GrandGreen

It is ironic that NT strongest position is running back. Dunbar could and should be one of the best in the nation. Many may have forgotten that Mosely actually started in his freshman year and Mathis actually looked very good based on only a few carries and both are reported in be in the 225 lb range. . Hamilton looked excellent in the spring and has the speed and moves to start at a lot of schools. I would redshirt Byrd, I don't see him getting enough carries to warrant losing a year. However, I doubt there will be many redshirts; Dodge is going full out to win this year as he cannot afford to build for a future that he may not be part of.

Really, actually I was talking trash about them talking trash about our football program. As a season ticket holder for over 20 years and having attended most of the home games for 40 years, I am well aware of NT's basketball support.

Mike Jones was one if not the leading rusher in the nation in 1976 or 1977. Anyway your post, reminds me of the NT at UT game where NT had Mike and Malcolm Jones and UT: Ham, Jam and Lam Jones. The announcers had a rough day. Lam Jones looked faster than any player I have ever seen on the football field

Rice is a very big game but not a must game. It would be nice to win and have some evidence that NT is not the worst team in Texas.

/My link Although, I am not for NT committing a bunch of early players, he looks good.

I guess he was not aware of any of this before he signed his last contract with NT.

I do blame Leftwich for leaving. I doubt his contract had clauses that stated if better opportunities evolve, please feel free to renege on your word. Also please, don't give me the obligatory expression of your concern for your players. Admittedly, most coaches would do the same thing as Leftwich, but that does not make it right. Coaches leave schools and ignore contract all the times, but leaving days before the season is especially disappointing. Kudos to Dodge, for handling this desertion with class.

I don't like the subject of this thread, there are lots of players who did not live up to expectations; but the label a player a bust that NT wanted and signed seems very inappropriate to me. Milton is often cited as a big bust,only problem he wasn't : he ended up starting in the defensive line. He also provided more publicity to NT than any signee. Approximately 50% of all players who sign a division 1 ship have little impact on a program whether it is NT or UT. Do you label all of them busts? Even if you do, you could not include Collins because he gave a big boost to Fry's program for just signing and played a lot. He was the most heralded recruit in Texas that year, therefore the fact he did not turn out to be a super star was disappointing to NT fans. However, he did contribute a lot to NT.

I don't think much of Vito's Hall versus later QB comparisons. Vizza and Dodge were in a completely different environment. Not only were their teams a lot weaker, but they had to do so much more than in DD's offense. Nothing against Hall because he did a great job and will be in the NT HOF, but Vizza and Dodge might have been just as productive in a good run first offense. Unfortunately Vito is right, NT is once again going into the season with QB questions. Quarterback has the least experience retuning of all positions except perhaps the newly reinstalled tight end position. Tune has some good experience having a couple of starts but IMO he was primarily in there to hold down the point spread and not to win. Thompson had one great series but nothing else. Back of them, there is a walk on and a very small freshman. However, Riley will probable get sport duty which at least will provide a change. The good thing is both Tune and Thompson are big and hopefully a lot more durable. Both Tune and Thompson should be much better down field passers than an injured Dodge. Hopefully, that will open up the runner game and offset the lost of an QB option attack.

It seems that almost every fb division football or basketball player in Texas that wants or has to transfer is assumed good enough for ole NT. Any such player was good in High School but that does not mean he will be a success at the next level, no matter how many stars he received. Jones has done a great job in finding basketball players who can not only play but fit in. Unfortunately, the football program has not had that kind of success. As far as criminal or character issues, each case has to be analysed. I think almost everyone is for giving people a second opportunity but no one wants to turn NT into a haven of malcontents or criminals. Personally I no not like the Troy model for success which is based on finding very good athletes with risks that most programs don't want to take. D. J. Jones, may or may not be a good fit for NT. I would hope that NT at least evaluates his situation to determine if there is any mutual interest.

Well, don't read it, pretty simple.

I think it is because of all the TSSM talk of football dominance. NT just wants to be associated with such a rising program. Based on football boosts, I would imagine at least 1,000 fans traveling to Denton and a capacity crowd in San Marcos.

I like the bleacher report. It does cover the Mean Green well. No, I don't agree with a lot of the opinions like the article supporting NT joining the WAC. Complaining about grammar, spelling and incorrect names is silly. Did you understand the article? This is the Internet and a lot of the coverage comes without the benefit of significant proof reading. By the way a lot of printed magazine and newspaper articles have the same issues. Like it or not; the emphasis is more on content and volume than correctness in the digital world. Loose instead of lose bothers me, but not has much as people who oppose views by attacking typos, spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. in lieu of logically expressing a counter position.

Don't like the white helmets or the current green. However, if NT would just start winning; I could learn to appreciate both.

