The Fake Lonnie Finch

Love the Iowa game as well. Also note that Iowa is one of those that schedules one FCS a year early at home: 2014: Northern Iowa 2013: Missouri State 2012: Northern Iowa 2011: Tennessee Tech 2010: Eastern Illinois 2009: Northern Iowa 2008: Maine 2007: No FCS 2006: Montana 2005: Northern Iowa Nine seasons out of the past 10, the bulk of the Ferentz Era. Most of those are the season's home openers. Say what you will, but many coaches see this as tune up. This is the best way to go. I like Kansas State, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State's scheduling as well. Although, I think sometimes K-State and Tech go too far in the season they have two FCS opponents: Tech: 2013: SFA and Texas State 2012: Northwestern State and Texas State 2008: Eastern Washington and Massachusetts 2005: Sam Houston State and Indiana State K-State: 2009: Massachusetts and Tennessee Tech 2003: McNeese State and Massachusetts I think one FCS/TBC is fine. Many schools do it. We needed it this season. It's not outside the realm of what other programs do.

Here, again, is where I think you have to have a more plugged in commissioner.

This is what I've thought, minus the paycheck game. Or, at least I argued a couple of seasons ago, get a different paycheck game than the OU-Texas-LSU circuit we seemed to be stuck in. That's why I'm not unhappy with the Georgia, Iowa, and Florida games in the future. Is it a paycheck game? Yes. But, how many times am I going to keep going to OU-Texas-LSU on the road? Norman, Austin, Baton Rouge...been there, done that. Let's at least change the scenery and experience some of the other big time college game day atmospheres. I applaud Rick for moving in that direction. I think our school's dopehead contingency would love a trip to Colorado as well, which is why I think pushing for a series with the Buffaloes is viable.

It's also taken the mystery and wonder out of high school reunions, I've found. There are many reasons why the founders of facebook will likely go to hell, no?

It's the Sword of Damocles for those in the athletic directors' and commissioners' chairs isn't it?: (1) You want to make your product as widely available as possible on television and other digital outlets, and yet (2) You are trying to get students into the stands at the same time. Not enough digital/live access and one set of donors is angry at you. Attendance not enough for other donors and, so, that set is angry with you. I tend to skewer the commissioners more than I do the athletic directors because they have the television and bowl negotiating to do. I personally think the C-USA commissioner panicked when his best football schools began to depart - just a few years after the best basketball programs jumped ship under his watch. Schools that find themselves in our situations - athletics not pushed, and neglected even, for decades - get stuck in this false "television markets" sell by the commissioners. Miami-based schools = Miami television market or Houston-based schools = Houston television market. FAU and FIU may be located in and around Miami, but to think the Miami television market has them anywhere near the front of the line is a joke. They stand in line behind The U, Florida, Florida State, and probably every other SEC and ACC school you can name. Ditto Houston and Rice. Try to tell me Rice has anywhere near the media clout of Texas A&M, LSU, Texas, or any SEC or Big 12 regional. Add Cougar High to Rice as well, which is why they've been bypassed twice by the Big 12. The Big 12 owns Houston without the Cougars, so why throw them a bone? And, now, with Texas A&M in the SEC...why throw them a bone when you can just bone them? I've always believed you get to a point media-wise where you begin to eat yourself. I think this is happening now. And, let me throw in this other, unmentioned angle. It used to be that a trip back to the campus meant reconnecting with old friends and colleagues. That is wholly secondary now because of things like facebook. People don't have to wait for homecoming to see how their old classmates are doing. They already know. And, they probably know more than they care to in this age of digital, social network oversharing. If you've taken marketing, you understand that there is a price point for the value of your product. Game Day Football as a product now has many more challenges to its sell than before. And, again, as a non-"traditional power" school, the ability to reach the alumni based on loyalty alone is a tougher sell. And, thus, the paradox that the much-derided (on this board) t-shirt fan may be as valuable - or, more so - in the future than the actual graduate. Whether the person with their butt in the stadium seat has your school's sheepskin on the wall or not, money is money...right?

Yes. And, that's why it's all the more difficult to say our Nicholls State game is the point of "hope." The team that trashed us loses to an FCS at home. So...where are we really? As stated in another thread, I'm not jumping off a cliff when Indiana beats us in two weeks. My point of concern would be not competing well with UAB, who appears to be an "on the rise" C-USun Belt team, as Louisiana Tech was supposed to be. If UAB beats us the way a now-iffy Louisiana Tech did, we've got problems - with half the season gone.

