PlummMeanGreen

How can any fans or alums from a Lone Star State D1 school ever forget how unknown commodity and (then) Texas HS recruit Drew Brees could not out of our (then) 10 (?) D1 schools to give him the time of day and how he had to shop himself to Purdue U? That story might tell many of us that we should just let em' get to campus to see what they can do with a good college QB-developing coaching staff. (Might Drew's NFL team win another Super Bowl this season)? Schools like Boise State, Kansas State, Iowa State and North Texas will rarely (if ever) have a Top 25 natonally recruited class and will most always have to recruit kids who have the basic, natural skills that we all hope will develop at the next level. GMG!

Wish list? A JUCO transfer or 2 or 3 who would all enroll this December and be Spring football ready? Bill Snyder's KSU Wildcats did well with a JUCO QB this Fall. A pass rushing delux of a DE would be a bonus.

Cedrick Hardman would have been considered average by some when he was at his Texas HS and listed as 5' 10" 185 pounds. While at North Texas Cedrick Hardman grew to 6'5" 240, became an All Conference player, an NFL #1 draft choice and then an All Pro for several seasons. Not sure why he is still not in the NFL Hall of Fame since he hold the SF 49'ers record of most sacks (whether that stat was official back in that day or not; fact remains that Cedrick still has the most sacks for that NFL team). I'm glad we have Connor as an early commit and I don't know the purpose of these kind of threads when these kids and their parents are reading them quite frankly but that...........IMHO, of course.

If ours became a multi-use (for multi-campus groups) indoor facility it would probably get constructed much more quickly. A little creative financing, ie, completely above board as well as TxHigherEdCoordBoard approved would be in order if required. When the Green Brigade has one of their 3 or 4 daily rehearsals in August comes to mind for another group who could utilize it and then during the Fall, too. Off football season? Soccer, batting cages, volleyball adjunct, intramurals, etc, etc, etc, The groups could be endless but Mean Green football would still need to somehow have first dibs during 2-a-days, Fall & Spring football and so forth. A large gift donor which covers most of the cost for this facility could stipulate that. Texas Heat & Humidity? At some point I think you'd have to have our team practice in the heat and humidity to give them the kind of conditioning advantage we obviously had against teams from the north such as Ball State. As many of you have commented, the Cardinals wilted in the 2'nd half of that game at Apogee Stadium and their loss to UNT probably cost them a Top 25 ranking later in the season. HIghland Park High School (Dallas) has a very nice indoor facility that looks nice to the eyes, too (not one ceiling steel beam in sight---and that probably because they were painted white to blend into the rest of the ceiling). Yes, it's probably not high on our priority list for now...but I think it will be not long after a varsity baseball stadium is completed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3tZwSWETk

Yes, Don, he is quite the young gentleman and he is lucky to have great grandparents (and parents) too. And yall have set the right example among the the entire Mean Green Nation on how to get em' while they're young, too! GMG!

Ain't that the truth....I've already had 3 last comments of my own on this and the Scout msg. board.

And how do people not get that we have a chance to get win #8 this Saturday, too? Jeez-Louise...

