Smitty

I must be dreaming. More than TCU, SMU, Houston, Okie State. Tied with Baylor and OU. O-freakin'-U!

No, you are not alone. I am right there with you, in absolute disbelief at this year's recruiting results. More amazing is the fact that this is happening on short notice, with just four weeks on the job. Now we're beating out Big 12 schools, TCU, SMU, Houston for kids who are without question Division I-level talent. I sincerely hope that someone in the media, come signing day, recognizes the amazing job that Coach Dodge and his staff have done this year.

It is not just you. You are showing common sense.

Poverty mentality? So, if you are not willing to overspend, you're using "poverty mentality?" What crap. Be cool and pay the extra money? The idea that it's "cool" to overpay for goods and services is idiotic. You're not cool if you don't flash cash? That betrays a superficial philosophy to which I do not subscribe. Me, I'm from the school that believes that value is smart and getting my money's worth is just plain common sense. And heaven forbid if one should actually earn the money one is paid. I do support UNT. I've been buying season tickets for years. I'm a Mean Green Club member. I've bought t-shirts and sweatshirts. I've gone to the New Orleans Bowl. I've spent hours building UNT wallpapers to support this university and then happily given them away. I don't give a flip about being cool, and if UNT loses but looks cool doing it, then nobody else will care either. Poverty mentality? Well, just remember that a fool and his money were lucky to get together in the first place.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you're right, but at this moment he is a very, very, very long way from being an NFL-draft prospect. Those sophomore and junior years really hurt his chances of being drafted. He's been injured, which brings up questions of durability. He has little kick-return experience, which got a back like Darren Sproles from Kansas State picked in the fourth round by San Diego. He would need to have a senior season like his freshman year, only bigger, dominating Sun Belt opponents and showing that he has regained his quickness and speed - in which case he might be drafted on Day 2, where Garrett Wolfe of Northern Illinois is projected this year.

Here's the latest weather forecast for Hell: This Afternoon Partly sunny. Highs in the mid 180s. North winds 70 to 75 mph. Tuesday Mostly cloudy. A 20 percent chance of light acid rain in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 210s. Shrieking northwest winds around 200 mph. Wednesday Mostly cloudy with a 70 percent chance of mix of rain and flaming hail. Highs in the lower 500s. Northwest winds around 400 mph tearing the flesh from bones. Becoming north in the afternoon. No freezing temperatures forecast in the greater Hell area in the immediate millennia.

"I've been listening to my gut since I was 14 years old, and frankly speaking, I've come to the conclusion that my guts have sh*t for brains." John Cusack in High Fidelity:

Thank you! This I have to research. If it's part of the old Underwoods restaurants, I'll be making a trip north. Make th at multiple trips.

Shocking. Absolutely shocking. To be living in the middle of one of the greatest recruiting locations on the planet...and to not even try to work it. To be invisible in your own backyard is just shocking. I know that we've known - or at least suspected - this was going on. But it's still unbelievable. Thank goodness that episode is finished.

Unquestionably, the best hamburger is at Denton County Independent Hamburger Company. They have the best burgers I have ever had, far superior to anything in Dallas. They are have been great for as long as I can remember. A really good restauant in Denton is at the Wildwood Inn, which is an elegant bed-and-breakfast on the southside of town, 2602 Lillian Miller Parkway. Their restaurant is fantastic. Expensive, but worth it. Most missed is a restaurant that closed before many of you were born: Underwood's Barbeque. This is the best barbeque in the world, and still has a very loyal following. Barbeque beefsteak that is so tender you can literally cut with a fork it. The one in Denton closed when the owner of the building decided he could make more by turning it into a bar. There used to be one in Waco, but it closed not too long ago, so the only one left is in Brownwood. I understand its family owned, but some of the younger family members are not interested in the restaurant business. Second most missed is the Texas Pick-Up, near Fouts. We used to park at Fouts on game days, walk to the Pick-Up for pre-game lunch. Really enjoyed that.

