untjim1995

To me, the best parts of DD years at UNT were winning the SBC 4 years in a row , winning a bowl game (this was giant and should have led to so much more over the next few years), and his teams beat Tech, Boise State, Nevada, Cincy, Baylor, and SMU during his tenure. He also gave an offense that allowed Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas to become rushing champions, producing amazing publicity for the program (again, this should have produced even more than it ended up doing). And last, but not least, he got us Mattress Mac's million. Now, lets look at each of those positives. The SBC back then was so weak that rarely did anyone else have a winning record--hell, even we, as champs in 2001 didn't have a winning record. When we were winning games against those teams in the SBC, the rest of the area, state, and country just thought that we were playing basically a glorified D-iAA schedule. The win over Cincy seemed to grab a lot of attention, though, and the following year when we pounded Baylor at home and won the SBC again easily, we went to NO and lost a tough game to Memphis. There was really no shame in that loss, either, as Memphis was really good. To me, this is where Dickey mailed it in. I think he thought there is no way I am not getting another job at a better school. Unfortunately for him, the rest of the country seemed to say that although he had picked us from the dirt, it was because we played in the SBC. His personality and offense were not going to be sellable to other schools' fans and alumni. At this point, he really got into the woe-is-me BS and the recruiting started to suffer. Of course, he loses Andrew Smith tragically and then loses Byerly via ignorance and he had really nothing left at QB. At this point, the SBC really just passed us by. And while the losses started mounting again, the absolute boring-ass style of offense really began to wear on us. But, when he didn't do ANYTHING to his OC for assaulting a fan in the stands--not in private, somehere, but in front of those who still managed to care, the writing was on the wall to me. I couldn't believe that he got to even make it to the next year after that when he RETAINED the idiot OC. (Only at UNT ) The running game that had given us those great years could no longer work, as most teams followed So. Miss's bowl strategy of 9 men in the box and dared them to run, which led to predictable results. BTW, those third and 10 draw plays were really awesome the first six dozen times we saw them. After that, they got pretty old to watch. Then when he gets fired, we MFer fans get Hutch Black Jersey Night at Fouts. And to top it off, the guy that donates us the million decides that he can't handle it with class, but instead demands that the university name something (anything) after his buddy or else he was gonna take his cash back home. With that, we have the DD Practice Field to memorialize a losing coach. Hayden Fry must be so proud of that. All that said, this is completely separate from the Dodge hiring, which looked promising at first (and cheap) and now looks just ridiculous (and expensive to correct, i.e. buyout and hiring someone new during the worst recession in 35 years). Only at our beloved UNT!!

I was a student manager during those days and Tim and I would always cut up during the offensive drills, which were the last hour or two of practice each day. Basically, the guy only deep-snapped, so he just kinda hung out with all of us during practice. He was very funny and the stories about Simon were all true. Believe me, you couldn't make that stuff up. Simon was literally crazy--I am not lying at all. He was always convinced people were spying on our practices, hence Tim and I were always sent to go check why the student who was enjoying a great afternoon outside while watching practice and studying were really at Fouts!! You couldn't begin to understand the looks we would get from these people when we would be forced to ask them why they were here and that our coach thought that might by a spy--for the likes of Sam Houston or Nicholls State or even Montana!! Various head coaches would just get blinsided before games when they would go to meet Simon for the handshake and he would just blast into them for spying!! Unbelievable--and true.

I have read quite a bit of input from the board over the last few days and here is what I see happening to Dodge if we go 0-12. Nothing--zilch--nada. Is it because he shouldn't be fired? Nope. Is it because the AD really wants to see him do well? Nope. Then why will he still be our coach next year, even if we go 0-12? Fairly simple... We have no money. There is no way we can eat 3 years of his contract. We barely could take on Dickey's contract when we offered Dodge next to nothing to come and coach here (by FBS standards). Look, we are what we are. We are a school that really shouldn't stay at this level if we don't vote yes for the stadium AND substantially raise the salaries of our coaching staff--not just the head coach, but the whole staff. I think that we need to really drop the program if we can't fund it right. This has become the ultimate embarrassment. I just don't think that the university wants to have anything successful on the gridiron because it costs too much and takes away from music, arts, the education department, etc. This upcoming vote really proves this to me--there seems to be a mindset that the students will have the final say and the leaders can just sit back and say when it gets voted down that they really tried, but the will (apathy) of the university has been stated. The crazy part about all of this is to think of where UNT alums that have followed the program will go to follow college football if we do abandon the program. It will be very interesting to see.

