Smitty

Lost in all the debate over the loss to Tulsa and various side issues stemming from the game is what I thought was a great job by Rick V and his staff on the new stadium presentation. I thought the model they had outside Fouts was very well made and was very impressive. For an old hand who has been going to Fouts since 19(illegible), the idea of a replacement is rather intoxicating. The model was great and the handouts were professional. And a special thanks to Rick V for standing out there all afternoon next to the stadium model, talking to anyone and everyone about the new stadium. I know it's his job, but it cannot have been any fun to stand outside in a suit and tie all day, but he did it. He was gracious and friendly and happy to answer questions, even though he had to be hurting in that suit jacket and tie in 90-degree heat. Thank you, Rick. The effort is much appreciated.

No, redshirt him this year, then he can play WR next year. You still get four full years out of him, but two of those - his last two - should have been as the quarterback after Vizza is done. At least, I had hoped that was the plan.

Less than one quarter into the season...ouch. And how many fantasy footballers are screaming right now? You know he was a first-round pick in every league.

Why redshirt Riley Dodge? The argument in favor of playing Riley this year is based on putting your best players on the field in order to win now and not in five years. A very reasonable position, but I don't think it works in this situation, and here's why. Riley has two positions to play, QB or WR. His best position, I believe, is QB. But Vizza has played very well at QB and there is no reason to make a change. Vizza is a team leader, he has experience, he makes plays, and despite tremendous pressure this year he has limited his mistakes. That leaves playing Riley at WR. But because of this team's depth at receiver (Fitzgerald, Roberson, Dibrell, etc.) he's not filling a glaring weakness. Riley is, at best, a minor upgrade at the fourth receiver. I think the Tulsa example is a good one. Yes, Riley provided a spark, but he didn't make a big difference. This team's quarterback and receivers are more than good enough to win. The problems are elsewhere, and Riley cannot remedy those problems. Playing Riley this year, to me at least, does not make a significant difference. But the cost of playing him this year is very high. Given the current depth at his positions, Riley's greatest value was in learning the college game and being ready to start at QB after Vizza is done. Redshirting him would have given UNT six years of solid signal-calling - four from Viizza and two from Riley. Every program tries to build that kind of QB rotation, but by losing a year of his eligibility now, we have surrendered one of Riley's years at QB down the road. I know lots of people want to see Riley out there now. He's exciting. But because of the depth at his positions, his skills are not needed now, and playing Riley now is an unnecessary waste of one of his years of eligibility.

Thank you.

No one has said that Dodge said he was going to redshirt Riley. But with a very good QB in place as just a sophomore and with a load of quality wide receivers that this coach and this staff have recruited, it makes absolutely no sense to burn a year of eligibility of your quarterback of the future.

Yes, and playing for this year worked out so well last night.

Yeah, this team is coming around. 360 degrees. With moves like burning the redshirt of your QB of the future because you were thin at slow receiver, we don't need to hang with this team - it's hanging itself. Riley Dodge did not need experience for conference play because Riley Dodge should not be involved in conference play - or any other play - this year. He is supposed to be your QB of the future, so you get him ready for when he takes over from Vizza. That means redshirting him this year. I'm a long time season-ticket holder. I will be there this year and the next. I will continue to support UNT sports. But that doesn't mean we should all wear blinders and ignore a short-sighted decision or last night's dreadful performance. Positives, in the second half? You mean, AFTER North Texas gave up 42 points in one half, at home? That's progress? This is not measurement against the Big 12, this is measurement against a CUSA team, a conference we talk about trying to join. And that CUSA team just lit us up like OU did. I can excuse the OU debacle because it was against a superpower, on the road, in Dodge's first game. I'm cannot excuse last night.

I haven't seen anyone calling for Dickey to come back, but maybe they did. It was late and I didn't read every post. That, however, was not the main theme of last night's criticism. The criticism stands: I still say that you do not burn a year of eligibility of your quarterback of the future so he can play slot receiver because, according to Dodge on the radio last night, they were thin at slot receiver. In his own words, they played him because they were thin at slot receiver. Everyone has said you have to have faith in Dodge and believe him and take him at his word. Okay, I'm believing him. I'm believing his post-game comments to George Dunham, that we burned Riley's redshirt because we were thin at slot receiver. That is an amazingly short-sighted decision, and one I am still having a hard time believing. Six years of solid quarterback play just got reduced to five. And that was done because they were thin at slot receiver.

