NT80

New UNT Football Stadium

RV was at the Troy game, I saw him up in the suite with Fry. Perhaps you're thinking of the MTSU away game. It was posted he stayed in Denton to prepare for an NCAA briefing that weekend. Get your rumor-facts straight!

I heard from another news story that students there would soon elect official school colors and a mascot for their "sports teams". I was hesitant at first to support this new campus thinking it would just be a branch campus and take away staff and resources meant for the Denton campus. But it looks like they plan a stand-alone school and this will help ensure the future of the UNT System instead of getting swallowed someday into the UT or A$M System. Perhaps later we can add a NT-Wichita Falls (Midwestern St.) and merge TWU into the Denton main campus to create a true giant main campus and unite Denton for once?

Sloan is the one who first drew up the plans to expand Fouts and move us to 1-A. Without him we'd be playing teams like....Florida International, Florida Atlantic, ULM, etc.

Craig Helwig's job at UT now

Speaking of Helwig, remember this day? : ............................................................................................................. Saturday, February 21, 1998 North Texas' Craig Helwig's curious lack of timing won't help football turnaround By Kevin B. Blackistone / The Dallas Morning News DALLAS -- National Signing Day was three Wednesdays ago. The final polls came out shortly after New Year's, as always. North Texas played its last football game of the 1997 season the weekend before Thanksgiving. Thirteen major college football head coaching jobs opened up and were filled in the meantime. North Texas athletic director Craig Helwig announced Thursday that he'd stripped Matt Simon of his head coaching duties and was in the market for a new pigskin boss. At least he has the head-coaching market at this time of the year all to himself. "UNT has many of the ingredients necessary to have a winning football program," Helwig said. "To lead our program to the next level -- a championship in the Big West Conference -- our new football coach also will need to have significant experience and a tradition of winning." Good luck. Time was when I thought North Texas was doing the right thing. The Southwest Conference collapsed. The college football market in greater Dallas-Fort Worth was up for grabs. The Eagles decided to fly the minor league coop for Division I-A and claim a share of the regional college football turf if they could. The school expanded its little stadium. Marketed itself. Went on a campaign to get its students to turn out. Cut a deal to play a few games at Texas Stadium. Found a new home in the Big West Conference. Hired a bright young assistant, Simon, groomed by Washington's great coach Don James to steer the way. That was then. Thursday is now. Spring practice was scheduled to start in less than three weeks (March 9). Helwig is looking for someone to run it. Hey, Fred Akers is available. Helwig said he isn't concerned about trying to find a new coach now anymore than he would have been immediately after the season, which is when every other unsatisfied athletic director kicks off a search. Apparently, they just do things differently in Denton, which, quite frankly, was Simon's biggest complaint. Simon wanted to do things like most every other big-league program, especially if he was going to compete against them. Helwig said he wanted the same thing, but, for example, he didn't want to spend a lot of budget trying to recruit kids from out of state. There are more than enough good Texas high school players to go around. That is the fundamental problem at the newest elite college athletic program in the state, those that play Division I-A football. North Texas has decided that is where it wants to be, but on its own terms. The reality is it is one of 10 Division I-A football programs in Texas. It can't, for example, sustain itself on local or even regional recruiting, even though that's a great idea. It took post-death penalty Southern Methodist University until this year to finally snare a local recruit, South Oak Cliff linebacker Marcus Moseley, that the big schools really wanted. It will take back-to-the-big-time North Texas at least that long, unless it gets really lucky. Until then, it should invest in going after the best of talent from elsewhere, too. The other Big West schools do, and most of those outside California don't have half the in-state competition North Texas does. This is the type of issue on which Helwig and Simon fell out months ago, leaving Simon reassigned Thursday to facilities management or something like that. Helwig beefed up North Texas' non-conference schedule next season to include Arizona State, Kansas and Oklahoma in addition to Texas A&M. Simon would have preferred to play those teams in a season when he felt he had the manpower. Why, after all, would a young head coach with higher aspirations want to pile more "Ls" on his resume? Helwig said Simon had the budget and facilities to compete in the Big West for a title. Simon begged to differ. The truth, as in all divorces, is probably somewhere in the middle. Most Big West schools spend close to $2 million on their football teams. North Texas spent $1.8 million. Helwig was never comfortable that Simon availed himself to interviews for other jobs the past couple of seasons. Why not take that as a compliment that you hired the right guy in the first place and try to keep him? "There are things we need to work on and improve on," Helwig allowed, "but there have been improvements. We need to keep moving forward." Thursday looked like a North Texas two-step -- anywhere but in the right direction. In fact, it looked more like a stumble.

