MeanGreen61

A good night for UNT's SBC opponents in recruiting It has been pretty slow on the UNT recruiting front the last few days. The Mean Green loaded up early and has just one spot left unless it signs more than 25 players. While UNT has been looking for that one last gem, the rest of the Sun Belt schools have been filling out their classes. MTSU and Troy both picked up nationally ranked players who will likely be their top recruits on Sunday. MTSU landed Miami quarterback Sancho McDonald, a player Rivals.com ranks No. 15 on its list of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the country and No. 87 on its list of the top players in Florida. McDonald is a three-star recruit who vaulted MTSU up the national recruiting rankings in a hurry. My friend Drew over at the Dothan Eagle picked up a scoop on Troy landing the best player of its class thus far on Sunday night when he reported on his blog that Mobile, Ala., inside linebacker Jacoby Thomas is going to play for the Trojans. Drew had a quote from Thomas, who is rated No. 25 on Rivals' list of the top inside linebackers in the country and No. 35 on its list of the best players in Alabama. Troy is right on UNT's tail in the recruiting rankings and could end up jumping the Mean Green after landing Thomas. I predicted a while back that Troy would end up winning the Sun Belt recruiting war for the year based on the way the rankings looked at that point. Troy was more than 50 points up on everyone at the time. Of course that all changed the next day when the Trojans suddenly lost all 50 of those points and settled in behind UNT, which got a boost when Celina lineman Troy Franklin was upgraded to a three-star recruit. I have no idea why Troy dropped 50 points even though it had the same batch of players. I am done predicting how this will turn out -- I still might end up being right about Troy winning this race -- but it looks it will be tight to the end. Right now, MTSU is way out in front, thanks to the bonus points it picked up for landing a nationally ranked player in McDonald. UNT is second and Troy third. One thing is certain. This has been a lot of fun to follow. Stay tuned to see what happens down the stretch.

Off the Belt board. Dothan Eagle article Phil Paramore: South Alabama football in good shape Saturday, Feb 02, 2008 - 06:00 AM The University of South Alabama will soon have a football coach to go with its first-ever football team. A word of warning: Don’t be so quick dismiss the Jaguars. The president of the board of trustees at South Alabama is Dothan’s Steve Stokes, a physician here who has served on our own city school board. He and his wife made one of the largest contributions in school history to USA last year, and he is firmly in touch with the goings-on in Mobile. According to Stokes, athletics director Joe Gottfried may name a coach for the start-up program as soon as next week. “I think he wants to wait until after signing day (Feb. 6), and then release it,” said Stokes. “I understand we’re down to two candidates.“ One of them is Alabama defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. Stokes confirmed the school hosted Steele and his wife this past Thursday. The other serious candidate believed to be in the running is South Florida assistant Dan McCarney, who is the former head coach at Iowa State. This week, Auburn’s Eddie Gran said the selection committee had informed him he wasn’t under consideration, and then on Thursday, Mississippi State assistant Woody McCorvey and Clemson staffer Dabo Swinney — both ex-Tide assistants — withdrew their names from the search process. Once a coach is named, Stokes said a plan will be set in motion. “Next year we’ll sign 30 players and ‘greyshirt’ all of them,” he said. “We’ll do the same thing the next year. In 2009, we’ll play for the first time, as a club-level team. The next two seasons, we’ll compete in Division I-AA. Then in year four, we’ll play as a member of Division I and compete in the Sun Belt Conference.“ However, residence in the Sun Belt may be relatively short-lived. Conference USA, which has a far more recognizable membership, has already made overtures to South Alabama. “They’d like to establish a relationship because of their tie-in with the GMAC Bowl,” he said. “They are very interested in South Alabama joining their league.“ Stokes said the city and county of Mobile have pledged “significant” financial support. The city will allow South Alabama to use 40,000-seat Ladd-Peebles Stadium free of charge for the first five years of the program’s existence, and nine luxury boxes will be constructed to help raise additional money. At first glance, the USA program wouldn’t be much of a threat to the Alabamas and Auburns of the world, maybe even the Troys. But think about how fertile the Mobile recruiting area is — Nick Saban currently has seven public commitments from the port city and is still awaiting top prospect Julio Jones’ decision — and it’s easy to see how another option for prepsters could be a key. Some kids’ parents simply can’t afford to travel to SEC venues each week — even home games in Tuscaloosa or Auburn — and many of those prospects simply won’t want to leave home. “We’ll center on Gulfport-Biloxi all the way over to Tallahassee and everything between,” said Stokes. Traditionally, there’s enough prospects along that I-10 corridor to stock more than one major-college roster. Soon there will be another one in the mix, and it promises to be anything but a moot point. Phil Paramore’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in The Dothan Eagle. He can be heard weekday mornings from 7 until 9 on AM 560 WOOF. He can be reached at www.woofradio.com.

