GrandGreen

Where to start? Has it ever occurred to you that every team in the nation has turnovers, yet few are close to allowing 45 points a game? By the way if you want to use turnovers for an excuse for points scored, than you need to also adjust for games like Troy and Arkansas were NT greatly benefited by turnovers but still lost by blowout scores. Or put an astericks on NT's two victories which were largely the results of turnovers. Navy has made a lot of defenses look bad but have they come remotely close to scoring 74 points against any other team. Has it ever occurred to you that those 5 games won in the prior two years might have something to do with having the worst offense in the nation? You keep disregarding the fact that the defense with virtually the same players was much better than it was this year and as much as you try to defuse that certainty; you can't do it. I hope you are correct about TD being able to recruit better defensive talent. However, if you are correct in your ascertion that this defensive team is almost devoid of talent; then NT is in for years of disappointment. Never mind that TD was able to take one of the worst offenses in the NCAA and turn it around in a year. By your logic, there must have been an abundance of offensive talent inherited by TD because the great improvement couldn't be because of coaching. The inherited offense was obviously full of very fast and skilled players.

So Ross and Warren were redshirted, that is good news. There is some talent returning but don't overlook that the defense is losing the bulk of its players from a very bad defensive team. An one point victory over a transitional team does not mean the defense is anywhere near where it needs to be. Whether the main issue with the defense is talent or coaching; losing half of the defensive starters including in my opinion the three best in Chapman, Weathers, and Holman is going to be tough. I believe that Gilmore and Robertson have star quality, but there are a lot of questions about most of the defense. Redshirts should help on the defensive side but these players are all unproven at this this time. It appears these players are defensive redshirts DT Scoggins Fr DT Ross So DE Russo Fr LB Padron Fr LB Davis Fr LB Warren Jr LB Hager Fr (maybe grayshirt) DB Garden So

QB. Giovanni Vizza / Daniel Meager RB. Micah Mosely/ Lance Dunbar WR. Sam Dibrell / Dez Brigham WR. Casey Fitzgerald / Breece Johnson WR. Evan Fentriss / Korey Washington WR. Sam Robertson/ Brock Strickler OT. Matt Menard / Matt Tomlinson OG. Chase Rose/ Tyler Bailey C. Kelvin Drake / J.J. Johnson OG. Esteban Santiago / Ajani Banks OT. Robert Peachey / Jacob Kaiser DE. Eddrick Gilmore / Marquis Sykes DT. Joseph Miller / Stewart DT. Isaac Thomas / Jesse DeSoto DE. Sam Owusu - Heming / Tye Rexrode OLB. Colt Mahan / Bryan Seidle MLB. Craig Robertson/ Justin Padron OLB. A. J. Penson / Marquese Davis CB. Kevin Ealey / Latif Nurudeen CB. Antoine Bush / Evyn Roman FS. Kartay Agbottah / Darrian Williams SS. Greg Garden / Bron Hager

I am not sure everyone is aware of what a great game Jeremiah Chapman had against WKU. 16 tackles by a defensive lineman is almost unheard of.

Winning by 10 over a div. 2 team with 9 players on the squad and none over 5'11 is not very good. For the record Midwestern State is 0-3 with the other two lossesto Lynn by 22 and to Barry by 13. Yes, Lynn and Barry are colleges.

Based on the write up, it looked like NT had a harder time than expected beating a non-div 1 school in their first game of the year. Listening to the first two losses by NT to Wintrop and Rice, NT should and could have won both. NT has a deep squad and should have a very good year but the Belt is much better women's conference than men's. With Slinker's status, it is really difficult to predict how this team will do.

