SilverEagle

For the record, I have not said that I want Dickey to be fired. But, let's not take shots at Fry with partial information. Fry didn't win any bowls (Dickey has only won one) because there were no bowl tie-ins to the *MVC, AND there were probably about half the bowls around then as there are now. We also didn't have cable with all the ESPN and FSN channels back then either. We went to the NO bowl because it was created for the Sunbelt. AND we only went to the first one because there were no rules preventing a team with a losing record to participate in the NO bowl. I believe, thanks to us, that that loop hole has since been closed. Geee, what an honor, the "North Texas rule". Fry came to North Texas after our worst record in modern football history (1-10)1972. That was also the same year that the students had a referendum vote about keeping football or not. As I recall, it barely passed to keep football. Morale couldn't have been worse amongst the football team as well as the student body. The next year North Texas went 5-5-1 and were co-champions of the MVC. They dipped to 2-7-2 the next year, but he NEVER had a losing record after that. Fry had to deal with a student body that was ACTIVELY ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT. There were protests against the war, a total lack of interest in sports, and a general distrust of ANYONE in authority. This was the era when "IT AIN'T COOL TO BE A FOOTBALL FAN" really got it's start. In light of all that, I would say that Fry hasn't gotten ENOUGH CREDIT for all that he did. As to the reference about the Corkey Nelson era. We may have beaten a "Post-death penalty" SMU team, but we also beat a non-death penalty TCU, Texas, Rice, Texas Tech, and New Mexico team........as a 1-AA SCHOOL. As far as I'm concerned, the New Mexico win in 1983 will go down in anals of North Texas Iron Man football lore. That team played Texas tough in a 26-6 loss and then drove home on a bus. They then got back on a bus and drove out to New Mexico to play UNM at their homecoming, and beat them 18-8...in the rain. We then got back on a bus and DROVE BACK to Denton. The next week we beat Arkansas State 17-0. The resources were abysmal back then. And not once did Corky Nelson complain about it. *North Texas left the MVC after Fry's first year as coach and went indy.

To put a little more reality on this. The 2001 win over NMSU took a timely (and miracle) hit on the RB to dislodge the football and then a miracle pass play at the very end. Otherwise we lose that game. The win over ASU in 02 required a miracle throw and catch from Smith to *Marshall in the waning moments of the game. *2The win over NMSU in 2003 took a last minute drive and a FG with seconds remaining. The win over USU in 04 took a miracle play by T.J. Covington to preserve the win. * let it be noted that any sort of catch by Marshall was a miracle. *2 yes, I realize that we didn't have to win that game in order to be champs and go to NO.

The DL's don't excite me much either.

Our OL may be suspect, but the ONLY player that is green is Rose. I want people to quit talking about our WHOLE offense in terms of being young/green simply because of Meager and Rose. 9 out of our 11 players have lots of game experience.

I'm just sure there are no supervisors like that in the DPD.

That was the game that we re-scheduled to accomodate Arkansas State.

Mercury Morris......#22 on your program. A few years later they had another speedster on their roster who played a little pro football... Rocky Thompson.

Damn! And I thought that I HATED SMU? You sir have me beaten by a mile. Having said that, I still believe that it's always a great day in College football when Nortre Dame, SMU, Penn State and (my latest addition) Air Force lose.

I want to start off by saying that Meager is probably the best option that we have as a QB......for now anyway. Just because Phillips is not out there (as a true freshman) doesn't mean that he doesn't hava a lot of ability. Meager is a year ahead of him in learning the system. On the other hand, just because a coach goes with a particular player doesn't mean that that coach is the best judge of talent. Does anyone remember when Sims and Applewhite were on the same team? Mac Brown couldn't wait to get Sims out there, in spite of the fact that Applewhite was the one who was the better leader......and winner. Remember how Applewhite finally came into the game against Colorado and dug Texas out of a hole? In that situation (being able to choose the best QB), Mac Brown was absolutely a lousey judge of QB talent. Now, since someone is comparing Bomar and Meager, I have an observation about that. There was some discussion a few days ago about how our coaching staff doesn't want Meager to run the option, or go scrambling, for fear that he would get hurt. That didn't seem to bother Bob Stoops about Bomar. If Bomar was his best QB option, then why did he allow him to make play after play with his feet, and risk getting dismembered by a very tough Texas defense? And while I'm at it, if the North Texas coaching staff is so afraid of Meager getting hurt, then why is it that they have such a brutal fall practice...where the QB's are not protected? I seem to remember that Dickeys' philosophy is "well, injuries happen, that's just part of football". If he truely believed that then why doesn't he let Meager make plays with his legs?There were probably many times during the Troy game that he could have made first downs and kept drives alive with his running ability. I just don't understand it.

Unless a Juco QB is an exceptional talent, I don't favor bringing one in. More than likely they will come from a different offensive system than NT, and so (IMHO) their learning curve would be about the same as a QB coming out of HS. I've said this before. I think that a QB coming out of a 4-A or 5-A HS that went into the playoffs (like Phillips) is as good (if not better) a prospect as just about any Juco QB.

