untjim1995

Enjoy every second of it. I've got three and they are starting to get too old too quick, with the oldest getting ready for middle school and the youngest about to start 1st grade. These days are hard, but they are the best--if it makes any sense at all to put it that way...

Playing Houston at home is a good fit for getting casual fans to attend, even marginally interested fans to come with their buddies. Losing to them badly, which we did when we opened up the stadium, doesn't bring anyone back, as evidenced after that loss. What would do wonders for us all the way around is to beat them. It would help with attention, coverage, and recruiting interest--in a bigger fashion than any of us really can guess. They are the top G5 program in this region of the country and were the top G5 program (and one of the best overall) in the country two years ago. TX HS Coaches, parents, and recruits KNOW about UH in this region of the country. The only thing they know about us is that we have usually sucked at football, while rarely giving it much support.

BYU is the one we should be approaching--great history, great fan support, and great name recognition. BYU in Denton should sell out, if only because of the Mormons coming out to support them like they did when they played TCU in the old MWC days.

Here's the great news. Last year, we were either 128 or 127 on most of these lists. Now, with UAB back and Coastal Carolina moving up, we now have 64 G5 programs, including Army and UMass, but not including BYU. That means in one year, we went from being the worst or second worst program to now being ahead of 27 other G5s. That's what I see as progress, getting better than other G5 schools we compete against. Now, there are 36 squads in front of us at this level, but it just shows how much SL moved us up in the minds of college football fans and media. I truly didn't think we would win more than 2 games last year, so winning 5 with a brand new QB, under a brand new offense, with a brand new staff was damn near miraculous to me. Its why I feel like 6 wins is very attainable this fall, as the roster gets stronger and more used to SL and his staff while the schedule in conference gets MUCH easier than last year. We play FCS Lamar, 4 CUSA teams ranked below us, 2 CUSA teams in front of us by less than 20 spots, and SMU who is ranked 97th. I don't know where Army or ODU will be ranked, but it won't be considerably hire than USM at 81 and we play both of them at home. Getting at least 6 wins will be the bar for success and progression this fall.

I've been watching us since 1990, so here's my Top 5 Top 5: 1.) Mitch Maher--great leader, solid decision-maker 2.) Scott Hall--ditto to above, just didn't get to throw the ball because of the Dickster's offense 3.) Scott Davis--got in late on him, saw him play a great game against SMU his senior year, but played down to the competition under Corky 4.) Derek Thompson--HoD MVP, who was very unpredictable, but his top end was usually very good and he did lead our team to its best season since 2003, which are the two best seasons we have probably had since Fry was here in the late 70's. 5.) Jason Mills--see above, but he never played on a solid team here, so his ups and downs probably had a lot to do with brutal schedules, beat up rosters, and subpar facilities. Honorable mentions: Riley Dodge, Daniel Meager, Gio Vizza, and Woody Wilson Worst QB: anyone who took a snap in 2014 and 2015--by far the worst QB play I've ever seen us have. I still can't believe how amazingly bad we were at recruiting and developing a QB under McCarney. If it hadn't been for Derek Thompson, I don't think Mac would have 9 games TOTAL in the three years he was our QB under his watch, much less 9 games in 2013 and 18 games in those 3 years from 2011--2013.

