gangrene

Craig Miller is an "in the closet" homosexual.

Plumm - I agree with what I believe is the main point of your thread (which is ultimately to increase attendance, right?). I've had a problem with the way UNT Athletics (football in particular) is promoted for quite sometime. While some may disagree, I truly believe that we need to tap into both the Dallas and Ft. Worth metropolises. Is Denton a long drive for residents of Dallas and Ft. Worth? Sure it is, but where do people go in the "triangle" that ISN'T a long drive?? All we have to do is give people better reasons to invest their time and make the drive; i.e. enticements. And, once they make their way to UNT, we need to show them a good time so they'll come back. In my opinion, one of the best football campaigns ever was Mustang Mania from SMU back in the late 70's and early 80's. I remember seeing SMU crap everywhere. I think they mainly targeted families with discounted and/or free tickets and gave kids free merchandise (jerseys, raincoats, posters, etc.) for attending games. In addition, they bought billboards to display the football schedule around town and distributed free bumper stickers at retailers throughout Dallas. I'm pretty sure they didn't sell out many games, but then again they were playing in the Cotton Bowl and Texas Stadium at the time...they probably averaged over 30K+ every game. Even the great U of Texas has had to entice fans to attend football games, and as recently as five years ago. UT used to hold about 5 to 10K tickets until gameday and then sell them for $5 apiece. The recent success, culminating with the national championship, means they have had no problem selling every ticket for face value. Bottomline is we need to do something...anything...to reach the Dallas market if we want to sell out Fouts Field on a regular basis. It could be as simple as making game tickets available at the local grocery store and publishing that in said grocery store's weekly flyer (as the Frisco Roughriders baseball team does). Or, it could be as elaborate as the Mustang Mania campaign was....I'm picturing green billboards and seeing kids wearing UNT stuff everywhere. We could it something like Green Extreme, Green Supreme or Green Galore...you get the idea...and show everyone that the grass really is greener on the campus of UNT! Of course this would cost money, but the return on investment could surely prove profitable. We already have great ticket and concession prices but we need to make more people aware of that fact. Yet we have several thousand alumni in the North Texas area who probably haven't attended a football game since they graduated. We need to encourage them to come back to Denton for just a few Saturdays a year and bring friends and family.

Rick, is that you pictured on the goalpost in your underwear?? You're a brave man posting that picture with Quoner lurking around the forum!

Thanks for links, but I don't know how much I trust that site. For 2008, it only has K-State listed under North Texas, but that big game we'ver been hearing rumors about against Miami is missing. Click the Miami link, and it says we're playing them in 2008. I'm just a little frustrated that our athletic department doesn't communicate OFFICIAL scheduling info before the entire season is finalized. This is interesting...while checking the Navy schedule for a UNT game in Annapolis (none appeared), I noticed a scheduled game against Notre Dame: 2012 10-6 @ Air Force TBA @ East Carolina TBA Notre Dame @Dublin, Ireland TBA vs. Army

It just irritates me to no end when I continuously see other schools announcing their schedules to play UNT. Why can't we make these announcements and why can't we post our (unfinished) schedules? Ok, rant concluded. On another note, any guesses at how long it will be before we see Utah State appear on our schedule??

I'm happy with our 2007 recruiting class, but I also hope that we've already had numerous conversations with HS Juniors. The good ones are starting to verbally commit by the droves! Texas received 9 commitments this past weekend. A few teammates of our 2007 commits (2 from Brenham, 1 from Austin Westlake) have already given verbals. http://texasfootball.com/index.php?s=&...hange_well_id=2 While I'd love to see a few early commits to UNT, I can't say I expect it because (if I was a current HS Junior) I'd have a lot of questions about UNT football that won't be answered until this fall. Now, provided we witness a high-powered, high scoring and entertaining offense enroute to a successful 2007 season, I think we could expect some early commits this time next year.

I hope everyone can get as excited about our HOME game vs. Navy as they seem to be about the thought of traveling to Annapolis!!

I absolutely love that quote...that's what I want to hear. No more of the QB by committee. Oh, and btw...nice coverage...thanks for posting.

Ah, but loosing them sounds so much more difficult. Anybody can lose a star, but it's a real accomplishment to loose one.

Loosing stars sucks.

Sorry if someone already posted this but I tivoed last night's show and just watched it tonight. What piss-poor coverage by FSW. It was really, really bad coverage of UNT. Not only were we not mentioned until after ALL the other Texas D-1 schools (which I can understand and don't really have a problem with) but we were even covered after LSU. Ok, ok...LSU, FOX SW...yeah, yeah maybe LSU can be considered a SW school?? Really?? But here's my biggest complaint - after watching UT, TAMU, TTECH, Baylor, LSU, TCU, SMU, Houston and even Rice coverage, complete with school logos and size/weight info for each recruit, they finally get to North Texas. No where is there a UNT logo, eagle mascot or even green-colored font. To top it off, they only listed 9 commits and none of them had size/weight info. Like I said....PISS-POOR coverage. FOX SW sucks!!!

