FirefightnRick

I'm not getting carried away. LSU was suppose to dominate this game, and dominate to me in this scenario means as Texas dominated us last year. That was not the case last night the first three quarters, especially not in the first half. I was there, I saw the progression of the game and compared it to how poor we have played in the past weeks and the outcome was far improved beyond any expectations for three quarters. After we stalled on the goal line that last time, it was obvious LSU decided to make a statement and put us away with that 99 yard drive because they didn't want to give NT any semblence of a chance of a come back. Prior to that in the 3rd, their offensive play calling seemed conservative. By the fourth, their overall size and depth took it's toll, as expected. Rick

It was a very quick trip down and back for us. I was up 26 straight hours. Like our two previous trips down, we walked nearly a mile through 1,000's of Tiger Tailgaters to get to the Mean Green tents. After nearly every one of the LSU faithfull finished yelling "Tiger Bait!" at us, they would then ask "Have you eaten yet? Need something to drink?". Everyone in Baton Rouge was very gracious to us. I met several FF's from the region as well. All in all the fans down there were great, and I'll certainly go back again. THE GAME: Our seats were 48 yard line, 3rd row right behind the team. Considering we played one of the elite teams this season, a team that has Texas, USC, Florida State type speed on both sides of the ball, and the fact that we came right out after giving up a TD and forced them to punt on their second series, I was very excited about what I saw. Our defense was extemely undersized, yet they were able to make some plays that showed signs that they could be very good down the road. After each series our DL and LB's were coming off the field with their heads up. After forcing punts you could tell by their faces that they were having some fun out there and making plays. Incredible hit by Baz. The guy is not only first class but has an incredible leg. Very proud of him. Other than Baz, our offense was the highlight of the night and it starts with the O line. Definately the best game of the year so far for the guys upfront. The Emerald Express got it going early on, finding holes and made some yardage. On one run it looked like he was going to break it after getting around the right side. He excelerated up the sideline but ran out of room. The very sight of seeing NT able to turn the corner on this team was uplifting. LSU has track speed on the corners and their LB's and DE's are as good as it is going to get and we moved the ball on them most of the night. Then Jamario picked up where EE left off. He too had a few runs where it looked as if he was going to take it to the house. Several of the LSU fans sitting in our section kept saying how impressive he looked. And other than a few times when DM had to scramble and throw the ball away due to backside pursuit, our O line gave him time to pass, which I NEVER expected. No sacks? DM threaded the needle on several plays. On a sure TD pass to Quinn, the ball was absolutely perfect to JQ, who got behind their secondary, but the DB closed quickly and just tipped it away making a fantastic defensive play on the ball. On the interception, DM threw a dart that hit Nwigwe between the 3 and the 1 and it bounced off and into the waiting arms of the DB. Overall, DM had a very good game compared to how the season has gone for him. Each time the O came off the field, you could tell they too were excited about what they were being able to do. Folks, for three quarters we looked like we belonged on the field with this team. Who ever thought we could say that a week ago? For those of us who were dissapointed in the season thus far that statement might not have meant much a week ago. But like myself, many of you were at the tU game in 2002 and remember standing outside the lockerroom after that game and can recall the expressions on our guys faces, or on the faces of our coaches and fans, and remember the positives that came from that game. This game was very similar. Our offense had looked so dead in previous weeks, but came out last night and had over 200 yards in 3 quarters against as good and as fast a defense as your ever going to see. We were one or two plays away from going in at half time only down 21-10. Remember, LSU held Tennessee's 335lb offensive line and running game to less than 3 yards a carry earlier this season. We were averaging 5.5 in the first half, and finished with 3.5 for the game. So there are a lot of positives to take away from this game. We will not come even close to facing a defense with that type of size and incredible speed the rest of the way through this season. Other notes: I saw Charlie Brown again get into the game and he made a good block on his man. For a true freshman playing the TE position he looked like he belonged on the field with the big boys. Scott Hall came in from New Orleans to attend. It's alway's great to see our lettermen come back when they can. Very good tailgate event put on by the Mean Green Club. The catered food was great. I was excited to see and speak with......Chancelor Jackson at the tailgate party. He seemed to be having a good experience yesterday. I can't remember his exact words, but in speaking to him and hearing what he had to say I gathered that he came down to Baton Rouge to take part in one of the largest university/city-wide tailgating events in the nation to see how it's done and to realize all the positives it brings to the school when it's done right. Hopefully, I'm reading it correctly that the NT leadership has, and is NOW more than ever, learning how very critically important it is that the university take advantage of such opportunities that tailgating, pre/post athletic events and game day experiences are in cultivating support from alumni and region wide friends of the university. FFR is very excited and very happy about the future of the Mean Green! Rick

