rcade

Amen, brother. That needs to be on a Mean Green T-shirt sold only to fans old enough to know why you hated having a friend with a bunch of nines in their phone number.

I became a UNT fan when I arrived on campus in 1988 and there has never been a time I had no expectations. People who think it was easier in the past to suck are forgetting what it was like to get your regular Saturday-evening kick in the nards watching the Mean Green in the Southland, Big West and Sun Belt. (I know people pay good money to have that done to themselves in San Antonio.) Morale should not be at an all-time low when we're leaving Conference USA and Judy behind.

I seem to recall Darrell Dickey getting the axe in Twenty Aught Six.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34136486/qb-arch-manning-no-1-recruit-2023-class-commits-texas He rejected Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Virginia and North Texas, choosing UTSA's sister school.

As I post this comment, Stadium is airing a seven-man, no-pads football league called American 7s. I played flag football games at UNT that were better attended, because at least we got our girlfriends to be there.

Getting fired after going 2-9 and 3-9 seems pretty reasonable to me.

Enough time has passed that I can enjoy Dickey's achievements at UNT despite the stunt he pulled on the way out the door. I had some great times during that 26-game conference winning streak. Seven of his players went on to be in the NFL and one who didn't -- Booger Kennedy -- is one of our all-time greats. There's also Andrew Smith, who quarterbacked the team to a bowl win over Cincinnati. I wonder what he could've gone on to do both in his final two seasons and the rest of his life.

It is amazing to me that top P5 coaches don't burst into flame when they complain money is ruining the sport. Maybe your salary of $10 million a year had something to do with that, Coach Saban.

I think it was inevitable this would happen when the money being paid on college football TV deals and coaching salaries became so enormous.

I watch the CFL, which starts its regular season on June 9 this year. It's a different game than the NFL because of three downs instead of four, the wider 110-yard field, receivers allowed to be in motion before the snap and singletons (one-point scores when a field goal is missed and the defense can't get out of the much deeper end zones). But it's entertaining and has better talent than the upstart spring leagues. Being a CFL fan has the advantage of making the NFL offseason feel much shorter. I watch the CFL until the NFL is back, then usually don't watch again until the playoffs.

It's a good fit for him. With all those woods out there, no one could see a banner plane.

It's cool he's been able to stay independent and hasn't needed the record labels.

He got six snaps and no touches. San Francisco only relied on him for a few games this year when Elijah Mitchell was hurt. I expect he'll be playing somewhere else next year.

UTA is the fifth largest university in Texas and is 8,000 students bigger than UTSA. It could support football and students have tried for years to revive the program. They just can't catch a break with the school president and other leaders, who toy with the idea and never get it done. I attended UTA right after football died and reported for The Shorthorn. A lot of people were fighting mad about that decision back then and probably still are today. When I transferred to UNT in 1988, one of the things I was happiest about was coming to a school with football.

This is a good place to list all the things I admire about SMU:

Stetson Bennett has the same reported height and weight as Mason Fine -- 5' 11' and 190.

I hate players holding themselves out of bowls but I understand why they do it. Injuries like the one Jameson Williams suffered last night are going to influence a lot of college players who think they will get drafted. Though you'd think draft considerations might only impact the top draft prospects like Williams, even the late-round drafted players get money that would be life-changing. Bucs linebacker Grant Stuard -- Mister Irrelevant because he was the last pick in the 2021 draft -- signed a four-year, $3.5 million deal. Williams will still get drafted but if Torrey hurt his knee in the bowl this year he wouldn't get drafted at all.

So you're telling me the Bucs signed a football player to play football? GET OUTTA TOWN.

Here's my UTSA 2021 season in review: Lost to North Texas 45-23. Would have lost 11 more times if they played UNT in all of those games.

My siblings and I all graduated from UNT. Whenever we start talking UNT athletics somebody says "Eagle claw." And then everybody does. Then we make the hand sign, which kind of hurts.

I'm glad for the players that they earned five straight victories, including one over a ranked opponent. Particularly the ones on their final year of eligibility. But I'm not going to credit coaches for not throwing in the towel. If that was ever an option for them, even at 1-5, they are in the wrong job.

Expectations changed after UNT fell to 1-6. That made 6-7 and another bowl loss look miraculous, but in the end it's still a losing record and a bowl loss.

Seth Littrell will be just as fire-able Monday as he is today. Doing it on Christmas Eve or Christmas would bring national mockery to UNT.

I don't care that the game's over. I'm still picking North Texas by 10.

Every time I see a coach doused in Gatorade I think about how that killed George Allen.