I just got home and started reading DMN's Sports Day coverage of National Signing Day. First thing I notice is that we're grouped on the same page as SMU and TCU's list coverage ("Area Schools"). That page is divided vertically in thirds with each school getting equal space. However, at the bottom of the page is about six inches, just enough for one horizontal story and guess which school got the space. Yep, that's right...UNT. Aside from the great positioning, we got a nice, big headline "Dodge, UNT make most of time with area recruits," a big picture of Coach Dodge and the same story that was published online. So, way to go Brett Vito!! I can't find any article on TCU recruiting and SMU is on the following page under the 2008 Area, State and National Top 50 lists. Speaking of 2008, both Riley and Tre' are listed in the Area and State Top 50, but neither list UNT as a school they are considering: Riley Dodge, 5'11", 168 - Missouri, OU, Rice, SMU, A&M Tre' Newton, 6'0", 194 - Iowa St, Kansas, Nebraska, OU, Miss, TCU, UT, A&M, TX Tech It was bad enough that SMU got Abner Hayes' grandson, what a major coupe that would be if they stole Riley!! Staying true to the past, not a single player on any of three lists has UNT as a school he is considering. But, we've got a whole year to help them change their mind!!!

Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't mind setting the precedence and I think Todd Dodge will make other schools doubt their decsion not to court him. I'm just astonished that no other school has taken this risk...as good as Texas high school football is and as many lower tiered college football programs as there are in Texas. I'd have thought an ETSU, now TAMU-Commerce, Abilene Christian or Austin College caliber school would taken that chance. I have a better comprehension of the additional pressure TD is facing to succeed for Texas HS HCs everywhere.

Good point, but I don't think the article differentiates between 1-A and 1-AA. That's just amazing to think that no other college (which was the term/classification the article used) has EVER hired a HS coach as HC.

Is that right? Didn't Dennis Parker come straight from Marshall High School? So, if that fact is correct, UNT is the only university in history to ever hire a HS football coach as HC?

That doesn't sound as good as I'm sure it must have sounded in your mind. In fact, it conjures up some pretty disgusting images. Maybe I've just been reading too many of Quoner's posts??

So which recruit would you trade for Insall?

Well, it's never good to burn any bridges, but this is one school out of hundreds in Texas. And, just because this one coach (in his first year after being an assistant at the U of Houston) may advise his players not to go to UNT because of what happened to Taylor Insall, doesn't mean his players are going to listen to him. Do you think if he was pissed at Texas and advised his players not to go to UT that they'd actually refuse a UT scholarship just because he said so? Gary Joe Kinne couldn't even convince his own son to play at Baylor when UT came knocking. Now we're obviously not UT, but if Dodge can bring the kind of excitement we all hope he can, then players are going to want to play at UNT regardless of what happened with one bordeline D-1A player in TD's first and abreviated recruiting season. I feel bad for Insall, but he's as much to blame for this as anybody. Did he not watch the great movie, Rudy?? Rudy had to go remind the new coach of the previous coach's commitment. It sucks that Insall had his heart set on UNT and now has to play elsewhere, but how many similar stories are there for this recruiting season alone? With all the late coaching changes, players were decomitting left and right. Let's all (Abilene included) just chalk this up as lesson learned and move on.

Wow, what a cushy job that is...I mean how much coaching does LT really need???

I checked it earlier and we were 99, again that was without Vizza. It looks like they are working fast and furiously to get it all updated.

A family affair Posted: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 Fossil Ridge senior Ben Leung, who accepted an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy on Wednesday morning, had plenty of family support. In addition to his parents, his sister Alina also was in attendance. Alina Leung is a 2005 graduate of Fossil Ridge, and now a student at Oklahoma City University. Alina joked about how her "little" brother better appreciate her presence. "I woke up at 6:45 a.m. for this," she said. "It's a big day, to know that after graduation he's set, and it's free." — Heidi Pederson

Wasson will run the same system as Dodge. That was a big reason why he was chosen. SLC kids are taught that system in grade school and, by the time they make it to high school, have every nuance of the system memorized. That being said, I seriously doubt recruiters will question the player vs. the system for these two recruits. Which schools recruit them will be more dependent on size (at least in Riley's case) than anything else.

DC's Texas Football lists the same, but I think no LOI indicates that TD didn't honor DD's offer.

Maybe he's trying to talk him into signing an MLB contract before he commits?