here next year comparing other QB high school stats to his 40 time that somehow gives relevance to some twisted logic that we could have done so much better with anyone else at QB. Rick

If your going to change helmets then it needs to be unique. The stylized eagle feathers of Oregon is no longer unique. As mentioned, even high schools are doing that now. With that being said, go with the black SOW or the interlocking NT because they're unique and both look good.

In my book, coaches saying anything detrimental to the opponent players is over the line.

I'm guessing you didn't play much football. If coaches should be fired for yelling slurs then every coach I had in High School and at North Texas should have been fired. Football players and coaches are not politically correct people. Nor should they be. When I arrived at North Texas one of my coaches told us "if you wear your heart on your elbow it's going to be broken a lot here." He proceeded to say nothing said here is personal, it's just football. It was a good life lesson too. You're getting minus ones because it's an uniformed statement. I think most people are just tired of the PC police. (I won't minus you!)

The only thing I want from auburn is that eagle that flies around the stadium

The biggest constraint with helmets is the cost. ($30K+ to outfit the team) I really liked the matte black that Baylor wore vs. Oklahoma (Baylor went insane in 2013 with the amount of cash spent on helmets $200K+) I also love the shinny purple chrome that TCU wears 2-3 times a year. (people here in Fort Worth call them Bass Boat Purple). Cost is a constraint but would really like to see NT have a 2nd option in matte black or shinny Bass Boat Green. See attached photo & think Mean Green. (if Bass Boat Chrome is too shinny for you...look at step down glossy i.e. Oklahoma helmet & think Mean Green) Our current helmet is kind of a flat mint green...we need a little Mojo Green! War Eagle! "THE" University of North Texas 3XL

Those "weak mockups" are pretty badass

He did throw a good TD pass for Tulane this year so maybe you're right

Here we go.....another "Derek Stole My Girlfriend" thread. Rick This post has been promoted to an article

It's amazing to me that this coaching staff still has not been able to recruit a better QB than Derek Thompson. Thompson played to his abilities but with a little more options, this team could be 11-1. With Hit 6 as the goal, the coaching staff is ecstatic with the performance of DT and the team. But now player and coach are disappointed 40,000 Mean Green fans haven't bought tickets to the HOD. You can't recruit to Hit 6 and expect a 11-1 crowd.