untgirl04

I got what you were trying to say. But my point was that although Landry was not an emotional person on or off the field, he would still tell it like it is. If his team played like crap, he'd say it. He might spin it a bit and say there were things to work on, but as VideoEagle pointed out, Landry would dissect your every flaw. DD keeps finding "improvement" in our offense and makes excuses that we're too young or that the teams we're playing against are just too talented. But the biggest difference between DD and Landry is discipline. 15 penalties for 147 yards is way too many penalties for a D-1A team. We average something like 2 unsportsmanlike calls per game. True, Landry didn't scream or shout, but he still controlled his team. My point is that although DD doesn't scream and shout, he's not getting results either. So maybe it's time for him to scream a little.

I'm not trying to play gloom and doom. I mentioned in my post that I was reaching a bit. I'm just pointing out that as everyone has noticed, JMo's playing time this year is.... lacking. We thought at first it might be JMo's hamstring, but both DD and JMo say his hamstring is just fine and he's healthy. It's not unheard of for a player to drop his performance when he's not happy with the coach. I'm not saying that's what JMo is doing, nor am I saying that JMo is definitely unhappy. But I think it's something you do have to wonder. I don't think it's that JMo begrudges PC for his playtime or anything like that, I just think JMo can't get into a rhythm. I realize he'll have the field to himself next year, and he might stick it out. But if we do get DeMario next year and we burn his RS, could this be same song, second verse? P.S. The sky is not falling and I am not trying to preach gloom and doom. Just trying to get some discussion going.

I disagree. Listen to him in post-game interviews and he'd tell you what was wrong with the team. He pointed out the good and the bad, and didn't tolerate stupid mistakes. With DD it's "I'm not worried about the penalties because we won."

I think the Michigan St. coach was right to be angry. His coaches made an absolutely idiotic HS coaching mistake and it probably cost the game for them. The coaches are paid to know what they're doing. But what I like most about the anger is that it wasn't because the coaches made a stupid play (which they did) but because (quote) "Our guys are working their butts off out there and we're making stupid decisions. They (team) deserve better than that." I like that intensity and wish I could see that in every single coach. I'm not expecting DD to go running down the sidelines screaming obsenities at the refs (although I think it's sometimes justified) and throwing Gatorade at players. I'd just like to see him care enough about the program to get passionate about it. I think that's my biggest problem with DD - he doesn't seem passionate. Even Charley Weis, who is quite calm on the sidelines, will comment or at least clap when things are going well or badly.

Charles Haley. NFL coaching experience, a wicked player in his day.... imagine the recruiting power....

I wonder if JMo isn't happy here. This is purely speculation, but I doubt this is what he signed on to, and I doubt DD really mentioned to JMo that he's loyal to the seniors. That's not exactly a coaching strategy you use to recruit a major freshman playmaker. I don't think it's that JMo and PC get along or anything like that, but JMo is the kind of back who needs rhythm. Maybe like the rest of us, both JMo and PC were expecting to both be in the backfield at the same time. Yes, I know on occasions they've both been there, but every time it's a handoff to PC. If you're going to put them both back there, you have to try different things. If everytime you see them in the backfield together they run the sam stupid play, teams are going to figure it out. And it's not like Meager doesn't telegraph the plays anyway. My point is this: I hate to see JMo go, but I wouldn't be all that surprised if he's not with us next season.

* Throws hands up in disgust*

Now that's a cool site.

Not exactly sure about the MBA, but my grad school tuition at North Texas runs around $2500 per semester for only 6 hours. Granted, the writing lab fees I pay hike up the cost, but I think that's about right. I think $70K is a bit high.

I think it's interesting how we're going on the road to SMU next week. I wonder if anyone's told the team yet.

Well, they announced that he and some others were at the game, and that got a round of applause. They also had Hayden Fry in the pressbox for much of the third quarter talking to the commentators. Other than that, nothing that I know of. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of ceremony on that. I thought for sure they'd have them out on the field for halftime.

I also think it would prudent for us to hire Patrick Cobbs (if he doesn't make it to the NFL). I hope Patrick goes to the NFL because he deserves the success, but if he doesn't, I'd love to see him teach other RBs. He's smart and he's a real student of the game. Pair him up with Major Applewhite and you've got a real interesting combination. Let Major be the HC and let Patrick be the OC. Between the two of them they could come up with some dynamite offensive schemes. Now if we could just talk Brad Kassell into retiring so that he can coach our defense....

Yup. Saw the original squirrel right before my finals first semester my freshman year. I made straight A's that semester. Every semester after that, around finals, I would look for the squirrel but I never saw him again. But I did see the new squirrel on Monday walking between the Union/ESSC and COBA. I'm hoping the luck still works for masters classes.

I don't know which is worse - that they called us the North Texas Eagles (I know that's technically what we are but we try to use Mean Green in there) or that we played the Pittsburgh State Gorillas. Definitely Gorillas, definately definately Gorillas.

