Eagle1855

Good post, and I think you make some good points. I also tend to agree with UNTSIG (Lifer, and others) however, in that I dont think this season is really an abberation... it really is alot more of the same. You are correct, the wins have definately helped us get where we are, i think most everyone will agree with you there. The problem is (or the good news is) our expectation levels have been raised along the way! Oh, and watch out saying you have a secondary team on this board, you are setting yourself up for an ambush... apparently you cant be both a NT fan/supporter AND root for any other team in Texas. Just thought I would let you know and save you the trouble

Not football specifically, but of importance (or should be) to everyone on the board! And it can/will/could have an impact on the athletics department... Plus anything is better than another "We Suck" thread... Link to UNT page

If the university is fine with what we are doing, go ahead and keep Dickey around. However, if we want to commit to taking this thing to the next level, might want to start looking for a next-level coach. That being said, you wont find that kind of coach if the University isnt going to support him fully. Money and better conferences come with winning* programs. Winning* coaches create winning* programs. Winning* coaches get paid decent money which is funded by a university and fans that believe that athletics are an important part of a well-rounded and diverse University. And its a pretty darn good PR for the academic programs as well... *by winning, I mean competing against the other 110ish programs in the nation, not the rest of Purgatory. Or even playing a half decent game against a top 70 team like Tulsa or KState (neither of which are really very good). Dont see it from my point of view? Well, lets see what happens against a BAD La-Tech team tomorrow. Maybe I will eat my words, but I doubt it.

How so?

Uh yeah, and Id just assume we stick with Div1a teams- the risk of losing a 1AA game greatly outweighs any gain from beating one.

You are right on! Its not being a bad fan, its not accepting mediocrity.

Agree on Ensberg... hes need to show up tonight. Funny, Monday night a friend of mine said, "I think its about time Berkman did something in this series" and the next swing was that homerun! So lets go Mo!

Well if its any consolation, we lost to a team that was in its first year of Div1A last year, so this is a step forward...

Agree with most of your post Rick, especially the part about us being 13 gifts away from a winless season. Mumme should be a good coach for NMSU once he gets comfortable there. I do not think NMSU's future is brighter than NT's however (not sure if thats what you were implying, if not, no worries!). I think we have alot to look forward to in Denton. I still disagree with you on the part about putting up 346 yards against Cal being comparable to their loss at Texas... Texas has had a killer defense over the past few years- Cal has not. Even really good teams have had a hard time moving the ball against Texas this year and last. But its really irrelevant how well Texas or Cal play against other teams. We would suck BAD against either of them, thats the relevant problem and the cause for concern. Because as you stated, Cal is better than KSTATE and TULSA, and we all know what happened there...

Its called Jagermeister, and when coupled with a Red Bull, it erases all of your worries and exempts you from being held responsible for anything else done in the following evening... quite a drink, that Jager is...

If we had the money that UT or Ohio State had, would we still be arguing for caps on our program to level the playing field for the underdogs? Just wondering if this is a thought based on some sort of noble principle held or if its just because we dont have that kind of money...

Losing to UT 66-7 is about the same as losing to Cal 41-13. Cal is overrated. They were overrated last year when Texas Tech beat the pants off them. That was the same Texas Tech team that got massacred by UT (yes, the "overrated" UT) by 30 points in Lubbock. The same thing will happen when they come to Austin this year. NMSU has not improved, they are terrible. Same goes for Idaho whose only win has come against the elite Utah State. Only losers have moral victories. Of course, Ive seen alot of moral victories this year- Im in the unique position of being both a NT fan and a Houston Texans fan! Im still not sold that the WAC is all that much better a conference to try to "recruit" in than the sunbelt-- both suck, the WAC just sucks a little less because it has 2 higher-profile teams. Boise State? Big deal. After the top two in the WAC, the Belt and WAC are similar conferences- ours just makes more sense geographically. I would rather play against other Texas and Louisiana teams. We need to beat the teams we compete against in recruiting. We would have that opportunity in C-USA, not the WAC. The nations best recruiting areas are in our backyard. So glad we said no to the WAC, and I hope we would say the same if they come sniffing around here again!

Man I hope we, the ASTROS, can pull this off tonight! I would hate to go to another game 7 with the Cards... ugh, deja vu...

Yes but top to bottom, C-USA is much better than the belt. UH, UTEP, Tulsa, Memphis, Marshall... all would win the sunbelt if in this conference. And SMU will always be a punchline, which is the way it should be

there sure is alot of speculation on this thread... lets see how the next home game turns out before we start attacking the fan base 23k for a crappy stadium for a BAD football team in a terrible conference aint all that bad. 17k for the same on a tuesday night isnt bad either U of Houston has a pretty decent stadium and we are killing them in attendance-- and they have a much better team than we do (FWIW they did beat the same Tulsa team we got our butts handed to by and UH played down to the wire with UTEP)... they have a better conference, history of winning, they have alot more than we do. blah blah blah Point is, I dont think where we are right now is a destination, rather i believe it is more of a step along the way- the next rung of the ladder. Our attendance will continue to grow every year as it has done. Its hard to go from ZERO support to filling fouts in 6 years. I mean, we just started tailgating like 4-5 years ago! You are having delusions of grandeur if you think we should be selling out games year in and year out for people to see the likes of U- La- Pickem or F_U... As far as the relationship between winning/coaching/marketing/etc... i do not think you can point to one and say it should be targeted more than the other (with respects to attendance)... many of these things are interrelated. I think the univeristy is headed in the right direction. Winning is probably the biggest thing (and that IS coaching) we can change quickly. Solve that and get a successful basketball program then maybe we can get out of sunbelt hell... support will follow, as will a new stadium

Well if history is any indicator, we will score between 2-14 points and we will have somewhere bewteen 7-54 points scored on us. Unless we hold La Tech under 13 points, I dont see how we can win. If we couldnt score more than 13 points off 8 turnovers (or more than 14 off 5 turnovers) what make ANYONE think we will score more than 14 against anyone else? NT-10 La Tech - 27 Im sorry I will miss the game, however! Wish I could be there to support the team (as much as it pains me to watch)

It is my sincere hope that we NEVER join the WAC, and I dont think there is anything that will change my opinion of that, short of the WAC becoming a BCS conference (which will follow the freezing of hell and flying of monkeys)

watched it at Champps here in Houston... everyone was cheering, celebrating, hugging.. you know, it was just ONE strike, how hard could it be? One strike from one of the best closers in baseball and its world series baby... ahh what a kick to the stomach

Could that be because exactly NONE of the Sun Belt teams are ranked better than 105?

And the spare-ness of our NT team will still go to the bowl game if we win out. I dont think this will even matter, however. I said at the beginning of the year I thought ULM would be one team that could beat us and I still believe that-- although I am now convinced that almost any Div 1A team could beat us, so thats not saying much. I dont think we beat ASU or ULM. I'll be there to witness them however! Cause tailgatin is the coolest

I like that idea

My guess would be the sky falling...

why the hell would you do that? Isnt it RV that decides whether or not DD keeps his job? And again, in answer to the orignal question posed, ABSOLUTLEY NOT! we cannot afford to lose RV, he has been an integral part of all the new things going on here!

Lets get physical?

genius PerryG, keep em comin!