untjim1995

A lot of alumni were like me--my son had his first little league soccer game at 10:30. There was no way I could make it for the 11:00 kickoff. So, after we got home, we just watched it all on the DVR. I enjoyed it greatly at home, but I had tickets we had to give away because my group of three couldn't go. I bet there were a lot of alumni parents like me on Saturday. Trust me, I was not happy about having to miss a home game I've looked forward to for about 3 years...

SMU is just dead...they have dreams of yesteryear, but they are on par with the non-SWC peers now. They think they should be Baylor or TCU, that they should be way above RIce and (gulp) North Texas, while in reality they are on par with Texas State and UTEP (maybe). This program has almost no support, only plays teams in the OOC that their fans care about because they are old SWC teams, and they have now turned on the only coach who has done ANYTHING there in the last 25 years. They are a Division 3, non-scholarship program, waiting to happen. No way they are playing football at this G5 level when the P5 breaks away--they'll say its below them and costs too much, which will be ironic because money is all they have on their side and their history of paying players in the 80s is what cost them the program that they still think they should have today. And I love every part of it....

Hey chief, I never said I hated paying for these sports. I said I hate that we have to play UT, OU, LSU, Bama,etc..so that they can exist here. And, no, you cannot focus on them above football or basketball at this school at this time with our budget constraints. That's a bit different from saying I want soccer or track to go away.

I didn't know it was so hard that we can't even match up with ULM, either... I like giving people a chance at success...

Do those sports make money? If not, then they don't need to be a focus at all at UNT right now. Hell, it pisses me off that we have to play texas, OU, LSU, Bama, etc...because of those non-revenue sports having to be paid for.

I personally didn't clamor for this series with SMU--I wanted to set our sites higher than them. They are a fine OOC game, but I'd rather play TCU or Baylor than them, but now that we have them, its fine. They just aren't what I expected to be the marquee home game when Apogee got built. But its fine. My point was that Fouts could've handled, albeit decrepitally since it was a toilet, the OOC schedule we have delivered to season ticket holders so far. We just were told we would have the ability to attract games in Denton that are more highly regarded.The masses may have wanted it, but I was more TFLF circa 2006 regarding Todd Dodge on the series myself. Iowa...sheesh

Now you've gone and done it...you're about to be dead to half the board.

I think its because we "get" Idaho...they are cheap to buy a game from, not that powerhouse NMSU would cost a ton more, either. Texas Southern. Idaho, Ball State, SMU, NIcholls State, and Army--that is just a who's who of college football in 2014, isn't it? Thank God we built Apogee to play these guys in OOC because there is absolutely no way Fouts could have handled these guys as opponents...oh wait...never mind.

We can bitch about RV all we want on here but the BOR has made it abundantly clear that he will be here until he wants to leave...probably the same for Lee Jackson, as well.

Iona and Creighton are nice teams to have on your schedule, but neither will increase attendance one bit for a home game at the Super Pit. Of course, Tony Benford still being the head coach won't help increase attendance one bit for any home game in the Super Pit, either, so I guess it doesn't matter...

That's extremely weak, UNT90. Its the same exact model that USF laid out that UTSA is following to a tee. Tampa and San Antonio didn't have a college team to support as their own. Once they started their program, they got their local media behind them from day one. Plus, they had their alumni and students involved, since there has not been any apathy yet to set in. BTW, I hate it too. But you cannot fault UTSA for doing what we couldn't or wouldn't do. Nor can you fault CUSA for looking at the potential of having their market in the league. Trust me on this, the AAC and the MWC are watching closely. When either of those leagues scoop them up, it won't kill our league, just because Texas State is there to take their place, but it would deifintely be another team in the state that will be higher than us on the conference ladder. SMU and UH fans are already open to getting them into their league, just for another Texas school to play in a growing market. They are a growing G5 program that is gonna be here for a while.

Do you dislike USF, too?

They are South Florida 2.0--same recipe, probably the same results...

I'm right there with you...its not done this way in literally any other college town in the region that I'm aware of, but it is in Denton.

I think we will, too, but my point is that if we don't, its not like the program is about to be shutdown, as DallasGreen is basically suggesting...

TCU Football has gotten way more support from FW than UNT Football ever has from Denton. I know you are from there, as am I, but growing up in FW, the Sunday FWST always had the TCU game from the day before on the front page. Of course, it always helped that the good citizens of our hometown got to see Arkansas, Texas, A&M, Tech, Baylor, and SMU roll into town to play at ACS, too. But Ft. Worth trumped them as the hometwon team for at least the last 20-25 years. Back in 1994, when TCU found out that they were going to get left behind, they and the city started a Group of 100 Team, made up of local business leaders, civic leaders, and educators in the FWISD that helped market the program to the city and to help with attendance. Yes, they didn't have great attendance until they started winning, but they still had better attendance than we ever had with much less of a student body and local alumni base while they were losing. Things have improved in Denton to where the community will support UNT better than they ever have, if for no other reason than Apogee is a great venue to go to watch a game. But I'd still be that if Denton scheduled an Arts and Jazz festival on a fall weekend, that would dwarf attendance at Apogee on that hypothetical Saturday. Denton is just an arts and music town, in part because UNT is well-known for both. The administration and the BOR butter the bread that the local citizenry wants, whether its students, faculty, or the residents of the town--that just happens to be music and arts over college football.

What still amazes me about this whole event was that Flanigan kept his job and wasn't fired on the spot...

The biggest SMU joke I ever remember was watching Ramon Flanigan play 8 years there... The worst UNT joke I ever remember watching was Ramon Flanigan attacking a fan in the stands as our OC...

And I want to win the lottery--we both have the same chances...

