SilverEagle

I have news for everyone. Because of our "traditional" level of support and attendance at games, our players level of "care" or "loyalty" was always pretty minimal as it was. "Down the corridor of years" my observation of North Texas "fans" was that they were more likely to remember obscure Dallas Cowboy players than former (hard working) NT starters who never made it past their careers here at North Texas. Unless you were an Abner Haynes, Joe Green, Steve Ramsey, or maybe Cedric Hardman or Spider Lockhart, you were pretty much forgotten by the fan base. Loyalty is a two-way street.

That is a great idea. Most big schools wouldn't come knocking if we hadn't taken in a overlooked recruit and housed, educated, and developed his skill level. We should be compensated for that.

We won't cheat like SMU because we don't have their level of giving....and probably never will. The other reasons are that cheating is not in our DNA, and throwing money is not either (I'll skip the cultural history lesson here). It would be nice if we had a following like North Dakota or South Dakota, but they are pretty much the only show in town in those states. HOWEVER, as an FCS school, we had our first and second sell out at Fouts (in its original 20.5 capacity) against SFA and SMU.....which was SRO. We never did that in the Joe Greene/Steve Ramsey era. As an FCS school we traveled about 10K fans down to Texas in 1988. So what was the main difference? We were nationally ranked........and the person in charge of promotions was a devoted NT alum. Our football games are still not cultural events like all the other schools who have long standing traditions.....and who celebrate those traditions. OUR FOOTBALL GAMES CONTINUE TO BE CONTRACTED EVENTS. NONE OF THE NEW PARTICIPANTS COME AWAY FEELING A REAL CONNECTION.

He was hon men all conference in 22. How did he do in 23?

Really!? Then how is it that it was not spread to the student body and alumni? Pardon my confusion, but isn't spreading, encouraging, and promoting school spirit/pride the primary purpose of ALL of our spirit organizations?

Position?

The only thing that I remember about Bob Tyler was when he was interviewed after the Oklahoma State game, and he voiced some very relevant, and accurate observations about North Texas. "This is a large institution of higher learning with an excellent academic reputation. They have a very large alumni base in the metroplex. They have probably the best Band in the South/Southwest part of America. Yet they can't get people to show up to football games.......what the hell is wrong with these people? .......indeed. However, he left out the best part. Our administration's lack of good sense and/or competence by hiring a coach with (as the British would say) a dodgy reputation. AFTER they had been advised by multiple people in the know, not to do so. RIP Coach Tyler. Condolences to your family.

Let's all keep in mind that the "death penalty" was not administered because of an isolated incident involving David Stanley. Stanley represented the latest in multiple violations stretching out over both the Meyers tenure there and culminating with the big investigation of the Collins coaching violations that were investigated by WFAA (God love'em). I agree that based on what happened to SMU, other SWC schools should have been hit as well. One story that I heard, (and hope that it is true), was how Eric Dickerson drove to Dallas to sign his letter of intent, in a firebird that was purchased for him by an A$M fan. The NCAA could have gotten a 2-fer on that one. Anyway, no SMU alum would ever seek any sort of sympathy from me regarding their death penalty debacle/mistreatment. But if they did, I would suggest that they could find sympathy in the dictionary....... it's somewhere between shit and syphilis. Now, let me give the devil it's due......somewhat. We have blamed SMU for mishaps and/or misdeeds visited on us for the last 50 years or so. But from 1961 until 1988 we have attempted on more than one occasion to change our name to its current one....UNT. For those not familiar with NT history, our status change from College to University took place in 1960, which necessitated an official name change. We had to petition the legislature for their approval, and our first choice was UNT. The bill passed easily through the house but met strong opposition from several senators who threatened to filibuster the bill as written. We had to have a name change so we compromised on NTSU. We tried a couple of more times after that, but were thwarted again. Finally, we went at it again in 1988 and it still almost didn't go through because of some "procedural" roadblocks. But those were overcome at the last minute and the bill was signed by the Govenor. The people involved in all of the threatened filibustering, and road blocking all those years between 1961 and 1988 were UT grads. The bill was signed by Bill (SMU grad) Clements.

Absolutely. Now, If I heard that he was leaving I would really worry.

I first tried Bodacious in Longview.......fantastic.

I look forward to seeing him and Landon Sides on the field at the same time. Also, if Shane Porter (#24 on the spring roster) is only playing running back for spring practice, then I assume he would be a slot receiver this fall. If he can catch as well as he can run with the ball, then we would have another Landon Sides out there. Players like these have the ability to make just about any QB look good. Just get the ball in their hands.

Well, Earl is certainly capable of winning games, but he needs a talented and confident team surrounding him. I don't understand how being a freshman is any sort of upside. He's either a person that is mostly confident in his abilities by the time he gets here or his's not. His body language conveyed confidence to me. There was no "deer in the headlights" look about his play. He's physically talented and mostly needs (as the old saying goes) some rough spots smoothed out. He loves throwing the long ball, but the mid-range needs to be worked on. Speaking of confident players, did they hold Landon Sides out because they didn't want to risk injury, or was he injured?

....and how many close calls like that happened to Mason Fine during his career?

No, that happened (pic-6) to Cash (everyone latest shiny object). I think about two times.