Jumping About.... Shouldn't we hope as many CUSA schools could go bowling as possible since its revenue for all our member schools? UTSA fans have to be chomping at the bits for their fine season to not be rewarded. Upstarts may sometimes have its downfalls, but they are building something down there. Just not sure if UTSA not having an on-campus stadium will eventually be a negative; or their eventually having to emulate U of Houston who felt they had to get out of the Astrodome (miles from their campus) to have any chance to get their students involved and (eventually) alumnus. At about that very same time in UH's football history as far as the Coog's last few years in the Dome, they were averaging around 15K or so fans per home game with W/L records having much to do with that. If UNT gets the HOD Bowl, I don't care where the rest of CUSA's schools go. The only downer for this college football fan is that we don't have our best inside a Top 25 poll--hope that is not an omen of things to come. I cannot visualize Coach DMAC building this thing as to not be a Top 25 worthy program at some point, though. NOTE: I think our team this Fall was closer than we'll ever know. Now if we only had the MAC pollster voters who put one of their teams in a Top 25 poll at the drop of a hat. >>>>>>> Ball State would have been Top 25 during part of this season if not for their loss to North Texas. Still............amazing what hiring a HFC with prior P5 HFC'ing experience can do for a program. Hope we of UNT don't forget this lesson learned, too. I think hiring one with age (maturity) and HFC'ing experience from a major P5 conference is the right formula for UNT (and always have felt that way). GMG! Totally unrelated but this is a UH Band Day from the past--and that's all I'm going to say about that. And yeah, I know.....GREAT !.....I just gave UTSA another Game Day promotions idea that they would have no problem giving the good ol' college try. (There were 13,000 bandsmen on the field that afternoon in the Astrodome & I was in the stands watching them).

Perhaps a night of revelry out on Bourbon Street the night before had some seeing double? Hank D of the MGRN said on one of the DVD's that North Texas did have close to 17K fans at one of those Tuesday night games. At any rate, not bad for a Texas-based school almost 8-10 (driving) hours away some might say. GMG!

I think UNT students could also get a ticket price break made possible by either our school administration's auxilary fund for special needs or the UNT athletic dept or maybe a few of our heavy hitter alums. I think StubHub would be the real deal, though, as stated by Eastwood Eagle. If organized properly and asked I would be in as to sponsor a deserving UNT student with a HOD Bowl game ticket as long as I knew the ticket would be used. AND..............according to one of UNT's New Orleans Bowl DVD's and one of our team's earliest appearance in the Big Easy, the MGRN guys say we brought around 17K fans for a Tuesday night bowl game, ie, 9-10 hours away from DFW-Denton. (It was a work day for me the next day so I was not part of the 17K). ? Not sure where some of these low ticket sales estimates for a HOD Bowl game are coming from since it would be played on New Years Day about an hour from campus and in close proximity to our largest number of UNT alums. If on a weeknight the Mean Green Nation can travel 17,000-20,000 to New Orleans with much less time to have sold tickets for that game back in that day I don't think it difficult to understand that we'd travel so many more of our fans to Fair Park and the Cotton Bowl Stadium with a month to sell tickets for the game. Any bowl invite would be great, but the HOD Bowl is one that I think our CUSA commish' sees as a win-win-win; that is, a win for the HOD Bowl officials; a win for CUSA headquarters and a win for the University of North Texas. (What a great time to flex our Metro-plex alumnus numbers, too, since a 1 month window of time for this bowl game would give our school time to even get a mass mailer or 2 out to our masses promoting this bowl game). GMG!

A HOD Bowl invite seems inevitable with their rep being at our last 3 home games and the most recent with the CUSA commish' with him. Again, the 1 month to sell tickets, heal some injuries and to prepare for a bowl game and even Spring Football, 2014. It would also give our coach's a month to seal a few recruiting deals, too; and with some of that group even coming to the HOD Bowl as our special guests (if the NCAA allows). . I think we'd also see our #2 and #3 QB's getting more than their normal amount of snaps during the 1 month wait as well. One could never measure just how much all this extra time could help for Fall, 2014, too. Wishin' & Hope'n: To play the Iowa Hawkeyes would be so great with all our school's connections to that school and would almost be too good to be true. To have Coach Fry back (if his health allowed) along with Coaching Tree product Dan McCarney would make for some great state-wide newspaper feature stories, too. Post season bowl talk is such a welcome thing back in MG Country, too. It's All Good! It's All Green! (an old FFR quote) GMG! PS: Any of you GMG.com recruiting guru's know if we are still recruiting a particular JUCO QB which Scout said we were at one time? PS II: Any of you older H-Town crowd and fellow alums remember when the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl game was about the only bowl that would ever invite University of Houston to their game when no other bowls would?

