PlummMeanGreen

North Texas played in the Cotton Bow a few times during the Rod Rust era and to not very large crowds. In one of those games, ex Cowboy Golden Richards of BYU ran one back for about 100 yards according to some of you "older" alums. In 1981 we UNT played a handful of games in the Cotton Bowl. It was Bob Tyler's one and only year as the UNT coach. It was promoted about as good as North Texas could in that era; in fact, I think about $50,000 was spent for promotions in those Cotton Bowl games if memory serves me. During that era, $50,000 was a fairly impressive amount for promotions for our school. Others alums who were around during the Rod Rust era and during that 1981 season may want to tune in on this subject, but trust me, fellow alums, we have a nice stadium in a nice neighborhood in west Denton with good parking and a pedestrian bridge to boot! IMHO.......let's fill Apogee instead of looking at a helluva' bunch of empty seats in the Cotton Bowl. Doesn't hurt to speculate about tweaking our product, though. GMG! PS: We "ONLY" drew about 17,000 against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in one of those Cotton Bowl games and that was even during the State Fair of Texas.

You are right upon further Bing review and this 1970 grad of UNT is a big loss to our UNT System admininstration IMHO. He has a superb network of friends in high places in Big D and the Metroplex; we could do a lot worse than Bill Lively as the new UNT president (if he were interested, that is). GMG!

From The Far Side... Let the elite "We've Got It & You Don't" 20 or 25 top schools play "ONLY" each other and then lets see how the TV monies will flow for schools with 6 & 5 and 5 & 6 W/L records who seem to want to be the NFL 2.0. AND.....if they have so damn much more monies which they obviously do not want to share with our Go5 conferences, then let them put all their extra revenues into each of their respective general academic scholarship funds for heavens sake. (I still think the Go5 group should get a good group of attornies to help get more FBS revenue). The Super Big Boys are just about maxing out their budgets as it is. For a new project idea maybe they need to build matching under-ground football stadiums to flaunt all they have; you know...... "if you've got it---flaunt it?. This group gets so much money they are getting bored and runnning out of ideas where to spend it. Stipends they now want? Well, what happens when UT goes into a bidding war for Super Blue Chipper and tells him "our stipend will be much larger than Ohio State's? More wide open can of worms with that IMO and......will this ever stop? .

Taking nothing away from our AD who had to play the biggest part on UNT's behalf in this surpising SMU football series extension but does Dr. Bill Lively being (or having been) on the UNT System staff help with our (seemed) new era of open dialogue with the Hilltop? Dr. Lively formerly worked for SMU and was probably one of their most high profile movers and shakers. In fact, I wonder if he's on our new president search check list? GMG! PS: Both SMU and UNT home stadium crowds at Ford and Apogee will be impressive & significantly increased--with both teams hopefully in simultaneous winning cycles there will be sellouts with this series. We need to start winning now! GMG!

Thank you, untjim1995.

Would someone please explain to me (if I missed it before) why TSU-San Marcos (an athletic program just out of an NCAA FCS classification) numbers are so much larger than UNT's? I know they've already passed us in their total endowment coffers but this athletic thing is a bitter pill, especially for many of us older alums. Sounds like our (eventual) new UNT president and BOR's need to have a number of come to Jesus meetings with a a whole bunch of UNT employees with these kind of developments.

Michigan Wolverine Coach Bo Schembechler was younger than Coach Mac when he had his first bout with a heart condition, but coached many years with his condition. Coach Schembechler had his first heart attack in 1969 on the eve of his first Rose Bowl as Michigan HFC. He had two quadruple heart bypass operations, the first in 1976 and the second following his second heart attack. Schembechler retired from coaching after the Rose Bowl game of 1990. He decided to retire at the relatively young age of 60 because of his history of heart problems and was succeeded by Michigan's offensive coordinator Gary Moeller, whom he handpicked. On November 17, 2006, Schembechler collapsed in a bathroom at WXYZ-TV just prior to the taping of Big Ten Ticket around 9:15 am. He was taken to Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan, where he was pronounced dead at 11:43 am. At a press conference a few hours after his death, it was reported by his doctor, Dr. Kim Eagle of the U of Michigan Health System that his death was from the terminal stage of heart disease where the heart muscle itself does not respond to the pacemaker, a common cause of death for persons afflicted with severe heart disease. Coach Mac has access to better heart doctors with dramatically better cardiac medicines & procedures than Coach Bo did back in his day. We really need Coach Mac to get well and to get this football program well, too, beginning this Fall. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Schembechler

