redallover

If the Sun Belt wins the bowl about half the time, then it seems like a fair matchup. The same can be said for C-USA and the Liberty Bowl vs. #6-8 SEC team. It would be "unfair" if C-USA was winning 75% of the time, but instead, it's pretty fair (unfortunately).

A key difference is that JJ, Briles and Sherman are in their first year. A first year coach can offer newness, playing time, etc. and can claim that the first year's results (often not very good) and due to the previous regime. You need to start digging and making progress on the new stadium before it will make much of a difference in recruiting.

How are the stadium costs broken down? How much will the student fees cover? How much has to be raised from private sources? Public debt/bonds? UH is building an endzone facility that is supposedly going to cost $38 million but we only have pledges for $12 million so far. I think bonds will cover some of it due to it being used as classroom space, etc. I hope you get the funds raised quickly and have a successful opening game like SMU did against Kansas in their new stadium.

Too bad the MG doesn't play SMU this year. Someone would have to get a Div I win. This was an awful game. I used to listen the UNT games on The Word but that's hard cheese. I hope this was an aberration because the MG was only a 3 pt or so underdog. It's just one of the "got out of hand" games. I remember the NM State game from about 5-6 years ago. TD, bring back the magic! You can't count on freshmen too much. If you've got all these great recruits playing as freshmen, you'll see some dividends in a couple years, but not now. Riley will also pay off at some point as well. He'll be fun to watch at the helm. Miss the great backs of the last few years and Booger Kennedy.

Great info. Houston is in the game as well. We go to Alabama this year with no return. We are doing a 1:1 with Oregon and agreed to play in Reliant Stadium. We're in the midst of a 2:1 with OK State and won the first game at home last year. Now we owe the Pokes two games in Stillwater. I'm also an SMU fan so the Indians had a very impressive win against the Ponies. I suspect that game was set up as a 1:1, correct?

That's a lot of jack. I believe that App State was only paid $400K to play at Michigan. Maybe the asking fee has gone up since the last year or two when App State scheduled its game. Ark State isn't a pushover either. Maybe a Div I school can get more money because it's a more legit opponent.

Win half of the Sun Belt games and then put the season behind you. Good things lie ahead for UNT football.

OU beat Houston, 63-14, in Briles' second year. OU went on to play for the MNC but they were very dominant. I believe they beat A&M 77-0 that year. OU seems rather classy to me because they were up 49-7 on us at the half and only scored 14 more in the second half. Houston went up 7-0, OU scored 63 in a row and UH scored the last TD. You just have to move on from this game. It was an exciting atmosphere for fans but the money's in the bank and now focus on improving the rest of the way. The team has a huge game next Saturday night as a follow-up.

SMU had an article in its student paper saying that the new ticket office manager's staff will be calling ALL alumni over the next eight months to hit them up for season tickets. He mentioned that sales are currently up over last year, but when asked for a specific number, he wasn't sure what it was. Gee, I wonder why. I imagine that even Baylor and TCU aren't big on releasing season ticket sales numbers at this point in the offseason. UH certainly doesn't. However, like some of you said, I am interested in percentage increases at least.

I'd compare R'odge to Kendall Briles from S'ville. Kendall was rated about the same coming out of the Ville and played Safety and ST at UT for a year before transferring to play for his dad at UH. Of course, R'odge would have played at UT. QB would have been tough, but given his determination and athleticism, he'd have played somewhere. Remember his "getting sick" during the 5A title game and still leading the team to the title? If Kevin Kolb hadn't already been at UH, and if Kendall had stayed healthy, he might have played QB for the Coogs. GMG.

This reminds me of Kevin Kolb at UH. He committed to OK State and Art Briles was hired as UH's HC. Kolb then decommits to OSU and goes with UH. He knows the system and is a great QB and starts from Day 1 and gets drafted by the Eagles early in the second round. Kolb has more of an NFL build (height-wise) and Riley is more like Briles' son Kendall, also a top high school QB who signed at UT and played safety for a year before transferring to UH to play for his dad. Best wishes to the MG. This was quite a pick-up and excellent pub.