The 'Nation has taken to winning quite admirably. This grumpy ol' alum who won't be completely fulfilled until the Apogee Experiences means sellout after sellout and a bad attendance (rain or snow) game would be 26K--yet I still love seeing this excitement among those who've not seen it in MG Country. UTSA---just "ONE" more time? If anyone would have watched their game or some video of their game against a Top 10 ranked Okla.State (who just slaughtered Baylor); well, even a novice college football fan would have probably made the comment that that team from San Antone' would give us a run for the money (so to speak) and they did. We are on the right road with the right HFC, folks, but please---no detours will be allowed! Right HFC? Think about how you felt and how you posted after we beat Rice U and then after we hit win #7 and don't gravitate from that feeling. Just sayin'... GMG!

No doubt they've got a fine team, but playing a school from a conference we just left would be tantamount to one going back to an ex spouse and thinking..........."what the hell am I doing back here all over again?" BUT,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,rest assured, if playing ULL were our only bowl choice I don't think our AD would turn it down, either.

Most would agree that the 2013 version of the Mean Green is better than that of 2012; yet last year's Mean Green beat ULL in a nationally televised game. Wonder what the differences of the 2 teams are this year? For North Texas to have to play any SBC school in a bowl game would be so anti-climatic, but with the loss last Saturday who the hell knows where we'll be sent. HOD or Bust!

In what NCAA universe would UTSA get a bowl game since all the stars in the galaxy would have to align for them to have a remote chance? Yes, I'm sure they would bring a good crowd to Dallas but unless no one else noticed the day we beat UTEP at Apogee we outdrew UTSA who was playing Tulane in the AlamoDome for a game that was as important to the RR's as our game was to them. They played well Saturday but our team had already been told by those who apparently knew that they would have a bowl game while UTSA was still extremely motivated to get even their remote chance for one which would inspire most any team--plus they played well....and we played flat as a pancake. I only hope CUSA doesn't have to go down in quality for us to have a chance to win its championships every year, though. And I'd prefer UTSA keep it going on with their crowds in the 30's and 40's instead of their dipping down to meet our annual attendance sub-standards. I hope we don't have alums start bragging on this board about even this year's attendance averages, either. We are operating well below the quality and standards that hardly befit our school with the enrollment it has along with its geographical population base of over 7,000,000 people. It is the hope of many that our new UNT president will inspire others to set new standards which might even mean actual goal-setting in season ticket sales and higher attendance averages since those are still the 2 main criteria which allows schools like all the ones who've passed us by in decades past to...........pass us by. We played a school last Saturday, folks, that could very well be the next one if we don't watch out and if we don't start taking care of our business as an NCAA FBS level program.

I think CUSA Commish' Brit Banowsky knows exactly which school in CUSA would sell the most tickets for a HOD Bowl game and make "HIS" conference look good. We will all be over this UTSA disaster after we beat Tulsa. For that game Coach Mac needs to call his mentor Fry and get a few of Hayden's infamous exotic plays in his playbook and use another QB if Thompson is obviously having a bad day in Tulsa Town. I think our not being in the CUSA championship may actually be an advantage; that is, if we get the HOD Bowl invite and perhaps even because of it. The HOD Bowl being a 1/1/14 bowl would give us almost a month to sell tickets and...........to get next year's team ready for Spring football plus get the right 2'nd string QB some snaps who could play in the HOD Bowl game if Thompson is cold as a mackeral. GMG! PS: Off topic but I still say if DT/#7 would have played like he did against Ball State of the bowl bustin' MAC that we would have beaten UTSA by 3 or 4 TD's. He didn't. Not mean't as a smack toward him at all, but I just cannot remember seeing him so off on his passes and even when he had enough time to set up and hit his receivers. I think we left 14 points on the football field because of his inaccuracy matter of fact; maybe even 21 but it is what it is......Damn! We all sure hated losing to THAT school, now didn't we?

