rcade

UNT has run 54 offensive plays vs 23 for LaTech. Let's start to see some benefits from tiring that defense out.

The LaTech cheerleaders are dancing with their cones like they're Salome with the Seven Veils.

No targeting, no horse collar, no PI. CUSA refs came to win tonight.

Monster punter.

I like the three-man front. It puts our defense so far back we'll be ready if they throw a hail Mary.

Game on.

The line on this game moved from LaTech -1 to LaTech -4.5?

The broadcast cut to our fans in the stands. Kudos to them for making the trip. Mean Green Nation is a handsome bunch that looks like we've been through some things. Lot of thousand yard stares like the guy at the bar who is about to tell you about Nam.

She's so amped up I expect to see her playing linebacker before this is over and putting a hurt on some people.

Everybody's moms put the jerseys in the drier and they shrank. We're seeing a lot of undershirts on both teams.

This offensive display is incredible. Total domination of the ball and the clock.

That's better. He looks good. That first field goal he kicked tonight still hasn't landed.

Our kicker has a career 50% average?

Going back to the return to FBS, here's how UNT coaches began their time in Denton before Eric Morris. Darrell Dickey lost his first four games: Loss: 37-9 at Oklahoma Loss: 30-0 at Texas Tech Loss: 34-15 at Arizona State Loss: 28-9 at No. 17 Texas A&M Win: 21-13 vs. Boise State Todd Dodge lost his first five games: Loss: 79-10 at No. 8 Oklahoma Loss: 45-31 at SMU Loss: 30-20 vs. Florida Atlantic Loss: 66-7 at Arkansas Loss: 38-29 at Louisiana-Lafayette Win: 31-21 vs. Louisiana-Monroe Dan McCarney lost his first three games: Loss: 41-16 at Florida International Loss: 48-23 vs. Houston Loss: 41-0 at No. 2 Alabama Win: 24-21 vs. Indiana Seth Littrell lost his first game: Loss: 34-21 vs. SMU Win: 41-20 vs. Bethune-Cookman A lot of them had pretty grim out of conference schedules during their honeymoon period, Dickey in particular. Our chances looked better by the time Littrell arrived. Morris had two eight-loss teams to play in Cal and FIU, making 2-0 achievable before we made the mistake of playing the games.

Turn that frown upside down. Eric Morris just needs four straight wins to have the best winning percentage ever at UNT.

I like your thinking. Work the stands and then hang out near the restrooms offering the bad kids free smokes if they apply to UNT.

Those coaches might have overestimated his job prospects. When he took the job in Denton he had an 18-52 record as head coach and had been out of coaching for three years. And now I feel bad for posting this because I loved that yellow bastard on our sidelines with his playcard tucked so deep into his sansabelt shorts he could sing soprano.

Everybody knows things began to fall apart when Scrappy changed his name to Eppy to hide from his child support obligations. I was glad when his youngest turned 18 in 1995.

True, but wouldn't you rather have a head coach who knows why we're bad than one who is continually being surprised by it? Todd Dodge left Denton just as mystified by coaching at the college level as the day he arrived.

No. That became "If Eric loses at xxxxx are all of Seth's sins forgiven?"

When I come back to DFW and see how much it has changed since I left in the 1990s, I have a little less pessimism about the future at UNT in athletics. Dallas/Fort Worth is a giant financially powerful beast and the number five TV market in the country. There are 325,000 Mean Green alumni living in DFW. If we ever put a consistent winner out there in the big sports we don't know what the ceiling is.

This is the spot where I parachuted out of your rant. No one should be able to understand the drop because it was the worst decision a North Texas Board of Regents has ever made. It wasn't after a long period of football mediocrity that might lead any school's leadership to despair. It was just four years after Hayden Fry left for Iowa. The football world knew that the Mean Green could be a strong program even in the conference wilderness because Fry had proven it. Instead of building on that, school execs told themselves the "we'll focus on basketball" rationalization. UT-Arlington did the same thing when it murdered football in the 1980s. Can anyone name a single moment of greatness that the Movin' Mavs have produced on the basketball court the past four decades with that extra focus? A single player? Do they even play basketball any more? "We'll focus on basketball" is just what their presidents say every few years to shut up new students who organize to bring back football. North Texas dropping to I-AA in 1982 solved a short-term financial problem caused by staggering financial mismanagement in athletics. Among the mistakes was spending big promoting a country concert-football event at Texas Stadium so poorly attended that the singer invited all fans to come down onto the field to watch. Another was having the athletic department handle the ad sales for the North Texas-Kentucky game instead of letting the TV station do it, which left 47 out of 48 ad slots unsold. So we got out of a $976,000 hole by creating a long-term perception of being small time, which UNT athletics is still fighting today. I kind of became accidental besties with Big Al Hurley after graduating, but how he, Eddie Chiles and the rest of the board thought dropping from I-A was a good move I'll never understand.

I'll hold him down while you kick him in the nards.

You are correct. As Mean Green faithful we are the sommeliers of losses. This one was of particularly foul vintage.

If we've got this much despair after one loss, if we lose 8 like we did in Littrell's first season it's going to look like the Jonestown Massacre around here.