Observations UTA appears to want the game a lot more, and deserved the win. NT could not hit the ocean for most of the game, and made a great number of bad decisions and passes. I restate a prior opinion that I would not schedule UTA away because of the home court advantage. Outside of the old snake pit I haven't seem a court that gives the home team such an advantage. This despite the pitiful support that UTA gets at home. You expect home court advantages due to crowd noise and familiarity with the court but not because of the quality of the arena. I once watched a game there in which NT had sixty something rebounds, more than double UTA and still lost. Attendance was very generously reported at 1300, my guess about 300 NT fans and 500 to 600 UTA. For two undefeated metroplex teams that is extremely poor. Could UTA make Texas Hall any less fan friendly. A lot of it is because of the odd struture, but it certainly could be improved. Fans cannot buy tickets at the entrance next to the parking but have to walk around the building to the auditorium side despite the fact that the majority of the fans set on the bleacher side. Crossing from one side of the court to the other is difficult, yet all the concessions are on one side of the court. NT has a long way to go. I think NT has superior talent to UTA but very poor execution at this time. I think fans were misled a little because of the Oklahoma State win. OSU is not a very good team at this time. A close home win over a bad ISU team and away loss to a good UTA shows that NT is not as far along as I thought. The chemistry is not there yet. I am not sure playing Bell and White at the same time is going to work. Both are point guards and using both at the same time is hurting the offense. White continues to look great. He does not seem to ever take bad shots. When he gets better distributing the ball, he is really going to be outstanding. Thompson, late in the game showed signs of elevating his play. Kudos to UTA. This probably sounds like a left handed complement, but I really think their coaches and players are doing an outstanding job. They have beat NT two years in a row despite having to play and recruit in one of the worst facilities in the nation with very little fan support. Losing to UTA is disappointing, but I believe the future is very bright for this years' NT team. NT with the advantages it has over UTA should never loss to UTA anywhere, but this UTA squad is probably one of the better teams NT will play this year.

Well for starters, it hinders the new coach if she is replaced to have most if not all of his/her ships already used. If Slinker really has to have a championship season to keep her job, letting her recruit four early signees make little sense to me. What are the odds that a new coach couldn't recruit better players in the late period than what must appear to recruited athletes as a lame duck coach in the early period. All these recruits look promising but all are far from being highly recruited.

Yes, Tulsa is definitely a powerhouse you don't want to schedule. NT could drop to 1aa but some of those programs are good too.

Maybe, but I have seen many games there and have yet to see any injuries because of the structure of the court. I do believe that UTA does get an extra home court advantage because of the unique design despite usually having very poor attendance.

I think NT could have used pro players in that awful schemed prevent defense and still lost.

I would suggest several wins over top 20 teams while in the MVC in the late 60's would be just a little bigger, although ancient history to most.

Observations Anyone still think that Stewart is not a player? White was unbelievable, if he keeps this up; Belt freshman of the year should be his I apologize to Keith Wooden for mentioning on the board I thought he was out of shape, he schooled the OSU posts Best student crowd since Jimmy Gales teams playing at home in Southland Tournament Championship Lots and lots of disappointed OSU fans at game Disappointing crowd in my view excluding turnout by OSU fans and Student sections Not sure that Denton would support Duke basketball if it was local Encouraging win especially considering McCoy, Dennis, Bell, and Williams all had sub-par offensive games Not sure why some chose to slam Howerton, only played 5 minutes got two rebounds and a very nice assist, missed his only shot of game Basketball doesn't get much better

For the record, I went to both games Saturday. However, I don't think a strategy of shaming or challenging someone that has little interest to become a NT basketball fan is going to be successful. The only ray of hope I see is the vast improvement in football attendance that as occurred despite the very sub-par teams the last few years. The same thing can happen in basketball. This is a very interesting team and has a chance to be one of the very best in NT history. These is no logic that dictates a football fan should be obligated to be a basketball fan anymore than becoming an ardent supporter of softball. To be truthful, NT needs all the fans it can get. It doesn't matter if that is for one sport, that they don't cheer up to some standards, or that they are critical of the program or rock solid supporter of the athletic administration. I have never understood why students who have already paid do not go to events, why the staff of the university is not more supportive, why Denton residents don't embrace the local university athletic programs, or why so few of the thousands of local alumni bother to support NT in anyway. Of course my opinion is coming from someone that had rather go to a NT basketball game or football game then have free tickets to the Mavericks or Cowboy's. The vast majority of people could either careless about sports. or are so sold on pro sports or pro like mega college programs that they become a major challenge to convert to NT supporters.

