untjim1995

The Army game was worse--just because people in this area actually care about West Point and we had a good Fouts crowd that day. Playing Ohio, in a monsoon, and then losing, was hard, but Ohio was a good team. Army wasn't. To me, the most embarrased I ever felt as a UNT fan was when Rice beat us 77-20. That game EASILY could have been 100+ to 20, but Rice just called off the dogs in the 4th quarter. To lose to Rice by 57 points in football will lawys be the low point of our return to FBS. You can handle losing 79-10 to Oklahoma because they are an AQ Powerhouse we shouldn't really play, but they provide the cash and we provide the bending over. But you shouldn't ever lose a game like this to a non-AQ team, especially a team with very few winning seasons in the last 50 years. Man, after typing this post, the more I love Coach Mac...

Devry < Northwood < Alabama--Huntsville < SFA

To paraphrase that great entertainer, Fred Durst, "I think we are all in AGREE-ANCE that this 1-aa should have never happened..."

He won zero. He didn't have Dan McCarney as his coach, either. That said, I have no qualm with you believeing DT was better than Mitch Maher--just don't make it out ot be that Mitch was not very good because he played his 4 years here with recruits from Dennis Parker while playing at Fouts Field.

When Mitch Maher had a college coach and not a high school coach, he led us to a conference championship and was SLC player of the year in 1994. Just sayin'...

This could really work out for you...

Jerry the Owner needs to fire Jerry the GM...

I like that author's definitions of power, high-major, mid-major, and low-major. To me, CUSA is a mid-major league. Its a one-bid league most years going forward, unless you catch lightning in a bottle every once-in-a-while, like the SBC did on occasion. The powers are the P5 + Big East. The high majors are the AAC, MWC, WCC, A10, and the MVC--they will usually send multiple teams to the tournament every year. To me, a mid-major league is one that can, on occasion, send more than one team to the tournament, but usually just one team gets in and is seeded somewhere from 8-13. A low-major gets one team in and is seeded always as a 14 seed or higher. The only time a mid-major gets seeded that poorly is when the atumatic league qualifier has a poor overall record but wins the conference tournament.

That ball is in the stratosphere...it ain't coming back

I can't wait to hear what Green P1's lady friend says about Gate 4 access...

This is where Todd Dodge excels---wealthy HS with a great tradition. We've seen this movie before...

First off, I admit that I was way wrong about DT--I thought him being the starting QB last year would lead to a 4 win season. Instead, it was a 4-loss season and a bowl win. So I do think we will miss his leadership in the huddle and on the sidelines and in the lockerroom. DT was average as a QB. But the team he had last year didn't need him to be a great QB very often, so we got away with him not being great. The defense, special teams, and running game allowed the passing game to open up, where he had solid receivers. But his throws were more erratic than accurate, which is what average QBs often do. Will McNulty be any better than DT? My guess is that he will be about the same statistically, but he will fall short on the leadership end of things. Will that matter, though? It all depends on how well the defense gels under Skladany and how Chico gameplans with McNulty. I personally feel like McNulty's ceiling is about where DTs was, but that ceiling for DT ended up being good enough for the team last season. One thing I do know is that DT starting all year long was a blessing to this program, which is why I kinda hope that McNulty will be the same way. Scott Hall was deservedly considered a solid QB here under Dickey. He made throws when he needed to, he just wasn't asked to do that too much. He was tough minded and led the offense with confidence. DT basically did the same thing last season, as well. If we are lucky, McNulty will do the same. If not, .500 might be a real accomplishment in 2014.

June Jones may have left paradise at its high point...I wonder how many other schools are going to look at this real possibilty as the P5 pull away for good. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/hawaii-ad-very-real-possibility-234104500.html

I actually think its surprising that CUSA ranked above the MAC, even though I think we are better than them. The MAC is the B1G-lite, slower, rust belt schools that are located in a lot of struggling states. I'm just so thankful that SMU left to go the AAC. WIthout their leaving, we are still stuck in the SBC, albeit a watered-down version. Just imagine playing in the SBC today, but with teams like Georgia State, South Alabama, and Idaho as conference mates instead of MUTS, WKU, or UTSA, who I'm sure would have still gotten invited even if SMU stayed behind. SMUs situation improved and so did ours--not often you get to say that about two schools in the same market.