Actually, TCU and SMU have home games scheduled against Oklahoma and Texas A&M in the near future. The questions of whether OU/A&M will actually play them on the road or just buy them out is yet to be answered, but both stadiums seat less than 45K, I believe. I still think that we could get an LSU-type game here if we have a nice stadium, just for recruiting visability. This is also why I think they should try and get Iowa, Mizzou, Kansas, etc on the schedule for the future. If K-State ever plays at Fouts, I will laugh at their stupidity. Playing here with all of the stadium's issues would not be worth the buyout, IMHO.

The real question to you is why are you supporting a VP candidate who makes policy decisions based on old reruns of Dukes of Hazard episodes.

I agree with you on the list you had. We probably won't get OU, Texas, Michigan, or LSU here for a game in a new stadium, but getting the Mississippi schools (Ole MIss, Miss. State, USM), the Kansas schools, Missouri, the Colorado schools, or the Iowa schools should/would happen fairly easily. This doesn't even count the idea of getting CUSA/WAC teams here or the occasional BCS game against teams like Georgia Tech or Louisville. I think this would be great. I just don't know that I am sold on the new stadium happening, though.

wow

Good-at least I know that Ron Mendoza hasn't tried to attack him again. J/K

I alwyas enjoy FFRs opinion, but I noticed that he hasn't posted anything since the Tulsa game--at least nothing that I noticed. I hope that everything is ok. Anyone know what he thought about the game on Saturday--other than the obvious point of the game being repulsive?

SMU will score some on Tech--their defense is still suspect. E.Washington scored 24 on them in Lubbuck. Tech's offense will score on almost all of their possessions, so I will say 66-24 Tech. As for the LSU-UNT game, well, they can name the score. They will score at least 70--bank on that. The hard part about this is the fact that in previous trips down to Baton Rouge, we have scored 1 touchdown--in 3 games. The last time we played there, we scored 3 points. I don't have the energy to look this up, but I believe that the most points we have scored against the Big 3 (UT, OU, and LSU) over the last 10 years has been 10 points. LSU will absolutely annihilate us--no surprise there. But I doubt very seriously that we will score a point down there. I guess we will see. I think LSU wins this 73-0 or something like it. Be prepared for the "We need to fire Dodge" voices to really pick up after this, which is still ridiculous. This thing is gonna take awhile to get turned around. 0-12 or 1-11 are not out of the question.

We were also coming off of our 4th straight conference championship team when we last played them here. Trust me, though, I want you to be right and for us to have 25K or more. That would be great.

How many games have we ever been over 25K for in the history of the stadium since it was added onto in 1994? I think 20K would be great.

Best positive--game is over with no more Big XII teams on the schedule and only one more BCS ass-kicking to take--albeit with a nice check. Other positives--no turnovers, decent running stats, some young guys got experience, SBC play is only about a month away Worst negative--Another season-opening ass-whipping that makes general fan/student look at us as an after-thought (again) Other negatives--The O-line couldn't keep pressure off of Vizza and the rest of the offense just fell flat, defensive line registered little to no pressure We knew that the lines were going to be troublesome, and when mixed with a BCS team (Greenminer alluded to this often leading up to this game), we all pretty much knew that we would have very little chance of competing. Tulsa, although not BCS, is still very good and will give us trouble because their offenses is great. With very little pressure from the defense, Tulsa will score a lot. The good news, though, is that Tulsa's defense is not great, and we will score some points. I think that we all get mad when a name team pounds us, but it is what normally happnes to the non-BCS teams on the road--not always, but normally. Lets see where we are when FIU and ULL come to Denton in October. If we are still having problems after that, then there will be cause for worry. Again, if we win 4 games this season (FIU, ULL, WKU, and another somewhere) that will double our wins from last year. Its gonna take awhile. It is just unfortunate that the stadium vote comes during this year. I fear what happens to this program if this vote goes south again.

Oh, come on--that was so three days ago!! Many folks may have already changed their minds!!

What does everyone think for this weekend's game against K-State? We have just over 2 days before kickoff.

It really bothers me when I hear people say that we should just be like these programs if we could start winning. Both K-State and South Florida had the luxury of already being a part of good conferences when they got their programs going in the right direction. With K-State, they literally needed to show their fans that they wanted to get better. It was so easy to get them whipped into a frenzy when they started winning in OOC as they got ready to play their Big 8 rivals. How easy could it be to get your program really growing fast if you always got Nebraska, Oklahoma, or Colorado to come to town when they were all ranked in the Top Ten at various times along the way? So showing success to their fandom was really all that was needed--they had monied alumni who loved their university. Our situation is just so different from them that to compare the two is not really fair. South Florida's situation was similar to Western Kentucky when they got their program rolling. USF was already in CUSA for all sports but football and when they got good they were doing it against teams that had name recognition. The conference realignment bug really hit them at the perfect time, too. The Big East was barely afloat, but continued to be a BCS conference, so getting a presence in Florida and giving those kids the chance to play for BCS bowl games made their situation almost 180 degrees from ours--the only way it could become comparable is if realignment brought UNT to the Big XII (don't hold your breath). South Florida's administration took advantage of their situation to maximize the potential to become what they have become--a very solid program that has big-time potential. This is what UNT leadership could have done back in the late 70s and early 80s. Instead, we went to I-AA and it has been our albatross ever since.