Western Kentucky eliminating Men Soccer program. http://www.wkusports.com/news.cgi?article=6010&sports=8

What will the effect be on FAU athletics ? FAU ponders cuts: 'Everything is on the table' By KIMBERLY MILLER Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Thursday, January 31, 2008 BOCA RATON — A possible $7'million cut to Florida Atlantic University's budget this spring could change the direction of the 43-year-old school as administrators weed out programs and positions they can no longer afford. The prediction was made Wednesday by Board of Trustees Chairman Norman Tripp during a budget presentation where school officials said the $7 million cut would come on top of a more than $6 million reduction made in the fall. The situation is so dire, said FAU President Frank Brogan, that "everything is on the table," including FAU's six smaller campuses that stretch from the Treasure Coast to Davie. "We cannot deal with this crisis anymore by cutting travel and this and that," said Tripp, referring to a freeze enacted this month on travel, hiring and buying equipment. "Many times you stay with things that you shouldn't long term simply because the money is there. This will be an opportunity for us, albeit a hard one, to look at things deep down and decide long term what we should be doing." Recommendations for reductions will be addressed during a trustee committee meeting in February. Brogan said it is too early to guess what they will be. "We are preparing for the worst," FAU Vice President for Finance Ken Jessell said. The Board of Governors, which oversees Florida's 11 public universities, estimates an overall loss to schools of $92.3 million this spring. The statewide budget shortfalls are being blamed mostly on the housing slump, Jessell said. State universities could see some extra money beginning in the fall with the approval last week by the Board of Governors of an 8 percent resident undergraduate tuition increase. Full-time students would pay about $186 more a year under the hike. It would generate $32 million for universities statewide. Who controls resident undergraduate tuition, however, is still in dispute. The voter-created Board of Governors claims it has the power, but so does the legislature. The matter is the subject of a lawsuit filed by former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who helped create the Board of Governors through constitutional amendment. "It has a long way to go before it is ultimately a reality," Brogan said of the 8 percent tuition increase. "But we also know with budgets the way they are and the declining state revenues coming to universities, we have two options: Continue to cut our budgets or find new sources of revenue." The possible budget cuts come at a time when FAU has gained national attention, first with a win at the New Orleans Bowl in December and then with last Thursday's Republican primary debate. The debate publicity value translated to $899,159 for FAU as millions of people heard about the school during TV broadcasts. The dollar figure comes from a calculation that considers media market size and viewership, school officials said. MSNBC broadcast the debate live from FAU's Boca Raton campus. And about 10 million people watched NBC's Brian Williams do his Nightly News show from FAU's Carole and Barry Kaye Auditorium. "I think the idea of 'FAU Who?' doesn't exist anymore," said FAU trustee member and alumnus Armand Grossman. Brogan said $265,000 was donated by private sources to pay for the debate. Final costs have yet to be calculated.

Wish him well.

DRC article - Not much added info UNT rehires DeLoach as defensive coordinator 08:50 AM CST on Thursday, January 31, 2008 By Brett Vito / Staff Writer Gary DeLoach will be paid a base salary of $105,000 in his the first season of his second stint as North Texas’ defensive coordinator under the terms of a contract he signed Tuesday. DeLoach’s salary will be 12.9 percent higher than what Ron Mendoza earned in his only season in the same capacity. Mendoza was fired in the offseason. DeLoach, who will also receive a $400 monthly car allowance, was a UNT assistant coach from 1998-2002 before leaving the staff to become an assistant at UCLA, where he spent the last five seasons. The Houston native directed some of the best top defenses in recently UNT history. The Mean Green led the Sun Belt Conference in both scoring and total defense in each of his last two seasons at UNT. The Mean Green ranked third nationally in scoring defense with an average of 14.8 points a game and also ranked ninth in total defense with an average of 288.6 yards allowed a game in the 2002 season. “I talked to some of the coaches whose teams played against him and they had great things to say about him and his defenses,” Dodge said after hiring DeLoach last week. “Once I set my sights on him, I also asked some coaches who I respect who I should hire without telling them that I was looking at hiring Gary. They said they would hire Gary DeLoach.” DeLoach coached UCLA’s safeties and special teams units last season. Karl Dorrell and his staff were fired after UCLA finished the regular season 6-6. The Bruins went on to fall to BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl. DeLoach has spent the majority of his career in Texas, making stops at Texas A&M, Stephen F. Austin and Trinity Valley in addition to UNT. BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .

