rcade

Ouch.

Please rank the following, from most likely to hurt recruiting to least likely to hurt recruiting: * Having the 119th ranked scoring defense out of 119 teams * Ending up with a 2-10 record * Being the last-place team in the worst conference in I-A * Giving up 74 points in a single game * Having a fan message board with negative comments about a coach If you had your way and we pretended Dodge's first year wasn't a colossal embarrassment, do you really think recruiting would be better? Student athletes aren't idiots. They would know things were bad in 2007 without us telling them.

FIU throwing it deep with 1:21 left. Classy move!

I don't think Dodge can back out of his assurance to bring Mendoza back without looking dishonest. I figure it's a stone cold lock that we get one more year of his efensive schemes.

Maybe there's also some Orange Bowl mojo. Most FIU players are from South Florida, I'd imagine. That field is huge in the imagination of Miami sports fans. (Pretty big elsewhere too.)

I don't know if good times are coming, but I think it was harder to be a UNT fan during the Big West years than it is today. They could clone Coach Mendoza and put him in charge of quarterbacks and special teams and it would still be better than being the doormat of the Mountain time zone.

Anyone know how much money UNT athletics gets from the premium subscription? I just paid for an annual subscription to this feed I can't watch!

Is anyone from the board in Miami today and going to the game? I am about five hours away and could attend, but the idea of driving into the lousy neighborhood around the Orange Bowl for a night game isn't particularly appealing -- even though it's the last football game ever to be played there. They're giving tickets away to people who bring canned goods and toys. A crowd of 2,000 would probably be an unexpectedly good turnout.

I'd love to have Texas State in the Belt with us as well. Wish it could happen sooner.

College coaches back out of commitments all the time when a better deal comes along. I don't expect Coach Dodge to do it, especially with his son planning to attend UNT, but it wouldn't be a complete shock if he did.

I was going by this: http://football.stassen.com/cgi-bin/record...thern_Methodist Looks like one of those seasons was 5-6 until Tech lost a win for ineligible players.

SMU has only had two winning seasons since the imposition of the death penalty in 1987, and both of them were 6-5 years. I'd like to see them pick things up again, because it makes for a better crosstown rivalry, but I don't see a reason to think it will happen.

Super Jamario! Wahoo!

That's a pretty classless way to enter the Sun Belt.

The thing I don't understand about this rumored theft: If a student was suspected of walking off with a plasma TV, it would prompt a criminal investigation and student code of conduct investigation that could result in expulsion. Why would a member of the UNT staff -- one of the highest compensated people at the entire school no less -- be allowed to do it without consequence?

According to Troy Phillips, the Star-Telegram sportswriter who covers North Texas, a large plasma TV disappeared from Dickey's office around the same time he left and has never been found. Has anyone else heard about this? http://startelegram.typepad.com/college_fo...-year-what.html It got better: Parents of several players reported a locker-room halftime fight between two assistant coaches, with one putting the other in a choke hold. Dickey said he was in another room and saw or heard nothing. The following Tuesday, Dickey gave a defiant, bullet-point defense of his nine seasons that lasted about 90 minutes and then took no questions. His parting answer to a final question at one of his last practices: "I don't know. As of Monday, I'm not the coach here anymore." Dickey's contract wasn't due to end until two weeks after UNT's last game at Louisiana-Monroe. His office was cleared out before that road trip, ending several uncomfortable weeks around the UNT athletic department. As a bizarre postscript, a large plasma HD television that sat in Dickey's office disappeared some time that weekend and was never found. Dickey...a thief? Unlikely, but how's that for unbelievable timing? On Saturday, UNT can break an all-time attendance record despite Dodge's rough debut, and its 18 seniors will be appreciated for helping UNT reach four consecutive bowl games under Dickey. Too bad his exit wasn't as graceful as theirs. --Troy Phillips

Wahoo! Alabama paid UL-Monroe $600,000 to play that game. Biggest win in the history of the Belt?

Your analogy is weird. You can know you are fat and still avoid losing weight.

I'm for the War on Christmas, too. Every year my kids and I gather around the Holidaymas tree to see what Secular Santa has brought. All the gifts are made out of hemp and/or soy.

As I recall, the original proposed version of those "Sink Navy" shirts had a sinking destroyer on it, which was removed when several people on GMG voiced their opinion that the graphic was in poor taste.

And it's the prerogative of the NCAA to refuse to host tournaments at schools with mascots the organization deems offensive. Arkansas State chose to dump its mascot of many years, and I applaud the move. I didn't bring the subject up here. I spoke up because I'm glad the Sun Belt schools took this step. In the long run, I hope it improves their marketing. "Indians" is not only controversial, but like "Eagles" was for us, dull due to so much use elsewhere. In my opinion, dismissing something as "political correctness" is a pretty weak rationale for disagreeing with it. The term has no meaning anymore. It's just another way of saying "I disagree with what you said."

I think all races and ethnic groups make poor mascots -- especially at public schools. Evidently, the folks on your Mascot Committee agreed with me. I'm surprised, frankly, that they didn't follow the Seminoles here in Florida. We'll never be rid of that junk.

Would you sneer at this issue if we were talking about the Washington Wetbacks of the NFL and the Cleveland Mexicans? It seems ridiculous to me that we're willing to tolerate a racist Sambo character like Chief Wahoo -- displayed prominently in the World Series on the caps, dugouts and other gear of the Indians -- years and years after blackface pantomime and characters like Amos n' Andy were drummed out of pop culture. What reason can be possibly sufficient to explain why Native Americans are singled out for this treatment?

Personally, I'm glad the Sun Belt schools that have these mascots are changing them. Chief Wahoo is not respectful. The name Redskins is an ethnic slur. More innocuous names like "Indians" lend themselves to "Scalp the Indians!" and other derogatory use by the fans of opposing teams.

Can someone here tell me Mendoza's accomplishments before coming to UNT? All I know about the guy is that he came on board with Dodge.