PlummMeanGreen

I think most years most Southwest area privates are going to be fighting for 4'th, 5'th & 6'th place finishes in a conference like the Big 12. Oh yes, there will be occasional exceptionslike Baylor this year, but I look for the Bears to go back to being BU once they come back to earth and the new'ness wears off their stadium. UT will be back and will be back soon so that will kick the BU's and TCU's down another notch. Just my .02 on all this and from watching all these schools along with their histories since I bought my first Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine, circa 1964 AND buying that magazine....at Griffins General Store, Danbury, Texas, as seen below! LOL! (And please don't call me Opie Taylor)!

Spot on, pal! Still amazing to me (not really) is how unsuccessful TCU has been their first 2 years in the Big 12. Coach Patterson's frustration in his post-game media interview the other day was much more about than just the BU player who was ejected from the game who came back to the Baylor bench. He's beginning to see that the Big 12 is no Mountain West Conference. Of course, I predicted right after the Froggies joined the B12 that they would start reminding many of us of the TCU of the old SWC and so far that has been the case--even with TCU having better quality teams. I think TCU made a smart move to re-do their stadium (ONLY) about a month after we announced we were going to build Apogee, but I still think any ex SWC private school in the Big 12 competing against the UT's, the OU's and even the Texas Techs (some years) will spend most of their Falls fighting for a 4'th or 5'th place Big 12 finish. IMO, Baylor U will wake up soon enough and gravitate back to the place that private schools gravitate to a la their old SWC history and I don't care if they have a new stadium & fancy fishing pier on the Brazos or not. As we know, new stadiums only stay new 1 year. Speaking of New Stadiums or Re-Do's For Big 12 Competition? Anyone else notice how TCU and Baylor are not even matching their stadium seating capacities of old Amon Carter Stadium (50K) and Floyd Casey Stadium (also 50K)? I think I know why but that is not for this thread.

Amen, bro! UNT Law or UNT-Dallas are no more a part of us than UTEP or UTSA are of flagship UT-Austin. Our BOR's back in the day let the real plums get away from our main campus (among a few other dunder-head things they've done the last 25 or so years). Sometimes its hard to believe that so many of our UNT BOR's have had very successful businesses the way they've run our campus at time. On their behalf, I think they just hit a home run with this new UNT prez' hire, though. (You have to give credit when credit is due).

When June Jones thought he had the Arizona St or Arizona (?) job sewed up and then didn't, would that not cause a rain on the parade for any school where a jilted coach would have had to stay? SMU'ers seem to have all but disliked him ever since that episode took place. You tell your fiance you found a better deal who would later turn you down and then you go back to the original fiance? Uh, duh? GMG!

With Kliff Kingsbury making hay in Lubbock and being quite popular as well, might the T.T. Leach legions be so much smaller now?

"IF"............Michigan. Back in the mid 80's when their state went belly up economically and many moved down here to Texas to get jobs, I went to a Texas Rangers/Detroit Tigers baseball game at old Arlington Stadium and there were more Michiganders in attendance than Ranger fans that night. Wonder how many of em' would come down "IF" we get the HOD Bowl? Wonder how many of em' stayed since the 80's? GMG!

Harris M! Truer words have been spoken as the title of this thread you have begun. GMG! PS: Sorry about my high sugar Type 2 moment the other night on your voice mail. I blush.

You are on a roll, Mean Green 93-98! Don't stop now! LOL! GMG! PS: Didn't a 1-AA (FCS) school come in and beat UM several years ago, too? PS II: And you're right....the public loves an under-dog.

I rest my case............you are right and I'm.............100% wrong! Guess I should wean myself from Harry's board and go visit UNT athletics official board once in a green moon? IMO............even just a HOD Bowl appearance for North Texas against a Big 10 or PAC 12 school would be bigger than our win over a 6 & 5 Tennessee team that some goober has talked about since Adam & Eve were runnin' 'round nekid' in the Garden of the Jolly Green Giant. (ho! ho! ho!) And then a win if we were in that bowl game? Words cannot describe what that would do short term and long term for Coach Mac's football program. (We still must get our home attendance numbers up dramatically no matter what). GMG!

My "guess" is that any way they could sell regular season tickets they would use any avenue (Ticketmasters?) to do so? For HOD Bowl ticket sales me'thinks they might want more exclusitivety and recognition as a department for bowl ticket sales?

North Texas Shep & other alums/fans: I think its already been posted on this forum, but "IF" we get this bowl game we will need to buy our tickets from the UNT Ticket Office so our school gets credit for those sales. Until that M.O. is changed (if it is) I think we should do just that. GMG! PS: "Torture feel so good." (Quasimodo)

Some of us who've been around this program for 40 plus years can tell you a reason could probably be found but good God Almighty...please let there be no reason that would be found. We had 19K for our last home game when there should have been 31,000--I'm hoping the new UNT prez will take a strong (and researched) look as to why we ain't selling to and drawing too many more fans that we did 30 plus years ago. There is really something quite fallacious about that and I won't be satisfied until a new unbiased UNT prez gives us all an answer as to why. (I still defer to my signature below). Coach Mac is one we do need to hang onto for quite awhile. He has (and is) doing his job. GMG!

