TIgreen01

Well, at least that matches our ranking in NCAA Football 06! (weren't we a C+?) Seriously, though....why is this a C+ class? The coaches filled our most obvious need....and brought in 2 all state players in that group....that's more at one position than I can remember us ever having before. If you are basing your opinion on the lack of top 100 list players in this class, then I can understand---though I think you'll never be satisfied b/c we will NEVER get very many of them as those lists are compiled mostly by just looking at who the biggest schools are going after.....well, at least not until we BECOME one of those big schools. Take a look at those lists again....count up how many times you see Baylor, SMU, UTEP, Rice, Tulsa (maybe 4 or 5??)....how many times do you see UT, tamu, OU---over 25 times each....doesn't that seem to signal how the list was generated?? This isn't rocket science, folks.

It seems to me that our 2000 & 2001 recruiting classes were not highly ranked by the recruiting services. Anybody still have the Dave Campbell's mag from 2 years ago?....they rank all the Texas D1 schools classes once they graduate, but they also show the ranking they received back when they were initially recruited....I know that last year's mag had our 2001 class near the bottom in Texas--coming into school, but finished 2nd or 3rd (don't have the mag infront of me)....seems like 2000 was the same. Everyone just forget that Booger wasn't even a highly thought of recuit???....he was on the all-state teams and made the DMN defensive POY, but nobody but us wanted him....that turned out pretty good. I guess I just don't see why this class is freaking everyone out so much. It was obvious (at all but one of our home games) that teams could run right up the middle of our defense. We lost the last 2 home games after being tied or having the lead midway through the 4th quarter only to watch the defense give up LONG drives (primarily on running plays) to lose the game. So, the coaching staff signs 8 dlineman....2 of which make their respective all-state teams. Seems to me they did the OBVIOUS thing....bring in help for the defensive line.

Yes! ...and add, If you've ever dragged your pregnant (Baylor alum) wife out to a full day of tailgating and football (52-14 was a bittersweet day for me!).

Well, I'm not arguing that....what I'm saying is that the NO Bowl is uniquely positioned as the first bowl game of the season. That gives us a better shot at getting casual viewers. Granted, if the game is a bore-fest (like 2 of our 4 were), no one outside of the two schools will remember it.....BUT, you are talking one game in primetime vs. 4 mid-day games for CBS to choose 1 game to broadcast regionally (basically, we'd have a slim chance of CBS choosing our game to broadcast). Now, if we go to the dance 4 years in a row, we WILL get press (at least regionally). Whether or not anyone can actually see the games on tv is what I'm questioning.

I agree with FirefightnRick, getting to the dance is not enough....you have to win a game for it to garner more headlines than any bowl game appearance would. When was the last time that a team from the Sun Belt even won an NCAA tourney game?? The NCAA tournament is my favorite sporting event of the year---by FAR....and I'm a much bigger football fan than basketball. The tourney presents an actual chance for the little guy to step up and beat the big boys---but that doesn't change the fact that I usually know nothing of the little guy (except the Sun Belt rep.) unless they actually win a game and make some noise. Also, usually the 1,2,3vs16,15,14 games are broadcast early in the day on the first Thursday and Friday of the tournament---with the closer matchups reserved for primetime (with the exception of Duke, UNC and some of the top draws---they will occasionally be highlighted in primetime vs. a 15 or 16 seed).....when the Sun Belt rep makes the tourney, we are never better than a 13 seed....which means if we make the tourney this year, we would most likely being be playing in the middle of a workday, smack in the middle of 4 other games going on simultaneously. Compare that coverage to the NO Bowl....which is currently positioned as the FIRST bowl game in the bowl season. More people are going to at least turn the game on b/c they haven't seen football in 2+ weeks. I just don't really understand the argument that simply making the tournament would be better for the university than going to a college bowl game...even with the expanded coverage of the bball tourney as it is today, you'd still have trouble remembering who the 13-16 seeds were after the first round was over---unless one of them pulled an upset.