I would expect K-State to win this by 4+ TDs. They are just that much more talented. When Freeman is on, he is as talented a QB as you can find because of his size. KSU might not be great by Big XII standards but they are still loaded compared to where most of the non- AQ BCS schools are. I expect this one to get ugly as our lines just aren't ready for this kind of talent yet. If we were opening against a I-AA school or against an SBC team, we might be ok, but this is just a bad matchup. K-State wins this one something like 48-17. The more I read Fake Lonnie's stuff about scheduling, the more I tend to agree. We need to start off on a winning note before we get to these BCS road games.

Why is Tulsa such a winnable game for us? Is it because we are at home? That team is awfully good. I would actually rather be playing K-State at home this year than Tulsa. Tulsa has a good thing going right now in theri program and they look at games against UNT as a nice way to hammer a recruiting rival. Look at the history of the series--Tulsa has dominated against us. Right now, I can't see how we beat them, but hey, I'll drink the kool-aid and say that I hope I'm wrong.

With all due respect, if you think that now is the time for Dodge to beat KSU, Tulsa, or, especially, LSU, with two dilapidated lines, I think you are going to be disappointed. Realistically, he needs at least one more year to build up his program to a point that we can beat a team like KSU or Tulsa. If I am wrong, I will gladly proclaim how wrong I was. In my opinion, Dickey got run out of here because his gameplan was so basic that he lost winnable games against OOC teams like TCU, Arizona, Air Force, and Baylor by running draw plays on 3rd downs in the 4th quarter of games that we could have won if we had even given the offense a chance to succeed. And, then once the talent on his team dropped, his basic offense had no great defense to prop it up against SBC teams anymore. Most fans had more fun watching paint dry than watching his offense run the ball into the line every down. This was best illustrated during the overtime of the FIU game at home in 2006 that no one could win and also in Ft. Worth at the infamous "Throw the ball" game vs. TCU. Eventually, Dodge will get us back up to a point to compete against SBC teams over the next two years. Whether he can get us to a point that we can beat a good mid-major (like Tulsa) or lower AQ-BCS team (like KSU), is something none of us will know until next year and beyond.

With two weeks to go before the opener in Manhattan, KS, what are your predictions for this year's record, both OOC and SBC play (including Western Kentucky here). I say the following: 1-3 in OOC (win vs. Rice) 4-4 in SBC (wins over FIU, ULL, Western Kentucky, and Arky State) 5-7--more than double what we did last year and moving forward toward 2009 and 2010 with a very bright future. This year could be worse than 5-7 if the DLine is really as thin as it sounds and if the OLine doesn't jell. But, DeLoach will help long-term on the defensive side, which makes 2009 and 2010 seem so bright, and Vizza should really be in a groove in this offense in his Junior and Senior years. My biggest fear is that too many will feel like 5-7 will be a bad year, but with where we have been over the last three years and the roster being so young, that is acceptable to me for now. If we do better than this, I think Dodge will have done the best job of coaching at UNT in some time. Just my $.02.

I think this was when our Dickey-led team led the nation in scoring offense and most passing yards ever in season...

Yeah, that district has always been just terrible in football. As for being smarter, that is very debatable!!

1987-1991 were my years at Southwest. I do remember that Paschal ended a losing streak that was like 4 years long by beating Granbury in a game that I tihnk ended at 2-0 Paschal. At the time, Granbury was a 3A schoool, I believe. My senior year, Paschal almost beat us, but we held on to win by 5 or so. VERY BAD FOOTBALL!!

I am a grad of Southwest as well. As a matter of fact, my sophomore thru senior years at SHS, we won exactly one game per year--all against Paschal!! When I got to North Texas, I was there for 5 football seasons (student manager)--in 4 of those years we won 3,4,4 and 2 games. Including the 94 UNT team that won the SLC and racked up 7 wins, the teams I was a part of had a winning percentage of 23-60-2. Maybe I should get a grad degree from OU and pass on my luck to the Sooners!!

Sadly, you are right on the money about both of those schools--throw in UTEP and Tulsa while you are at it.