oldguystudent

Coach Dodge, I have been openly criticizing you all season. I admit that I don't know what's been going on behind closed doors this season, and I've been posting from the point of view from a fan who only knows as much as he sees on the scoreboard. I don't know what happened tonight, but had we won or lost, I saw a different team on the field. I saw fire and heart. I saw teamwork. If this is what we have to look forward to in the future of UNT football, then every thing I've ever had to say on this board is moot, invalid, and downright wrong. Congrats on your first win this year, and I look forward to watching the Mean Green on the 29th. Oldguystudent

That's what I've been looking for all year. I saw fist pumps. I saw gang tackles. I saw helmets roll. That was some HEART!!!

Holy mother of god!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Green jello shots for everyone if we pull this out!

Is it just me, or does looking at WKU helmets make you want to don a white suit and throw on some Bee Gees?

Good challenge TD!

Send Tobe in there!

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Nearly 3 quarters of football today. Need a miracle stop now.

Bon of a sitch! Has the phobia been conquered? I'm liking what I'm seeing today boys and girls!

Well slap me silly and call me Susie! A double digit lead!

I saw some running plays on third down!

It's listed as Ark/Tulsa if you're looking for it.

While we're on a break, it looks like I'm going to the last game on the 29th. Is it wrong to start tailgating at 9 or 10?

Got it on KNTU. Don't know how far behind it is. Stupid ESPN! In other news, I just got home. Have we made any defensive stops or are we trading TDs? Two turnovers for UNT? Could it be?

Since I can't watch it on E SEC PN, is the game on internet radio anywhere?

Why don't we vote on it?

Good to see that the spread offense breeds NFL success.

Seeing as I'm gonna' be dirt poor for the next 3 or 4 years, I don't think I'll EVER make a trip under this coaching staff!* *purely for economic reasons

Offtopic, but Greenalums, what, pray tell, is a flying worm?

No way that happens twice. I sense a successful D2 or D1AA coach for the next round. Somebody who knows the college game and is driven to make a name for themselves. I think it goes like this. Year 3: 0-6 - Dodge gets fired mid-season and his replacement wins 1 game making our record 1-11 Year 4: 4-8 - The wins come against 2 1AA teams, Western Kentucky and FIU. Everyone complains that we can't beat a "real" 1A team. Year 5: 7-5 - We go to one of those new Sun Belt bowls and play somewhere in Fargo ND. We eke out a win over Elko St U. Fry Street goes nuts. Year 6: 10-2 - After an 8-0 start, including incredible squeakers against two Big XII teams, we are upset mid-season by MTSU and Ark St. We go to and win the New Orleans Bowl. Bourbon street goes nuts. We sing the praises of the new coach, erect a bronze statue in front of the stadium, and get ready for the BCS next year. Year 6 1/2 - Our brilliant coach is offered $2 Million to once again turn around the floundering University of Washington Huskies. UNT counter offers with $17/hr and a 1 week rental (subcompact) from Enterprise. Seattle residents rejoice. 50c cocktail night on Fry Street becomes so crowded with people drowning their sorrows that the fire marshall shuts it down and has condos erected. Year 6 3/4 - UNT goes on a "national search" for a relevant coach. It hangs out a "help wanted" sign offering approximately 20% of the going rate for winning 1A programs. Frisco High School wins its fourth consecutive 4A state championship. The coach drives on over to Denton for a little talk.....

I will absolutely defer to Ole' Green Guts on matters of football knowledge. As a member of the unwashed masses watching from the peanut gallery, this is what I see. 1) Unwillingness to adjust a system (on both sides of the ball) that flat out DOESN'T WORK. Is it the desire to do anything necessary to win a football game that is preventing TD from allowing a single freaking play from under center when it's 3rd and a nano-inch? Is it the desire to figure out any possible way to win that prevents TD from taking a shot at the endzone with 3 chances to go from the other team's 30 at the end of the first half? 2) Defeated players. You can't teach a kid to be bigger, stronger, or faster, but you sure as hell can coach them to believe in themselves and keep trying no matter the challenges they face. 3) I get the sense of an "us vs. them" mentality between players and coaching staff. The players are instigating it and the coaches are not responding well, thus worsening the situation. I'm no football coach, but I do come from a background of corporate sales that involves bringing out the best in people, sometimes to the limit and beyond of their normal capabilities. If you can't motivate your players/staff, if you can't all be playing on the same team striving for the same goals, I don't care if you've got a "system" hand written by the good Lord himself. I've been through this before with Irvine basketball. I've seen what it looks like for a coach to lose control internally while maintaining poise and confidence externally. A change of staff, complete with "bare cupboard" players, went from 1-27 in 1997 under the "brilliant young mind from Boston" to 25-5 in 2000 under the nuts and bolts coach from Bakersfield. Call it what you want to call it. Demand patience. Express faith. I'll be as happy as a clam to be proven wrong. I'll atone for my sins. But past experiences tell me this ain't going anywhere.

Exactly what I was referring to, and you're welcome.

We're 17 point dogs. I do believe that's the most favorable line we've had this year.

Whoa! Hold the phone! We're sitting here at #119 and an 0-who's knows how many record and people are talking BCS busters for expectations? Baby steps kids, baby steps! In the foreseeable future I'd like to see first a win. Second, a record at or above .500. Third, participation in a bowl game. Moving up to conference champion, a better conference, top 20 ranking and BCS buster status is an admirable goal, but I don't see any of that happening in the next decade. There's just simply too much rebuilding to get through. If it were that easy to accomplish, our dear friends down on Mockingbird lane would have gotten there years ago. I don't know how Boise State has done it in such a short time. I don't know how South Florida has risen to national prominence so fast (were they in the Big East before football?) The non-BCS example I can cite that I've witnessed is Fresno State. That place has rabid regional-wide support. As the Bulldogs go, so goes the central valley. 18,000 fans at a game for a o'fer team is impressive, but it's not the support necessary to think that throwing a few million dollars will yield us a nationally competitive team in a couple years. Let's see some tangible improvement. Any improvement at all, and we can reassess the goals from there.

That's the song I'm gonna' have played at my funeral!