GreenFlag I suppose I forgot that was the year ASU moved up? I'll still never forget the game the year before in 1989 in Jonesborro, it was a great game and came down to the wire. It was unseasonably cold for late September and was ASU's second highest opening night crowd. Kieth Chapman hit a 32 yard field goal with 4 seconds left for the win. Scott Davis passed for 244 yards on the night and reached the 4,000 yard mark for his career. Other than the girl who traveled to perform as "Eppy", we were the only NT fans in the stands that we saw. No parents, no AD dept officials, no one. After the winning kick, the ASU fans were throwing food and spitting on us so bad that my roommate, who was on the team, and several other players noticed it when they came over to talk to us and ended up helping me lower her down to them on the field and we left the stadium with the team through the locker room just to avoid any more confrontations. Rick

oh, and I absolutely would take a final win of the season over LSU. That's all anyone would remember from here on through next fall. Huge recruiting power, huge! Rick

Wins over 1-A teams while we were 1-AA. '83-New Mexico State, New Mexico, '85- K State, '86- TCU '87- La Tech '88- T Tech, Texas* and Rice '90-SMU Rick *.....I was there sitting on the 2nd row on the south endzone goal line, we won that @#$#ing game.

This will be our biggest question. Only two of these O line guys you listed will have any experience, and your leaving out Alexander who replaced Brown at the Tulsa game. Brown will also be back. Plus, should Lineberry graduate on time, we get him back as well. Our best possible scenario here for an experienced O Line next year is: Alexander, Venagas, Rose, Lineberry(Possible that Brown moves over to guard next season if we lose Lineberry) and Foster. That gets us to an average of around a 300lb O line. Of course there is always the chance that one of the younger guys start in front of a veteran. Alexander replacing Brown this season shows that it does happen. And as for the D backs, I just can't see how Steve Warren can be kept out of the lineup next season after getting to start as a true freshman this season? By years end he will be that much better if he gets over the concussion? Rick

I realized late that I had originally taken a vacation day for what would have been homecoming this weekend. And since I had to cancel my trip to La Tech, I figured it's gut check time for the Mean Green, and the same goes for the Mean Green Nation. So several of us are making the trip to LSU. For me, it's God, Family, Job and my love for the Mean Green. I don't give a rats @$$ if they get beat 175-0, I'm going down there to show 'em how much I love 'em, tell 'em how proud of them I am and that I appreciate their hard work for putting us on the map these past 4 years. Regardless of the outcome of this game and this season, I love the Mean Green, and that's all there is to say about it. Rick

Other notes highlighted about UCF. They have alway's demanded a high octane, entertaining offense even back during their 1-AA years. They had 10 straight winning seasons, many of them ranked nationally in 1-AA, prior to moving up to 1-A. In 2000 they beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa on the Tides homecoming. In 2001 they finish 6-5 2002 was their first year in the MAC. They finished 6-2 and in 2nd place in the east division and go 7-5 on the year. Even though 2003 only becomes UCF's 4th losing season in 18, finishing 3-8, they replaced their coach, opting for O'learly the '04 season. They have never had a stadium of their own. The Citrus bowl is 10 miles from campus, and I don't know how nice it is, but I'm willing to bet that since it was built for the college game in mind that it is heads and shoulders above Texas Stadium, and lightyears ahead of TS in accessability. Playing there the past few times did absolutely nothing for us but offer frustration. It's a horrible place to get to and get any kind of tailgating experience out of it. RV said after the lousy experience we had there in '01 against Tech that we would never play there again. Rick