Couple questions, as this was my first bball game of the season: was this the first team to apply a press to us all year? We executed EXTREMELY poorly in breaking through it...and not having seen JJ in action all that often, he never seemed to get frustrated with the players. Now I've heard he's an extremely laid back guy, but he never even looked disappointed with their execution(I sat directly behind the bench and watched him most of the game--esp. during timeouts). I guess I am just wondering what his strategy was regarding that...to me, the press completely disrupted us, but we NEVER adjusted to it---so it must not have been worrying him too much?? My other main thought on the game was how in the world are we 12-6 at this point....this team appears (or at least for this one game) to only have 1 true scorer on the roster (K. Davis)....what role does Simpson usually play for us? Seemed like USA's strategy was to get him out as fast as possible, and they executed that to perfection...though in his limited minutes he sure didn't look like an offensive threat. Oh, and who was the huge guy who wore warmups the whole game?

Well, the damage has been done to the Sun Belt's reputation. I'd at least like this forwarded to the ESPN crew who worked the game...the highlights of this report are the knocks on them for not knowing the rules.

My "expectations" for next year are somewhat tempered by the fact that we still have not seen that magic DT that can save our defense from getting run over like last season. That said, in 2006, I expect a win over SMU, a competitive game with LaTech, and at least 2nd place in the Belt. I would love to immediately jump back into the top spot in the conference, but I will certainly not expect it after what I saw last year. However, SMU is a can NOT lose game in 2006. They are in the middle of gaining steam, and we all know how the Dallas paper is more inclined to cover them than us. Winning this game will let the Dallas public (& Press) know that SMU might be picking up steam, but they are still not at our level.

Not just beat them...destroy them!

Well, he certainly holds his own with the microphone. Sounds like a very bright and smart kid. Glad to have him aboard.

I remember when there was no mistaking comments like that for sarcasm... Also, just for my own understanding, I always thought that the schools listed in these area recruiting lists or rivals were the schools that the kid was interested in...not necessarily which schools were actively recruiting him. Anyone know for sure?

Well....maybe he's not good enough to play at NT?...or maybe he has family in NE Arkansas? I'll give the coaches the benefit of the doubt on most things recruiting related as I sure as heck don't know the backstory on this kid and I highly doubt anyone on this board does either...

The hat I bought isn't on that site, though I did see most of the others in the store (none that had 'UNT' on the front, fyi). It looks alot like the solid white 'sidewinder' hat without the crazy print on the side of the hat, the eagle is a darker shade of green--and isn't outlined in black.

I think it's interesting that, just one year ago, Matt Simon was considered an idiot by many on the board and would never have made any of these lists ahead of DD. (I am a closet Simon fan, myself---afterall, he was the coach when I started at NT and he coached the biggest OOC win I've yet seen by the Mean Green---97's win over tech in Lubbock and one of the most exciting --97 season finale vs. Utah St.(conf champ))

Oh...I should also point out that this same store had 4 hats side-by-side in the front window. 2 were UT, the other 2 were NT 'Son of Worm' hats. Needless to say, that was just the kind of respect that stopped me in my tracks and awarded them with a purchase---actually 2, my buddy with me bought the exact same hat I did.....asked how the NT hats were selling, the salesman replied, "good".

at Lids or HatWorld (not sure, whichever they have there)....but it is basically a white stretch fit hat with a green 'Son of Worm' on the front with a small 'UNT' and small eagle head on the back. The funny thing is that the same store has the same hat----with 2 different shades of green. One matches the "new" kelly green, and the one I bought has the older forest green that we had on the uniforms this year. This same store has had the kelly green hats for awhile, but the darker green 'Son of Worm' just came in.... so....this brings up the question: what the heck will our colors be this coming year?! I'm so confused but I wore the new kelly green all year and we didn't win a single game I went to---so I'm convinced the new colors are cursed and bought the old one to try to trick the curse into thinking it was 2002 again!