Dez was injured in exhibition game, could have played if necessary.

NT has looked real good in what amounts to two exhibition games, the real test will be this week with the OSU and Indiana State games. Based on those hopefully not totally misleading games, all the new recruits look strong and will contribute. The only downer so far that I see is that Wooden did not report in basketball shape. I think JJ has used the first two games to look at the newcomers and second liners and try to establish a rotation. Bell, Wooden and Williams will start but the two wing starters have yet to be determined. The other starters could be Willingham, White, Dennis, Thompson or McCoy. Based on the two games, it would be difficult to pick the starter, a very good problem to have. JJ even had Bell playing the wing with White the point. My guess is he will start Willingham and Dennis just based on them having more experience. To me, Thompson looks very good; not sure what more he could do to impress in the limited time so far. The big surprise to me is that White may be even better and Hogans will contribute in his first year. This is easily JJ's best high school recruiting class. McCoy has the capacity to be as good as Watson, he appears to have a comparable 3 point shoot and jumps even better than Watson. Howerton does look much better to me, he seems to have added some quickness to his game. I don't expect Howerton to start this year or next but I think he gives NT a very useful big body that will be needed in a lot of games. Stewart has played very little so far, but looked very athletic as always. With NT's glut of guards, there is no time for him to play, but walk on Horne looks very good.

Being Cumberland had disbanded the football program that year and played that game with an untrained pick up team, I don't think that game should be a record of anything. Partial write-up from Wikipedia. Cumberland University, a school in Lebanon, Tennessee, had actually discontinued its football program before the season but was not allowed to cancel its game against the Engineers. Tech coach John Heisman was in no mood to accommodate the Bulldogs, perhaps because Tech's baseball team had lost 22–0 to Cumberland the previous year amidst allegations of Cumberland using professionals as ringers. The fact that Cumberland had crushed Georgia Tech earlier that year probably accounted for Heisman's running up the score on the Bulldogs. He insisted on the schools' scheduling agreement, which required Cumberland to pay $3,000 (a lot of money in 1916) to Tech if its football team failed to show. So, George Allen (who was elected to serve as Cumberland's football team student manager after first serving as the baseball team student manager) put together a scrub team of 14 men (including some of his Kappa Sigma brothers) to travel to Atlanta as Cumberland's football team.

NT loses to powerhouse Wintrope (last year record 6-26) by 56-77. It looks like a long year for the women.

This team looks really promising. The team played great for about the first 15 minutes and coasted for the rest of the game. Exhibition games are always misleading, but the newcomers all looks like they will contribute. There was not a whole lot of defense played after NT got the big lead. Dez Willingham and Adam McCoy both looked like they have the three point shots to spread the defense. The late signing of Dez could be monumental for this years team, he looked quite comfortable playing the wing. White looked very good at point and has an offensive game. Those worrying that Hogans being just an add on to get the practice team numbers up, don't worry he looks like he belonged out there. Thompson had some moments and certainly should be an offensive threat.

Another bad day, soccer and volleyball both lose www.meangreensports.com

Why does everyone assume Troy is a leading candidate for moving up in conference affiliation? It is located in a small market area, has questionable academic standards for athletes, is a relatively small school and it's other sports are not all exactly top notch. Troy should be complimented for their football team but I don't think the other conferences are going be that interested. Both the MUTs and WKU should be much more appealing candidates for conferences that want to expand in the East.

I have come to the conclusion that exhibition games mean absolutely nothing. Comparing scores versus the Houston Jaguars is even more misleading. The Houston Jaguars were scheduled to play two other games on the same day as the NT game. The Jaguars have a huge squad and the results against them are swayed by what part of the team you are actually playing. On another note does anyone know why Sanetra Jackson did not play?