Which is why we need to schedule one a year...a point where guys like me and 90 disagree. You have to have a gimme for: (1) morale, and (2) to get a feel for what you have with the next generation. Better to see where they need work in real game time. Better than just seeing them in scrimmages against your own. I'm totally with 90 on getting better teams into Apogee because we've spent the money. However, I still say we need an FCS or a TBC to open the season or at least sometime in September. Many programs that have risen from nothing have done it that way - Kansas State, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State are three that come to mind.

This. We beat SMU and Nicholls State, both horrible teams, both a home, both with quitting coaches - one after our loss, one before. Indiana is on a different football planet than SMU and Nicholls State. I'd say even a different football galaxy. If we can even "hang with" Indiana, then I'll see cause for hope. Otherwise, going into UAB at 2-3, my threshold will be that game in Birmingham. UAB appears to be on the rise, and it will be a road game for us. If we can get out of UAB with a win and pull even at 3-3, that would be more than hope. At that point, I think we'd be sailing clear waters to another bowl season. A 3-3 record with a conference win on the road would give me hope for every other game. I still see FIU as a gimme, and Southern Miss pretty close to that. So after Indiana, we will need the UAB game so as not to be in a 2-4 hole...with what would be at that point more questions than answers with half the season gone.

There is no question about that. They just roadkilled a Top 20 school, while we poured it onto a FCS school who was whipped at home by a DII the week before, then had its coach quit and be replaced by some a guy who wasn't part of the program. To say that the Indiana game will be night and day different is to make the understatement of the century. And, with UAB looking like it is going to be a player with their new head coach, there may be few gimmes left this year outside of FIU. Just remember that if we go 4-8 or 5-7, point back to this game when people begin to call for Mac's head. This is where we allowed "hope" to begin instead of at some more realistic juncture. In fact, if we return from UAB nursing a 2-4 record, the battle cry moving forward should be, "Don't sweat it, we beat Nicholls State 77-3; so, there's reason for hope!" Look at it this way as well: the Louisiana Tech team that thrashed us soundly was beaten at home by an FCS last weekend. So, hold your breath for Indiana; I fear it's going to be a long day.

Thankfully, simple is all that is needed against Nicholls State. The problems of him not bothering to learn the playbook will arise during the games that follow Nicholls State. Whatever the case, looks like the QB race will be wide open again next spring. Hopefully, they'll sign another JUCO to compete and another prep to groom. There are already many bodies there, but none seem to be worth much in the way of actually playing college-level football.

They're both good coaches. We are lucky to have them.

I like McCarney and Canales.

Come one, dude. You're telling me that you only went to The Flying Tomato to "study" and play the hip and ultranew-for-its-time CD juke box? I don't know what rules you were playing by, but it was okay to hit on girls who were "studying" over a pitcher (or two or three) of beer with you at TFT. Plus, if you were a good "studier," you didn't have to wait until Rick's or Otay's opened to get your groove on:

Hey, while we're talking about attendance... ...seeing as how the attendance is shaping up as a downer for many of you again, I don't know whether to laugh at those of you who thought beer would drive attendance numbers higher or to just laugh at you. I thought the "I can't go three hours without a piece of alcohol in my hand" crowd was supposed to be knocking down the gates now that North Texas has joined the realm of selling overpriced stadium beer. Well, alcoholics, what gives? Where are you? Can't scrape together enough street corner money to afford a ticket in the wing AND buy that overpriced stadium beer? We've got a stadium. It has both a football game and overpriced beer in it. So, what gives? Why you holding out on a brother? Pathetic. (And, remember...the lottery is going to fix the school financing mess. Just ask the ghost of Ann Richards, an expert on all mythological beliefs regarding lotteries and alcohol.)

No. But, I'm also not the type of fan who believes football is a one man game. The quarterback can't also play guard, cornerback, defensive end, and wide receiver, etc., etc., etc. Everyone is responsible, not just the QB. You folks who ride the QB train to0 often and too hard are on a dizzying merry-go-round.

