SilverEagle

To me, this mainly hurts us because it appears that TD can't hold on to his former players. I'm glad this has come out now, so that the coaching staff can do some serious damage control. If I were them, I would emphasis this to new recruits.... http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle...;ATCLID=1352041 I've never seen Derick Tomlin play, so I can't really judge his potential. On paper he doesn't impress me much. We need to contiue to bring in LB's like Marquese Davis from Atlanta (6'1" X 230). I would be more concerned if the rumors were true about Butch Lacroix leaving.

BRILLIANT! ....or should I say TNAILLIRB!...

Party Hardy Phil! But try not to pull and/or spring anything important in the process.......

So true. There is no reason to push UNT. Everyone in Texas, and the rest of the nation for that matter, knows who you're talking about when you say that you're a "North Texas" graduate. There is no other D-1 school with "North Texas" in their name. I've talked to graduates of North Texas from several generations, including my mother's best friend who graduated in the 20's, and they all use the same name.........NORTH TEXAS. PUSHING UNT SOUNDS LIKE ANOTHER BRAIN-FART IDEA BEING PUSHED BY NON-NORTH TEXAS GRADUATES HIRED BY OUR SCHOOL. Oh, for the days of having creative and loyal graduates of North Texas making promotional decisions, and coming up with great ideas for our school. Sydney Graham------Mean Green nickname Rick Spears-------The stylized Eagle (aka the flying worm) Jim Hobdy-----the North Texas battle flag. Rick McKinney---- creating a spirit chant that everyone can understand and participate in.

UNT seeks architect According to bid-proposal documents made public by the University of North Texas, architect/engineering firms are being sought to design a proposed 30,000- to 35,000-seat football stadium to be built across Interstate 35E from UNT's current stadium, Fouts Field. Expandable to 50,000 seats, the stadium would include a press box, club lounge and luxury suites, food services, retail facilities, ticket offices, locker rooms, academic and meeting spaces. "We've got funding in place to get an architect and start the process," UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said. "We're going to be on schedule to develop the design and eventually for construction." Firms are expected to meet a Wednesday deadline for UNT's "request for qualifications." Formal interviews are expected to begin the week of Jan. 7, with the selected firm to be notified and contracted by Feb. 7. Despite potential blueprints, it's unknown how soon UNT can break ground. According to UNT officials, the project could cost $50 million to $60 million, a portion of which must be raised be through private donations before ground is broken. -- Troy Phillips A portion? I thought that all of it had to be private donations.

If only our dimwitted administrators had done the same thing back in 1978 when Hayden Fry left and recommended that Bill Brashier be promoted to Head Coach. But noooooooooooooo, our dimwitted administrators hated Hayden, and ignored his recommendation.

I would use "I've got some lake front property in Loving county Texas to sell you".

Well this seems to be as good a place as any to seque into the discussion about how to get attendance up. I have personally been thinking for a long time that a coach with a lot of personality and imagination (high octane offense, gives good pep talks to studends alumni etc) would jump-start things. The two best examples of this theory (that I've observed) were/are Hayden Fry and Todd Dodge. But how does that translate into actual numbers. The home attendance during the Hayden Fry era was this. 1973-----11,990 (6 home games, one at Texas Stadium) 1974------9,683 (7 home games, one at Texas Stadium, after a co-championship season) 1975-----11,843 (3 home games, one at Texas Stadium vs the future SWC champ Houston) 1976-----11,172* (four home games, one at Texas Stadium) *the year after we beat Tennessee. 1977-----19,599 (four home games, two at Texas Stadium, the SMU game drew 26,097) 1978-----17,683* (six home games, 5 played at Texas Stadium) *the year after posting our best record since 1947 During the Corky Nelson era, we had some very outstanding teams. The 1988 team (nationally ranked) had wins over Texas Tech and Rice (and really Texas too), but our average attendance over 5 home games was 15,319. Our 89 and 90 teams were also nationally ranked and during those two years we had 20,252 for SFA and 22,750 for SMU. But our average for those two years were 14,289 for five games in 89, and 14,783 for 6 home games (bolstered by the 22K SMU game). We've had some upward spikes in 94 (19K for 4 home games with someone buying a huge block of season tickets) and 97 (19K for four games bolstered by 47K for the A$M game at TS). In 2003 our average was 18,694 over five home games. I'm not sure what to make of these numbers, but I still believe that a combination of winning in an entertaining way, with a coach who's good at promoting the program, will get things moving upward again. But one of the most important pieces is our tradition...or the lack thereof. Todd Dodge can make adjustments in the off season (coaching or otherwise) and he can make speeches all over the place. But I believe that someone or some organization has to work just as hard on CHANGING THE CLUTURE OF APATHY TOWARDS ATHLETICS AT NORTH TEXAS.

I think that one of the reasons that "Denton Teachers" was used (besides a lack of an official mascot) was that during that era (and long after that too) every graduate of North Texas was required/expected to get a teaching certificate. So "Denton Teachers" was a logical moniker to use. North Texas was the first (with the possible exception of SHSU...which is older than us) of several schools built in Texas to address the crisis of a lack of formal education amongst Texas teachers.....especially in the rural areas. Around the turn of the century (the 20th century) it was very common for rural schools to hire people with just a High School diploma to teach in the classrooms, with the expectation that they eventually acquire their official credentials. These "Normal" schools also provided an "affordable" option for people to get their teaching credentials. As a result, these schools often had summer enrollments that were as high as fall enrollments. Just about every state school that came along after North Texas (including TWU, West Texas State, SW Texas State, Stephen F. Austin, and Sul Ross State) were primarily Teacher training schools.

