PlummMeanGreen

We need DT to have one of those career years that many QB's in the NCAA have had in many of their last years of elgibilities.

Welcome to Mean Green Country, Trevor!

I have no idea how many bells & whistles the IPF featured below has, but it was good enough for an NFL team to use during a Super Bowl week. Yes, this is a repeat post on Highland Park HS's facility, but one that when UNT starts getting serious about building such that I'd bet our powers that be would be making a trip over near SMU to look at one fine day. The $4.5 million price tag also makes this IPF in the YouTube video look like a similar steal that outsiders with credentials have said our $78 million price tag became for Apogee Stadium; albeit one alum has since told me that that figure would later be higher than that. I know marching bands across the NCAA use such faciltiies, so I wonder what kind material would be used to tone down the accoustics in such a facility? What exactly was that faciltiy the Dallas Cowboys had that a sudden storm cell destroyed one afternoon few years ago? Wasn't that mostly a temporary tent kind of venue? Speaking of bells & whistles, just what exactly would those be at any IPF? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3tZwSWETk

OK, if your in a room full of ducks and an aardvark suddenly walks in with probably a bit of an "attention getting" agenda in mind will he (OR she) most likely get it? That is my take on those who would go to any activity on any school's campus wearing another school's jersey or baseball cap. Some in our society will do very much to get a little attention in what is other-wise most likely a very dull life. GMG!

If he's a keeper and signs an LOI next February (as I understand most who give early commits do) I am also excited about Coach Means, ie, his Texas High School football coach dad who could be valuable to our UNT coaching staff providing inside information about other Greater Houston area potential recruits. Honestly, this Rice U and Greater Houston connection for UNT is at the top of the list for me as far as our being in Conference-USA. The H-town area has for too long been missing in our conference footprint; in fact, its been missing since we were in the Missouri Valley Conference with UH albeit that was too short a time for that. GMG!

I was on campus the other day and saw our special Texas flag flying on some flag pole but I just cannot remember at what UNT bldg. See what happens to you when you hit your 60's, dammit! GMG!

Is that your mommy we hear calling you to come to the breakfast table to eat your Cheerios? And you say horned frogs are actually lizards? Well, when we think of lizards from now on we will all think of you. And why is is that TCU abandoned the true color of purple for some shade of blue? Is it that TCU is ashamed of the color purple? Maybe a bit too....effiminate? You do know purple was Donny Osmonds favorite color back in the day, right? Heck, put some black horn rimmed glasses on Donny Osmond along with some buck teeth in for his uppers and you have your typical nerdy looking TCU student there. What a cool school TCU is. Fact: TCU will be lost as they now walk in a high cotton field that Baylor itself has yet to win a football championship in all of its Big 12 years and just what is it that TCU is going to do so different? Coach Patt' will soon have had enough of all this and want those larger big state school with so much more upside kind of audiences that TCU will never be able to deliver him. When a bowl-elgible TCU goes to a bowl it will be one like the Heart of Dallas Bowl in the Cotton Bowl Stadium on New Years Day to play a C-USA team. Oh! Wait a minute---WRONG! it was recently announced that the opponent in that game will be a Big 10 school. To quote Guv' Perry: Whoops! Hop along now off this board, Lizard Borden. We've seen enough axe action from you to last a life time. GMG!

CoogieGuy, I have black-lined your post just to give you a nostalgic moment of how it had to be for you in your public school grammar classes. Was your 'teach a real Cougar sorta' gal, too, CoogieGuy? On your subject of rivalries? At least North Texas never had what would be considered several most ideal rivalries jerked away from us to the degree that UH did when they got jump-kicked out of the SWC with no Big 12 invite while at the same time your school losing rivalries with UT, TAMU, Texas Tech, Baylor and now TCU. Sort of a real kick in the pants with that, eh? Way I see it as a 50 plus year fan of NCAA college football is that UH has no more significant rivals today than we do except maybe Rice but so what, UNT now has SMU for the next 12 years in a row with a home and home beginning in 2014 so I guess that sorta' evens that out, right? New Rivalries? We're really liking what we are getting for new rivals as a member of the CUSA West Division while UH basically keeps getting their "old hat" rivals of what yall already had in the old CUSA but with a conference name tagged onto it whose initials sound more like an organization that has a 12 step program.

