rcade

I hope that Littrell still has to prove something this season to avoid getting fired. If he wins the conference or a bowl game I expect he'll be back next year.

Wilson has 1,903 rushing yards in the NFL after 4.5 seasons. It makes me wonder what former UNT running back has the most in the NFL. An alumnus from my era, Erric Pegram, had 3,398 in seven seasons. Wilson has already passed Pegram in touchdowns, with 16 rushing and 5 receiving. Pegram had 13 rushing and 1 receiving.

All three of the fatalities are University of Virginia football players. https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/university-virginia-shooting-suspect-search/index.html

Stylized Eagle in the streets, Flying Worm in the sheets.

The Flying Worm is one of my favorite parts of UNT lore. I'm so glad we're seeing it again in games. Rick Spears a.k.a. Green Grenade created a logo that will be a memorable part of our football story forever.

Now that athletes can transfer more easily, is that as much of a risk? If they come to a school and the coaching situation changes in a way that they don't like, they can hit the portal.

Because it's a chance to play a decent or better out-of-conference opponent on a bigger stage than a regular season game. Because every bowl gets some attention from the media and is watched by alumni and other college football fans. Because winning a bowl gives you some positive momentum entering the off season.

I haven't seen an accurate targeting call in a UNT game all year.

We can multiply Littrell's achievements by 3 and he'd still have zero conference championships. There isn't a fan base in the FBS where the all-time great coaches discussion would include somebody who never won their conference.

It would mean having a coach whose results are so good we keep extending his contract. From 1946 to 1959 his lowest finish was second place. The team reached three bowls in an era where bowls were scarce. Even in the next seven years there were second, first and first place finishes and he recruited Mean Joe Greene. It also means having a coach who could set himself apart as a leader, as Mitchell did when he led the integration of college football in Texas.

Achievements in college football don't stop being remarkable just because the sport changed. For instance, SMU is excellent at paying players today but nobody lets that tarnish their past achievements in that regard. Odus was a legendary coach and fans shouldn't diminish that. Football legends are in short supply in Denton.

At Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, the Carswell Bombers assembled a team that won a national military football championship in 1951 and 1952. They recruited their team by offering Southwest Conference athletes near graduation a chance to join the reserve and stay out of the Korean War. UNT played Carswell in 1952 and won 28-14.

Drew Pearson did that once.

We could do a lot worse than UTSA as our biggest rival. Many years ago the NCAA Football game had a feature declaring your school's rival. Ours was chosen as New Mexico State.

The issue is moot. Our games will be broadcast and produced by ESPN in the American. The amateurishness of CUSA broadcasts is not going to be our problem any more.

It's the network's job to make more people want to watch its product. Any live college football broadcast looks more exciting when played before a packed crowd and impressive stadium. I think it's in the self-interest of the networks and UNT to show Apogee's best side.

This is like saying an ugly fat guy should avoid telling women he's rich. Having potential recruits notice you're running through your conference is a good thing. UNT's eight conference wins in a row is the third longest active streak in the country behind Cincinnati (17) and Georgia (15). Alabama lost its streak yesterday against Tennessee.

Tom whipped out Peter to yell "NORTH!"

It's bad luck to leave Peter hanging.

I think this discussion isn't about UNT. We're in a conference with a chump-change TV deal and our NIL is still walking on Bambi legs. The tsunami of money transforming college football hasn't gone far enough inland to reach us.

Videogame development. Moviemaking. Acting. Lots of professions that entertain millions exploit workers because they know so many people are dying to make it big. College football isn't unique in that regard.

When billions of dollars are being generated it doesn't matter whether you call it a sport or a job. Either way It fits the definition of a task performed to produce revenue. Most of the last 100 years wasn't like today, where the amount of money in the sport is staggering. Playing for nothing but a scholarship was more fair back when Archie took Veronica to the games in his jalopy. The number of games played and the burdens of the sport were lower too.

OU is so bad that Junior Miller has started wearing UNT gear.

College football was never going to last as an amateur sport when coaches started being paid millions of dollars a year to coach players who couldn't even sign a football for pocket money without bringing down the wrath of the NCAA. Starbucks employees aren't so valuable to the business that they are heavily recruited by competitors and their decision to sign with Starbucks is broadcast on TV and reported by the media. Only 800 out of 70,000 college football players signs with an NFL team. No amount of dues-paying by a coach makes it reasonable for one to earn $9.8 million a year and a TV network to pay $3 billion to televise the performance of athletes who are paid nothing under the premise that their sport is "amateur." Amateurism was a rickety structure and coaches took another sledgehammer hit to the load-bearing walls each time they signed a record-breaking contract.

I can be happy for former Mean Green athletes who succeed elsewhere as long as they don't trash UNT or transfer to SMU or UTSA.