Yes, it can. Don't be negative just to be negative. I watched Arky State beat A&M by absolutely running the ball down their throats. I watched TCU beat Oklahoma by running the ball down their throats and using the pass effectively. Hell, just last year, BYU's freaking white QB ran for 250+ yards against Texas in their win over the Horns. Not saying we will beat them, but that approach has just as good a chance of winning as having a high flying passing attack.When AQ powers lose to non-AQs, its usually because they turn the ball over a lot and they run out of time because the non-AQ team has effectively used the clock. This ain't Dickey's plan of running the ball into the line three straight times and then punt, so that we can get the game over and collect the check, even if it may seem similar. McCarney has looked at these games as real opportunities to change the program. K-State in 2012, Georgia in 2013, and now Texas in 2014 are not looked at solely as UNT AD fundraisers, but as real opportunities to make some waves in the college football world, even if its a world that we are getting squeezed out of in the near future.

Not.Bitter.At.All.

There is no way that Texas is gonna have to play Louisiana-Monroe in a bowl game. No way that they or the Big 12 would ever let a bowl game dictate that. They'd get a deal set with the Mobile Bowl or the NO Bowl to take ULM before they would play them in the Texas Bowl. And if we play Colorado State in a bowl game, it better be in Albuquerque...

I remember that in Guy Morriss' last year in Baylor, he was pissed off that Baylor was again picked to finish dead last in the old Big 12 South Division. He mouthed off that I guarantee you that we won't finish last. Then the reporter followed up with a reasonable question to Morris to get him to go a bit further on his prediction--"Well, Coach, who are you gonna beat in the South so that you won't finish last?" He replied, "I'm not gonna get into that..." Baylor finished last--again-- and he got fired and they hired Art Briles. I figured that Briles would just use them as a stepping stone, but that obviously hasn't happened yet.

Back in 2005, TCU beat Oklahoma in Norman to open the season 17-10. That OU team had just lost its second straight national championship bowl game, but still had Adrian Peterson. They went on to have a fine year. But TCU had a phenomenal year, going 11-1 and finishing in the Top Ten. They beat Iowa State (coached by Dan McCarney) in their bowl game. Ironically, TCU's only loss was the game after they beat OU in Norman--a 21-10 loss against SMU in Dallas. Something tells me that TCU fans and players never felt that a loss to SMU, who still finished with a losing record (again), ruined their season. I want to beat their ass, too, but I suspect that if we lost to them, that the season will not be a success no matter what else happens.

I think Dickey thought he was gonna be gone for brighter pastures after 2003, but no one outside of the SBC really felt that impressed by his championship teams. And, to be truthful, the one in 2001 and the one in 2004 were a couple of notches below the 2002 and 2003 teams, which were very good. That 2002 team basically lost to a Top 5 team in Texas 27-0, lost to a damn good TCU team 16-10 in FW, and somehow defied the laws of winning by losing at Arizona, 13-9. When we beat a very good Cincy team in the NO Bowl, then followed it up with a very good team in 2003, I couldn't believe Dickey didn't even get a sniff anywhere up the ladder in college football. Maybe the personality thing had started to make its way around to other ADs across the country by then, but I know I was surprised he was still our coach in 2004 and before the 2005 season.

Now, we have mathematical proof as to why the ignore function is such a valuable tool!!

This is great news--now the athletic department shouldn't have to lose any funding for the upcoming year...

Basically, they are the exact same as football coaching philospohy goes. And at a school like ours, that philosophy has worked pretty well when we have the lines and the running game to do it. But McCarney looks and acts the part with the fanbase, media, and recruits. He is someone you want to be around because of his infectious personality. Dickey could never come close to doing that with even one of those groups.

