The Fake Lonnie Finch

Agree. Bear Bryant's AD running a personal stylist into his office...that would have been a scene. Tom Landry hobnobbing with the Hollywood set. Crazy for that guy to even mention Kingsbury with the likes of those guys. How about, wait and see if he wins as much as those guys, then you won't have to fake up his scene for him.

http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/nathan_hughes_761757.html Kid was a 5-star DE according to Scout/4-star according to Rivals. Redshirted in 2011. OU moved him from DE to OL...at 248 pounds? He didn't play any in 2012. Two year remaining on this guy after he sits out a year. From Spring Klein Oak. Wonder if the school he transfers to will put him back on the defensive side of the ball.

If not, this thing will never take off: http://deadspin.com/5988378/leaked-memo-how-texas-tech-could-craft-the-image-of-its-new-coach-and-become-the-hippest-school-in-the-game

Agreed. There is no bigger tourist letdown than the Alamo. I remember being excited about it as a child, having heard story after story in school. When we finally visited it, it was like, "This is what all the fuss is about?" Meh. Last visited the Riverwalk maybe six years ago. It just seemed dirtier to me than it was in the 80s. The luster is surely gone.

Longhorn is gross. Austin isn't even a ranching community. They should call themselves the Traffic Jams. Or, the Overrated Music Scenes. Austin is overrated and it sucks. Ditto UT. They aren't sticking their necks out for us, and never have.

The mom really cares about academics. A kid from New Orleans isn't likely to become a rancher. Now...her argument totally falls apart if he goes to Tulane and then majors in one of the many P.E. degree plans or Sociology or African American studies or some other degree with no future economic value. If he's going to have a throw away degree, Texas Tech is fine and she should realize that.

Has Da'Shawn Hand told the other four that we are in his Top Five yet?

Until someone else guides us to consecutive winning seasons and bowls, this will be the way I feel about Darrell Dickey:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Solomon-Thomas-128405 That will be a pair of end that will terrorize the nation. I hope Denton is ready for it.

He'll do well here with Coppell's Solomon Thomas on the other end.

Unless you want to star in two sports. UNT will let you!

No school in America is better suited for Da'Shawn Hand than UNT. The scheme in place is set up for him to become an All-American as a freshman. He will challenge for the Lombardi and Nagurski Award annually here and be able to declare for the NFL Draft after three seasons. UNT has seasoned defensive line coaches, good climate, excellent academics, a new stadium, a thriving nightlife close to campus, and the albino squirrel. It is close enough to Dallas and Fort Worth to stretch out a piece, but far enough away to get the feel of a real college town. Plus, the coeds are hotter than fish grease. In short, UNT lacks nothing that other universities offer and Da'Shawn Hand is wasting his time considering them. He really belongs in Denton for the 2014 - 2016 college football seasons. And, in his heart of hearts, I know he knows this.

"The Google stats should show you the value of choosing a descriptive title name for your new thread. Instead of "New Basketball Commit" it should instead say the players name, where they were at school last and what the news event is. These threads get us a ton of traffic and HOPEFULLY new fans of at least the site. The key term "Arthur Casimiro" brought in an astonishing 1,200 visits from Google.... including one particular poster who is a huge fan of basketball and lives in Granbury (but will remain unnamed) racking up 282 visits on that term alone....." So, what you're saying is we should take the names of 5-star recruits and create posts such as "5-star defensive tackle recruit can start immediately at North Texas." Magic. Why hasn't Coach Mac sneaked a handle and done this already?

These lists are stupid. It's not the school that makes the football program a success, it's the coach. The other stupid thing about the list is it does what every other list does - it gives preference to schools who built their glory in the without facemask and "white only" era. Texas, Michigan, and Notre Dame fit squarely into that category. Only Notre Dame has more than one national title among those since 1970...and the last one for them was 1988! Look, each school is different. You either find a guy who can handle what is given to him at any given school or you don't. Darrell Dickey won here. Hayden Fry won here. Odus Mitchell won here. All different eras, with different circumstances for each. Plenty of coaches have been through the Texas', Michigans, Notre Dames', Alabamas, and Oklahomas and not "succeeded" to the pre-facemask/white only era standard set for them. Alabama farted though a few coaches between Gene Stallings and Nick Saban. Ditto Texas between Darrell Royal and Mack Brown, OU between Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops. Michigan and Notre Dame are still farting through coaches. A coach can either do the job or he can't. Just having a famous schools' helmet on 100 players' heads at kickoff isn't enough. What the list should be called is, "Schools Where Coaches Really Have No Excuse For Mediocrity Or Outright Failure." Looked at properly, we are a school where medicority and failure are largely expected from the national standpoint. And...that's why we pant over transfer QBs and potential transfer QBs who can't win starting jobs anywhere else. Until we find a coach who makes no excuses, takes the reins, gets the players to buy in from day one, that will always be us. Until then, I'm happy we are succeeding in the classroom and in the area of coaches not molesting minor children. If that ever does happen, I hope our off the field successes remains a top priority.

He doesn't play defensive tackle and we already have a quarterback who is "highly regarded" but hasn't started anywhere, so what's the point of discussion? Are we to collect every quarterback who can't win the starting job at other schools? Unless they are big enough to move to defensive tackle, I say no.

We're not unlike any other group in America. That is, you can divide us into two easily identifiable groups. The first group looks at our situation, how we fit into the overall big picture, and is realistic about it. The second group looks at our situation, how we fit into the overall big picture, and sees rainbows and unicorns.

http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/casesearch.asp None of them turned up in a docket search. So, whatever Anderson did in 2011 must have been taken care of and expunged. We need DTs. Williams was a redshirt sophomore, played in one game Anderson was a redshirt freshman, played in four games Simon was a true freshman, played in three games http://www.news9.com/story/21230161/reports-three-ou-football-players-kicked-off-team Obviously not starters, but...at least we can see why OU was raiding our DT recruiting target list.