January 30, 2008 DeLoach will be a $100,000 man for UNT I obtained a copy of the contract new UNT defensive coordinator Gary DeLoach signed earlier this week. The full details will be in tomorrow's paper, but here is a quick rundown. DeLoach will make $105,000 this year and will also receive a car allowance. The former UCLA defensive backs coach spent the 1998-2002 seasons as a UNT assistant coach, including the final three as the Mean Green's defensive coordinator. DeLoach's salary is 12.9 percent higher than what former UNT defensive coordinator Ron Mendoza made in his only season with the Mean Green. DeLoach is a highly respected coach who has spent the majority of his career in Texas. UNT is hoping he can turn around the Mean Green's defense that finished last nationally with an average of 45.1 points allowed a game last season. DeLoach's defenses at the end of his first stay with the Mean Green were among the best in recent school history. UNT's 2002 unit ranked in the top 10 nationally in both scoring defense and total defense. For more on DeLoach, see tomorrow's edition of the Denton Record-Chronicle.

January 30, 2008 UNT mailbag It's been a while since we dug into the mailbox for a blog item, but I received a good question today on football recruiting, so here goes. A UNT fan asked about the status of Blake Gumm, a defensive tackle from Trinity Valley Community College. Gumm visited UNT and Arizona in early December and has about a half a dozen scholarship offers. I have not checked in with the coaches at Trinity Valley to see what Gumm's status is, but the fact that he visited schools almost two months ago and has yet to make a decision makes me wonder if he will end up signing with a school on national signing day. Gumm would be a great get for UNT. Rivals.com ranks him No. 80 among junior college players. A second question was in reference to Celina lineman Troy Franklin and where he will end up playing for UNT. When he committed to UNT, Franklin told me that all the colleges that were recruiting him were interested in him as an offensive lineman. UNT has another good tackle recruit in Coleman Feeley, but with Robert Peachey leaving the team, I don't see UNT's coaches changing their minds and moving Franklin to defense. UNT doesn't have a lot of depth on its offensive line and needs Franklin at tackle. That last part of UNTRugby77's message also talked about how much better UNT's defense would be next season under Gary DeLoach. I know a lot of people are excited about DeLoach, and those expectations for improvement are justified. One factor to keep in mind, though, is there is some doubt about what DeLoach will have to work with next season in terms of personnel. There is a long way to go until UNT's roster is finalized for next season. On the hoops front, Johnny Jones made an interesting comment in his weekly press conference. Jones expressed some doubt that center Keith Wooden would get back to 100 percent the rest of his senior season because of the banging that goes on under the basket every day in practice and in games. Wooden has a pair of bad ankles. UNT has lost three straight and really needs Wooden to be at his best. One Sun Belt Conference coach told me that one of the key factors that put UNT over the top last season was no one in the league could match up with Wooden and Quincy Williams. UNT won't be nearly as dangerous if Wooden can't regain his form.

Not a lot of interest for a 6'6 receiver who runs a 4.5 40. No other offers with looks from James Madison & Bowling Green. http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/viewp...mp;pr_key=77089

Troy leads with 25 committments, but NT is currently on top of Belt recruiting. #72 North Texas #73 Troy #94 UL Monroe #95 Florida International T#96 Middle Tennessee #100 Ul Lafayette T#104 Arkansas State #113 Florida Atlantic Sun Belt http://middletennessee.rivals.com/teamrank...2008&conf=0

We didn't "beg" our way out of the Miami game, it's a buyout. If a suitable replacement is not found, we pay $150,000. LSU offered us substancially more money. Just like Air Force bought out their game with us at Fouts for a bundle to play at, I beleive, Minnesota. Economics 101.

Some of 'um weren't on Hawaii's radar. Me thinks he's flipping thru the yellow pages.

