rcade

I don't think anyone should drag his son into a discussion about UNT athletics. That's a low blow. I know I take cracks about my family a lot worse than anything said about me. But nobody at Go Mean Green has anything to do with how the media covered his son's arrest and the pending trial. Whatever went down that night was a pretty serious situation. A student nearly died. I think it would've been covered by the media regardless of who was involved.

Thanks for doing that. Great idea.

No, it could not be worse. We're 0-6 and have lost by a combined 61 points in our last two Sun Belt games. Coach Dodge has a five-year deal. It would be crazy to extend his contract further until he proves he can coach at this level.

I don't think UNT fans should wait until we need something to be in contact with them. I think alumni should be supporting them as well. The more UNT grads in the Lege, the better.

I was attending UT-Arlington right after the football program was killed in the '80s. It was incredibly demoralizing, and it extended far beyond athletics and helped define the school as the last place in the world you wanted to be when classes let out. I was incredibly glad to transfer to UNT.

Exactly. If they had backed the fee vote, we'd love them. The Daily's editorial board is just one group on campus among many, and they have as much right to their opinion as anybody else. Some students aren't going to support any increase in fees, no matter how good the reason.

One of the ways to improve UNT's lot in athletics is to get the state legislature to treat the school better. At all of the times we've talked about the state, I can't recall any discussion of encouraging UNT-affiliated legislators to step up. Here's the current Texas state legislators who graduated from the University of North Texas, according to my Google search: Rep. Joe Driver: http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist113/bio/driver.htm Rep. Tony Goolsby: http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist102/bio/goolsby.htm Rep. Jim Jackson: http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist115/bio/jackson.htm Rep. Diane Patrick: http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist94/bio/patrick.htm Sen. Jane Nelson: http://www.nelson.senate.state.tx.us/ Here's two more who might take our calls: Rep. Myra Crownover doesn't list a UNT affiliation, but her district includes UNT: http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist6...o/crownover.htm Sen. Royce West isn't a UNT grad, but he touts his creation of UNT-Dallas: http://www.west.senate.state.tx.us/

Because of issues with the water table, and possibly frontage issues with the state, Fouts can't be renovated by removing the track and putting seats closer and lower.

No offense intended, GreenDozer, but if you feel that way why are you here? If I was certain that UNT wouldn't be successful, I'd drop this board, drop my Exes and Mean Green Club memberships, and pretend I was a University of Florida alumni.

The Murchison Performing Arts Center was built at UNT for a cost of $17 million and is a showpiece for the university. A new stadium could play the same role. When students use the current record of the team as justification not to back it, it makes me wonder whether they'd change their vote if the team was 3-2 or 4-1. Surely what's being decided here is bigger than the current won-loss record of the team.

I posted on comment on The Daily in response to that article:

What does being pro- or anti-athletics have to do with being liberal? I'm liberal, and when I was editor of The Daily in the late '80s we were huge supporters of football.

I started reading the Herald when I was around eight. Dallas hasn't been the same with just one paper, especially now that the paper's getting smaller and smaller. Unless things have changed recently, Denver has two papers -- the Post and the Rocky Mountain News.

If you want to use stuff that happened in the '70s to dismiss the possibility that something good could happen now, there's really not much I can say to persuade you. There are plenty of reasons to be cynical if you've followed this program for a long time. A year ago you could have said that students will never pony up any money to pay for part of a $60 million stadium, and a lot of people here would've agreed. Yet here we are with several thousand members of the Students for a New Stadium Facebook group eagerly promoting the proposal. It's got a good shot to win if the vote gets out. At this point, I think time's running out for UNT to field a viable FBS program at Fouts. Either we replace the stadium or we're done.

FBS schools that build new stadiums get an increased national profile. Better teams come in, and the national networks are more likely to travel there because the amenities are better (particularly the technical broadcast stuff). If you doubt any of this, look at what's happened to UCF since the Golden Knights built their on-campus stadium. The Texas Longhorns came in to open up the place and they get more nationally televised games. The stadium's put them on the map. They could be the next USF. UNT can't get corporate donors because there's no place to entertain them at Fouts. UNT also loses out on donors who are waiting to see if the stadium push is real before committing to it. I'm one of those people. I haven't given a dollar yet to the Stadium Capital Fund. I will after this vote passes and the stadium's really being built.