Nope, no joke. Just trying to understand where the jealousy/hatred comes from...you can't have just been born with it! ?? Josh Heupel? Beside the fact that his team won the national championship on the strength of it's defense (13-2 vs. FSU), why don't you try sticking to the players that you brought up in your original post?! So....care to try again?

I was happy for my friends/family who are alums/fans of UT. I was happy for the same reason when OU won it 5 years ago...have the OU fans in general grown tiresome since then (ok, up until last year), yeah probably...but that doesn't change the fact that I'm glad they got to experience that. Do I personally want to hold a parade for UT??---NO way! I'm greenblood all the way and wouldn't consider myself a part of that. I just think ranting about how much UT (or Vince Young) sucks, right after they win a national championship, reeks of inferiority complex. So you might run into a few bandwagon fans who talk too much trash....ok, darn, that's tough. But I'm sure many of us have friends/family associated with UT...why should we hate them for it?? That said, when August/Sept (whenever our game with UT is) comes around, I will hate them like dogs when we line up against them.

Did you grow up loving UT, only to be rejected when you applied for school there? Your post comes off sounding like a jealous rant... and since you're obviously steamed already... 'Vince Young is no Michael Vick'?! I'd say 'Michael Vick is no Vince Young' would be a more accurate statement. Vick had his chance on the same stage (BCS National Championship game) against FSU...he didn't have the game VY did. Refute that.

Ok...didn't mean to jump on Baylor so hard (my wife and sister are alums so I'm pretty familiar--er, get the "sic'em bears" call beat into my head---and I'm sure you know, that grows tiresome ) I am surprised to hear 37k for Samford....I guess the only thing I could come back with would be to question when that game was in the season.....of course you know, home openers tend to draw much larger crowds. Hypothetically, if BU were to setup a game like that in late Oct./early Nov....and if they had a losing record going into a game like that, what kind of attendance do you honestly think they'd draw? That's really where playing Sun Belt/Big West/WAC schools hurts the attendance--late in the season.

Mostly good post, but you defeat your entire argument for #2 with your explanation for #3. Selling recruits and selling fans aren't going to be too far off. Also, in your argument for #2 you completely ignore the fact that BU was a member of the SWC throughout its glory days....which is where you built up a fan base large enough to put 30k in the stands during the last 10 years....not to mention that (according to your logic) it's easier to sell the Big 12. Putting up stats for the 1 or 2 home games you had against teams not in the Big 12 is also mostly a bogus number. How many season ticket holders does BU have? Think those people really buy season tix so that they can see tamu, ut, tech and ou and just get stuck with the other game b/c it's in the package?? Yep, I think they do.

Where have you been the last 5 years?? Was it not obvious that we've improved our attendance greatly in that timespan?? Maybe we don't sell out every single game, but the average attendance of butts in seats is WAY up. If you throw out the Texas Stadium games or the occassional BU @ Fouts game, those seasons had crowds near 10k for half the games....this year we were up around 15 or better every game but the Thanksgiving game (where all the students were at home). That's a 30% increase for a 2-9 team. Now, if we lose like that again next year, attendance will drop out...but you can't just magically jump into the Big 12 and claim that will save attendance....we're doing it the right way.

I'll add my vote for defense. I miss the days of craig jones and jonas buckles belting anything that moved....oh, and lets not forget Kassel-that guy seemed like he dove/lunged into every tackle--he wanted to punish people for coming his way....esp. if it was a run up the middle.

No lie....when I posted earlier all I had seen were screwups with the replay system (mostly just flat out not replaying a close call).....but those guys were awful...esp. in the last 2 minutes of the game. Saddest part is that this is nothing we haven't seen MANY times over the years from Sun Belt refs....

seems like we've seen this crappy crew at Fouts a few times over the years. Either way, the comments by the communist ESPN commentators just come across as arrogant...esp. the ones about the speed of the game. I seem to remember most officiating crews around the country having trouble with the new replay system this year...and this would be the first game for a Sun Belt crew with replay to contend with....