NT80

Well, we've had Vanderbilt and Oregon State at Fouts, but they signed the contract before they knew what Fouts was. I heard Okie State balked at playing at Fouts, can't blame them. We need a new, modern, fan-friendly stadium ASAP, just so we can play some of these better programs at home.

A QB won last year, it's time for a RB this year.

So, the HP fans that can't see the game should blame it on the fact their team can't play on natural grass. Other states would just laugh.

Politician seeks change to stadium choice After HP fans left out of tiny title-game venue, Branch plans hearings 10:37 PM CST on Friday, December 9, 2005 By KAREN BROOKS / The Dallas Morning News AUSTIN – Just when fans thought the dustup over today's Highland Park-Marshall state high school football championship couldn't get any messier: Here come the politicians. After being slammed with phone calls and e-mails from brokenhearted Highland Park fans, state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, said Friday that he would hold public hearings on the "broken system" that allowed the Marshall coach to pick a tiny stadium that holds a fraction of the fans who would pay to see the game. It's especially trouble, he said, "in a state that's famous for its 'Friday Night Lights' " and struggling to find money for its public schools. "It's outrageous that a state final game is being played in a stadium so small that it denies access to thousands of fans, families and friends," said Mr. Branch, who leads a House subcommittee charged with finding revenue sources for schools and whose district includes Highland Park High School. His counterpart in Marshall, GOP Rep. Bryan Hughes, doesn't agree, saying the system is fair because it doesn't force rural schools to travel for every championship. Mr. Hughes, incidentally, has a ticket to today's game. Mr. Branch won't attend. Highland Park hasn't won a championship in 48 years, and the school wanted to play at Texas Stadium but lost a coin toss to Marshall, which chose Rose Stadium in Tyler, closer to home. It accommodates 14,000 fans at most. Each school sold all of its 5,500 tickets in a couple of days – leaving an estimated 20,000 or more fans without tickets. Some wound up paying scalpers hundreds of dollars. Others paid Marshall residents to buy up some of that town's allotment – prompting a Marshall newspaper columnist to declare that a Scots fan would have to "pry my cold, dead fingers from the stub" before he would let it go to someone other than a "red-blooded Marshall Maverick." Dallas resident Greg McCoy, a Scots football player in the 1970s, sent a friend to stand in line at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, and still didn't get a ticket because the booster club had sold them all the night before. He'll have to settle for a watch party at his house. "I was denied," he said with a chuckle. "What I would do is designate a stadium in August and let the teams shoot for a trip to that city. You're losing a lot of revenue the way they're doing it now." Mr. Branch said he would make a recommendation for changes to the full House education committee next summer. One idea, he said, is for the University Interscholastic League to limit coaches' choices to major stadiums – such as the Astrodome, Texas Stadium or the Alamodome. UIL officials won't comment on pending legislation, but they noted that schools had resisted changes in the past. Mr. Branch said the time has come for changes. "This is a big deal," he said. "My phone has been ringing off the wall. This makes school finance look like a minor issue." ............................................................................ Sidenote: normally, Baylor's stadium in Waco could have been used for this game and the Southlake game, but the President and troops had it already reserved for an event. Why not College Station and Kyle field?

That decision to kill the last 1:37 took the life out of the crowd and told the team the coach had no confidence in their ability. Bonehead call. Aside from that, the TxSt crowd was loud; and I'd like to have that UNI soph QB, very accurate and smart decisions.

30K ? You obviously are watching the wrong game. Texas State's stadium only seats ~14,000 (my high shcool's stadium is larger). We had 19,000+ show up to see a 2-6 home team in October. Think TSU could do that? Were you at the NMSU game a couple years ago at Fouts to clinch the Conference title? That was atmosphere! NEVER back to 1-AA!

Ah, a glimmer of hope, thanks.

Well, with our conference's OOC record, it's hard to argue with him. We need wins over WAC, MAC and CUSA schools to at least show we're their equal. Until then, we are who we beat.