Dickey could coach but was a public relations nightmare and was IMO a poor recruiter. Dodge wasn't anywhere close to being ready to coach fb division football but is a better recruiter and at least spins positive. Dickey's early Belt success was based primarily on better talent and a football philosophy that was great when facing inferior teams. I know the better talent and poor recruiting are counter intuitive, but somehow DD got that 2001 class that dominated the Belt. The class of Hall, Buckles, Gardner, Kennedy, Spencer, Brewster, Zuniga, etc. may have been the best class in NT history. Based on the success that class spawned, DD though not ever coming close to matching that talent was able to add enough to keep NT successful till that group finished. Point is, if NT had a coach with Dickey's knowledge and Dodge's work ethic and public relations skill, they would have a good coach. Dodge has one more chance for success and hopefully through a brutal learning process, he is ready.

Not sure what this is about, but it sure is not my post.

I am not sure you can rebuild after an awful season, so lets hope NT is in rebuilding mode next year. The truth is in a lots of ways, this year is a do or die season for the Green. Not only because of the Dodge situation but because this is an older experienced team and NT will lose a lot of players this year. Likely starters that will have to be replaced Santiago, Gill, Drake, J. Jackson, Ross, Tune, Atkisson, K. Jackson, Penson, Robertson and Smith. Add to that seasoned reserves in Outlaw, Lott, Mosley, Weber, Gordon, Neal, Owusa-Heming, Desoto and Johnson are seniors, and it is obvious that NT is going to have to once again hit the juco ranks next year. This is the problem with too much reliance on jucos, there are just not the the numbers of underclassmen available to restock the team.

Appreciate the news, although I am not sure whether it is good or bad. I hope it is a case of upgrading the program not of having coaches leave because of poor funding.

I would add Jackie Miller, an all state player from Georgia; who batted .517 her senior year in high school. She also started for 4 years in hs with a career batting average of .445. Know nothing about Georgia softball, but those numbers are impressive.

Who would have thought a player who seems to not be able to stay anywhere, would not show.

The cold hard facts are that NT is recruiting more jucos and out of state players now, because they in general cannot compete against the other Texas fb division schools. It is more out of necessity than any grand scheme of national recruiting. This hopefully will change soon, but no one is recruiting in Oklahoma, Mississippi, California, and Louisiana because those states have better football players than Texas. This is not a knock on the current staff, I think they are doing a good job recruiting based on where NT is right now. They have and are really working hard to come up with at least adequate recruiting classes. I applaud their effort of looking far and wide for players and not sitting on their fannies like the previous staff, who seemed content to take whatever was left in Texas and didn't seem to even start recruiting until most of the coveted recruits had been already signed. I expect this year class to start an upward trend in recruiting but that isn't going to happen with early commitments. Either Dodge will survive and have a new life or a change will be made. Hopefully, if it is the latter; NT will have a replacement ready to hit the ground running immediately after the season. With a new stadium and new outlook either supplied by a winning Dodge or a new coach; NT should be ready to start improving their Texas recruiting.

I don't understand this at all. If the game was in Arlington that would not be a 1-2 deal, it would be one neutral site and 2 away games. This may not be a bad deal if it would be in essence replace our guarantee away games for three years. However, I really doubt if OU has that much interest in playing in the metroplex twice in one year unless they got a massive guarantee to do so.

So two teams that have never played fb division ball are going to beat out NT for a CUSA bid. Both schools are in the wild expectations phase of moving up. Fans support maybe high now, but wait till the reality of being another underfunded fb division program sets in. They are still a long way from being successful and both I would imagine are praying for a WAC bid. I think people including many of their fans greatly underestimate the task ahead of them. For example, both are expanding based on passing student fees that were $10 a hour to the state maximum of $20. That is an increase of $10 per hour, UNT currently has a dedicated athletic fee of $3 that go to $10 a hour but can also be increased to $20 an hour without another vote. So UNT has at least the opportunity of increasing their fee by $17 versus the newcomer twins increase of $10. I really think that TSSM is going to have the rougher go being literally in the shadows of UT and UTSA starting a program just South. They do have an advantage of already having a program but I really don't think they are going to be anywhere close to the factor they hope for in the Austin/San Antonio market. UTSA has the plus of being in a huge City with little athletic competition. However, they have had a division 1 program in BB for ages and still average around 1500. It will be interesting to watch their progression, but lets wait until they actually establish a fb division football program before we get overly concerned about the competition. They both because of their athletic fees and student body size will be comparatively well funded for the bottom tier of the fb division, but UNT will also have that advantage plus the added decades of fb division competition. As far as CUSA, IMO they will take a wait and see view toward the new programs. If either of these schools average 25,000 in football attendance and play decent football, they could be attractive to CUSA or the Belt, but I think their only chance now is a desperate WAC.