If DT#7 had the same game he did against Ball State of the bowl bustin' MAC we would have beaten UTSA by 3 to 4 TD's. But he didn't....he was way off with time to throw the ball almost all game long. You ever had a bad day at work? It happens to us all now doesn't it? It's done...it's Tulsa time.

The Irish blood has cooled off a bit because Gray Eagle would tell you I was Dublin hot under the coller yesterday (like 99.9% of you who hate losing any more than the rest of us). THIS: UTSA was playing for bowl elgibility and our team had already been told that they had it. The team was not in this game and even our "usually" noisy 3'rd down crowd noise wasn't noisy at all. The UNT coaches who throw up their hands to instigate our 3'rd down crowd noice I think were later throwing up their hands at us probably thinking.........."what's the freakin' use--they just aren't into this game, either." With our constituency yesterday it was almost like.........let's hurry up and get this damn game over with so we can all go home and sit in front of a fireplace to watch Baylor and OSU get all frosted up" DT#7 had his absolutely worst game of the of the last 2 years IMHO with more than enough time to pass but what almost every time seemed like over-throws or under-throws. I saw 3 overthrows that had 6 points written all over them with the receivers who would have caught them and know how to close the deal. The Mean Green "D" didn't score their usual 1 TD a game yesterday, either, but I'm sure QB Sosa had much to do with that but still............you cannot take anything away from UTSA....they were hungrier for a win than we were yesterday. We need win #8 this Saturday and I don't think we will be black-balled out of a bowl game....bowl officials know from our NO's Bowl era that we travel well. HELL! North Texas took almost 17,000 fans to a Tuesday night NO's Bowl game last decade.

Yeah, it only takes about 2 1/2 minutes more to finish it, but I realize that is a stretch for some who seem to think anything past a sentence or two is not worthy of all the other 4 or 5 hours of their personal computer time they will daily spend on GMG.com and...................during weekdays with some pressed for time and unable to read past 1 paragraph per post and also for some who should honest-to-goodness consider posting less smack (from a safe distance, of course) & consider giving more personal production time to each of their respective employers in the first place. To get a red number from some of the Roman mob'esque milleniums on this board who I will simply defer to as our low information bunch of the very naive and those who non-stop buy into any excuse-making that UNT athletics continues to give them is like a badge of freakin' honor for this 42 year fan of the Mean Green. JUST GIVE YOURSELVES 42 YEARS OF FOLLOWING WHAT TOO MANY TIMES MANY OF US HAVE SEEN TO BE A 3 RING CIRCUS COMING FROM THE "NEVER SEEM TO HAVE TO ANSWER TO ANYONE" UNT ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT WHO ALSO JUST CANNOT SEEM TO EVER GROW THIS PROGRAM'S FAN BASE NO MATTER HOW LARGE OUR UNT CONSTITUENCY'S NUMBERS CONTINUE TO SKY-ROCKET TO & THEN SEE........HOW DAMNED RED YOU BECOME. OK now, time for a few of you to get back to your milk & cookies time of the day, especially those of you who need those little green apples numbers for you to feel acceptance from your hardy little handful of a peer group on this forum. And also time for each of you to get in front of your mirrors and re-affirm this to yourselves & even from one of your very own (as seen in the YouTube below): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DIETlxquzY

