MeanGreenZen

SMU @ Nevada? How the heck did that happen?

Tom Brady wasn’t the backup on his high school football team. And he backed up future NFL starter Brian Griese as a freshman and sophomore in college before starting the majority of games his junior and senior seasons. So not exactly a career backup. If Mestemaker was the backup on his high school team and becomes the backup for us as a true freshman then that is absolutely incredible. As a UNT football fan, I find that very scary, but it could be that his high school coach was an idiot or maybe the guy in front of him on the HS depth chart was insanely good. Someone was Caleb Williams’ and Jaden Daniels’ backup in high school too. Jason Bean and Chandler Rogers split time at Mansfield Lake Ridge High School… but that was more of an even timeshare.

After reading this, I must say that I am very intrigued. Great size, great speed, all conference kick returner and is averaging almost 5 yards a pop as a running back (though with limited carries). What’s the catch? Can he not block his grandmother? It doesn’t look like he has ever been a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield. This guy could very well rush for 1,000 yards for us.

Morris has to keep our opponents guessing about the type of offense he will run this season: will it be Wing-T? West Coast? Who could know?

Don’t you mean just re-re-re-opened?

Absolutely, but it is a bit like capturing a photo of Big Foot. If you climb to the top of Apogee against a good opponent, on a nice day and cheer very loudly, you might catch a quick glimpse of a full student section sometime late in the first quarter or early second quarter.

UTD has giant billboards next to the highway in Denton and all across DFW claiming to be: The No. 1 University in North Texas. The billboards are green and it is a direct shot at us. And while I will acknowledge that UTD certainly has a few smart students, it does lack the traditional college experience that North Texas provides. I say we respond with a billboard near THEIR campus with a big picture of our full student section at a football game and make it say something like: “Have a real college experience at The University of North Texas”. Those nerdy chess geeks don’t even have a football team.

Well, I think a developmental team is different from a team in win-now mode. There is no longer any use in us taking “diamond in the rough” prospects because you will lose them as soon as they start to shine. If a player needs to be “developed”. Let them do it in Juco, D3, D2, low majors, etc. I think our program is good enough to always be in win-now mode. Under the current system, our best players will still always leave, but we can replace them with new guys who are ready to win and don’t need to be developed for 2-3 years before they are ready to contribute. Making that kind of investment in a player is dumb now since guys who are ready to play at our level already will be available all the time.

There is no such thing as a developmental team anymore for us. Unless you mean developmental for the P4. Gotta win now.

I would be surprised if Tylor’s NBA career lasts beyond this summer league. I have a feeling that next summer he will be choosing between playing for Bleed Green and the Kansas State entry in this tournament

I will bet you $1 that SMU never wins an ACC championship in football as long as the real ACC schools are still in that conference. You won’t have many chances.

A better question is: How soon will SMU be tossed back down to the lower conferences? The answer is: Very soon.

The most loyal fans are the ones who take it in the nuts for EVERY program. You should see the crazy points program that Baylor puts their season ticket holders through. Want good football seats? Well, you have to be a season ticket holder for Men’s Basketball too, Oh AND Women’s Basketball! What product hasn’t had a gigantic price increase in the last five years? Everything is more expensive.

Well, with a proven 1,000 yard receiver in Maclin catching balls and a proven 1,000 yard rusher in Adeyi taking handoffs, Rogers will certainly have weapons to choose from this season. So much to look forward to!

I don’t think he will be above Stone Earle or Reece Mooney on the depth chart.

We complain when the athletic department doesn’t have enough money to operate competitively then we complain when the athletic department attempts to maximize revenue to have more money to operate more competitively.

It used to be fun to follow the player acquisition process. I’d pay attention to who we were offering. If a DFW kid committed to North Texas, I’d jump in the car on a Friday night and watch his high school game. I’d scour his Rivals.com highlights too and follow his senior season in the papers. The player was going to be a Mean Green Eagle. Just like me. Maybe he’d have some of the same professors I did and hang out at the same places I used to? I’d invest in learning about him and would follow his career and development for four years. I’d show up to the Spring game to see who looked good. The transfer portal ruined all that for me. It is just too much to track and the payoff isn’t enough. Plus, most of the player movement news at North Texas is that my favorite player is leaving. I’m still a season ticket holder. I give to NIL and MGSF. I’ll show up with my family to every game we can. But I don’t know who these guys are who play for my school now. Dave Campbell’s Texas Football is at the printer and these guys are still coming and going. It is pointless to follow all this movement. Wake me up when the season starts and tell me who our guys are.

Yikes. I guess that is proof that UTSA doesn’t have a good NIL. Their players have to rob people.

Ask Iowa if women’s basketball can move the needle. Or LSU. Or Baylor.

Mosley is smart to not state how much money our collective has. You can’t give away that power in a negotiation. If Mosley said we had X dollars for NIL then any player we are targeting would know how much to ask for. And that player would probably ask for all of it. Or an established player would feel like he isn’t getting enough. And we can’t let our competition know how much we have, because that would make it even easier to target our players and our recruits. Mosley has a hard f-ing job right now. North Texas is in a very bad spot in the current college athletics landscape. But overall, the first year under Mosley was a success. He made a home run hire in women’s basketball and we WON the conference. Men’s basketball was competitive in the conference and won some postseason games with a new coach despite a really bad run of injuries. Football was underwhelming, but there is hope for the future. Mosley needs to be judged by the results on the field. And so far, those results have been pretty good.

Maybe by then, Stone Earle will come back?

Have you seen the numbers that Chandler Morris puts up against great competition when he is healthy?!! Obviously he will be the starter here and if he can stay healthy then even Chandler Rogers will forget who Chandler Rogers was. But even behind Chandler Morris, UNT was still a great opportunity for Stone Earle. Certainly, there would be certain zone read packages that would not be worth risking the health of Morris, that Earle could run. He would have gotten some snaps with us this season no matter what. But he’s not going to be handed the starting job at ACU as they have some real guys there too. The problem is that if Morris gets hurt, Earle would not have been the replacement. He fell behind Cash McCollum and was No. 3 on a 3 man depth chart at UNT.

I don’t have a problem with them selling the naming rights to the conference. It is a good idea. You don’t need private equity for that and it is no different than billboards in the stadium, selling ads in the program or stadium naming rights. But I really don’t like the idea of some outside investor monetizing me for loving my school. F those guys. What do they get a cut of? I’m certainly not donating to the school if 15% of my donation goes to some private equity a-hole. And what else can the athletic program charge me for? I already pay for tickets, parking, concessions, merchandise and NIL. Private equity is a short-term band aid and long-term problem. You can’t get in bed with them.

This is not good for fans at all.

The state of this conference from the transfer portal is just sad. I hope Damon Ward Jr. has a huge year, but 2nd-team All Conference with 39 receptions for 497 yards and five touchdowns? Ikaika Ragsdale had 9 carries for 34 yards last year and is coming off a major knee injury. That’s 3rd-team All Conference? I follow this team pretty closely and I have never heard of Isheem Young before. Sounds familiar but can’t recall anything about him. He’s 3rd-team All Conference too. UNT is going to have to wait until the morning of the game to send that roster program to the printer.