Jack, you are right. (BTW, enjoyed our visit at our last home game, too). And this thread title & theme more of a projection for UNT's future than the actual present. What I call 2'nd division in the Big 12 are those schools who finish #7 all the way down to last. Probably a better term than 2'nd division. On your last sentence which I highlighted: When have we ever had the DFW area to ourselves (ever) even with our over 200,000 UNT alums and a school enrollment which will one day be over 40,000? With those numbers and consecutive winnning seasons along with a few Top 25 ranked teams (a la the MAC seems to have every Fall) and some Mean Green bowl wins over significant schools we can for sure have a huge hunk of the DFW Metroplex and..................... dash forever TCU Coach Gary Patterson's thinking that his Froggies will "become the team for North Texas." (yuk-yuk). Last I checked, the Froggies have not fared too well in their first 2 years in the Big 12. TCU Coach Gary Patterson: Listening to his post-game comments on the BU player who really should have been led out of ACS after his horrific personal foul on the TCU player but still this.........."come on, Gary, Baylor's coach lost his brother only days earlier in a car crash---give him a little slack, perhaps?" (Why didn't the Big 12 officials make sure that BU player was in the locker room in the first place and not back on the Bear's bench)?

Texas State? To quote another UNT alum: "CUSA Commish' Brit Banowsky would fight to his death to keep this from ever happening." The HOD Bowl is owned by ESPN and I don't think having two G5 Texas-based schools in one of their bowls would hardly be what they have in mind for TV ratings. GMG!

The WBAP morning show guys just mentioned a North Texas/Michigan HOD Bowl game and said "that would be fun." I think there are some projections in this AM's DMN which they saw that possible matching. Earlier we know sooner we can start buying tickets. Still wish Iowa would be the school but (I suppose) lets get a HOD Bowl invite first, right? GMG!

I like a marching band that runs out on the field en mass before they begin their show. Good for some bands--not good for others? We can't expect that all bands will be doing the same thing, can we? How boring if they did. GMG! PS: I post YouTubes of the Green Brigade on my Facebook page periodically shows how damn proud I am of them.

Done! GMG!

Great point, SHOSS! And as you posted with Cincy' almost beating who would be NCAA national champion Ohio State that season we did go ahead and beat Cincy' in that year's New Orleans Bowl. I live to see the day its North Texas pulling off those kind of upsets and with McCarney at the helm, I see that happening down the road--maybe even down the road that ends up in Austin next Fall? GMG!

Sound is the main thing that separates the Green Brigade from most all other NCAA FBS college marching bands. If the Green Brigade moved around with the vigor & intensity that describes most Big 10 bands (like Michigan's) they might not be able to maintain that great sound quality since our marching band makes those great sounds most times when they are standing in stationary mode. Comparing the great Green Brigade Marching Band of the U of North Texas to most Big 10 marching bands is almost an apples & oranges thing..........IMO. I appreciate both kinds of marching bands and if we play the Wolverines of Michigan, I assure you they will know all about our Green Brigade and it national reputation. __________________________________________ Bill, did I ever show you this diminutive pic of a UH Band Day, circa 1967, in the Astrodome? I know you've said on many occasions how late, great UNT Marching Band Director Maurice McAdow used to do these every Fall when you were a student. Note: There are 13,000 bandsmen in this pic and I'm in the stands watching them. Skitch Henderson of the Tonight Show was the guest conductor. (Doc Severinson would follow Skitch as Johnny's next Tonight Show music director). 7:22 PM Addendum: This link tells about the beginnings of Band Days. http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/fbart/aofband.htm

Neal Smatresk may be North Texas biggest "get" of this entire recruiting season before all is said and done. He has the kind of (fund-raising, marketing) skills that are very intriguing to several I've talked to. GMG!

And yes, I know, here I am talking about two Big 12 schools with Baylor & TCU compared to a school in Conference-USA, but consider this which might make some degree of sense: If Baylor was ever going to win a Big 12 football championship wouldn't this have been the season for the Top 10 Bears to do so? Well, they won't this year or the next or the next--that's just the way it will most always be in the Big 12 for the private schools Just too many UT, OU's and OSU's for that to ever happen for the Bears or the TCU Frogs. TCU will most likely have a few bright moments from time to time much like in their old SWC days.......but just watch & see-- they will be like the TCU of that old (now defunct) Southwest Conference and spend most of their Big 12 years in its 2'nd division & when the Frogs are actually bowl elgible (which they are not this bowl season) they will play in similar bowl games North Texas will be participating. So does said Texas HS or JUCO recruits want to play on a Big 12/2'nd Division TCU and play in a bowls like the Liberty, Holiday, Military or Hawaii Bowls or does that same recruit want to come help the University of North Texas Mean Green win a few Conference USA football championships and play in bowls no different than 2'nd division TCU (and many years even Baylor) will be playing in? UNT's time is now--we need to put a string of winning seasons together with sellouts at Apogee Stadium (which I almost believe our growth will cause us to back into such crowds eventually). GMG!

Reinhardt? Any Rivals or Scout profiles on him, BillySee58?

A gut feeling tells me the recruiting season this Winter is going to take an upwardly bound spin in the next few weeks. In fact, I think we will get a handful of franchise players (if you will) come signing day this February much like the Kennedy, Buckles, Spencer class of last decade. (IMHO, if we'd had merely 1 or 2 more of those kind of recruiting hauls under Darrell Dickey he would have had a ranked bowl team and a job at the next level).

Wow! Congrats, Mr. Byrd!

Again, last time we beat them I was 18 years old.....and now I'm......well, never-mind. Tulsa is a whole lot like TCU, though, their respective AD's knew when to schedule North Texas and when not to schedule North Texas. Notice since the 1950's how many times the Mean Green was not on Tulsa or TCU's football schedules? Anyone ever wonder why?