The ad looks good. I think the selling points are solid, and it should help get the word out. Thanks.

I appreciate what you're doing as well, UntFlyer. Do you know the names and organizations of the homecoming candidates, and where they stand on the stadium? It seems to me that they are all likely to support the new stadium, and if they get out the vote, they'll bring a lot more yes votes than no votes. When I was a student, the black Greek groups took homecoming very seriously and I think they won all three years I was in Denton.

I have a question for the people who think that recruits read this board. How do you think they find out about it? I searched Google today for terms related to UNT's sports program, and GoMeanGreen.Com didn't pop up in the top 10 results for any terms I could think of other than "go mean green". So if recruits are finding it, it's because somebody affiliated with them or the school told them about it. Since this message board, like all college football boards, can be pretty critical, I find it hard to believe that anyone at UNT's athletic department is telling potential recruits about this board. I think the only athletes and athletes' relatives who are on Go Mean Green, by and large, are the ones who found out about it *after* they were at the school. Either that, or I need better Google skills.

Every time UNT football hits the crapper, somebody tells the members of GoMeanGreen that we're hurting the program by speaking critically of it. Sorry, OldTimer, but I don't believe there's anything that could be said on this board that hurts UNT recruiting worse than five straight 30-plus routs, a No. 119 ranking out of 119 teams, and the prospect of going 0-12. I think UNT would be in worse shape if fans took this kind of stuff in stride, as if they never expected anything better.

Part of the reason a school honors its greatest players is to help recruiting. The fact that an all-world O lineman went through UNT, and is still in the prime of his career, is something we can use to sell recruits on the program.

UNT alumnus Brian Waters is a three-time All Pro offensive guard with the Kansas City Chiefs who has become a cornerstone of the franchise. He's the best NFL player to come out of Denton in 40 years. According to Wikipedia, UNT has retired four numbers: Mean Joe Greene (75), Richard Gill (55), Ray Renfro (33) and Abner Haynes (28). Not to change the subject off last night, or anything, but I was wondering if Waters' accomplishments at UNT were enough to make him the fifth number retired. Here's how his Chiefs bio describes his collegiate career: Though all the position moves reduced his numbers at UNT, he did make the Mean Green's all-time UNT team as a nose tackle and is a member of the school's Hall of Fame. He's one of the elite offensive lineman in the game, and has a shot at the NFL Hall of Fame. It seems to me that Waters hasn't gotten as much attention for his UNT ties as he should, given his accomplishments in the NFL. Since having an elite NFL player is a feather in our cap, I think retiring his number would be a good move.

UNT will never tolerate a Barry Switzer outlaw regime in Denton. There aren't boosters and alumni who can scare the administration out of blowing up a bad-behaving program.

Dodge is 2-15 in his first 17 games with UNT, with wins over Louisiana-Monroe and Western Kentucky and eight losses of 30 or more points, including the last five games. Dickey was 5-12 at the same point in his tenure, with wins over Boise State (twice), Nevada, New Mexico State and Texas Tech, and two losses of 30 or more points. There's simply no comparison with how they started out at UNT, particularly when you consider Dickey's Texas Tech shocker and the unbelievable number of blowout losses under Dodge. I'm willing to give Dodge this season and perhaps the next to prove himself, if the blowouts stop and we win a couple games. His players are young and his offense last year was at times spectacular. But at this point, the numbers suggest a coach who doesn't belong atop a program in the bowl subdivision.

Our lineman don't look to the sidelines. Makes me wonder how they know what to do with all those sideline audibles.

Me too. But I think students who take the time to vote in an election like this are generally the ones who want to leave their mark on their school. Building a new stadium, when one's so sorely needed given the terrible condition of Fouts Field, is a way they can leave their mark. If the athletes and the Greeks and the other groups that are passionate about their school get out the vote, I believe it will win in spite of these losses.