SilverEagle

Nope.

I saw the movie "Three Days of the Condor" for the first time a month or so back. The main premise of it was that there was a secret CIA/Shadow government going around pulling strings, causing revolutions, and just generally manipulating world events. Cliff Robertson was one of the agents for this "shadow" organization and John Houseman was one of the "decision makers" within the organization. During one of his conversations with Cliff Robertson, Houseman started reviewing his career as a spy, which went all the way back to WWI and WWII. Cliff Roberston asked him if he missed those times. Houseman responded "No!, but I do miss the clarity of those times." I certainly didn't live during those times, but like the John Houseman character, I too miss the clarity of them. Now back to Football......which (for North Texas alumni/fans) isn't any more "clear" than our political situation.

You might want to PM PMG on that.

I think that PMG and Hank Dickinson had a "discussion" about that issue at the tailgating event at the last TCU game. I can't remember if PMG got a satisfactory answer/explaination about it.

Philosophically speaking, I agree with Big Dawg and FFR, and I'll use my own old High School as an example. Back in the early 60's (61 and 62) Jacksboro HS (coached by the legendary Chuck Curtis) was an absolute terror, and won the State title (in what is now 3-A) for the first time (they won it again in the early 70's) in 62. In 1961 my old HS (Decatur) played them in a non-conference game. Jacksboro won 81-0. We went our separate ways and won our respective districts, and met again in bi-district. Everyone in Decatur thought that the first game must have been some sort of abberation and felt that the bi-district game would be much more competitive. It was, Jacksboro won 61-0. So, in a district champion season, Decatur lost to Jacksboro by a total of 142-0. Now, did the good people (well, most of them are good) of Decatur bitch and gripe to the UIL and demand some sort of rule change about running up the score? No! they made Jacksboro their sworn enemy. They then resolved to work as hard as they could to make their program better, and beat those arrogant SOB's who loved to run the score up on people. The next year (62) Decatur (in a stroke of genius) scheduled Jacksboro for our homecoming game. We scored first on Jacksboro (the first team to do so that year) and ended up losing the game 70-6. Jacksboro went on to win state. So, at this point we're up to 212-6 vs Jacksboro. Again, did the people of Decatur bitch and gripe to the "powers that be?"......hell no! They just set their collective jaws even tighter, and strengthened their resolve. The next season's game was much more competitive, Jacksboro won 36-19. After that season (63), the school board didn't renew the coaches contract and went out and hired the coach that beat Jacksboro in it's play-off run of 1961....Bill Davis. The 1964 game was a squeaker. Jacksboro won 8-6. "Beat Jacksboro" continued to be the "mantra" of the Decatur High School football program. Meanwhile we used Jacksboro's propensity for running up the score on other teams as a motivation. The next three seasons 65 to 67, Jacksboro was consisitently ranked either #1 or in the top 5 of the 2-A (which is now 3-A) rankings. Going into their games with Decatur, they were almost always ranked #1 or #2. They continued to try and intimidate their opponents by running up the score on some hapless school the week before. It worked with most of their opponents, but they never figured out that it had the opposite effect on Decatur. In the three seasons of 65 thru 67 Jacksboro's record was 27-3. All three losses were to Decatur. And two of those losses were on the Jacksboro home field.........Revenge was very sweet. So the lesson here is this....... you can whine and cry about getting beat up on, or you can adopt the attitude of I DIDN'T COME HERE TO LOSE!

Yeah, I could see the ex-employees doing a reinactment of the French Revolution in this case...... and who would blame them?

Are there any descendents of Jack Sisco in the coaching profession?

Sadly, that is correct.

I DIDN'T COME HERE TO LOSE.