Good, thoughtful responses. I posted this for several reasons. Among them, I've had family connections to ACU throughout my life. One of my mom's uncles was a professor of psychology there; and, his wife was the president's secretary for decades. My dad graduated from there back in 1969 when it was still ACC. I've had cousins go out there. One of them was at our son's birthday party last night and showed me those logos. That's what popped them into my head again. Now, I knew ACU had become decent in football, but I didn't know they were moving up to Division I. I do know that ACU has some wealthy alumni. Among them, one of Trammel Crow's business partners from the 70s and 80s that went gangbusters with him inthe Dallas commercial real estate market...and, he was a linebacker for them in the early 70s. There's banker who started the Burger Street chain. Some of the executives with Casa Bonita industries were also ACU folk. They are all pretty tightly-knit and weird like TCU people, which makes sense because the two schools represent the religious split in the group the led to the modern day Christian Church and Church of Christ. I watch ACU from that perspective. It's about an hour and half west of Fort Worth. I imagine what has happened is the oil/gas/shale boom is lining many of their alumni pockets as well. Plenty of West Texas Church of Christers went to ACC/ACU, and many were from families owning ranches/farms/land. This many be the financial lightning in the bottle for ACU's athletic departments. Anyway, I don't feel paranoid. I just think you have to look around at what is happening and be realistic about where you are in the world...and, where your current and next competition are going. ACU appears to have found a little ambition.

ACU will go Division I this season, joining FCS's Southland Conference. We've already pooh-poohed UTSA, only to see them join us in the C-USunBelt with only two seasons under their belts. Why not Abilene Christian in another year or so? They've got well-heeled alumni that are starting to throw cash at their athletic department. During the Dodge era, some who suggested we hire Chris Thomsen away from ACU were pooh-poohed. Well, Chris moved on to Texas Tech and led the Red Raiders to a bowl victory as interim head coach last season, and has since gone on to join the Arizona State coaching staff. Meanwhile, ACU ups the ante, jumping to FCS-level. And, because the topic is ripe, they are going in with a new logo: http://blogs.acu.edu/acutoday/2013/02/15/after-16-years-there%E2%80%99s-a-new-cat-in-town/ They hired a real, big boy marketing firm to do it. In Abilene, more than 100 student-athletes, coaches, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and other fans were part of focus groups that reviewed early designs, then helped refine them. Seven different wildcats were developed along the way, with one chosen to represent ACU’s 16 intercollegiate athletics teams as they prepare to begin play in NCAA Division I and the Southland Conference this August. I seem to recall someone here calling to get alumni involved in the process of getting us a big boy logo. Crazy, no?

I agree with this. C-USun Belt will be more difficult, and we weren't even handling the original Sun Belt very well. I'm more than a little shocked that this thing isn't further along. Mac hasn't been magical. He's gotten the thing righted off the field. That's a thing to be proud of; but, no one but us really cares about or even notices that stuff. It ain't like ESPN is going to come do a story about things being done right behind the scenes. No one cares. Everyone acts like they care, but they don't. Also, Apogee isn't selling the way everyone hoped - to either recruits or alumni. It's a great stadium. Hard to believe it can't be filled up everytime. And, remember, some folks here were tweaked that it wasn't big enough. Seriously. There's no telling what will happen with conferece realignments. Once the Big 12 either splits up or takes on more, dominoes will start falling again. I'm tired ot if all. Very tired. Hard to believe that 2014 will be 10 seasons from the last bowl appearance. I've tried to be more positive than during the Dodge era, but it just doesn't work. I just don't feel like it's going to happen for us...ever. We're always, always, always a step behind in everything we do...getting back to I-A/FBS, getting facilities, hiring real coaches.,,we're the ultimate case study in missing the boat. One of four schools currently with eight losing seasons in a row, along with Tulane, New Mexico State, and...f*ck it. I can't even f*cking remember the fourth one. It doesn't matter. F*ck it. Just keep clean. That's where I've now set the bar: I'm happy as long as there are no drug-related arrests or child molesting. That's where the bar has to be set to feel like we're accomplishing something positive.

Here's a clue. Now that we're with Nike, what did they choose for the 100 Year t-shirt logo? It wasn't "North Texas." It is Worm. I think, probably, Nike might know a little more about marketing a brand than the North Texas athletic department.

People still bought hats and t-shirts from 2001-2004. The "North Texas" script was not a popular seller despite the winning. "North Texas" is not going to suddenly sell if we start winning next year or the year after. Southern Miss won for several years and went to several consecutive bowl game, and the result was the same...crappy logo, few sales of merchandise beyond the diehard fans. Sticking with "North Texas" is a losing proposition. It will never market well. There is nothing appealing about it - even to the vast majority of alumni and fans. That 90% of the fans polled here want either Worm, SOW, or some sort of letters tells you what will market. It isn't difficult. Why our athletic department fights reality is beyond comprehension.

They weren't jumping aboard the "North Texas" script bandwagon when we were winning and going to four consecutive bowl games. Win, lose, or draw, we do not have a marketable logo.

I think he hired that tennis coach that they brought to the coaches tour thing.

Exactly. And, so, what is left for the average viewer? After taking in the score and stats, what is there left for the average viewer? The words "North Texas." Marketing makes money. Complain about "t-shirt fans" all you want, but those schools that have them are making money from their bandwagoning. We will never have to worry about making money from bandwagoners as long as we have an uninteresting logo.