emmitt01

My reply is none of the above. I will be at work. I do, though, think that if people were honest they would answer with "watching college football" or "whining on the board." We don't get the attendance support for basketball that we should...then we complain about CUSA not taking us seriously and being viewed as a second rate athletic department.

bump

No change, not incremental or drastic, will occur until we set a goal and a big one at that. If we stop and pat ourselves on the back every time we do something that's not horrible as bad as it used to be then we'll never get where we want to go. All I'm saying is...where is the vision?

Exactly what I was talking about. For some of us the sky isn't the limit, the limit is the sky. Why can't we go toe to toe with UT and OU? Oh yeah, it's because we've already accepted it as fact and now we're bound by our own expectations. When I took over as President of Talons people told me "you'll never get people to wear North Texas stuff instead of UT, OU, aTm, Tech, etc because that's where they want to be." Funny thing is, I remember mailing a thousand Longhorn, Aggie, Red Raider, Baylor Bear, Miami Hurricane, etc. t-shirts to the salvation army in each school's respective home town because somebody gave the students a chance to trade in their old t-shirts, and with it their old expectations, for one from the school they attend. When RV put the plans for the athletic center to the public you could almost hear the snickering from across the state in unison. Now it sits over their as the beginning to what I believe will be launching pad for where we are headed. Folks, anybody who has ever played sports or been in a competitive field can tell you that the first AND last step in really beating someone is making them believe they don't belong on the same field as you. As long as we accept that we are always gonna be second class we will be.

I'll put full faith and credit in the Dickey plan the day he personally comes out and says "this season is on me. This season was an embarrasment to myself, my team and this fine university. We don't do things this way around here anymore, the days of the 2 or 3 win season have passed us by. We make it out mission to go out and win every game we schedule and we won't be satisfied until we do exactly that. I'm sorry." Instead we get "we'll be lucky to stay close to this team" prior to some games and "I just think it was the 'little things' this season, I'm going to evaluate the program" after an abysmal season like this one. The head coach is the alpha and omega of where the buck stops...show me you believe it DD! The first step in walking the walk, especially for a school in our position, is the talk the talk publicly and emphatically. Southern Miss has the slogan "anyone, anywhere, anytime" not because they have mulltiple national titles to back up their bravado but because they believe in their heart of hearts that everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time and nobody is worthy of cowering to. Where is our chest thumping? When will we stop believing as an institution that we haven't lost out to so called big-time institutions before we even get started? That's what I want. I want a school where our football team takes on a motto like "come get some" towards EVERYBODY, where our student spirit organization is revolutionary in their ideas to get students off their asses and fired up about their alma mater (Talons was that once, I know), where our fans don't give a rat's ass who is coming to Fouts or the Super Pit (or the softball diamond, etc) because North Texas is lining up on one side of the ball and that makes attending a necessity!!!! Am I dreaming of some unreachable utopia? I think we need to find out if the powers that be around here think so...cuz if they do the door works both ways.

I'll wear a DD "L & A" t-shirt if that's what this post leads many of you to assume about me (cough, UNTSig, cough, ganggrene, cough) but I don't think I am one. I don't blame DD for this season, honestly. I blame those above him. Mediocrity isn't a sin around here. I don't think RV, Bobby Ray, or even Lee Jackson sits back and says to themselves "I wish UNT had the laughing stock of all 1A football programs" but I think it's the culture we have come to expect. Let me explain: For as long as I have followed NT athletics (born in Denton in '78) there has been a prevailing notion that there were the UT's, aTm's, USC's, Michigan's of the world and then there were the NT's, ULL's, New Mexico State's of the world. NT never tried to reach for the stratosphere because we've always had so many stumbling blocks laid out ahead of us. Bad facilities. Bad fan support. Miniscule athletic endowment. People won't take us seriously. Every excuse in the book to feel and, as a byproduct, act like second class citizens. Even as a high school student in Denton NT was looked at as the "in case" institution. We've been told so long that we can't compete with the big boys that we believe it. When our administration has looked at our athletic programs they have seen one of a few things over the years...a necessary evil, a distraction, a pet project, or an opportunity to do the "most with the least." It's this last phrase that I think haunts us. We often brag about how our teams rank "among the best in the Sun Belt conference across the board" or how we are "conference champions or runners up in X amount of sports." We have a serious case of big fish in a small pond syndrome. Hell, we even advertise that our school is the "leading university of the metroplex." It is as if we cannot come out and proclaim ourselves to be exemplary bar none at anything because we expect the requisite backlash. We are truly afraid to act and be great!!! We can bitch, piss and moan about how DD has run this program into the ground all we want but let's not lose sight of the big picture. From what great heights has he run us into the ground from? When were we on top of the proverbial mountain to have fallen off? What is lacking, I think, is a bold mission statement or a proclomation of where we want, expect and will not accept not reaching. Does everyone remember when RV first got here? We had quarterly meetings where he would talk of his plans to resurrect NT athletics, bring us up on the food chain and make us all proud. Then those meeting went the way of the dinosaur when the politics and reality of North Texas stared him in the face. That's not his fault. It's ours. We need to make it abundantly clear that we expect to one day go toe to toe with UT or Oklahoma and smack them in the mouth. We need to be unwavering when we say that we expect kids to list NT as their first choice when they apply for college. But the answer isn't on this or any other message board. I can type the words "unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable....higher expectations, higher expectations, higher expectations" until I'm blue in the face and some of you have. I'll even print up the t-shirts if you want. We can all wear them to our same old decrepit stadium to watch our team lose by 50 for the next few years. We need to communicate to our leadership that we are tied, nay married, to this university because we don't view our alma mater as the runt brother...and make it clear that if they treat it like one we will not be silent. My suggestion would be to write RV, Bobby Ray, Norval, Lee Jackson, whomever you can and tell them we want to hear and see a clear vision for where we are headed. Make it clear that hearing about things like our new logos after the fact will not be stood for anymore. Let them know that we don't consider OOC games "body bag", "canned hunt", or "paycheck" games...we look at them as stepping stones on our way up the ladder and that they had better do the same. Most of all, though, we need to be able to say in one unified voice that if they will give us the vision we will give them the means. That means our money, our time, our attendance through the growing pains. No jumping ship at the first sight of bad seas.