History of UCF posted here the week of the FIU game. I would also point to one statement in the article. Otherwords, you take what the defense gives you and attack em where they ain't. Rick

ANSWER: 7 New Mexico State(7-5) in 2002 Cincinnati who finished their regular season (7-6) in 2002, but ended (7-7) with the loss to us. MTSU(8-3) in 2001 Texas Tech(6-5) in 1999 Boise St.(10-3) in 1999 Boise St.(6-5) in 1998 Nevada(6-5) in 1998 Interestingly, the Tech team we also beat in 1997 under Simon finished 6-5 also. Rick

Nah, we don't have anything to compete with? Good luck with that dacat! Rick

I asked this very same question to one of our lettermen who I greatly respect and admire for his hard work and accomplishments he gained on the field for the Mean Green and all he's done off of it since. After I asked the question, He asked: "When was RF made OC?". I said, " in '02". He then asked: "And has any of the play calling changed since '01?". I acknowledge no................thus, end of the lesson. Rick

Next time, and with a smile or a laugh, and with your hand over your heart, just say: "It doesn't matter what the score will be because win or lose, the Mean Green is my team". Many people who start this kind of digging often times only support teams who are currently winning and can't stand this response because more often than not, they have no loyalty, nor do they know the concept of it. Be it to their boss, company, marriage, family, friends, school or whatever. And when you put it back to them like this, it reminds them about some time in the past when they let someone, or something they loved, down because of it. Rick

And these guys were all recruited without anything to offer them other than a chance to play and an education. No winning records, no conference championships or bowl games to look forward to, no facilities including anything that could be remotely considered as a nice study center, only a small outdated weight room to offer, no decent team meeting rooms, no new dorms to offer, no fan base to cheer for them, nothing. Rick

The NT Exes hosted the pre concert reception for our alumni at the Gateway Center tonight, prior to the "Sounds of the Stadium" concert. Dr. James Scott, Dean of the College of Music and Green Brigade director Nick Williams met with us during the reception and for those who bleed Mean Green athletics, they had some exciting things to share with us. Nick Williams first spoke and said he's been on and off our campus since '88 while working on all three of his degrees(he's finishing up his Phd soon), and he's noticed a vast improvement of our athletics on campus and it has helped him in meeting two of his goals since becoming director. First, he wanted to improve the spirit of the band and feels he has seen an improvement. I agree. Second, he wanted to increase the percentage of non track music students as members of the GB. Historically it's been around 5%. These are students who do not have to take marching band, but do it for the fun of it basically. This year the GB has a membership over 300, and their non track membership is up to 30%. This tells me that we have improved greatly on that thing called school spirit, which will reap huge rewards for our university in the future. Dr. Scott reiterated on some of what Mr. Williams had to say, that they wanted to improve the image of the band with such subjects as the new uni's that the band is sporting this season and pay better attention to their music selections and their performance on the field. He also stated that since he became Dean of the College of Music he, Dr. Pohl and Rick Villareal have all worked very hard together to improve both areas and bring more unity to our university. He said the improvement of the football program over the past 4 years has helped make some of this possible and has helped the College of Music and the GB increase it's visibility nationally. He stated that over the years, he had spoken to many College of Music Deans across the country, and many gave advice that, one thing they had done wrong, and wished they could take back was, they had handed over control of their marching bands to the athletic departments. Dr. Scott knows he would never have to do that at NT because both departments at North Texas want the same results. He reiterated how very excited he was at how well the Music and Athletic Departments have worked together to help each other meet their goals. This tells me that after all these many "insert years here" years we finally have the leadership in place at North Texas within the AD and College of Music that realizes how very important university wide unity is. I have said for many years that the Music and AD dept can each benefit from each others' successes and it now appears so. We as alumni need to bare down, continue to support these programs, and when we can, let these people know how much we appreciate the improvements. I can't say this enough........Thank you Rick Villareal. Rick

