rcade

Look at the bright side, people. The game's not on TV.

Clemson plays tough at Death Valley. They won a national championship and have never left the top 25 for long in the succeeding 20 years. If that isn't a body bag game for UNT, it's pretty close.

We've played 2-3 body bag games a year for the past 10 years. Are we better as a result? I think it makes more sense to play teams we have a realistic chance to beat. Mid-majors and below. And we should play as many former SWC schools as we can.

Hey, H-Town, If you draw the winning ticket, Dick Clark and I will soon be telling you that YOU WON 10 MILLION DOLLARS IN THE PUBLISHER'S CLEARING HOUSE SWEEPSTAKES!

There's also the AAFL, the new pro startup fielding teams in college towns like Gainesville, Fl.

I was on the fence about this until Jenni Carlson's followup column. Coach Gundy wouldn't identify any of the errors in her column, which he said was "three-fourths" wrong. His larger sentiment of defending his player was good, but he did it by picking the easiest whipping boy -- a journalist. And Mr. "Go after me, I'm a man" won't back up his words. I also wonder if the fact she's female had anything to do with how far he blew his top. If I were that quarterback, I'd be cringing at my coach calling me a child who runs home crying to my mother.

To each his own, of course, but the Mighty Quinn is one of the greatest players to come through North Texas. This was a snapshot. It would've been weird to grab a lock of his hair, or something, but even that could be justified if you're trying to clone him.

We talk a lot here about what level of criticism is fair to amateur athletes playing college football. After a sports columnist for the Daily Oklahoman called benched quarterback Bobby Reid a momma's boy who plays scared, Coach Mike Gundy in his postgame press conference launched a three-minute tirade. YouTube video: Original column: http://newsok.com/article/3131543/1190442218 News story: http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=276227

He asked them if it was OK to take their picture. The picture wasn't any different than pictures on Quinn's own MySpace page. I don't know who convinced the fan that his photo was creepy, but it sucks to make him sound -- to use your own words -- "obsessed." Quinn obviously had no problem with it. I'll bet he appreciated getting noticed in the crowd.

What's creepy? I saw the post, and it was just a picture of the Mighty Quinn and his girlfriend attending the game.

The Sun Belt has the potential to be a decent regional conference that produces mid-majors who can crack the Top 25. The southeast is a more fertile ground for football than the west, and if North Texas finds itself in the Belt for the next decade, that isn't the nightmare scenario people think it is. If a few schools continue to improve -- Troy, Arkansas State, potentially Middle Tennessee, and Dodge brings North Texas back -- I could see the Belt passing the WAC and MAC and playing at the level of CUSA.

Good point. As much as Meager's throwing, I'm worried about his rotator cuff.

Not really that simple. As long as the eagle logo, eagle shriek and "Fly Like an Eagle" are associated with UNT athletics, we're more than just the name Mean Green. The eagle's subordinate to the Mean Green nickname and we don't call ourselves the Eagles. This might sound unusual to some folks, but it's not that uncommon. An elephant is a minor element of the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Oakland A's.

Does anyone know the over/under on our week off? I kid because I care, but I don't see us holding the bye week scoreless with this new defensive scheme.

Dr. Bataille and Rick Villareal. They took the SMU loss a lot harder than anyone could have expected.

I run some sites like this, so I know that it's a pain in the ass to allow open discussion and keep flamewars and other stuff from getting out of hand. Harry and the other admins have my support in running this board as they see fit. But I'm not clear on what's prompting all of the thread locks, aside from one of the painted "M-E-A-N G-R-E-E-N" students objecting to some comments here, so it's difficult to steer clear of the subjects that are causing so many problems.

USF just beat Auburn in overtime, knocking off the No. 17 ranked team 26-23. This is the third ranked team the Bulls have beaten in the last three seasons. This school began playing football in 1997 and joined Division I-A in 2001. They have many of the same attributes as UNT -- a directional school that has a much lower profile than its in-state rivals in spite of huge enrollment (44,000 students at USF), a location in a football-rich state with some entrenched, storied programs that get all the love in the state lege. And yet, USF has become a legitimate mid-major program knocking on Top 25 status in 11 years. As a Florida resident and UNT grad, this drives me nuts. How did they do it?

We're now at a point where UNT is a highlight of SMU's schedule -- a game they can market because their fans care so much about the win. To me, that's a good thing for both schools. A real crosstown rivalry, to match the one between SMU and TCU, would help all three DFW teams and get better media play.

If he's trying to be the George Dunham of SMU, he has to show a preference for the home team. I didn't catch his remarks, but I'm inclined to cut him some slack for that reason. And I like the fact that yet another UNT sports broadcaster is out there making a name for himself. I hope the school's RATV program is using it as a selling point.

Point taken, but be honest. Sideline shots of hot female fans during college football telecasts are the reason God invented Tivo.

UNT's fans could be heard on the radio. At times it sounded like a home game.

How can you hang this loss on a quarterback who threw for 601 yards? I caught this game on radio, not in person, but it sounded to me like the keys to the loss were our secondary play on defense and too many penalties. Daniel Meager and Casey Fitzgerald had one of the best offensive games in school history. If that's not enough to rack up a W, I'd look elsewhere for the blame.

Speak for yourself. If we get enough of them, we might win the Moral National Championship.

I started to lose enthusiasm for The Ticket after they fired Coop. They had a nice balance of sports talk to other talk going at that time, but around the time of Coop's departure it seemed like they went too far away from sports. When one of the great icons of sport died -- Joe DiMaggio I think -- it came up on the Musers and they gave it 10 seconds of time before getting back to shtick. The only non-sports stuff I would listen to on The Ticket is Gordon Keith. Everyone else brought on in his likeness has been a spare.

That's hilarious. I've always felt some sympathy for Chuck Cooperstein after watching him do a mid-day remote for The Ticket at the then-Ballpark in Arlington. They put him next to the kiddie baseball field, and he was sitting at a folding table holding his papers to keep them from blowing away and doing his show. No one was within 20 feet of him, and I appeared to be the only fan among hundreds walking by who even cared to see him there. But after hearing that, Coop is the devil. Even if he was right.