Fouts needs major electrical, plumbing, and concrete work (54 years old). The land at Fouts is needed for the core campus. A new soccer facility has just been finished (former Liberty Christian football stadium).

No, I meant odd to not had a formal meeting since before the first SBC Championship (2001), if that's what the article meant. I thought most coaches were annually evaluated?

Someone on one of the boards had suggested this. It may happen for the short term, but the land Fouts is on is to become part of the core campus, ie. dorms, academic buildings and parking. The Eagle Point master plan has a track facility on it, south of the tennis complex.

Sorry if it implied it was in the article, I was just asking the question. As the article mentions they are making significant jumps out of the regional limelight lately and the next obvious step is out of the Southland and 1-AA. Many on the boards have promoted them as possible candidates for the SBC. They are in our recruiting area and have some momentum right now with the name change and football. That makes them a threat to NT, in my opinion, if they continue. We once were equal or ahead of 1-AA UCF, USF, Marshall, Boise, and Troy. Now?

I appreciate any student-run group trying to increase attendance. More attendance makes any game more fun. Students are likely to return if they see their peers there. Some things to note: Unlike football on every Saturday, basketball has an erratic schedule which is hard for fans to remember. Also, some basketball opponents are less than regular household names. Maybe handout small basketball schedule magnets. Otherwise, start with one upcoming home game to focus your advertising on. Then another later. The sidewalk-chalk idea is good. The fake folded dollar bill on the ground or table with basketball message on the inside can be effective in a student environment. It will get their attention if nothing else. People usually don't read small posted signs, but they will listen to small "verbal" messages as they pass. Use the human-billboard approach they used on "The Apprentice" recently. A person or persons standing with a front and back visual placard around them while announcing the game ensures verbal and visual reinforcment and will make people take notice. Place several people in high traffic areas of your target students, like the Union Building, Library, Dorms, outside academic buildings, parking garages, etc.

Some good stuff. Baseball would be a great addition to the overall athletic program (and in the eyes of CUSA). If we manage to someday get a new football stadium, new baseball facility, and an indoor practice facility we'll be set with facilities for many years. All we'd need then would be a new track facility relocated to Eagle Point someday. PMG, did you notice this: “Right now our first priority is the football stadium, but if someone comes along and wants to make a donation and have the naming rights, it would help a lot of sports.”

That seems a little odd not to have a formal meeting until now. Do you think fan public relations was discussed at this meeting?