Interest comments about the conference forcing changes to accommodate WKU. This announcement likely won’t come until March 1. The Sun Belt teams put their schedules out there and ESPN decides if they want to pick up any of the games. As of right now, Troy is supposed to open the year at Middle Tennessee, but last year the Sun Belt changed Troy’s schedule five times before it was finalized. As I said, that’s not final, but looking more and more like it will happen. The game would more than likely be played the third weekend of the season (Sept. 13). That’s when Ball State was supposed to come, but the Sun Belt forced Troy to accomodate Western Kentucky on its schedule in 2007 and 2008. Thus, Troy went to WKU last year and WKU went to Ball State. In 2008, WKU goes to Troy and Ball State goes to WKU (instead of Troy). Troy still needed a fifth home game. ARTICLE http://www.gulfeast.com/index.php/troy_blo..._the_12th_game/

Hmmm. A return to Fouts West where we are 3-2 vs the Raiders ?

Mentioned on the podcast that we may not open at LSU . What's happenin' ?

Oops, senior moment now corrected.

Just for kicks. Current rankings for Texas schools. (1)#10 Texas (2)#15 Texas A&M (3)#41 Texas Tech (4)#54 Baylor (5)#76 North Texas (6) T#79 Houston (7) T#84 TCU (8)#87 UTEP (9)#102 Rice (10)#118 SMU AVERAGE STAR RANKING (1) 3.55 Texas (2) 3.32 Texas A&M (3) 3.07 Texas Tech (4) 2.60 Baylor (5) 2.50 TCU (6) 2.29 North Texas (7) 2.21 Houston T(8) 2.00 UTEP T(8) 2.00 Rice (10) 1.60 SMU

Found this on another board. Rivals Top 100 JUCO's still not committed. Simi Kuli 5 Star DE CA 4 Stars Tevita Finau DE AZ Daniel Calvin DT CA J'Marcus Webb OL TX (Navarro) Aki Vakalahi LB AZ Devin Johnson DE CA Brandon Mays DB CA 3 Stars Jason Teague DB TX (Tyler) Kevin Craft QB CA Blake Gumm DT TX (Trinity Valley) Lawrence Hood DB CA Tyler Roby DB CA

IMHO the Average Star column is a better guage than the point/bonus system. Totals the value of recruits without the benefit of total number & bonus points. 2.29 UNT 2.08 Muts 2.05 Troy 2.00 ULM 2.00 FIU 1.85 Arkansas State 1.40 ULL 1.23 FAU

Agree. It was a wasted $6.95 plus tax.

When a player leaves, somehow they suddenly become "unworthy".

Is Fran in South Alabama's plan? Wednesday, January 23, 2008 By KIM SHUGARTSports Reporter Two more high-profile names have emerged in South Alabama's search for a head football coach which USA athletic director Joe Gottfried says will be completed in about two weeks. The Press-Register has learned that and former Alabama and Texas A&M head coach Dennis Franchione and Pittsburgh Steelers assistant head coach John Mitchell, a native of Mobile, are candidates for the position. Gottfried would not say if the search committee has already interviewed or will interview Mitchell or Franchione. "We are right on track," Gottfried said of the February target date for selecting a head coach. "We will probably talk in person with a couple more people and then we'll make the decision on who we will bring to campus. We haven't decided how many (candidates) we will bring here. It could be one, two or possibly three." USA's search committee has interviewed several former head coaches and top assistants for the position. "We started out with the thought of interviewing 10 to 12 coaches for the job and we're still in that framework," Gottfried said. "All of the coaches that we've interviewed are very qualified and we will have a head coach in a couple of weeks. "We wanted to have a head coach early in February and we will have one. The national signing date is Feb. 6 and we'll be very close to completing our process by then." Mitchell, who played at Williamson High and for two years under Bear Bryant at Alabama (1971-1972), has been with the Steelers for 14 years as the defensive line coach. He has been an NFL coach for 17 years. A former All-America defensive end for Alabama, Mitchell was the first African-American to play for the Crimson Tide. His early years in coaching were spent studying under two of college football's greatest coaches. He began his coaching career in 1973 as the defensive line coach at Alabama (1973-76) and then spent six seasons as defensive line coach at Arkansas (1977-82) on Lou Holtz's staff. Mitchell coached the defensive line for the USFL's Birmingham Stallions from 1983-85 and returned to college in 1987, spending four years at LSU before joining the Cleveland Browns' staff in 1991. Franchione was 17-8 in two years at Alabama (2001-2002) before heading to Texas A&M. He was 32-28 in five years with the Aggies and resigned shortly after last season's win over Texas. The search committee has already interviewed several candidates, including Alabama defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, Auburn running back coach Eddie Gran, Birmingham-Southern head coach Joey Jones, South Florida assistant head coach Dan McCarney, Clemson wide receiver coach Dabo Swinney, Central Florida assistant coach David Kelly and Mississippi State assistant coach Woody McCorvey. Former Southern Miss head coach Jeff Bower and former Tulane head coach Chris Scelfo were also contacted about the position.