Congrats to UTSA...they've been saying for almost since we knew we would be conference-mates how they were going to kick our butts....guess they knew something we didn't. A HFC with a national championship under his belt did more than I thought it would. (Like many of you, I am still quite happy with our UNT HFC, though). Too many over-thrown and under-thrown passes this afternoon....that's all I really need to say about that EXCEPT....3 of those over-throws had 6 points written all over them; but yes, I know--it was a team loss. DT#7 did not have a good game today at all, but he's had other good games which has helped us get to (imagine this).............7 wins. LOOKING BACK: WE HAVE BEEN SUCH A BENEVOLENT FOOTBALL SCHOOL O YES WE HAVE: North Texas helped out Bill Snyder and Kansas State when we became his first win back in the late 80's; UNT was UA-Birmingham's first ever FBS level win as I recall, too; continuing with our most benevolent mode the Mean Green was South Florida's first ever FBS level win just as well; an upstart FAU beat North Texas during 2 of our bowl seasons when they were an SBC member-in-waiting football program. I guess we have been the best damn thing to happen to several up and coming football programs of which some we'd all have to admit to each other have even passed our favorite school by. Today's attendance may have been our biggest loss, though, but I guaran'damn'tee you the new UNT president is going to get a very well worded/crafted letter with all the necessary researched statistics as to why that has been an on-going problem when it should not be that at all in our DFW population center of almost 8 million souls. The new UNT Prez' may also very well read as to how it takes UNT almost 3 home games to draw what UTSA drew in a single game in this their Year 3 of an NCAA football existence. Today's weather was perfect for November--hell, the sun almost peeked thru the clouds during the 3'rd quarter. Still, aren't we all just about tired of all the excuses that we have been conditioned to keep buying into all these years and so many of our elect accepting each one in order to (I suppose).................go along to get along? Yes, I'm piss-you're pissed but I am not going to pat mediocrity on the back at UNT and subsequently become just as much a part of the problem as those who keep annually producing them with their (still) having no viable "get out there among the masses" marketing program as to introduce thousands of Denton County newcomers to Apogee Stadium and the Mean Green football program. Coach Mac has a reason to point his finger--just don't think he's always pointing it in the right direction, though. Building Apogee (25 years a bit late) is only half the solution at UNT---the other half is filling the damn thing EVERY Game Day. Some upstarts seem to have figured out how to do solve what they don't see as a problem in less than 3 years. Still, here we are in our 100'th year of playying college football and we still basically draw almost what we did when I was a student post Indian wars. It's almost like we don't retain our fans and alums thru each of the last 4 or so decades, but with so many newcomers moving from all over the USA into Denton County do we really need to even depend on that demographic any longer? Tulsa U Next Saturday? I was 17 years old in 1968 last time we beat the Golden Hurricane on an ABC regional televised game on Houston's KTRK Channel 13 . Coach Mac will I'm sure tell our team how long it's been. I have never liked our chances against Tulsa anytime we've teed it up and in any era for that matter. Still.............A toast to the North Texas coaches and players who have played an enormous part in setting this Mean Green ship in the right direction this Fall. UTSA cannot take that away. Still today, those pistons were just not running congruently at all. It made a big difference on the scoreboard even w/o taking anything from the UTSA's impressive efforts. GMG!

This here is what you call a Mean Green football fan!

Like one old coach said..... "You might possibly have the better of 2 teams but you better by gosh have the better team on Game Day because sometimes that is not always what the final scoreboard results show." GMG!

Is there a video of Mark Lewis anywhere? How tall is he? How much does he weigh? And his time in the 40? GMG!

We should just be glad that the North Texas/UTSA game is a 2:30 PM kick-off instead of that 7:00 PM kick in Stillwater tomorrow night as OSU hosts the Baylor Bears. On November 13, 1976, the Mean Green played Bobby Bowden's Florida State Seminoles in Denton with a half foot of snow at old Fouts Field. That North Texas/Florida State game made an evening national newscast (ABC?) because our stadium officials used orange highway cones to mark each 5 yards since the field was completely covered with snow and since its Texas--we didn't have a snow plow to take care of all that snow. Now that was a COLD November Game Day in Mean Green Country! GMG! I have 3 pics of that snow game but cannot post them here because of pic regulations on GMG.com I guess.

It was almost 80 degrees yesterday, and now here in Parker County we are getting a light freeze (nothing that would ever stick) and tomorrow at Apogee it will be 40 or more degrees. Come on, folks, we're Texans and know how our weather can be. 40 degrees and dry at a Big 10 football game in November would be called perfect weather.