I believe Dr. Richard McDuffie was between Nelson and Sloan. Richard McDuffie at E. Illinois Univ. I'd rate Hayden Fry, RV, and Steve Sloan as our best ADs, and probably McDuffie and Helwig as least effective.

I will have lost all respect for Kentucky if they pick Leach. His system may win sometimes but he has no class.

*bump*

How low have we sunk? Today's DMN line has FIU now favored by 1 over UNT. We went from a 3-point favorite to an underdog to a 5th year program.

It would be worth $500K in instant media exposure, not to mention doubling season ticket sales the first year. Just do it!

Unfortunately at North Texas, basketball is even more about "who are we playing?" than football used to be. People show for Indiana and Okla. St., but debate about NW Missouri and NC-Somewhere. Football has been helped by improved tailgating activities. What can basketball do? Basketball also includes more weekday games, fewer weekends, and more games in general, so they're not as special to the average fan. Still, I'd like to see what a good winning streak does for attendance.

Thanks for the report. Here's the current roster from the Athletic site: 54 Barnett, Justin C 6-10 240 Sr. Arlington, TX (Martin HS) 03 Brown, Lionel G 5-11 165 Jr. Ardmore, OK (Eastern Oklahoma St. Col.) 12 Davis, Kendrick G 6-4 181 Jr. Houston, TX (Arkansas) 15 Edwards, Harold F 6-6 215 Fr. Mobile, AL (LeFlore HS) 23 Hines, Isaac G 6-0 175 Sr. Dallas, TX (Collin County (TX) CC) 34 Howerton, Justin C 6-10 240 Fr. Howe, TX (Howe HS) 20 Ray, Coby G 6-1 190 So. Plano, TX (Prestonwood Christian Academy) 10 Ruffin, Jared G 6-0 175 So. Omaha, NE (Creighton Prepatory) 45 Simpson, Jeffrey C 6-8 210 Sr. Spiro, OK (Eastern Oklahoma State Col.) 21 Stewart, Harold F 6-8 185 Fr. Fort Worth, TX (Crowley HS) 11 Sturns, Michael G 6-4 175 So. Fort Worth, TX (North Crowley HS) 33 Watson, Calvin G 6-5 215 Jr. Houston, TX (Madison HS) 32 Williams, Quincy F 6-8 215 So. Forest Park, OK (Carl Albert HS) 02 Wooden, Keith F 6-9 245 Jr. Lawrence, KA (Arizona State) 13 Young, Rich F 6-5 205 Jr. Farrell, PA (Eastern Oklahoma State College)

If Smuu can pay players, they wouldn't hesitate to invent attendance numbers.

I may join you.

Thursday 7:30 pm SL Carroll at Denton Ryan Fox Sports Net (FSN) National broadcast from 12,000-seat Denton ISD Stadium

C-U-S-A membership......facilities, it's all about the facilities.......

I want to see the big highway up ahead again. One season does not make or bust a trip, but it does say if you're on the right road. The Buick seems lost this year and has taken a steep side road which has quickly turned to dirt and gravel and loose traction. We need back on concrete, with a good map. We also need better accomodations than the SunBelt Champions Motel again. It was nice for a visit but after 4 years here and no nice parting gifts I want a better establishment. CUSA is not the Hotel BCS but it is in larger towns, and thus advertised more. Some say a New Stadium is our plane ticket out of Hooterville. I think maybe so, SMUt has one. They didn't really need it, but it got them where we want to be. So while we gloat or gloom over our SBC ventures, I say watch the road ahead, that's where we need to keep our eye on. And if our Buick won't take us there, then it's time to trade it in!

I believe Marshall received it's reputation and image from it's OOC wins, not MAC wins. They beat some quality teams out of their conference and played an exciting brand of football, mostly passing.

One of the better written Daily articles. I agree with the play Phillips argument, why not??

One positive, if nothing else, was our media for the ESPN2 game. A non-football friend was in Las Vegas on that Tuesday night and said when they went into the MGM Grand that the giant Big Screen and most smaller screens were all showing UNT fans and the game. The same at other casinos; all had UNT on alternating TVs with playoff baseball, and most were watching the football!

Good post. The respect we built through conference championships was equally dimished by the lack of success outside the conference.

My standard phrase to co-workers razzing me about UNT lately is: I know we didn't play well on the field, but our tailgating beat theirs!

Exactly. I don't mind UNT losing to a Top 25 team, if we have to play them, but we are losing to FAU, Baylor, Tulsa, and USF before they were really good. The false sense of accomplishment in the SBC has now been replaced by even worse play and losing within the SBC, as well as the average OOC games.

Agree. I've known new fans to come because of the tailgating and game atmosphere (RV), and new fans that won't come back because of the lack of quality of the product on the field (DD).