As a UH grad, the loss at home to ULL was horrific. It goes to show that you can't take anyone for granted. We took Rice for granted and nearly lost that game. We didn't take Ok State, Tulsa or USM for granted and won. The UNT/SMU game is going to be a doozy. I hope there are at least 5K UNT alums at the game, like UH had last year. Baylor, TCU and UTEP draw very well. With a strong crowd at Ford, you will really get the team playing inspired, like last year. Go Coogs, Ponies and GMG! My wife is a prof at SMU so they're my #2 school but my parents went to UNT. And, yes, the NMSU game in '02 was one of the top 10 games I've ever attended, including all my UH games.

USA is probably the best option. Don't they have the best regular season attendance? Do it like C-USA does, let the schools bid on it and make sure it doesn't lose money. I'd hope that a school like UTEP (far west) wouldn't host but Memphis is doable and has strong support. It's sort of like not wanting one of the Florida schools to host the SB tourney. I would hope that UNT would "pay up" to host a tourney when it felt it had a reasonable chance to draw well and breakeven. It sure helps your chances and a tourney bid would be worth the investment. ULL has been good in the past but Lafayette should be ashamed about its support.

SMU went down to the wire against Memphis and lost by about 3 just a couple weeks ago. That was with only seven scholarship players. That said, Memphis looked a bit unfocused and had just played at UTEP a couple days earlier. Hardly anyone in C-USA played Memphis within 10 points. UH just lost in the title game at Memphis by 12. There's a reasonable shot here. 5% maybe but it's not like UNT got Florida or Ohio State. UNT will have a healthy team, JJ's home state and some Cinderella fan support. GMG!

Central Conn. would be lower rated. As would the SWAC and some others. UNT will be a solid 16 seed (no play in) and has an outside shot at a 15. Currently, at #136 in RPI, UNT is the second lowest rated team in the Tourney...just ahead of Viagara.

That's an increase of 11 spots due to tonight's win. WKU is #85 and ASU is #168. Despite the rankings, UNT is 2-0 against WKU and 0-2 vs. ASU. Which would you rather play tomorrow? WKU would be a more credible opponent but I want the easiest team possible, crush them tomorrow night and go dancing!

Of course! The MG has only won six out of the last seven games and three of those were on the road. Oh, and what about that top seed (USA)? Well, UNT got KILLED by one at USA. UNT is also second in the conference in scoring offense at 78 ppg, which is just 0.3 less than WKU.

What a great season! One more game baby! Tomorrow night is great exposure but close it out and get to the Big Dance!!! Any game watching parties in the Addison area?

Last UH football coach was an asst at TTech. Before him, we hired a HC from Wyoming and before that an asst with the Dolphins. Hoops: Drexler, McCallum (HC at Ball State) and Penders (announcer) If you have big bucks, you can hire coaches away. The two previous coaches before our current ones were both fired or quit. Mack Brown -- UNC HC Francionne -- Alabama HC Patterson -- TCU DC Bennett -- KSU DC Leach -- OU OC Stoops -- FL DC Price -- Alabama HC (fired) LSU Coach -- OK State HC Not many HCs are stolen away.

Maybe the Coogs still have some bleachers left over from a few years ago when we played the Longhorns. The game should be a barn burner. Do the Ponies really travel that well? They don't travel nearly as well as TCU. I listened to the BU/TCU game and the Frogs seemed to have as many fans as the Bears.

Maybe I can get a scalped ticket? I'm not driving 40 miles to sit in the endzone. Isn't there still a track at Fouts?

Is the game close to being sold out? Are ticket prices around $27? As an aside, SMU has a shuttle to the game with dinner for $65. I intend to walk up and buy a ticket. So far so good regarding get time off (from other responsibilities) to come up for the big game.

Seems hard to believe that the SMU game has sold 25,000 tickets. SMU's fan base is about 10-15K per game at home. There will be at most 5,000 SMU fans at the game, don't you think? However, I think UNT will sell 20K eventually, and I expect game day to be high-20s. A UNT alum colleague of mine said he was skipping the SMU game to watch the UT/OSU game. At least he knew there was a conflict. I was impressed with that.

SMU had some big attendance games last year, namely Baylor and TCU. Baylor was around 30K and TCU was probably about 28K. The UTEP game was well attended as well because the Miners probably brought 6-8K fans.

I like the one that says Harvard is the Rice of the North.