If what you are all saying is true then why do schools have offensive coordinators at all? If Mike Leach could run the same offense with any ol' offensive coordinator then why not fire Flanigan because he's not doing anything. From the way you make it sound he's collecting a paycheck to keep Dickey company in his headset on Saturdays. I think he does a little more than that (and fouls it up).

Which one?

Were it not for the Green Wave we would have managed to lose to every 1A school in the state of Louisiana.

The last time my Mean Green went winless at home I was 4.

Eggs, Ham, orange juice, beer.

No need to justify it....NO!!!!!!!!!

there by 9:30...cooking breakfast

Medpilot, I was originally compelled to instruct you to warn this poor child against going to Arkansas State for a visit. After much consideration, though, I have decided it may be in his best interest. Only when a person has seen what the "other half" of humanity lives like can they truly appreciate the culture of Denton Texas. By this I do not mean that they will come to see just how civilized we are...quite to the contrary. I simply mean that, after seeing the 'love' that Arkansas citizens have for their livestock, this boy will probably be unfazed by some of our more 'artistic' students who they perpetually find to interview about our football team. Let's see, multiple piercings and ignorance about athletics....or PATA? (People for the Anal Treatment of Animals)

Deep Green, Plumm Mean Green's posts have been compiled over the last few years by monks in a private monestary in Denton. It took me several weeks to kidnap all of the Denia residents and convert them to Emmittism but they fell in line when I threatened to have Green Grenade babysit their children. Anyway, Plumm's posts will soon be available in one large manuscript much like the bible once the monks have had time to transcribe them all. The books of "Intersection of two highways" and "Hell's Bells" are among my favorites. Of course no reading of the Book of Plumm would be complete without flipping over to Plumm 3:16.

There are hats with the new logos at the hat world in the Denton Mall...and lots of em.

My sources in the AD network tell me that ASU's board of regents have looked at both of the candidates you mentioned and have decided against the both of them. Seems that neither of them have the qualifications they are looking for. Mr. Odonnis graduated valedictorian of his GED program and would become the most educated person on their campus upon his arrival. I'm told there would be quite a faculty backlash. The Master of Tennessee refuses to block out so he was stricken from the list as well.

Seeing as our offensive coordinator (hopefully for a short while longer) Ramon Flanigan has dubbed me "the AD" I will be fielding questions from anyone who has them. Here's a letter I received from an alum in Jonesboro Arkansas: "Dear AD Emmitt, I've noticed that we continually beat up on the poor ol' Indians from Arkansas State. Is it the offensive schemes, the talent difference, or does ASU just plain suck? Many of the fans around here make fun of Jamario Thomas for his dyslexia, do you think this is fair seeing as how he torched them last year? Thanks, Green in Arkansas P.S. My wife says hello. Our mother will be coming in for Thanksgiving tomorrow" Green in Arkansas, Yes, we do beat up on Arkie State quite a bit. I think the reason stems from the talent we have here in Denton cuz it aint the coaching. And yes, Arkansas State sucking does help. As to Jamario Thomas and his dyslexia, he and I talked just yesterday. We agree that "touchdown" and "blowout loss" sound the same and hurt just as much for Arkansas State fans even if you spell them "nwodhcuot" and "ssol tuowolb". Thanks for your letter. AD Emmitt

I admit that I'm no RF fan, lover or apologist. I am though concerned about the hit we could/would take in recruiting if he were to go. Not that I think he has brought in a wealth of talent over the years but continuity is at a premium at a time when we are looking to pick ourselves up off the ground next season. I'll give you an example. Remember the QB Carson Coffman that we were all talking about wanting to sign. Guess who is listed as doing the recruiting on this kid? Yep, our very own offensive genius Ramon "asleep at the wheel" Flanigan.

Nope, not every day. Occassionally I wear my "Higher Expectations! Unacceptable!" shirt.

I totally agree. I got nothing from that sentence other than that 10 seniors will be playing their last collegiate game. And, as to your question, yes you are...I'll have your t-shirt on Saturday.

pi

So, if all the speculation around here comes true, we could lose DD and RF in one offseason? I know the Hallelujah chorus would begin for some of you but I just hope the old "careful what you wish for" adage doesn't start echoing around Denton. You may not like one/both of them but at a time when recruiting and continuity are at a premium this would be a heavy pill to swallow.

Uhh, the big west was better but only because Boise is better. The rest of the big west was: North Texas Idaho Nevada Utah State New Mexico State Arkansas State (I believe) So, really, I'd give the nod to the Big West but only because Boise St has grown in the WAC.

If we only had this we could turn around our fortunes in no timel http://cgi.ebay.com/THE-RUNNING-BACK-VIDEO...1QQcmdZViewItem