island eagle

Yes, we've made some progress, but until the past few years did not make progress at the rate of other schools. Hopefully, we will now remain ahead of the curve.

Clearing out the attic today, I ran across a letter from Hayden Fry, dated February 1, 1977, to Mean Green Club members. In it he states that "we have four immediate goals that you can help us achieve". Guess what they were?? 1. "We must INCREASE OUR HOME GAME ATTENDANCE....REGARDLESS OF OUR OPPONENT" (caps are his) 2. "We must IMPROVE OUR ATHLETIC FACILITIES" 3. "We must IMPROVE OUR TICKET AND SPORTS INFORMATION OPERATION" 4. "We must INCREASE OUR MEAN GREEN EAGLE CLUB MEMBERSHIP" I wonder where we would be today if we had been able to accomplish all of that back then instead of 34 years later? Click here to view the article

For what it is worth, he is listed in the 2007 edition of Texas Football as having 4.3 40 speed.

You mean to say that Coach C shouldn't burn Cooper's redshirt in the last series of the season?

I'm glad the British didn't have you as Prime Minister in 1940.

I just ran across my old copy of the program from the North Texas-Oregon State game on Sept. 16, 1995 (we won for those of you might not know). What impressed me was the overall size of our squad back 16 years ago. For example: OL: Kevin Williams 6-3 290; Jody Price 6-1 270; Vince Patterson 6-6 265; David Morgan 6-1 280; Jeff Daniels 6-4 265; Robert Waddle 6-3 280; Laymond Lee 6-2 285 Steve Gilliand 6-4 250; Mike Perez 6-4 308; Keith Miller 6-3 295; Tony Castillo 6-2 280; Chris Fogelle 6-4 265; Menell Weiss 6-2 300; Dan Watson 6-6 285; Jeff Bowles 6-3 275; Chris Hornbeck 6-3 260; Jarod Martin 6-4 255 On the DL: Phillip Armour 6-4 255; Wlllis Hudson 6-1 250; Andre Phillips 6-1 280; Shane McLaughlin 6-5 280; Steven Hunt 6-4 235; Aaron Woodward 6-4 240; Brad Spinks 6-2 230; We also had at TE: Brian Waters 6-3 235;Dodd Rimby 6-5 235 and Rodney Hall 6-3 233 and three linebackers weighing 220 or more. In comparing us with the Oregon State squad, we were giving away nothing in size.

He was counting undergraduates, not all students.

Those of us who did not drink Dodge cool-aid did NOT think his first class was all that good. It fact many of us thought it was the obvious disaster it was bound to be when he delayed taking the job for a month. One of the worst decisions ever by an incoming North Texas coach and symptomatic of what was to occur. Not everyone was on that bandwagon at all.

Absolutely. This class is far better than could have been reasonably expected given all the circumstances. I am very pleased with it. I think, given a year, we will see an even better class nest year. Coach Mac is doing this the right way, building from the ground up with high school recruits. Also, we have no way to know at this point how effective their talent evaluation is. It's one thing to recruit a "name", it is another thing to recruit a real player. I have faith that our coach and his staff know what they are doing.

Actually, we weren't.

I agree. We can sugarcoat it all we want, but the bottom line is we need to sign some linemen on both sides of the line. I hope they are really combing the bushes, both here in Texas as well as elsewhere. This may be a class where we have to take a few risks (academically). Next year's recruiting will be a different story.

At University of Florida-2016

Even UT Austin has this problem to some extent. They lose local players, some they really want, to other schools including A&M. True, they get a fair percentage of locals....but some kids want to go away for school and I can't blame them if they do.

Can he play for us as well???

Thanks for the link. Recruiting this year and next are going to be crucial for this team, to state the obvious. Although we have some talent returning, we are losing some serious talent and depth in some areas, DT and LB to name just a couple.

Thanks for sharing. From McCarney's remarks about finding a defensive coordinator, it seemed fairly clear to me that DeLoach would not be chosen.

What makes you think he isn't. Nelson is DL coach, Skladany would be Defensive Coordinator.

As were many on this board.

"Under McCarney, Iowa State earned the only top 10 ranking in school history (No. 9 in 2002) and won nine games in 2000 – the program's most since 1906. Before McCarney arrived, the Cyclones had gone to only two bowl games, but Iowa State made five bowls in his final seven seasons before he was fired after the 2006 season". No wonder he still has many Iowa State fans.

Seeing what recruits he is able to reel in will be a good early indicator of how effective/ineffective he will be at North Texas. We have a crucial need for talent, are off to a relatively start and have a legacy of multiple losing seasons to overcome. If he can sell the program to future players, then he will be off to an excellent start. If he cannot, then we will have problems.

The only Iowa State alum that I have been able to talk to said that he was perceived by the fans there as taking a program mired in defeatism and turn it into one where they expected to win. Whatever else, he seems to have changed the culture there to the satisfaction of many.

To put our play in perspective, #20 UT barely beat Rice in Austin 62-59 with a last minute three-point shot. Makes our win over Rice look a little better. By the way, the same group that gave us fits under the basket did the same to the Horns.

So, we should have never hired Hayden Fry and UT never hired Darrell Royal?