Basketball games are an absolute blast. A powerful women's team can also help bring in alumni, but even though we had a good one a few years ago, we're not seeing the boost in attendance. NT80 makes a good point that there are more games in basketball - especially on weeknights. A few years ago, the athletics department got with RHA and did a few student housing nights. They created a theme and got everyone to attend the games in their theme. The turnout was actually really good. Maybe we need to do more things like that, but publicize them and make them competitions for every group on campus. We need to have some sort of "mixing" even like we do at tailgating, but I don't really think it works to tailgate before basketball games. For one, the weather is much colder, and for two when you have more weekday games there's no time. I think groups such as the Pit Crew are an excellent idea for getting people in the seats. Maybe hold contests to see which groups are loudest, or give away t-shirts or autographed basketballs to crazy fans.... just a few ideas.

I'm glad to hear that DD stood on the sidelines and showed respect during the alma mater. That does matter. But why didn't the team show the same respect? The answer is one of two reasons: 1. DD doesn't make the team stay for the alma mater. In my opinion, this is not acceptable. If this is the case, DD should be instilling pride in the players for their university and for all it has done for them. 2. DD told the players to stay and they dont' respect him enough to listen. This option worries me most. IF this is the case, we have a serious problem on our hands and it's not something easy to fix. If the players don't respect DD then they're not going to perform on the field. Regardless of which reason the players didn't stand for the alma mater, it's a problem and something needs to change. Maybe DD is trying to change things now by trying to be a role model for them on the sidelines after the game. But maybe DD just doesn't care. I don't know the answer, and I'm not going to judge which is the problem. All I know is that the players need to be out there during the alma mater - regardless of the game's score.

The team also left the field before the alma mater during the Tulsa game. This really made me mad, but I've noticed this at every home loss, so I figured everybody accepted it. Also, some players do tend to leave the field before the alma mater even when we win. I agree that it's a classless thing to do and that it shows no respect for your university. But when your leaders don't respect the school....

Shame on you! The fun's just beginning. Anyway, I'm rooting for the Windy City boys. The White Sox look very strong (or lucky) going into the ALCS and I think they're going to have their way with the Angels. Glad to see the Angels pull out the win over NY though. Anything to defeat the evil empire...

You're absolutely right that we should gauge this team on more than wins alone. And the number of fans has been increasing. But you have to wonder whether that is directly attributable to DD or to RV. How many of the fans attend the game for the gameday experience, not the game? If the game is exciting, you'll get the pure football fans out to watch. But if it's not exciting, you'll see tons of people in the parkinglots before the games and quite a few less in the stands. I think the Nov. 5 game will be a good indicator of which it is. If we do discover that fewer and fewer fans are going into the stadium, then we have to have the wins to get them back in. I guess my point is that wins and people in the stadium are linked. While neither of them in of themselves should be used to gauge a team's success when trying to build a "brand," the two of them together are a powerful indicator.

Definitely. Nothing more beautiful than watching TO sulk on the sidelines. The Cowboys offense was stellar. I wish North Texas could do that... The most disappointing game for me was the Red River Rivalry game. It wasn't much of a game.

I think this goes back to what's been said a few times on other threads... DD doesn't let Meager run or audible. I know as a freshman, Meager shouldn't necessarily be allowed to audible, since he's still learning the system. But I do think the coaches should be working on it and should allow him to audible at least his junior and senior years, and if he takes to it, the end of his sophomore year. Also, Meager is very mobile. His scamper for the TD late in the game against Troy illustrates that. But others have posted that Meager got chewed out for running on that play. Why? We don't really know what kind of talent Meager has because he's being shackled by so many "don'ts." I'm not saying Meager is the best QB we've ever had, nor am I saying he's the worst. What I'm saying is that the coaches aren't really letting him play the game naturally - he's having to think too much. It's kind of like caging a wild cat - the cat doesn't know what to do with itself because all of a sudden it's boxed in. So it sits around and gets fat and lazy.... that or drives itself crazy. Whether or not the coaches are doing the right thing by "caging" Meager right now, only time will tell...

That's a good question, but I think it has a pretty simple answer: The offense controls the speed of the game, i.e., the offense decides whether to run, pass, run a hurry-up, that sort of thing. I think that's the key to offensive control. They're able to stay on the field longer because they know what they're doing, and if they're getting tired, they can control the speed of the plays. When you're on defense, you can't really do that. You've got to come hard every play and work to read what the offense is doing. But I think your point was that our defense is giving up lots of yards and not stopping drives that they should be stopping. And I don't necessarily disagree with you there. However, I think the key thing is that we DO have a very young defense that many of us were very worried about before the beginning of this season. I guess when your expectations are lower, you're able to be more pleasantly surprised. I think everyone came into the season expecting the same offensive production from last season, and that's why we're disappointed. But I digress... the topic of this discussion is the defense.

Tom Landry was certainly not the boisterous coach on the sidelines, but you knew he was watching the game. Also, how many stories have you heard about Landry's discipline off the field? There are tons of them. Although Landry didn't choose to act demonstratively on the field, he controlled the team and you didn't see many unsportsmanlike conduct penalties or bonehead mistakes. With DD, you see both.

One thing I've been noticing for about two years now.... Our cornerbacks stay about 10 yards off the receivers. Why is that? It seems that we're so intent on stopping the deep pass that we give up the short pass for 1st downs and big runs. Can anyone explain the logic behind this?

ROFL I'm sure it's just some students' idea of a prank. Oh well, if you haven't taken a shower yet, enjoy!