OK, we get it, but for crissakes try another theme other than "North Texas is going to be playing at the NCAA suck'ee level from now until eternity because we have nothing going for us now and never have" kind of attitude. What could possibly be the point your trying to get across to this board's readership that we don't already know? We're all very well aware of our situation at North Texas and don't need to be reminded about it every post. GL2G, FrogFeverBoy and CougarWho(?) do enough of that as it is. Some of us on this board have seen great promise for this program and then have seen the bottom of the barrell, too, but for the most part as far as our school is concerned we try to see the bright spots long term; of course, there have been questions on those the last 30 plus years who would try to produce those bright spots for Mean Green football who did not succeed but that's basically just your NCAA college football fan for ya'. Look how many Texas Exes wanted to fire UT's Mack Brown after only 2 losing seasons in a row and not that long after he brought an NCAA football national championship to Longhorn Country. Most college football fans look at wins versus losses with most any coaches overall career at a school over a said number of years. Here is Mack Brown's W/L record as HFC at UT-Austin: 134 W's......34 L's CUSA is going to be fun with all the close-by "rivalries" (what a new concept for UNT that is) and who will bring a couple thousand or more fans to Apogee, too,...but don't let all this fun pass you by---good fellow alum. Here...have a brat'... GMG!

Jeez, untjim1995, should we just cash it all in at UNT or what? Every post of late you seem to be the Grim Mean Green Reaper. Surely you're not letting GL2G and Froggie'Boy's constant UNT bashing influence you? Or was it some bad experience with this program you had that gives you (seemedly) no hope with all this? Lighten up...I know a few (now older) sorority ladies from UNT who would be glad to give you a group hug. GMG!

A great job on all you that you do, Harry! We're all looking forward to your report this evening. GMG!

Happy Birthday, Coach! Looking forward to your Year 3 ! GMG!

Well, its really not all of us OLDER guys. In fact, I think we have all the Negative Neds out-numbered. MeanGreenTexan, some of our elect would find reason to gripe and do the "woe is us at UNT--we'll never do better" thing even if they were in the Playboy Mansion for a one year paid vacation with a one year supply of Viagra in their med cabinets. GMG!

I repeat: We will never forget that 30 plus year period of our football history in NCAA Division One when FrogVille would never schedule UNT because they did not want us to pad our series record against your school with "W's." Face a few cold facts here, but more of a new revelation (perhaps) to new readers on GMG.com but TCU would not play North Texas back in that era because: (1) we as the first school in Texas and the South/SW had integrated with 2 classy black guys on our football team in the 50's and T"christian"U did not want to tee it up with us because of that (never-minding one of those 2 model citizens made Time Magazine's 1'st team NCAA D1 All America team and then... (2) we had a team the next decade (60's) with more NFL draft choices on one team than TCU would ever have on any one of their teams to date and then... (3) Former UNT Coach Fry was out-recruiting TCU and your Coach F.A. Dry back in the 70's so, yes, you are right, we of UNT will not ever forget that era of 30 plus years of a TCU-less Mean Green football schedule and we for darn sure know why TCU doesn't want to ever remember that era, either. But Froggy'w/o'Style, come on now & level with us since (after all) you are in our GMG.com living room (again), but are you really Lucifer-Frog in disguise? As in "is this your only real calling in life to try to convince us just how bleak our burgeoning with growth in every direction school's future is? F-S, might any 8 year old who would read your lagniape over here ask his daddy; "Is this Froggy Guy who keeps coming on the UNT board that jealous of North Texas or something the way he keeps carrying on?" There is always good and bad with anything. We have 1 poster from "unt" (or who say he is) who has a negative slant or a "woe is the future of UNT at the NCAA D1 FBS level" slant on just about everything he posts. Even stranger is when he posts is how GL2G is never far behind those "unt" posts and then you come hopping along soon after--or at least it seems that way. Yet, after a while, you really start wondering what all of your agendas truly are that would keep yall in a constant mode of negativity. We all know damn well what yours and GL2G's modes are. Both of your alma mater's seem to see North Texas as some kind of threat the way any one can read between the lines. It's really gets old and tiresome after a while when yall are on our North Texas forum depositing steamers in "OUR" living room. Do you ever see any of our group on yalls boards? "Someone" aka "GL2G" do you have a "short" response to that? Here are TCU's future problems: First of all, you know as well as I that TCU is never going to dominate a large state school dominated Big 12, so I guess that is when we will depend on you to come over and have a few tears in you beer? Then...........DFW Metroplex college football fans will be looking for "some DFW area university" that is winning more than they are losing and that's when a Coach Dan McCarney-led Mean Green football program steps forward. And then your Coach Patt' will finally see the writing on the B-12 wall with a brutal year in and year out Big 12 schedule and finally decide to boogie to one of those Big 12-type large state universities who will pay him 5 x's more than TCU will want to pay. He's a D1 guy so he will also want to coach before 70K to 80K fans instead of TCU's much smaller fan base. You see, Devil-Frog, that is when the college football pendulum will be turning in the North Texas Metroplex and turning in a northerly green-tinted direction to boot. So.............FroggieDevilGuy, go download of ITunes Frank Sinatra's "That's Life" and then I want you to especially listen to the perfect phrasing of ol' Blue Eyes in that classic when he sings the line................."riding high in April---shot down in May." Get ready, TCUDevilGuy, because yalls May is on the way. GMG! _______________________________________________________________ Mean Green Eagle Members 3,265 posts Posted Today, 04:22 PM Thanks for "re-upping" Plumm. I sat near, next, or around you at Fouts for years. It's good to have you back. GO MEAN GREEN _______________________________________________ We all shared some great times at ol' Fouts, didn't we meanjoe? See ya' 8/31 at fabulous Apogee Stadium! GMG! !