Does anyone really care about grammar nazi's on a sports message board.

DeLoach gets second stint as defensive coordinator Players knew about the new hire for two weeks Richard White Issue date: 1/25/08 Section: SPORTS According to a reliable source close to the talks, former UCLA safeties and special teams coach Gary DeLoach will be introduced today as the Mean Green's new defensive coordinator. DeLoach will replace Ron Mendoza, whose contract was not renewed earlier this month. DeLoach previously coached at NT from 1998-2002. He spent his final three seasons as the Mean Green's defensive coordinator, the position he finds himself in again six years after leaving NT. DeLoach spent the previous five seasons at UCLA, joining the Bruins in January 2003. Since an announcement has yet to be made as of Thursday's press time, Sports Information Director Eric Capper said that his department and the team's players are unable to comment until a deal was officially in place. "Coach Dodge has said that no players are going to talk about coach DeLoach or anybody until they are fully on staff and a contract has officially been signed," Capper said. However, this hasn't stopped current defensive players from discussing their new coordinator. In a Wednesday interview with the Daily, defensive tackle Joseph Miller let slip a partial identity of the new defensive coordinator, saying about the pending hire, "He was really good as an assistant coach at UCLA." Miller immediately changed the subject when pressed on the issue. Another current football player revealed Thursday that the team had known for the last two weeks that DeLoach would be the new defensive coordinator. The players were asked to remain quiet about the issue until an announcement was made. The same player expressed his frustration over the many difficulties the players had to endure under Mendoza, saying, "He was terrible." Unlike DeLoach's many years of defensive college experience, Mendoza never coached at the college level prior to coming to NT. Once his addition to Dodge's staff is official, NT will look for DeLoach to return the defensive unit to the dominant level it attained in his final two seasons in Denton. In those seasons, the Mean Green won the first two of its four consecutive Sun Belt Conference titles. Last season the Mean Green defense ranked near the bottom in every major Division I-A defensive category. Out of 119 total Division I-A football teams, the Mean Green finished its 2007 season in last place at 119th for scoring defense by surrendering an average of more than 45 points a game. The defense also collected other dubious national rankings, such as 115th in rushing defense, 113th in total defense and 105th in passing efficiency.

Posted by Arkstfan. R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl fares well in ratings. Posted by Administrator on January 25th 2008 to General The New Orleans Bowl faced a sparse crowd but the game was a success for ESPN. The R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl pitting FAU against Memphis was the most watched New Orleans Bowl since the inaugural game drawing 1.6 million viewers. Overall of the 32 bowl games the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl was 26th among the bowl games in viewer-ship. A number of bowl games had outstanding years in drawing viewers. The Capital One had its largest audience since 1998. The Chick-Fil-A Bowl drew the second largest ESPN bowl game audience since 1990. The Holiday Bowl audience was up 7% and was only behind the Chick-Fil-A among ESPN games this year. The Music City and Motor City each drew their largest audiences since the first games. Champs Sports and Meineke Car Care Bowls drew their best TV audience ever. Las Vegas Pure Pioneer had its best television audience since 2002. The Poinsettia Bowl doubled its tv viewers over last year. Pappajohns.com drew the second largest ESPN2 bowl audience since 2002. Each BCS game on Fox won that night’s ratings, the first time that has happened since the BCS began. Games drawing a smaller audience than New Orleans: -The television audience for the ESPN2 telecast of the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl was slightly larger than the audience for the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl matching East Carolina and Boise State on ESPN. -The NFL Network is still struggling to find a television audience as the Texas Bowl pitting Houston and TCU drew a fifth of the television audience despite being a great success at the gate. -The Humanitarian Bowl matching Georgia Tech and Fresno State also on ESPN2 drew less than half the households of the New Orleans Bowl. -Another NFL Network telecast, the Insight.com Bowl pitting Oklahoma State against Indiana drew slightly better than a fourth of the households brought in by the New Orleans Bowl. -The International Bowl in Toronto on ESPN featuring Rutgers vs. Ball State drew a slightly smaller television audience than the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. - The GMAC Bowl in Mobile drew about two-thirds of the television audience of the New Orleans Bowl for its Tulsa vs. Bowling Green game.