Ok, is it required that we dance naked? I don't mind dancing in the streets, but this old (pseudo) hippie has given up public nudity a looooooong time ago. And believe me, a grateful (mean green..... or any) nation would thank me for this policy.

HEY! That guy stole my hat!...........

Yes, they were childhood friends in Eastland, but Hayden's family moved from Eastland (to Odessa) when he was 8 years old. Unless they corresponded a lot afterward, their early childhood had little to do with Frys decision to retain Brashier. Bill Brashier had already established his reputation as a good DC. And to his credit, Hayden Fry's ego didn't allow him to overlook Coach Brashier's ability simply because Coach Brashier had never been Coach Fry's DC. And according to this story, it was Bill Brashier who made the suggestion for Fry's staff to go to Iowa. http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll...ORTS11/50708005 By contrast, Coach Dodge thought that a coach with 27 total years of high school experience was a better selection than a DC with decades of experience......and who had a good reputation as a defensive coach.

I don't know what his record was during his first year at Iowa. But in his first year at North Texas he was 5-5-1 and we were co-champions of the MVC. I'd take that in a heartbeat for this years team. And BTW. When Hayden Fry came to North Texas he retained the DC from the previous year....Bill Brasher. The rest, as they say, was history.

According to the media guide, Phil Shotland played from 71 to 73. He started the 73 season for Hayden Fry, and was the total offense leader with 946 yards (-13 rushing and 959 passsing). I remember him as being a drop back type passer and not very mobile. His best passing day was 370 yards (59 passes thrown) against San Diego State in 1971. We lost that game 28-44. Our record in 73 was 5-5-1. I can't remember where he played HS football.

You mean since Abner Haynes and Eric Pegram?

Thanks for the memories I may not be Sicilian, but I am Dutch....as in, someone being "in Dutch"......or "Dutch Schultz".

The old adage is that defense is always ahead of the offense in the beginning of the season. I'm not willing to trivilize the talent level of the defensive players coming back from last year. If you remember, our defense was listed as our strength in the beginning of the year. They dominated the offense during spring practice, and in the spring game. In retrospect, I guess they dominated because they knew (or the DC knew) what was coming. The real test was how they handled (or adjusted) to what was coming from our opponents. We saw how that went. I look at the Navy game and think of all the offense UNT scored and wonder if the Navy DC was thinking, "How can this team score 62 pts on us?" I looked at the Navy game and thought "Damn, it's a good thing we had two weeks to prepare for this. Otherwise, it would have been REAL embarrassing"...... If you'll look at another article, you'll see that the players listed that are looked upon with a lot of promise (Warren, Sykes, Ross etc) are players that they inherited.

I wouldn't count myself amongst a lynch mob, but I've been very unimpressed with the defense. You can site all those int's and special teams mistakes, but I watched untold numbers of TD's being scored on our D all year long. The Navy game would be the best example. I honestly believe that TD pulled that onside kick trick in hopes of getting a touchdown up on Navy because he knew that our D wouldn't be able to stop them. He was also counting on their D not being able to stop us. It almost worked. Here's what I hope will happen. Mendoza will be quietly moved to "other duties" on the defense, and our current DB coach will be the DC.

I think we have more than enough DE's. At 6'4" X 290lbs, and if he's even close to being as fast and quick as he was when he arrived, Mr. Ross could be the second coming of Joe Greene.

I don't know how shady Neuheisal really is. But if he's half as shady as people think, getting him even in the vicinity of those SMU alums who were part of the "pay-for-play" scandel would just be asking for trouble. Because, after all, the last time SMU was successful in Football was when they were paying players.

UNT head coach Todd Dodge said Wednesday that he expects his coaching staff to return intact next season. Dodge hired an entirely new staff when he took over UNT's program in December. The group included four coaches who came to UNT from Texas high schools and four who were either current or former college assistants. Hmmmm,....an answer to all those who have started a "fire Mendoza" thread?

Well, that explains why I never saw Warren, Ross or Sykes out on the field. I remember commenting weeks ago that Ross looked every bit of his listed size of 6'3" X 280. Was Warren still recovering from some nagging injury? Is that why he was redshirted this year? I remember that he had a few concussions last year.

Charlie Brown has been listed as a DE all year. As I recall, when he came to NT his speed made him a possible candidate as a WR. He's currently listed as 6'4" X 239. If he stays at the DE position, he could put on a few more pounds in the off season and be the next J. Chapman.

80% commuter?!?! What a moron.

If I had been Phillips, I would have transferred last spring to a 1-AA or D-II school. Since he didn't, I'm guessing that he's going to stay with the team and finish his degree. If anyone has thoughts of moving on, I'm guessing it's Nathan Tune. As to the remainder of the team. I seriously doubt that any WR will transfer, but some of the TE's might. Although, it looks as if Coach Dodge amended his stand on not having TE's in the offense toward the end of the season when Victor Gill (#85) got some playing time.