For Texas State football, a new identity School shed its regional label, then found national success in I-AA 10:45 PM CST on Thursday, December 8, 2005 By JEFF MILLER / The Dallas Morning News SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State stands on the verge of playing for a national football championship for the first time in a generation. Returning to this height has been anything but a steady climb; be warned that recapping the events of recent years could cause motion sickness. School regents gave their blessing in 2000 to jump from NCAA Division I-AA to I-A, only to see that effort quietly fizzle out. Every Bobcats fan had to restock his game gear in 2003 when the university changed its name from Southwest Texas State in an effort to shed a small-school image. And there was the matter of firing a football coach after only one season – one week before signing day in 2004. Yet Texas State will host Northern Iowa in a Division I-AA semifinal tonight at Bobcat Stadium, every seat having been sold since Tuesday. The winner will play in the final next weekend in Chattanooga, Tenn. Such football excitement hasn't been seen here since the early 1980s. Jim Wacker coached ol' SWT to two Division II titles before taking his frenetic approach to TCU. The Bobcats moved into Division I-AA and the Southland Conference in 1987 but never claimed a league championship trophy until sharing this year's title with Nicholls State. At the center of the swift ascent are two contrasting figures. Denise Trauth stands 5-4, dabbles in aerobics and became school president in the fall of 2002. David Bailiff is 6-3 and not far off the 228 pounds he carried as a team captain and honorable mention All-American with the 1977-80 Bobcats. He's in his second year as Texas State coach, hired after Trauth boldly dismissed Manny Matsakis (and athletic director Greg LaFleur) after Matsakis' one traumatic season. Matsakis, brought in from Texas Tech, was into innovative motivation. He had players busting boards with their palms and assistant coaches describing how he persuaded them to walk on hot coals. But one top-level Texas State booster said Matsakis' persona didn't click with the locals. Albert Gonzalez, a local pharmaceutical salesman, said Matsakis was arrogant toward them. No mending fences "I told him one time that he was going to have to mend some fences in the business community," said Gonzalez, who attended Southwest Texas in the early 1970s. "His response to me was that he wasn't going to mend any fences. He was just going to build new ones." Matsakis also worked his players well beyond NCAA time limits and persuaded at least some of them to falsify their version of timecards. Trauth said she was alerted to that in an anonymous letter. An internal investigation confirmed a dozen NCAA rule violations, including some committed under previous coach Bob DeBesse. Teddy Jones, a senior lineman from Fort Worth Southwest, said players were given punishment exercises for missing summer workouts that the NCAA had mandated as voluntary. He called Matsakis' overall approach brainwashing. "No one violation was that great," Trauth said. "Some you look at and say, 'How does this merit firing a coach and athletic director?' But when you put them all together, what you saw was a pattern. It was just not acceptable." The NCAA later placed Texas State on three years' probation starting this season but with no postseason sanctions. Trauth said there was no way to hold off on the firings until after signing day. The school lost only a handful of commitments. "We were dealing with a breakdown in integrity with the NCAA violations," she said. "It was important for the university to show integrity itself ... so we weren't deceiving any students into thinking who the head coach was." Associate athletic director Larry Teis was left as the ranking official in the department to lead the coaching search and immediately targeted Bailiff. They had worked together at multiple schools, including TCU, Teis' alma mater. Trauth and Bailiff made a connection in their first meeting. "What she asked me to do was get the kids going to class, get 'em doing the right thing," said Bailiff, Gary Patterson's assistant head coach with the Horned Frogs in 2001. "Fill the football stadium. Win games, and graduate 'em." Gonzalez said Bailiff's hiring saved the athletic department. "The entire LaFleur-Matsakis fiasco inflicted wounds on this community, on this university," he said. "David was the only person that could have healed those wounds." Matsakis returned to his home state of Ohio, where he operates a business that works with coaching clinics and sports camps. He said he accepts responsibility for the violations – "some of those things happened; some of them didn't" – and added that the NCAA didn't prevent any member schools from hiring him. Trauth proudly noted the collective football grade-point average has improved each semester under Bailiff and is no accident. Excitement has spilled over into San Marcos, where the mayor hosted a pep rally at City Hall. Memorable start Texas State's playoff opener will be discussed around town at places like Herbert's Taco Hut for years. The Bobcats trailed Georgia Southern, 35-19, with less than five minutes remaining in the third quarter. They then scored the final 31 points behind the spectacular play of senior quarterback Barrick Nealy from Dallas' Adamson High School to win, 50-35. Nealy, who finished fifth in I-AA's version of Heisman Trophy voting, accounted for a staggering 526 yards. Senior defensive lineman Fred Evans said he isn't surprised at the success in Bailiff's second season. "The athletes were here," said Evans, invited to the Hula Bowl all-star game. "He just brought the right mentality." Tonight's crowd surely will scream out the new cheer that followed the school name change, the alumni side yelling "Texas!" followed by the student side with "State!" ("We'd need three sets of bleachers to do that with the old name," Bailiff pointed out.) Trauth will entertain people in her private box above the 50-yard line, extolling football success as a great campus connector that helps increase student retention. And someone probably will pull aside Teis, now athletic director, and ask again about going I-A. How often is that topic raised? "This year? Every day," he said. That push began to subside three years ago after the NCAA stiffened its attendance requirements. Texas State is refocused on consistent excellence in Division I-AA on the field and off. The Bobcats haven't had consecutive winning seasons since 1990-91, Dennis Franchione's two-year hitch. With tonight's game, five of the top 11 crowds at Bobcat Stadium (which now seats 15,218) will have come this season. Improvement and expansion of facilities is just gaining traction in a department that began seriously pursuing major financial donors only six years ago. "One year doesn't make a trend," Trauth said. "This is all such new territory for us." E-mail jmiller@dallasnews.com NCAA Division I-AA football semifinals: Texas State (11-2) vs. Northern Iowa (10-3), 7 p.m. today, Bobcat Stadium, San Marcos, Texas (ESPN2) BIG CHANGES It's been a tumultuous decade for Texas State football: February 2000 – Exploration to move from I-AA to I-A approved by school regents, then aborted. December 2002 –Athletic director Greg LaFleur hired Texas Tech special teams coach Manny Matsakis as head football coach. September 2003 – School changed name from Southwest Texas State University to Texas State University-San Marcos. January 2004 –Matsakis and LaFleur fired one week before signing day. February 2004 –TCU defensive coordinator David Bailiff hired as coach; associate athletic director Larry Teis promoted to AD the next month. March 2005 –Received three years' NCAA probation, with no postseason sanctions. Fall 2005 –Team advanced to Division I-AA semifinals.