Congrats Lifer. Rick

I agree Dez. It is tough to NOT focus on the run from 7 yards off the line of scrimmage, which is where you will be lined up tomorrow all day long. Rick

Keep going, up to 27 votes now, 3 ahead of SMU. Rick

I'd take that any day and worry about winning against top 25 teams later. Right now we all would settle for us to just be competitive against those schools, which Tech has not had a problem with. How could we possibly do any worse than being ranked 119th out of 119 other offenses? Besides, no one would expect us to just change to it this season, but rather start working on it under a new OC in the future. And we would rarely have to start a freshmen QB because due to the interest in Tech's system from passing highschool talent, they always seem to have a stable of QB's who are willing to go to Lubbotocks and wait their turn while learning it. Tech has started 3 different seniors the past three years. We on the other hand are on our 3rd freshman/redshirt freshman in 6. Houston runs a similar offense to Techs'. In fact, their coach, Art Briles was utilizing his similar system at Stephenville High School before Leach was. Briles seems to be more balanced. For instance, Houston had 45 carries racking up 200 yards rushing while passing for 276 against the same Tulsa team that held us to 129 yards total. By the way, Leach was the OC at Kentucky under NMSU's Hal Mumme when they had all that great success in the late 90's. Thanks for the info LongJim Rick

Done. Come on people, get in there and fill out the quick survey and put NT on the map. Rick

That's about an $8-9 shirt, considering it's a 4 color print, and printed on front and back. As usual, the campus bookstore probably double-marked up their cost for it. Nice idea, but it should be in GREEN. Nothing else is acceptable. In case their webmaster reads this, that's a five+ year old photo above that is 2 logos ago out of date. Rick

JayDub JayDub, when did he leave Granprairie? Is he still at Callisburg now? Rick

Home games at Fouts since 2000. 2000 Baylor......................Lost 20-7 UNLV.......................Lost 38-0 1-AA Samford..........Won 41 to 6? Utah State................Lost 17-12 Idaho......................Lost 16-14 New Mexico St...........Won 30-23 2001 TCU................Lost 19-5 Middle Tenn....Won 24-21 Arkansas St....Won 45-0 ULL.................Won 42-17 2002 1-AA Nichols St..Won 23-0 South Florida.....Lost 24-17 ULM..................Won 41-2 Idaho................Won 10-0 New Mexico St....Won 38-27 2003 Baylor.............Won 54-17 ULL.................Won 34-23 Utah St............Won 37-27 Troy.................Won 21-0 Arkansas St......Won 58-14 2004 Florida Atlantic...Lost 20-13 Middle Tenn.......Won 30-21 New Mexico St....Won 36-26 ULM...................Won 45-30 Idaho................Won 51-29 2005 Tulsa..............Lost 54-2 Troy...............Lost 13-10 Not sure we could schedule any easier than this? Other than the games against TCU or Baylor, the rest were programs well at, or below our level. Rick

ULL had a QB two or three years ago who came from one of the Arlington private schools. Had a hell of an arm but ended up quitting college after starting for them one season. Is Grace Prep the same school? Maybe I'm thinking of Pantego Christian? And who is your friend coaching for in Illinois for now? Rick

I find this to be very interesting in that it supports the fact that the QB position in this system is not required to take the full load of responsibility for it to succeed and eliminates Danny's inexperience as part of the reasons for lack of production. It's just a guess, but I suspect Danny now will be allowed to possibly change which side the play goes to, or we are going to option more? Rick