Rice was a doormat by the mid-70s, leaving the Houston market void of anything to support locally, unlike DFW, which had SMU and TCU, as well as a lot of Baylor influence, as well. UH had to overcome one school, with nobody else supporting their efforts to block Houston from joining. North Texas had three local to fairly local schools blocking the path, as well as Rice supporting them from Houston. From what we know, Arkansas, Texas, Houston, A&M, and Tech were either in favor of us joining or would agnostic to it. If we had gotten in, it would be so interesting to see where we would be today. I suspect it would be similar to where UH has been, maybe not quite as successful in football as you guys have been, post-SWC, but similar in conference-affiliation. Not only that, but we would have jumped SMU on the totem pole because of their death penalty and actually being in the SWC at the same time. The bigger one to look at, though, is the Big Eight. Let's say we joined them in the late 70's/early 80's. That's a conference that had national champions in football in the 70s and 80s in Nebraska and Oklahoma, as well as a national champion in basketball in Kansas in the 80's--not even to mention Colorado's rise to the top in the early 90's in football, as well as Oklahoma, Missouri, and K-State's excellent basketball programs of that time. If we had any modicum of success in that league, even with the SWC at its peak, we would have gotten a lot of attention from media, fans, and recruits. We would have been playing in an actual real football stadium in Denton, too, if we got to play OU, OSU, KU, KSU, CU, MU, ISU, and NU every other year here in football, not to mention what those teams would have brought each year to the Super Pit. Its why that decision in 1978 to not get included into the SWC is so glaring here. We should have had a Plan B or a better Plan A, but we didn't. We get shot down, our teams of the 70s don't get a bowl bid or an NCAA bid, Fry and Blakely leave, the Old Nestors regain control, we drop down to I-AA for 12 years, join some collection of teams called the Southland Conference, and the rest is history. We killed off generations of fans at a time when we should have been gaining fans, not to mention huge numbers of students and alumni at our growing university. It haunts us today in everything--from attendance, fundraising, and recruiting.

The CoogFans site, just like PonyFans, and KillerFrogs from years ago, always say the same thing about playing us in a series that involves a game in Denton. They play us when they need us, for wins or for help at the gate (or both in SMUs case). I love playing all those old SWC jack-wagons that got left behind when the Big 12 formed. They got so much media support that we could have only dreamed of having for decades, even still today. We never got even a crumb of help from these schools when it was obvious we would have been a great fit for the SWC. I still cannot understand for the life of me why Fry didn't try to get us into the old Big Eight at the same time and create a bidding war, because the SWC wouldn't want any of those schools getting more time in Texas to steal recruits. We would have been the perfect fit up there, too, with all big public schools, as well as at the time, a great basketball arena that would have allowed us to fit in even more nicely with that league. Instead, we didn't, predictably, even get a chance at the SWC, Fry left to Iowa, and we basically just gave up for about the next 20 years.

Exactly

The other thing that people don't realize about Boise State's rise up was that the Pac-12 North Teams would actually play games at Boise. It gave them huge wins over Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington in seasons past. It would be like us getting OU, UT, or A&M to play here and then we beat them.

Nowadays, many Power Schools will only play one road game, often its against other Power schools. They can because of their TV money and their gate from a home game, even at places like Kansas, Indiana, UVa, etc...What you will see is some of these downtrodden teams of the P5 play at G5s because they are hope they can get a win on the road against a lower opponent and can help bring a winning attitude to their team. Then, you have guys like Gundy at OSU that likes playing road games at G5s because he views them as good ways to teach his kids about winning on the road before conference season starts up. And, finally, you will see schools play at G5s that give their alumni an easy game to attend and helps with recruiting, like Texas has done with Rice in the past or OU does with Tulsa.

You might be right, but having seen you lose to Texas state, UTEP, UTSA, and SMU in recent years makes me believe that UNT might just add our names to that list of in-state TX teams to beat y'all. I like Applewhite a lot and I think he'll do a good job down there at UH before somebody else comes calling from the power conferences.

UH is an excellent replacement for Army. Texas opponent in the G5, but much higher than us on the college football totem pole, as well as giving us plenty of recruits to show TX parents and coaches that we play regularly near their families. Still don't like the Liberty series, but this is a great win.

Wren Baker, as I posted weeks ago, if you replaced Army with UH, I will gladly proclaim your greatness for scheduling someone who will bring more people to Apogee than Army. I believe you have done this, with UH having the number of fans and alumni following their program right now and living near here. This is a very solid replacement. Great job, Wren Baker!!