UH would be second biggest, as well. As for the depressing part, really, at worst, we should be on par with UH for athletic standing, with our enrollment, location, program existence, and academic standing in the DFW area. But we didn't even try funding athletics for so long, it got us today where we are on equal footing (right now) with UTSA. It could be worse, though, when you think about the UH comparison. Here at North Texas, we have never even seen the Promised Land of being in a Big Time Conference, so you can't really miss what you've never been allowed to have. Not so at UH. It is a cautionary tale of what UTSA probably will deal with in the current environment of college football, since the ceiling for their program pretty much got dropped on them, just as it has for the rest of the majority of the G5. It will be interesting if that sways their planning for expenses on the program going forward or if they will keep putting resources toward athletics. I suppose the same will apply to us, as well. I do feel sorry for a school like Houston. They got into the SWC Club in the 70s and won the conference several times--more than TCU, Baylor, SMU, and Rice combined between their admittance and the end of the conference. At one point, in the early 90s, with the SWC dying a slow death after Arky left for the SEC, UT made it clear that they were fixated with the Pac-10, so they weren't gonna follow the Hogs to the SEC. Plan B for the SEC was to entice Texas A&M and Houston to the SEC, but the Texas Legislature blocked it, saying they wanted the Aggies and Longhorns to remain together. Then, just a few years later, without even a hint of remorse, Houston finds itself left behind by the Texas Big XII evacuees. UH ends up in a new conference called CUSA, but it never ever comes close to getting in an AQ league, even with some decent teams over the last two decades. Now, they sit at the same table as the rest of us G5 nobodies. IMagine how hard it must be to be a long time UH alum or fan, who watched Bill Yeoman's teams and Jack Pardee's teams win big in the SWC still get abandoned, then get Art Briles and Kevin Sumlin to come coach there, only to see them both leave for old SWC mates who have become the two "it" programs in the state. Now, they find out that they will be left behind with the new autonomy of the P5. That was a lot of money and effort that ended up being for naught, but not because of their doing, but because of Texas political sway of the time. On the other side, you have TCU, who took the SWC kick to the nuts and decided to just rebuild the program up from the ashes by paying big dollars (at the time) to get Dennis Franchione to Ft. Worth and by getting the residents of FW to buy in on their hometown team. They start winning in the WAC, leave for CUSA and still keep winning, then leave for the MWC and keep winning, all the while leaving their old SWC castaways behind as much as possible. They catch lightning in a bottle in 2010, win the Rose Bowl, and finish #2 in the polls, which leads to the Big XII invite when A&M bolts, since the other non-texas teams want more exposure in The Lone Star State and can get TCU for cheap. Now, because they caught lightning in a bottle for a little over a decade, they get their seat in a P5 league, and now go back to what appears to be the dregs of the big boy conference they are a part of, just as it was from about 1960 to 1997 in Ft. Worth. Basically, money talked and helped TCU make their luck, which they almost miraculously have turned into a Golden Goose--at least until or if the Big XII dies off. I figure that this will happen before the next decade, and they will just give the league the Big East treatment and permanently drop them out of the P5 club. But if that never happens, TCU will truly be the biggest winner in college realignment. For a small school in a metro area full of Longhorns, Red Raiders, Sooners, and Cowboys, they beat the odds and somehow made it in the club--its almost as if they snuck in the backdoor, disguised at wait staff, but pulled off the coat to show their tux and everyone at the party just acted like they were invited the whole time. Lucky Bastards...

It reminded me of just how loud the Super Pit can get--those older buildings have better acoustics for fans to make some serious noise than today's venues. Alas, playing in front of 1500 people in any venue bigger than a HS gym will never be too loud, so we have that to deal with again... I wish Tech and OSU would play us in a home-and-home going forward, but I just don't know how that will play out. I know we are about to play each of them on the road, but I'd love it if we had one of those two teams ever year in OOC, just like I'd love it if we had UTA and either SMU or TCU every year as part of an ongoing series. If we had two great OOC opponenets every year, it would make playing home OOC games against Northwood, Jackson State, and Houston Baptist a little more palatable.