Short sighted. Dodge is on the hot seat? In his second year? He's burning a year of eligibility of his QB of the future because he fears for his job?

Amen. By the way, which is worse: getting beat 70 by OU in Norman in your first game, or giving up 42 in one half to Tulsa, at home, in the second game of your second season (you know, when things should be improving)? Fake Lonnie, you called it. It's not over, not yet, not by a long shot. But this program's direction is heading exactly where you called it.

Yeah, Riley at QB probably would have kept it under 30. 56-31 would have been so much better. Yeah, it's time to insert another true freshman. Time to throw away Giovanni Vizza. Time to discard him in just his sophomore year. Time to look to today, because who cares about tomorrow.

Right now, tonight, mediocrity sounds pretty good. Cause we are way freaking far away from mediocrity.

Maybe. But if it does, it will be with one fewer year at quarterback from Riley Dodge.

Yeah, gee, without him it might have been 56-19. 56-26 is so much better. It was absolutely worth burning his red shirt for that. It was absolutely worth burning a year of eligibility of your quarterback of the future for this.

I simply could not believe my eyes this evening. Riley Dodge was playing. His redshirt was gone. North Texas had six years of quarterbacking lined up. Now we have five. We are burning a year of Riley Dodge's eligibility for him to play slot receiver. Your quarterback of the future. At slot receiver. Your quarterback of the future. SLOT...FREAKING...RECEIVER. Coach Dodge, in his post-game interview, said it was because they were short at slot receiver. So they put in their quarterback of the future. And burned a year of his eligibility. speechless.

I always wondered what those jar candles were for.

I have no first-hand knowledge of this bridge's funding, but I have seen multiple reports that say the money was sent to Alaska and was used on other projects. The sources I heard from were the Associated Press today, a reporter yesterday whose name I did not catch, and Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for "USA Today" this morning on the Diane Rehm radio show. This isn't a "try" on my part. This isn't some game. I'm just trying to get some understanding of a politician with whom I was not familiar until a few days ago, a politician who has been nominated to be a heartbeat from the most powerful job on the planet. I damned well want to know the truth about her. We've had almost two years of intense campaigning to learn the truth about John McCain and Barack Obama. They have faced numerous debates and media interviews, and we've had a chance to examine them carefully. But in Palin's case, it's been left to the media to examine her record. These are fair questions.

Again, I could not care less about Palin's family issues. As Mr. Obama said, leave her children alone. I don't care that her daughter is pregnant, or that she has a baby to take care of. I don't care about a 20-year-old DUI her husband had. Those are non-issues to me. But there are still some very troubling issues about Ms. Palin. From the Associated Press: ST. PAUL, Minn. — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth. Some examples: PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere." THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere." (And something the AP left out but a reporter from Los Angeles has found: after the funding came through, she cancelled the bridge project - BUT KEPT THE MONEY. According to the report, she did not send the money back to Washington but instead used it for other state projects. So zero credit for being a champion to end abuses of earmark spending.) PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform _ not even in the state senate." THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation. PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars." THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded. Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families. He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise. MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson. THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state _ by population. MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC. THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations. Not to mention the Troopergate scandal for which she is currently under investigation. And for full disclosure, I am not a life-long democrat. I vote Republican or Democrat, whichever I think is the better candidate.

If UNT and LSU can't meet next week, there are no common open dates after that. The only open date left on LSU's schedule is October 4, when UNT hosts Florida International.

I was under the impression he went uber-conservative when down 21-0, which would make sense. But if he started calling the game to keep it from getting "crazy out of hand" when it was just 7-0, then that is troubling. Very troubling, indeed, if that was his mindset when trailing 7-0.

It's just a crying shame for tickets to go unused.

What about having a pinned topic on gomeangreen.com for the exchange of tickets that people can't use? It could extend to any sport. If you've got tickets but are unable to attend a game, you could post it there and people could see what extra tickets are out there. There will always be that one place to look for available tickets. That way seats don't go empty, especially when a ticket has already been purchased. Maybe title it Ticket Exchange.

From ESPN:

Agreed.