Decision to add baseball in 2008 is on horizon 11:40 PM CST on Thursday, December 8, 2005 By BRETT VITO / Denton Record-Chronicle DENTON – UNT will make a decision on whether to field a baseball team in the spring of 2008 in the next 45 days. UNT would add the program in the fall of 2007 so the team would be ready for its first game the following spring. "We are looking at the balance of dollars, the Title IX implications and what is in the best interests of the program overall," athletic director Rick Villarreal said. UNT has an agreement with the Denton Outlaws, a Texas Collegiate League summer team, to build a field on UNT property across from the Mean Green Athletic Center. ................................................................... Anyone know about an updated construction timetable for the baseball stadium and if funding has been found yet? Usually the DMN just prints a summarized version of a larger article that will come out in the DRC.

While on the subject of ULaLa, here is their 2006 football schedule as posted on the SunBelt board: Sept. 2 at LSU Sept. 9 at Houston Sept. 16 OHIO Sept. 23 at Texas A & M Sept. 30 EASTERN MICHIGAN Oct. 7 OPEN Oct. 14 at Florida Atlantic Oct. 21 ARKANSAS STATE Oct. 28 MIDDLE TENNESSEE Nov. 4 at Troy Nov. 11 NORTH TEXAS Nov. 18 at Florida International Nov. 25 UL MONROE

Villarreal, Dickey call UNT meeting productive 12:43 AM CST on Friday, December 9, 2005 By BRETT VITO / Denton Record-Chronicle DENTON – North Texas athletic director Rick Villarreal expressed confidence in coach Darrell Dickey and his efforts to rebuild the Mean Green after a 2-9 season Thursday, just a few days after a postseason meeting. Villarreal said Dickey would return for his ninth season at UNT in 2006. "The meeting was for us to look at what we can do to make sure that we give the team the best opportunity to be successful and make sure that our expectations are the same," Villarreal said. "We were both in agreement. I am very confident that coach Dickey will work hard to make the adjustments that need to be made." UNT won the Sun Belt Conference title and played in the New Orleans Bowl in four straight seasons while producing a pair of national rushing champions in Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas from 2001 to '04 before a down year last season. UNT was picked to win a fifth straight Sun Belt title in the league's preseason poll but lost five conference games by a combined 21 points. "Rick gave me a lot of opinions on what he saw and what we can do better," Dickey said. "It was a productive meeting."

We only had 77 scholarship players this season instead of 85. Our freshman QBs may develop but we badly needed to sign a JUCO QB when Byerly was having academic issues. Not only JUCOs but some of our freshman are not being retained like they used to. Too many recently leaving the program for what ever reasons has set us behind on numbers.

We should have recruited more JCs before this last season. What a waste of a year.

This is UH we're talking about, not Indiana or OU. Expect maybe 50 Coog fans.

they also have more **cough**...youth... **cough** than we do.....

note about former NT asst. AD... Jackson State: Athletic Director Roy Culberson resigned. The school fired football coach James Bell last month. ....................................................................................... that wording just seemed funny; like since he had fired the coach he could now leave peacefully.