The Fake Lonnie Finch

Home opener with Houston is a good a biscuits and chocolate gravy. Everyone who says otherwise is a carpetbagging yankee who thinks there is no other gravy but brown and that it is only served at dinner. Lost and confused. Lost and confused. Come on down, Cougars, and take your whipping from Señor Canales!

Wait until the third or fourth game: Game 1: at home, winnable, possibly FCS opponent. Game 2: series home or away with Mid-Major Game 3: "opportunity" or home/away with Mid-Major or early conference game Game 4: SAME AS Game #3 Only one opportunity game per year. And, if it's a big time program that wants to play it at Jerry World, jump in with both feet. Money and attention. Don't shy away from them because you want us to be University of Poor, Unnoticed Hermits.

Texas Southern at Connecticut? Why can't we get games with 6-8 win Big East schools like Connecticut?

Gambling is illegal at Bushwood, sir; and, I never slice!

I like him because he's from East Texas. Mucho great football players from out that way. Good to see us get back out there for this one.

Our Kicker is from Berkner, so they should have already penciled him in. Maybe Vito hasn't read the roster close enough.

That blind squirrel Phil Steele may finally be right about something. Although, he does think OU and their rebuilt defense will be #1. If that doesn't show how much in the tar he is, I don't know what does.

The Sun Belt will emerge and then merge. We will be at the forefront of the emergence under the steady guidance of Chico Canales. So much so, in fact, that on second though I think mergers will become talk of the past and conference will fight to gain our admittance in to their leagues. After the Chico Canales Show is on full display, and its battle station fully operational, we will be doing the picking and choosing when it comes to conferences, leagues, and divisions. The rest will simply float behind in the cloud of our afterfart.

Hmmm. He's not on his knees in DeLoss Dodds or Mack Brown's office? How is it that the Austin American Pravda still employs him? Anyway, it will be impossible to MTSU to be the BCS buster after we whip them anyway.

It was just a joke. Why be upset over something that wasn't meant to be serious? Geez, you guys probably don't like TheTastyGreek. Lighten up.

A full year with Charr is 50% of the reason we'll win the Belt this year. Canales another 50%. And, the defense jelling into DeLoach's retro, early 2000s defense is the other 50%

Beating Kansas State is the best thing for the program whether we win the 9 or 10 that I say we will...or, if we just win one or two the way the Canales Haters say we will. I just know this - the Belt better sack the f up this year when they roll into Fouts for the final time.

Kokjohn.

I'm just happy that the helmet is green again. They could put nothing on the side for all I care. If we're the Mean Green, the helmet should be green. We're not the Mean White with Green and Black Trim...no matter how much the Southlake Fakes wanted it to be that way. (Also...Jah ain't lookin' so good these days. With all that Ticket money, he needs to hire a personal trainer, yo.)

Wow. Two that Dodge recruited, and two from Darrell Dickey's final class.

I don't understand this, really. FAU recruits coast to coast because they have coaches that have been employed coast to coast. You take advantage of what you have. We now have guy with extensive ties outside of Texas. That doesn't mean the majority of our time will be spent outside of Texas; but, for sure enough to make an impact. I mean, didn't we do this with some modicum of success with Darrell Dickey's staff? Shawn Early out of Jacksonville, Florida? Cobbs, Galbreath, Pruitt, and a host of others out of Oklahoma? Sky Pruitt from Idaho? Tyler Bailey out of Kentucky? Venegas and Weathers out of Kansas? Jeremy Pearl from Missouri? The point is not confining yourself to DFW. We've gotten some fine players, star players, All-Conference players from other states. And, no it isn't recruiting the same athletes as Nebraska or Oklahoma, but it is using the same mindset. There are two-star and three-star players in every state, not just Texas. There are enough kids out there who want to start somewhere and will give us a shot rather than walking on and sitting five years somewhere else. Good, talented kids. Cobbs would have sat the whole time had he walked on at OU or OSU. He starred for us. Oklahoman Kevin Galbreath helped deliver us a bowl win - a game in which Missourian Jeremy Pearl also scored on an interception return. We need to go after these diamonds in the rough no matter where they are. And, I'm pleased that we are. Just having guys fly all over and make contact in Florida is great! Like Texas, much talent there. And, not everyone can sign with Florida, Florida State, and Miami. Let's milk those ties the way Dickey's staff once did. For all he did wrong at the end of his tenure, cast the recruiting net far into places he had connections was something he did right.

Here, again, is where I suggest that maybe we move Riley to the defensive side of the ball. I'm pleased that he's been moved to receiver, but he isn't going to break the starting lineup there this season. Stick him over on the defensive side and get him acquainted with safety and corner technique. He's athlete enough to do well at WR and DB...and I still say returning punts and kicks. My vision of Riley is as a white Deion Sanders. A threat on defense, offense, and in the return game.