I agree with that. When I was asked to participate in a focus group at the end of the 90 season, I could tell by their questions that the plan was to move up to D-1. When I found out that Corky was being fired, I said "Hell, why don't they give him the resources that they are planning to give the future coaches and see what he can do?" Geeezzzz, Corky had a better OCC record against D-1 teams than any of the above mentioned coaches and he did it with a 1-AA budget and 20 fewer "ships". And I never once heard him whine about his situation.

Believe it or not, I do this quite a bit.

Now, THAT is another great example of how great a coach and motivator Hayden Fry was. This guy did whatever was necessary to get the North Texas AND Denton communities involved. Fry would go ANYWHERE and talk to ANY ORGANIZATION to get them involved. The guy was one of a kind.

What I found shocking was how Craig James was giving North Texas cudos for all of their progress. I had to rub my eyes in disbelief. Was this really the BCS elitist Craig James saying nice things about North Texas!?!? I had to wonder how much he was paid to say all those nice things. Surely he wasn't serious.

Yes. The Troy player pushed him, but Cotton's helmet didn't immediately fly off. It flew off when Cotton's hands went up to his helmet.

No, I looked closely at the tape that I made. His hands were on either side of his helmet when it flew off.

If you're talking about that penalty before the first half where Cotton (#24) pulled his helmet off after they made a big stop...I don't call that an "iffy call". I call it a pure bone headed....no!....make that a "dumba** play" on Cotton's part. Initially I thought it was Branch, but I was told it was Cotton. We could have gotten the ball back with a little over a minute before the half, but instead we had to battle to keep them out of the endzone and then luck out when they missed the field goal. To me, that is a coaching issue. You give away 15yrds AND THE BALL because you're not smart enough to keep your hat on? It's not a real hard rule to remember. And it's the coaches job to make sure that they know the rules.........especially the real easy ones like KEEP YOUR DAMN HAT ON WHILE YOU'RE OUT ON THE FIELD.

Rick, that must have been very special for you. I didn't know that Hayden would be available for autographs, or I would have made a bigger effort to arrive early. Sounds like Hayden is pretty much everything we told you he was. I watched the ESPN interview with him during the third quarter of the game. Hayden commented on what a fantastic game day experience North Texas was putting on. I knew he would be both surprised AND pleased. Hayden never had that kind of game day experience, and he still came up with big wins for the University. And speaking of game day experience. We can thank our current AD for this wonderful game day atmosphere . Rick V. has worked his tail off to make the game day experience as enjoyable for everyone as possible. Between the facility improvements and the game day experience, Rick V. has done his job as AD better than ANY previous AD (and that might include Hayden Fry). NOW, if only the BOR would let him do the rest of his job............... Keep sending those e-mails and/or letters of encouragement to him. He can't make all the changes that he needs to make without them.

With our conference winning streak and four Sunbelt conference championships, we used to be "King of the dip$shits"....we're not even that anymore.

"Last week we had some chances against K-State, but missed some holes and missed some blocks." Hmmm, isn't that how ALL teams lose. Define "some". When you lose 54-7, "some" seems like a bit of an understatment.

I'll take that as the compliment that I'm sure it was meant to be........ in your own very strange way of course.

Enjoy all that Longhorn tradition and glory that someone else made....and then handed to you.

The answer is no. You made your decision when you went to UT. Back in the 60's Texas adopted Slippery Rock as their "pet" school to pull for. It was the "in" thing to do. And while the UT fans found it whimsical and cool, I found it insulting to Slippery Rock. You can claim that you are a North Texas fan, but North Texas is NOT anyone's "pet" school.

During the 60's my High School band would go to the North Texas homecoming games every year, so my first D-1 experience was watching North Texas football. At approximately the same time in the 60's, my step-father's boss would occasionally give him his TCU tickets, which would get passed down to me and my friends. I saw the Norm Buliaches (sp), Ross Montmogerys, James Streets, Chris Gilberts, Steve Worsters, and Ted Koys of the SWC play. When I went to North Texas games I got to watch the Bobbie Smiths, the Carl (Spider) Lockharts, John Loves, Steve Ramseys, Ron Shanklins and Joe Greenes of the MVC play. While I thought that the 68 Texas team was very talented in the RB department, overall I found North Texas football to be the equal (with the possible exception of Texas) of most SWC teams of that era.....and much more fun to watch. People still talk about what a great coach Darrell Royal is. Years ago I observed that considering the resources at his disposal (money, facilities and having the "pick of the litter" of Texas High School talent) DKR was really a pretty average coach. Just imagine what sort of teams Hayden Fry could have put together if he had coached at Texas with the same resources at his disposal. To me, it's not just about pulling for the underdog, it's watching a team (or teams) do the most with limited resources. Those are the players, and teams, that are truely doing it for the love of the game. They are the ones that REALLY deserve the support of their alumni/students. ANYONE can buy a t-shirt and jump on the bandwagon......like most Texas fans do. North Texas fans are REAL FANS.