That's the truth. Some games you need the OL to block and not make penalties. And, for the defensive backs to act as though they've seen a forward pass before.

Here's a secret I will tell you that I've only told those closest to me and, when drunk, to total strangers. In the 1993/94 time period, I was still a strapping young buck at North Texas, rutting away at Rick's Place, Otay's, Riprocks, and The Flying Tomato. One of my classmates back then was Dallas Cowboy LB Robert Jones' wife, Maneesha. We talked about football and whatnot before classes. But, now looky here, they've both got sons who are playing college football now, but not at North Texas. And, if you happen to see the Jones' on twitter or facebook, it's still the back home team they support - East Carolina. Okay? You know what I mean? Now, not everyone who went to North Texas was a married to Robert Jones. That's not what I'm trying to say. But, what I am trying to say is that there was a certain time frame where NTSU/UNT was the cheapest local university for people to obtain their degrees. And, because the North Texas area has been a magnet for people leaving/freed from scum-ridden union/liberal states, there were many student back then who went to NTSU/UNT based on price/location, but kept their old back home/family allegiances. I don't like it any more than you do. But, unfortunately, those people were the bulk of UNT students back then...and, they are now in the 35-50+ age bracket that should be spending. They aren't from Texas, never were NTSU/UNT fans, and never will be. Those people are not going to come to UNT games...ever. I'm sorry. I'm sorry someone has to say it out loud and confront you with an awful truth. Please don't kick your dog, though. And, drink responsibly.

Here's what I think, when I'm thinking about it: (1) Everyone who went to North Texas knows North Texas has a football team. (2) Everyone who lives in Texas knows its football season. Therefore, (3) Everyone who is a North Texas graduate and a football fan knows that tickets are available to go watch the North Texas football team. You all are saying winning will bring people in, cash and prizes will bring people in, Brock Berglund II playing QB will bring people in... ...but, the truth is, we have won before, and it didn't bring people in. ...they've marketed every which way but loose, and it didn't bring people in. ...we've had record-breaking/exciting players before, and it didn't bring people in. You have to someday accept that we all went to a school where most of the current alumni didn't give a rip about football, and still don't. We (and by we, I mean you, not me) are confused by it because we like football and North Texas. But, We (and by we, I mean you, not me) need to understand that not everyone who sat beside us in our UNT (or NTSU) classrooms for four or five years cares about UNT football. So, what to do? Well, Dead Bob Marley say move to Colorado and smoke some marijuana. It's just as big of a waste of time and money as trying to figure out how to reach the alumni who went to NTSU/UNT when it was a commuter school and 75% of the people showed up to class with Texas A&M, Texas, and OU hats and t-shirts on day after day, week after week, year after year whilst the football teams pissed around in the Southland Conference. Don't bogart!

(Also, what a bad time for Swoopes to be trying to strike a Heisman pose!)

Now, right here is a pretty decent quarterback with some presence, leading his team to a 7-41 loss...on a Texas DI school. Crazy, man, crazy: He even got one of those white, bike riding Mormons befuddlin' him! Crisis! Crisis! (Man, look at the leg muscles on that pedal-pushing Mormon! We got to start sending our recruits to Fiji and Samoa for two years to get us some of that Texas DI QB calf roping hoo-doo goin' on! Yeee-haw!)

Dear golfinggomez: You don't understand yet: (1) After we win a game, we are supposed to be unbeatable from now until enternity. (2) After we lose a game, we are supposed to lose all hope of ever winning again from now until eternity. You're not discounting experience enough yet. Experience means nothing because we beat SMU. Get it? Because we beat SMU, the new front seven and the new quarterbacks and the new running backs and the new receivers are automatically as good and experienced as the guys who graduated the year before. Everybody knows that. (And, if the run game isn't working, that's not the OLs fault because it's the most experienced group...regardless of the number of penalties they pile up as well.) How can you have not figured this out by now? I don't know why Rick doesn't just have a suicide hotline number printed on the back of season ticket holders tickets. If any fan base needs it, it is surely ours.

And, a kid at home. In the end, this is probably what kept him home: http://newsok.com/super-30-southmoores-jalen-adams-is-a-family-man/article/3861708 Sounds like he made the right choice for his family. Good kid. Hope he does well at OBU.

His former high school coach, Chris Jensen, is the head coach at Oklahoma Baptist. So....