Once again, it's usually this time of most every summer that we get these kind of quotes and stories from the Mack Browns and maybe 1 or 2 Power 5 conference commissioners. Plus........it seems to me all this takes place during Media Days for that group, too. Why? Because they are bored counting all the monies they already have and just want to add to their coffers coupled with their "be damned with anyone else out there who doesn't like what we are saying" attitudes. Wonder if they've all forgotten how life once was for them when they had to budget for weekly groceries to feed their wives and young children and hope there was enough left for gas? BUT............this too shall pass once Game Days begin for all. GMG!

Is there a calendar of when these will be held? This is one of those things where our metropolitan location also helps, too, albeit players will be coming from all parts of Texas. GMG!

For those who may not know, Idaho's "indoor facility" is also their varsity football stadium, ie, the Kibble-Dome. IMO, a very inadequate NCAA FBS level football stadium with goal posts attached to the end zone walls. Seems the last game the Mean Green played there was televised and was a win. The Vandals needs to build a real FBS level football stadium (if they plan on staying at this level) next to it and then they'd have an exclusive indoor practice facility, ie, the Kibble-Dome. I sure do like what Highland Park HS over near SMU has done shown in the YouTube link below. Hey! It was good enough for the Green Bay Packers to practice in when they were in town for the Super Bowl a few years ago. Not too much a fan of the over-hanging and way too visible steel girders, though. Seems H.P. HS did a good job of camouflaging theirs quite effectively with a painted white and very well lighted ceiling. And theirs was only $4.5 million? Wonder what that would cost today? Highland Park's facility: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3tZwSWETk

Thanks for all those photo links, fellers. Very eye-opening, eh? Keep bringing up the UNT Green Brigade marching band as one of several potential partners for this on-campus venture since even they have (as someone once told me) 3-a-days in August, but why not get as many on board this project who would benefit from it? And a location for this at the Mean Green Village? Why not on part of the DD practice field areas for starters. IMO, it would be very important that it would cosmetically need to look like almost an extension of Apogee Stadium with similarly colored brick, etc,etc,etc, and maybe even incorporating the "A" (apogee) design prominent at our football stadium. We know Coach Mac can't keep our players from the heat all the time since they'd be playing in it early on in the season, but during those 105 degree days in August and early September they could go inside and cut down on dehydrations. During the Fall if Denton had monsoon rains for 2 or 3 very important practice days...they could always go inside for that, too. Couldn't 2 or 3 on-campus groups of which each would be funding partners work around each other's schedules with such a venture? So is this a keeping up with the Jones kind of thing here? No, I don't think most of us would see it that way at all, but I do see it as our football program merely reaching out further toward the heights I feel most on this board know Mean Green football can actually reach and having this kind of facility could only help. I believe UNT alum Jerry Durant has a practice facility over at Weatherford HS named after him, but it is a small one. Just my .02 on something we probably will need sooner than later. We can't keep up with UT or OU, but we will have to keep up with most all in CUSA who have or will have one of these kind of venues. GMG!

