rcade

"While not generally receptive to giving message-board folks a lot of credit, I can't let this priceless nugget from www.gomeangreen.com pass without a quick thumbs up." So Phillips reads this board looking for news tips and feedback on his coverage, finds something funny to share with his readers, and he still manages to insult fans who use sports message boards. Nice.

My fear is that these preseason rankings will prove true. One off-season isn't enough time to turn a program around, especially for a first-time college head coach. My expectations are pretty low going into the season. I refuse to believe UNT will lose to SMU -- on principle -- but it would be a shock if the Mean Green contend in the Belt.

I'm glad to hear that Dodge is speaking at banquets and other venues that will have him. That's a part of coaching that Dickey avoided, and I think it hurt UNT in ticket sales, donations and recruitment.

I'm glad the NCAA is discouraging these nicknames. I might be less enthused about it if I went to a school like Illinois or Ark. State, but racial mascots encourage stuff like "scalp the Indians" and caricatures like Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians.

Anyone know if UNT has released the figures for how much is currently in the fund or how many people have contributed to it? There's a public component to stadium fundraising that encourages people to join the effort, and I'm not seeing it. (Doesn't mean it's not there, but I'm an interested alum and new Mean Green Club booster, so I'm in a decent position to get the info.)

The donation page for UNT athletics "Victory Capital campaign" encourages a donation for capital improvements to athletics, but it seems to me like they're going for everything -- soccer stadium, baseball stadium, etc. -- rather than focusing on a new football stadium. I wish their plan was to focus on a stadium for football in the expectation that it will help everything else get funded. UCF season tickets jumped from 9,000 to 20,000 for the upcoming season. How much better would UNT athletic fundraising be if the fan base doubled in one year? http://www.nmnathletics.com/ViewArticle.db...mp;ATCLID=67033

The appeal's lost on me, too. But I'm burnt out on the fashion aspect of college football. Unless it raises money for the school -- the way British soccer teams make money by changing their uniforms all the time -- it seems like a waste of time.

I feel like UNT's going to baby-step its way towards a new stadium for years, hoping that our own T. Boone Pickens shows up someday to write a big check. Does anyone know if there's ever been a concentrated effort by UNT fans to raise money for a stadium? If we could get 1,000 fans to give $1 a day to a stadium fund, we'd be $365,000 closer each year. That's not enough to build a $50 million facility like the one that UCF is opening this season in Orlando, of course, but it's better than sitting around hoping for somebody else to make this happen. And those fans could bang on the state lege and Board of Regents.

I will be sorely disappointed if the pants and jersey don't incorporate Zubaz.

Very cool. In my years at (or around) the Telegram, I don't recall a time the paper ever marketed its coverage of DFW college football like that. They covered TCU wall-to-wall, but never made a big deal about UNT or SMU.

Has anyone been watching this closely enough to explain how Quinn got cut even before camp started? This may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, because he has an opportunity to join another team before their camp starts, but it sucks that he didn't get a chance in Buffalo.

OK. Let's argue over whether Coach Dodge is wrong to deemphasize the draw play on passing downs. As a fan of good punting, I say yes.

I'll try again. With numbers. 1. He said the CEO of EA Sports is a UNT alum. 2. He didn't name him. 3. I found out the CEO of EA Sports is John Ricitello. 4. I started craving Twizzlers. 5. I found a bio of Ricitello. 6. I wished I had some Twizzlers. 7. His bio did not mention UNT. 8. I asked him to name the CEO, in case he's thinking about something else. 9. I remembered what Dickey did with the black uniforms and got mad again. 10. Mmm, Twizzlers. 11. You posted "Reading comprehension = hard." 12. I interpreted this to be a knock on my superior UNT-educated mind. 13. I posted this comment. 14. I went to get some Twizzlers.

Who? I looked this up, and all I found was that CEO John Ricitello got his B.S. from Cal-Berkeley.

A blogger reviewing the NCAA Football videogame has a criticism of the game that ought to be of interest here. http://nunesmagician.blogspot.com/2007/07/...s-quandary.html

I got this game last night at EB Games at midnight with my sons. I didn't expect to find 40 people lined up to get the game. A bunch of them looked like high school and college aged football players. I don't know if it's a new thing, but I was surprised when Arthur Stubblefield (15) caught a touchdown pass against Middle Tennesee and made a perfect "eagle claw" hand sign to the crowd.

Yay -- major uniform changes! There's nothing that signifies tradition in college football more than frequent modifications to your logo, helmet, nickname and colors.

We visited Clemson last summer and had to make a pilgrimage to Death Valley. A cool aspect of that on-campus stadium is that the field is sunken, so at street level you can look through the gates and see the whole thing open up -- field, the massive number of seats, and that rock players touch on the way in.

:-). That's a low blow. It's medicinal.

I love gratuitous shots at Democrats and liberals here, as if the Mean Green was for Republicans only. I'd say more, but I have to go protect the abortion rights of gay whales. Give peace a chance!

TAMS students? The overachieving teens who went to college early?

I think it's a shame that we're honoring Coach Dickey so soon after he intentionally tried to embarrass the university with the black uniform stunt (and succeeded). He'll be remembered as one of the best coaches in school history, but I would've preferred to see the school drag its feet as long as possible before recognizing this fact. He went out like a clown. I think any school that hires him as a head coach should look long and hard at the last six months of his tenure at UNT.

Yep. One meaning of the word is "to reveal unconsciously (something one would preferably conceal)," as in "Rcade betrayed himself as a dork by posting this comment."

I was attending UNT when the name changed, and it conveyed the size and scope of the university better than NTSU did. It was a welcome change, though I do wonder what it would've been like if we were allowed to be Texas State. If I were at Middle Tennessee, I'd be pushing for the UMT designation. The combination of "Middle" and "State" in your name has to be marketing poison, both nationally and how it's perceived among the potential student base there in Tennessee. Although the direction "Middle" gets some mockery, it also gives you something unique in Division I-A (as Mean Green does for us).

I'd prefer it if we stopped rethinking our identity, uniform and helmets all the time, which betrays a lack of confidence in our school and athletic programs.