On the Nebraska conversation - The Huskers recruited Texas just fine before the Big 12, and will continue to recruit Texas just fine after the Big 12. It's always laughable to me that we group the schools with long athletic tradition in with those without it when talking about recruiting in Texas. It may well be true that a school like San Jose State would have to play some road games in Texas to get preps to notice their existence. But, not any of the long time, major players. Nebraska will always have national presence.

You only pissed off people who wanted to slam Okies...despite their generosity in recent years in giving us players such as Patrick Cobbs, Kevin Galbreath, Charlie Brown, Adryan Adams, Kylie Hill, etc.

You may not like it, but OU is TV money. And, OU plus Jerry World is TV, gate and credibility. We sorely need all of those things. Plus, OU's biggest brainfarts in the Stoops era have come outside of Norman. They delivered one last year against BYU in Arlington. I've never minded one money game per year. And, if that money game can make us more money in Arlington than Denton or Norman, do it.

How could we not cast the net further? We now have a complete line-up of assistants who have coached at the highest collegiate level from coast-to-coast for decades! I've always argued that, as far north as we are in the state, we should take the Nebraska/Oklahoma approach and go anywhere and everywhere for the best recruits we can get. We weren't ever going to get the best out of the DFW area on a consistent basis. Despite what Vito says about FAU, they do go outside of Florida, and they do go coast-to-coast. Their 2010 roster will have players from California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. I'm proud that we go out of state. It spreads our name out there that much further. Oklahoma and Nebraska built programs out of necessity by going out of state and have built loyal fan bases across the country because of it. I'm hoping Canales will nab one or two from Florida or some other states east of Mississippi.

Possible, especially with Neinas now in the mix. He's got deep OU ties. The game would only be played at Jerry World. OU plays Cincinnati this year, but not at 35,000 seat Nippert Stadium. That game is at the Bengals' home field, 65,000+ Paul Brown Stadium. TCU is still trying to get the back end of it's 2 for 1 deal with OU (at Norman in 2005 and 2008). They played a couple of games in the 90s at Amon Carter, but that was pre-Stoops/Castiglione. My guess is that return game will be at Jerry World - especially given the TCU is taking on Oregon State there this year. Jerry World has the potential to give bigger gates for "home" games for schools like us and TCU.

I'm donating the proceeds of every fifth sale I close this year. But, since each company I'm contracted with pays commissions differently, I'm putting all of the money into a separate account and making one big donation in January 2011. Other than that, it seems we have to do what everyone else does - get on the phone and dial for dollars. Since donating to Tulsa in December, they've called me at least quarterly, and mailed and e-mailed me monthly. They want that 2010-2011 pledge! All of their stuff is slick, colorful, and pretty detailed. It's hard to say no. But, with the hiring of Chico Canales I'm 164% behind this thing now! I suggest the following (some even seriously): -Cold calling (hey, it sucks to have people tell you to f-off...but, that's sales. If 2% of the people give, it makes up for the 98% f-offs! Some $$ is more than No $$.) -Information packets handed out at every f-ing UNT event held anywhere within a six continent radius of Denton! Jazz shows. Packets at the door. Dance thingys. Packets at the door. Volleyball games. Packets at the door. Sack races. Packets at the door. -Send donation cards to the parents/home address of every student. Hit the students up in their welcome packs. -Rent a gorilla outfit and have someone dress up in it with a sign that says "Donate For The New Stadium" and have him/her jumping around like a gorilla at the entrance to the parking lot. This would be good practice for theatre students and a good way to get them involved in the school spirit side of things. -Hold a bake sale whereby people collecting money for UNT bake things and sell them to people who like to eat baked goods. -Auction off/sell every bit of the Fouts Field during the season! Put a suggested price list in the program and online. Make sure someone with decent accounting/receivables skills can keep an accurate list of who paid you for what. Put everything up! Lockers. Stadium bleachers. Old equipment. Dead crickets. Everything! -Open a clandestine strip club next to the beer barn and charge cover at the door, then use the cover money for proceeds to build the stadium. -Break into a neighbor's house while they are away and steal some of their firearms and panty hose. Put the panty hose on your head and hold up various banks and retail establishments. Use the loot to help pay for the stadium. -Start an internet gambling site offshore, open a bank account on a small, carribean island, and launder the money through it to help pay for the stadium. -When you are partying on the weekends, drink one beer out of a can, then go to the bathroom and keep refilling it with water. You'll stay sober and eventually people will begin to get drunk and pass out. When they do, rife through their wallets and take some cash to help pay for the stadium.