Are there any interior and exterior sample pics of indoor practice facilities of NCAA FBS schools in the $10 to $15 million range out there? Maybe even a few that were built as "multi-use" facilities? GMG!

I listened to that 1968 UH-Texas game on the UH Radio Network (flagship KPRC?) with Gene Elston doing the play by play. I honestly cannot remember who Elston used for his color guy for some reason. Game Day (or Night) was at UT's Memorial Stadium: It would be DKR's Wishbone (actually created by his 'then' assistant Emory Bellard) versus Bill Yeoman's "Houston Veer" and one heckuva' football game. Of course I was pulling for the Houston Coog's all the way in that (or any other game) since that was "MY" team as a youth. And you are spot on with DKR's reasoning in sponsoring UH for SWC membership. You do know the late, great Darrell K. Royal also had no problem sponsoring North Texas for SWC membership, too, and probably that based on his long time friendship with Hayden Fry. Sometimes it is still a matter of who you know--even in today's NCAA. I just hope we of UNT know all the right people because we may need them in our corner in due time with all the changes taking place in the NCAA. GMG! PS: My late mother went to a few regional PTA functions at the old Shamrock Hotel. I can close my eyes now and see that long gone hotel.

I think the NCAA upper echelon leaders will still want to keep the Cinderella effect (G5) in the game in the NCAA FBS, but then who the heck knows where the almighty dollar will lead the NFL 2.0, ie, P5 group before this is all done. GMG!

Good stuff here from emDiggy. He said some very interesting (but mostly good) things about North Texas in the video. Only thing I differed with him is that I would put North Texas in front of Tulane in the final West Division standings; of course, I say that with total unadulterated unbias. He also put us ahead of La Tech which I think will be an accurate forecast with all the seniors that the Dawgs had graduating last year. I do think we will be in for a real "Dawg" fight in Ruston, though. GMG!

OK, I've already posted a comment about Super UNT alum George Derr, but what Harry has posted deserves this bump.

Yesterday while on campus, I casually mentioned to a fellow alum "why not keep Fouts for our track & field stadium?" I know its not in the master plan but master plans have been known to be changed. Whistles and bells inside a practice facility? If that is the difference of UNT getting 2 star recruits versus 3 or 4 star recruits bring on the whistles and bells! Do you want a Cadillac or a Ford if you have a choice? We got a darn good deal with Apogee Stadium according to ex Big 12 "stand in" Commissioner Chuck Neinas, ex Dallas Cowboys SuperScout Gil Brandt and a cast of thousands, so could we get a similar great deal for a practice facility along with all the extras, too? No Sun Belt Conference school should ever trump the University of North Texas with any kind of on-campus sports facility or venue. We have to think forward as a new CUSA member--not in ways that may have kept us barefoot, pregnant and un-inspired (so to speak) the last few decades. Yes, I agree, Harry, that there has to be a pecking order of need or which of UNT's varsity sports programs gets the next nice venue or marked improvements (like the Super Pit), but lets also not forget which NCAA varsity sport still brings home the bacon (or should) and gets us the national recognition we had not so long ago (like 4 NO's Bowls last decade). IMO, the key to this indoor practice facility is to make it as multi-purpose as you can without defeating the original purpose for its existence. We can't have the football team being bumped off its scheduled use because Ma & Pa Kettle's Senior Social Club has a (planned a year in advance) bingo tourney inside this facility and it taking place during an August Texas heat spell with the beginning of 2-a-days. (I know, one helluva' terrible illustration with that....especially now that I'm 62)! LOL!