They left off Jordan Case, who was a great QB at North Texas, had a good career in the CFL and is currently President of Park Place Lexus. Also, I've mentioned this guy before, but if the official web-site is going to bring up former students from the 20's and 30's who made it in Hollywood, they should mention this guy. Guinn "Big Boy" Williams Nicknamed "Big Boy" by his friend and frequent coworker Will Rogers, beefy Western star Guinn Williams was the son of a Texas congressman. After attending North Texas State College, Williams played pro baseball and worked as a rodeo rider before heading to Hollywood in his teens to try his luck in films. While he starred in several inexpensive silent and sound Westerns, Williams is better known for his comedy relief work in such films as Private Worlds (1935), A Star Is Born (1937), Professor Beware (1938), and Santa Fe Trail (1940). "Big Boy" Williams is also a familiar name to devotees of Orson Welles; it was Williams who once accosted Welles in a parking lot and cut off the "boy wonder's" necktie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

That's what I've observed about them. It's always a great in day in college football when ND and SMU both lose.

"He's not playing hide the ball. If he's carrying five pounds of marijuana, either he's the stupidest person alive or thinks he's bulletproof," Harris said after the brief arraignment hearing in Belton" Ding! Ding! Ding!

Yeah, but they could really do the dessert thing.

I'll take four in chrome vinyl.....style B.

Damn! You took mine. .................

I wasn't lamenting that Fry left the program. I was just answering your question. So pay attention this time. THE LAST COACH AT NORTH TEXAS THAT WOULD HAVE EVEN CONSIDERED YOUR IDEA OF USING BOTH PHILLIPS AND WILSON IN THE SAME BACKFIELD WOULD HAVE BEEN HAYDEN FRY. THE NEXT MOST RECENT COACH WOULD HAVE BEEN CORKY NELSON..... AND POSSIBLY DENNIS PARKER. AGAIN, YOUR IDEA OF HAVING THE MOST TALENTED AND VERSATIVE ATHLETES IN THE SAME BACKFIELD IS INTRIGUEING AND IMAGINATIVE. BUT IMAGINATIVE IS A WORD THAT HAS NEVER BEEN USED TO DESCRIBE THE CURRENT COACHING STAFFS COACHING STYLE......AND PROBABLY NEVER WILL. And BTW, when I was broke up with someone......it stayed that way. But unlike some people, I learned from each relationship experience, and it helped me to grow. Hayden taught us a lot, but some people with concrete for brains refused to listen and/or incorporate the lessons.

....but you were applying it to Matt Phillips only. I agree that having the best and most versatile athletes on the field at all times is the ideal. However, the last coach that would have seriously contemplated your "wide open offense" idea would have been Hayden Fry. And only then for a play or two.

The power of positive thinking?

As I'm always fond of saying... "I'm about as sympathetic to the problems of the rich, as I am to the problems of the skinny (ie...Oh my, I've gained 1lb since last year....this is terrible....my clothes will never fit now!!! )".

They just look so different out of uniform, don't they?

Will 350-pound behemoth T.J. Raymond be able to clog up the middle in what is a young and extremely undersized D-line? The defense is moving to a 3-4 formation in part because of the questions surrounding the front line. If Raymond doesn't get his academics in order by the end of the summer, This is the first that I've heard about T.J. still being a possibility for this fall. I hadn't even heard that he was still trying to qualify. They realize the offense has become too predictable and are trying to do something about it. … They're just now realizing it?!?! My wife realized it over four years ago.

Well Microxot. There you go.

I can't speak to how "unique" Fry street is, or how integral it is to the "culture" or "personality" of the North Texas student body. When I was going to school, it was just starting to gain it's "infamous" reputation. The friend that I commuted to school with would occasionally stop by the "head shop" there to buy some supplies. And that's about as much contact as I ever had with Fry Street. Since it was never part of my University experience, I don't have any nostalgic feelings about it. What I can tell you is this. I've hung out with the "freaks" (that's what they called themselves in the 70's) and I've hung out with the non-freaks of North Texas. The freaks certainly gave North Texas it's "uniqueness", but part of that "uniqueness" was apathy and (when they were clear headed enough) antagonism toward athletics and/or anything that smacks of school loyalty/spirit. For some reason they seem to have set the criteria for what was "cool" at North Texas. And that didn't include attending athletic events, or giving back to the University. If attracting more "conservative" students to this school is the only way that we can dig ourselves out of this culture of "slacker-student" mentality, then so be it. I just don't want to talk politics with any of them.

That may be true, but they still can't hold a candle to North Texas women. What I admire is their damn loyal fans.