Geez, they are really down on their program right now over there. Remind me again--hasn't the current coach earned bowl berths for them in the 4 years before last season, of which they ahve won 3 against Nevada, Pitt, and Fresno State? IIRC, they hadn't even been to a bowl game before that since the Death Penalty. How can you be so down on the coach who brought you up from the absolute dregs of college football for the 20 years between the Death penalty and when they got him to come over there from Hawaii?

You have to give it to Dallas Green. He is one of the very few alums from the 60s or 70s that actually cares about this place. Imagine what he has put up with in his career after graduating from North Texas State. He saw Fry come up here and do some great things and yet nobody even cared because we weren't in the SWC. So he sees Fry try to get us into the SWC, only to see the same SMU douchebags he has worked around every day basicallly block us from ever having a chance, so Fry leaves. HE then see SMU become a dominant (paid) program in the SWC, so he has to work around them gloating all the time, while he sees his alma mater decide to drop down to something called 1-aa, so he gets to see UNT play games against SFA, SHSU, NE Louisiana, McNeese State, etc...while his SMU business contacts are playing ranked opponents in Arkansas, Texas, A&M, UH, TCU, and Baylor in the early and mid 80s. Then, when SMU finally gets the Death Penalty--he rejoices!! Finally, they got theirs, this will give UNT a chance to get some Metroplex coverage--and we do in 1988 with a great season. But when SMU gets back to playing in 1989, they schedule us to play a series for the first time in years. SMU is playing the equivalent of a Division II squad in that first year back in 1989, so playing them at Ownby would be a great way to show them that they are way behind us now--except we get pounded 35-9, SMUs only win against a team higher than Division II that season (UConn was still D-2 at that time in football). He sees us beat them at Fouts the next season in front of the largest crowd ever, by a 14-7 score. Of course, we went on to fire Corky Nelson at the end of that season and hired a Texas HS coach, Dennis Parker, to take over the program. We play SMU one more time in that series, losing in Dallas 28-14, to a bad SMU team, because we were a bad i-aa team. Over the years, he sees UNT move back up to 1-A in 1995, which is the same season SMU gets dropped from the big boy table as the SWC dissolves. Since then, we have both seen our ups and downs, but by and large, we have both been shoved out of the big leagues of college football. We have played exactly twice in the last 20+ years--splitting those two games. Yet he sees and hears more talk about SMU beacuse they are always above us on the conference ladder and won't even consider allowing us in with them--just as they had done back in the 70s. Now, he finally gets this series with SMU for ten years (supposedly)--and he cannot wait for it!! But he fails to realize that SMU carries exactly zero clout anymore in college football. He just has to hear it from the SMU business contacts he has in DFW, which kills him. And if we lose on Saturday, his worst nightmare will have come true, losing to SMU in Denton. Granted, the rest of us recognize that its just a game--but to him, because of what he has endured over all these UNT-masochistic years, this has basically become his line-in-the-sand. I truly fear for his life, if we lose this weekend,,,

TCU and SMU are true rivals. Their cities are Metroplex rivals, their schools are private peers that go after similar kids, they have money, and they have history. Rice and UH are rivals because of the fact that they have continued playing each other every year since the Cougars were admitted into the SWC back in the 70s. UT and A&M will always be rivals, even if they don't play, just because of academics in this state, as well as politics. When Tech and A&M played on the field, that was a true rivalry, as well, but they don't compete academically or politically with each other like UT and A&M do. Those are your three, true rivalries in this state.Now, Texas, Tech, Baylor, and TCU all have their rivalries because of conference affiliation,but its not as true because they don't have the same histories or competiton as those above. UTEP and UNT don't have anyone that cares about us. Being stuck as non-SWC teams for so long, we both got pretty well steam-rolled on the PR front for decades. No one will care about Texas State until they play other Texas teams in a conference--this is basically what we gave them by moving to CUSA. I do think the UNT-UTSA thin has some major potential, though. Assuming we stay in a conference together for years to come, which I think we will, and both are fairly competitive in CUSA West, which I think we will be, that last game of the year will always be played with something on the line.

I think June Jones gets fired if he loses this game--at least at some point this season. If we lose, I don't think it will be too much different around here. Basically, it will look like every year in Denton since 2005, except for last season. We will have started off the year getting pounded by AQ powerhouse or we will have lost the first home game played against a team that people care something about, meaning that about half the people won't see Apogee again all season long. 2005--crushed by Tulsa at home, followed by a pounding at K-State 2006--crushed at Texas, actually beat SMU at home, but then fell apart later, getting Dickey fired 2007--crushed at OU, lost at SMU, crushed at Arky 2008--crushed at K-State, crushed at home against Tulsa, crushed at LSU, prison-raped at freaking Rice (btw, this has to be the least competitive team UNT has ever fielded--we lost 11 games by an average of 31 pts.) 2009--opened with a win at Ball State, lost home opener against Ohio, crushed by Bama 2010--crushed at Clemson, lost at home to Rice 2011--crushed at FIU, pounded at home against UH, crushed by Bama 2012--crushed at LSU, lose at K-State, then follow it up with loss at home to Troy 2014--crushed at Texas, ??? at home versus SMU

SMU and OU both have annoying bands...SMUs band plays the same song all the time, playing it softer when the game is going and then louder again after the play ends. OU plays two songs--Boomer Sooner 95% of the time, and "Oklahoma-OK, " the other 5%. I grade a band by their ability to play songs that the fans like to hear during the game--I'm sure SMU and OU fans like those songs alot (since they hear them all game long). I think our band does a good job of playing stuff during the game that gets the crowd going. I know some on here don't care for Fly Like an Eagle, but it does have tradition here, so I like it still.

I am gonna eat my crow here. I was a big believer in Berglund's skill level. I always felt he should be the starter over DT. I was wrong, TFLF...now pass the salt.