Vick water bottle confiscated by Miami airport security ESPN.com news services MIAMI -- Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick reluctantly surrendered a water bottle to security at Miami International Airport that smelled like marijuana and contained a substance in a hidden compartment. Police said Thursday it could be weeks before a decision is made on whether to file charges. "We'll do an analysis and see what it is. There's no sense of urgency to it," Detective Alvaro Zabaleta said Thursday. The bottle was found to have a compartment that contained "a small amount of dark particulate and a pungent aroma closely associated with marijuana," the police report said. The compartment was hidden by the bottle's label so that it appeared to be a full bottle of water when held upright, police said. Vick entered an airport concourse Wednesday morning with the 20-ounce bottle. His initial reluctance to turn over the bottle aroused suspicion among airport security screeners, a police report said. He eventually handed it over and boarded his flight to Atlanta. Police said the bottle was sent to the Miami-Dade County crime lab. Vick did not immediately return a phone call early Thursday. "We plan to look into the matter and discuss it with Michael Vick before having any further comment," Falcons spokesman Reggie Roberts said. Under Florida law, possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. First offenders rarely do any jail time. Two Transportation Security Administration screeners recognized the 6-foot, 215-pound Vick. Vick, 26, just finished the second year of a 10-year, $137 million contract he signed in January 2005. While he remains one of the NFL's most potent scoring threats and athletic performers, he has also been questioned for his consistency, particularly as a passer. However, new Falcons coach Bobby Petrino said earlier this month that he intends to design the team's offense around Vick. In 74 career NFL games, Vick has completed 930 of 1,730 passes for 11,505 yards and 71 touchdowns with 52 interceptions. He had career bests of 20 touchdown passes and 1,039 yards rushing in 2006. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

So Troy skins Rice a few weeks ago, Rice loses its coach in disheartening fashion, and yet Rice is No. 93 and Troy is No. 105? "After shocking the bowl world with a dismantling of Rice in the New Orleans Bowl, the program is sky high." Well, ranked at 105, the sky apparently hangs kind of low over Troy. And SMU is #79? Higher than any SunBelt team? I sincerely hope this kind of thing angers every SunBelt team. Maybe the disrespect is earned. But it is disrespect, and as has said before, there is only one way to overcome that - cave in some people's skulls.

I agree with Harry. Not to be an old-timer (oops, too late), but those who haven't been around North Texas and Denton since the 1960s may not remember the absolutely dreadful condition North Texas football was in for a very, very long time. In the twenty-two years between Hayden Fry's departure and UNT's first New Orleans Bowl season, North Texas was 98-144-3. Seven winning seasons, fifteen losing seasons, and terrible fan indifference. I never thought I'd see North Texas in a bowl game. So despite the unfortunate way things ended, my thanks to Coach Dickey for giving North Texas championship games at Fouts Field and that bowl victory in New Orleans, which will forever be among my most cherished sports memories. Best of luck to him in Utah, and best of health to him.

If you're not a sure thing for UT, A&M, OU, etc. and you're looking at the TCUs, SMUs, and UNTs of the world, then going somewhere with your high school head coach and coordinator has got to be attractive. Forget that learning curve of a new system, you're suddenly at the head of the class.

I say we kill 'em all and let Todd sort them out.

Very well said, Eagle Man.

And of course, by the time I finished posting that first message, the site is back up. Your avatar should be working now. If you linked your avatar to any of the graphics I created before I created the Mean Green Graphics website, your avatar may be broken. I moved everything over to the Mean Green subdomain, so any links to those previous graphics will not work. I'm trying to keep all the UNT-related graphics on the www.meangreen.wordsmithstudios.com site. If your avatar is broken, just go to Mean Green Graphics and select a new avatar. You can link to it or just save it to your computer, then upload it to your avatar on gomeangreen.com. If you have any problems, please let me know.

Anyone who links their avatar to one of the avatars on the Mean Green Graphics website is probably down right now. Mean Green Graphics is temporarily down this morning. My webhost has been notified, is working on the problem, and promises to have it fixed soon.

Considering his accomplishments, the popularity of his quarterback camp (and thus the faith other coaches put in him), and the level of talent he has sent to the college ranks, I trust the opinion of Todd Dodge on football players. And until I am shown reason to feel differently, I trust Todd Dodge's opinion far more than I trust Rivals or any other so-called experts. Don't fall into the trap of judging recruiting based on what you've heard, or read in a magazine, or on what some website says is good or bad. The same mistake is made every single year on the NFL and NBA draft, when the draftniks and the experts pass judgments that frequently turn out wrong. Just think of it this way: Josh Howard was the 29th pick in the draft the year he came out. Think a few of those first 28 teams would like to re-think their choice now?

You are all very welcome. Glad to help. Just buckle up before you go.

With the new eagle logo? Like this: Here it is without any logo:

Not yet. But its on the list of things to get to.

Fantastic! That is just what the bowl, UNT, and the SunBelt need. And another reason to stay in the SunBelt. How about a North Texas vs. Texas Tech New Orleans Bowl? Or Troy vs. Missouri? Or North Texas vs. Iowa?

A couple of people requested a green "Dodge" logo. I found Dodge has two variations of its ram-head logo, so I did both of them in green. They are on the first row of avatars in the 100x100 pixel section at Mean Green Graphics avatars. Enjoy! Smitty