Sports message boards were created for fans to express their opinions. Does anyone really believe that a recruit checks out the coaching staff, educational opportunities, tradition, how he would fit with the team, etc. and then makes his college choice based on the fans message board? Just out of curiosity, can anyone point out a football message board of a team with a losing record that is not negative. NT deserves it's bottom ten rating. Yet, apparently the coaching staff is above criticism because of injuries, youth, poor talent, and the specter of DD riding over the program. What logic equates expressing criticism for a football staff that is clearly in the learning mode with being a DD supporter? Facts are, NT is overall not a young football team and has been very lucky with injuries so far this year. Not many predicted NT to be very good this year, but most did not expect NT to be as bad as indicated by the first 8 games. The suggestion that someone should be taking names has got to be the symptom of something, perhaps mad crow disease. I for one, am still elated with the choice of TD as coach and believe he will be a great success. I have no doubt he will be given the full term of his contract despite the record, but TD and staff are not above criticism. Perhaps this team does not have the talent to be a top tier Belt team, but there is certainly enough talent to be more competitive than shown so far this year.

QB Vizza, Meager RB Moseley, Montgomery WR Fentress, Lewis WR Strickler, Robertson WR Fitzgerald, Johnson WR Washington, Dibrell OT Peachy, Tomlinson OG Bailey, Rose C Drake, Johnson OG Santiago, Banks OT Menard, Kaiser DE Owussu-Heming, Davenport DT Miller, Scoggins NT Thomas, Desoto DE Gilmore, Rexrode LB Pension, Davis MLB Robertson, Padron LB Mahon, Dawson CB Bush, Roman S Agbottah, Williams S Garden, Hager CB Green, Nurudeen I would not be surprised to see a number of jucos come in on the defensive side. I predict that TD will have more player turnover then he is projecting and he will have a handful of transfers come in as 2007 recruits plus a full slate of 23 to 25 players in 2008.

It is somewhat amazing to me, the number of fans who use the no talent argument to explain the poor start by NT. The talent level of this year team has got to be greater than the previous year with the number of experienced players returning and the additions. Many of the DD critics last year opined that the talent was there but the coach was not. Now, there are many that blame the season on the talent level and think it will be years before the talent is good enough to compete in the Belt. Apparently most of the players became much slower than they were last year, although many were praising the speed of many of the players before. Others believe that the team has just not learned the defensive and offensive schemes because it will take years to master. They have had the spring, pre-season, and now 7 games in the season to install their offensive and defensive strategy. If the majority of a defense or offense can't be implemented in that time frame, is it really ever going to be effective with players changing every year? Variations of the offense are being run by hundreds of high schools and the defense to me looks if anything fairly vanilla. IMHO the biggest problem facing the Green is an inexperienced coaching staff and their learning curve is greater than the team's. NT has one coach that has been employed at the 1A level with his currently assigned duties within the last ten years. NT also has one other coach that has an extensive college background but has been switched from offense to defense. Almost all are familiar with TD's fabled background. But how many realize that the offensive and defensive coordinator experience is totally as high school assistant coaches. Likewise the defensive line coach has never coached above the high school assistant level, the wide receivers' coach does have high school head coach experience but no college coaching background. The corner back coach has extensive college experience but hasn't coached prior to joining TD's NT staff for ten years. The offensive line coach has a solid university coaching background including several years at NT. The safety coach has seemingly the best pedigree having been a college offensive coordinator for many years. The strange thing is despite having the vast majority if not all his experience on the offensive side of the ball is now is a defensive coach. The defensive end coach has coached two years at the Div 2 level. They're maybe a few other teams in 1A that have a couple of their staff without college coaching experience but I wager nothing close to NT. No, I don't think a different staff would result in a significantly better record, but I do think that the games would be much closer. I have fate in Dodge and believe that ultimately he will succeed with or without staff changes. The staff may become a great asset, but I believe NT has and will suffer as the coaches adapt to the college game. In the long run, talent will trump experience and I hope this is the case with this staff.