The Big 12's big three, (UT, OU, and KU) know that the next realignment will have them at the Big Boys' Table, so they aren't too upset with waiting out the GOR running out in 2025. I suspect WVU feels the same, too. The others have to depend on in-state help or know that they had better enjoy the cash while they are getting it (i.e. Baylor, TCU, and ISU).

I saw that when you add in Tier 3 rights, UT made $49.8 Million, OU, made $40.8 million, KU made $39.8 million, and WVU made $37.8 million. And that's why the Big 12 stays at 10 members.

Hey snowflake, the truth isn't disrespecting anyone. Is he not a UNT commit that has had only one FBS offer, which was from us? Did anyone besmirch the kid or say that he shouldn't be here? No. Sorry we bothered you with facts in your safe space. Try not to get so triggered...

Some people just want to be homers and cannot handle anyone else who doesn't carry a Mean Green pennant with them at all times. Everything you pointed out is exactly right. He's a great kid, glad he's here, and SL's staff believes in him--unfortunately, as is too often the case here, so do a lot of other FCS staffs, just not any other FBS staff.

Apparently not...

t wouldn't surprise me one bit to see Texas Tech go after Frank Wilson at UTSA if the Red Raiders are bad again, as predicted, and UTSA is as good as expected. Wilson is a huge recruiter and will have some skins on the wall to sell the Tech alumni on...

The question to this recruiting trouble is why is it so hard to get kids to come here while entertaining offers from almost any other FBS school? Dickey had one good class, so did Dodge, but the rest have been nothing to write home about. What's it gonna take?

I think this, too. Wren is still new to this. Ian McCaw has been an AD for years at a Power School. As I've said, this just needs to be a learning mistake for WB. If it is, we can move forward with a better AD than when he got hired and one who can still be miles better than the predecessor--as long as he doesn't make another colossal mistake like this one appears to be for now. I'll say this, if we lose to Liberty in either game of this series, this will go down as one of the worst mistakes I've ever seen an AD make, schedule-wise...but its not worse for the program, as a whole, than letting 17 people dictate who is in charge of the entire department because he is one of their pals. That nightmare caused us to fall straight into a ditch that may not even be recoverable from...

The biggest improvement any team ever makes is going from awful to average. That 4 game jump was huge, if only because we really should have gone 0-12 the year before this, when UTSA was done to their 5th string QB in the second half of a game in Denton that we won on a late TD. And that last loss against Army could have just as easily been a win. Yes, UTEP murdered us and they were terrible, but it was Senior Day and those things can happen to young teams on the road. But other than them, we lost to the teams we should have lost to and we even won at Army in a game most thought we would lose. IOW, the record improved by 4 wins, but it was even bigger than that. Plus, the mindset of the locker room and the increased experience for the team and staff is basically immeasurable. Its why I feel like we should be able to improve again on our record from last year, even if by one game. That's the harder improvement to see, going from average to good, and good to great. But this schedule for 2017 is as favorable for us as I've seen in a while. Lamar, UAB, UTSA, UTEP, Army, and Old Dominion at home should equal no less than 4 wins, if not all 6. Mix in a win or two at FAU, Rice, SMU, and USM, and now you are looking at 6-8 wins, assuming health doesn't become a huge barrier. I expect 6-6, but I see 8-4 as a realistic upside, as well.

For us, sadly, yes they are...plus we recruit against them and they will bring fans here, all while being a winnable game.

I'm hoping for the best, but I really expect this to be a way to soften the schedule, nothing more. If he gets a UH, Texas State, or some regional P5, I'll change my view, but I don't expect any of these in Denton. If we end up with another 5-game home schedule in 2019, I'm just gonna sit back and realize that Wren Baker just couldn't change the status quo around here, instead following the RV track to getting a great paycheck and having the BOR's good graces to just stay in budget and keep quiet.

Just remember that he also had to work in guys who were recruited here to play a plodding offense. Harrell himself even said it was taking the guys a while to adjust to the new offense last year. I expect everything will be better on offense this year--Fine, Harrell, and SL will be better next season.