Mid-range arm accuracy and quick release is much more important. One of the problems with Aune and Ruder was that sometimes they would throw the ball so hard it would hit the receiver in the hands or "bread basket" and bounce out.

We better hope that he is more durable than when he was at TCU. OR that he can get rid of the ball quickly.

Yep. Earl looked pretty Sharpe. The freshman from China Spring has a very strong arm and he has good/very good acceleration. when he takes off to run. Mooney didn't impress me at all. The three guys that really got my attention were the converted WR, Shane Porter, #24 playing RB. They gave him a lot of reps. Very good moves at the line of scrimmage (changing direction) and sometimes pretty hard to bring down. Not bad for someone who is 177lbs. The second one is the transfer, Oscar Hammond, TE #23. He takes all of the pain out of losing Mr. Gumms to Arkansas. He goes after the ball and seemed to always catch it, and he turned it into lots of YAC. #3 Richard Rocquemore #81. Brought down two very long balls whilst being very closely covered.

Now, there is a good idea.........😉

You know gm, I (in theory) agree with you. One of my old HS band buddies who was on a music scholarship @ NT , were "catching up" one time at a North Texas homecoming game. He said that he would like to eventually teach at NT, but their policy was that he must get a masters and/or PhD from another school before he could return to teach at NT. Perhaps the same policy could be put in place for people hired to be in charge of fan and student engagement. Someone who got their bachelor's at NT but their masters from a school that had significant fan/student involvement...like A$M....or OU/OSU.....or even TCU. Now there is a school that holds on to old traditions........RIFF RAM!

80, I'll have to say that I'm not shocked at all. This is what happens when a sports department is being run by people who never had any connection with North Texas. And their only current connection is their paycheck. My guess is that as long as they check every box on their (IMHO) minimalist job description, they aren't going to do ONE THING past it. You know who (IMHO) has been the best person ever at NT that was in charge of promotions? That would be drex. Guess where he got his degree? That would be NT.

He's listed on the spring roster as a WR. I also saw Jace Ruder on the roster. I thought he had moved on.

North Texas has one of the largest (for its size) entrenched bureaucracies, run by some of the most petty bureaucrats I've ever come into contact with. And I am retired (after over 33 years) from working for one of the most legalistic agencies in the State... Child Protective Services. I have joked many times that I would rather deal with the administration of the FBI and/or Homeland security than the NT bureaucrats. When FFR and I were selling t-shirts we attended a meeting with the Athletic Department to discuss some ideas for sports gear. We had just engaged a flag/banner company to make NT battle flags for sale and we had a sample for all the athletic department staff to look over. Well, one of the people at the table was a petty bureaucrat that I had not ever met, but FFR knew him. Almost from the day that the battle flag had been created (thank you drex) this pin head declared that it was illegal to produce such a thing. He almost single handedly shot down the use of it by his petty rantings. Well, FFR anticipated that he would be there harping about the flag, so he contacted a staff attorney at North Texas and ran this by him. The attorney said that there was no such law, and that North Texas could wave it's green Texas Battle flag all it wanted. The attorney gave permission for Rick to quote him on that at our meeting. Well, when the time came for us to present a sample of the battle flag this pin head didn't waste a moment. He conjured up his most dismissive voice and said "well, I can tell you right off what's wrong with this product.....it's against the law to produce it". FFR then proceeded to tell everyone at the table that that was wrong, and said that the NT attorney, whose name he gave, said so. The aforementioned pin head then had to finally shut up about it.......but very grudgingly. But the most annoying thing about it was that NOT ONE PERSON sitting at the table from the athletic department ever uttered one word of descent to this pin head. Not one question like "did you check with our attorneys about that? or "where did you get your information about that?" Had it not been for FFR's due diligence, they, (including Rick V.), would have all sat there and let him shoot the battle flag down. This is how things got done, or not done, back in the day. And from greenjoe's own experience, it looks like things haven't changed much.

I used to have a Band Director (NT McAdow student), who one day stopped us in the middle of practice and asked "how many of you believe the old adage that practice makes perfect?". Well, we thought that was an easy question, so we all raised our hands. "Well you're all wrong" he said. GOOD PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT AND THIS PRACTICE IS THE WORST I'VE EVER SEEN". The rest of practice ended up better. My point? Under DD and Littell, North Texas won a lot of games. They set impressive rushing and passing records. But when it came to winning games that REALLY COUNTED (the good practice part of my analogy) like conference championship games, and bowl games, and games against La Tech at home with a big crowd watching.........WE GOT OWNED. Winning the conference championships, and bowl games, and big games at home in front of large crowds , does wonders for a program.

Find a way to keep the students from broiling in their seats. Such as no games before 6 PM early in the season. Get the spirit groups more involved in engaging the students and alumni DURING the game (I don't give a crap about our cheerleader's gymnastic skills) They (the aforementioned students and alumni) come back when they feel that they have been an active part of the team's win. The cheer/ Talon staff should try to engage/encourage the tailgaters to participate in the pre-game team walk into the stadium. Start the "NORTH-TEXAS" chant and continue it until they are past the crowd. It would be a great start for crowd participation prior to the game.

But fear not Rudy! Because more and more school boards are pushing for an "abstinence-based" sex education program. Unwanted pregnancies and dysfunctional new parents are soon to be a thing of the past.... therefore, making your job much easier.