Hey! I'm 62, a newly diagnosed diabetic (no more pizza darn it) and still very susceptible of rambling--of course I also did that at ages 52, 42, and 32. Why on earth can we ever expect all the pieces of our very complex UNT athletics puzzle to fall in place if we cannot regain our habit of having continuous winning seasons at North Texas? Ever tried to promote and gain new fans with losing teams that lose much too often? What is UL-Monroe, ULaLa, La Tech doing that we cannot seem to copy their kind of success in Denton? Football-wise, the missing ingrediant at UNT is still our abysmal W/L record in football the last 18 years which has produced 3 big winning seasons which all that alone creates a climate for such quotes as................. "if UNT cannot win with Dan MaCarney then we should drop down a level." Pleeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................spare us more "the sky is falling in Denton" logic. That is tantamount to saying that if we cannot get this Boeing 747 airborn with Rick V at the helm we should just abandon athletics, all foreseeable hope and just say this will never get done in Denton. I (and many others on this board) actually knew a day when North Texas had (obviously) NCAA Division One talent running a NCAA Division One operation and that's when we were shakin' and bakin' in Denton................such personnel "you will know them by their fruits" to put a religious tone on it and at most NCAA outposts winning on a regular basis are those fruits. Yes, yes, yes.............I know that some of you Young Gun Alums who all but look down on my generation of UNT grads because we've had a glimpse of how exciting NCAA football can be, when Mean Green footbll was even the talk of one particular NCAA winter convention, etc, etc, ect, yet...........you still only know about any of this because you've heard all the stories. To quote Bill Clinton: "We can feel your pain." The sad part of all this is how some of the youngest set of UNT alums at this rate may very well live their entire lives without ever seeing one UNT head football coach leave Denton with a respectable record that may even have gotten him a higher up job. I hope for all of us Dan McCarney will break our drought but the jury is still out until it happens--I think it will.. Still, I'd wager that our program and what he has to put up with on a daily basis up there "stress-wise" most likely caused him to already have one stroke---we all hope its his last. It's one thing to die for your country, but i'm not sure anyone should die because of their job. It's just not worth it for anyone or their family. GMG.com...........A Divided Forum............ I had a fellow alum & GMG.com poster who I had to block off my Facebook yesterday because of his ludeness & crudeness who actually had the b@lls to come on my FB page, insult me and then doubt my patriotism. Yet I suppose because I do not concur with his kind of politics that I am not a patriot? Even U of North Texas came into the cyber/discussion with my never going to agree with anything coming from the "isolate & demonize" crowd. He went on to pronounce that suddenly (to him) I have also become an embarrassment to North Texas? Do I still say it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the difference between a rising NCAA FBS level program versus one whose trend highly suggests that it is still-borne and going anywhere and my then me expressing an opinion on an opinion board is causing "ME" to be an embarrassment to UNT? If so, then I'm by God just going to keep embarrassing a few on this forum who really seem to me to be way too easily embarrassed. In fact, if freedom of speech still lives here I will continue to express my doubts until the present UNT Board of Regents (most of whom know how to run a business since most of their own businesses were successful); but until they get their heads out of the clouds and apply their own business (for profit) practices for North Texas' athletics to emulate I guess I will keep voicing concern. (Anyone venture to guess how many of our elect don't care to even do that anymore)? Yet it will be a happy day when our UNT powers that be figure out how their collegues at most other NCAA FBS outposts who seem to have no struggle whatsoever as far as to who to hire or fire. All this really is sort of embarrassing when you think about it, now isn't it? http://[url= GMG!

I can no longer think of Ramon Flanagan without thinking of the great..............Silver Eagle! GMG!

You can call it like you see it, but to me legacy says we actually at one point and over a fair amount of time in the modern era of the NCAA had a real plan for athletic success and excercized that plan. How old were you when Mean Joe Greene and his North Texas teams (albeit largely unpublicized) were probably as good as it got in the Southwest? Frank Broyles would probably most reluctantly agree knowing (and remembering) how those old SWC war hounds used to be back in the day. Ron Shanklin told me in a Fort Worth restaurant back in the mid 80's how a few of the players from Broyles team who received an early Christmas gift in its game against North Texas in '68 got some good ol' southern fried home cookin' one day at Memoral Stadium in Little Rock (of whom some on this board were at the game) anyway, how they said to our late, great friend and fellow alum........."Ronnie, you guys actually won that game against us that day and we were embarrassed by that terrifically bad call." And by the way, the next year, most of that same Broyle's team played in the "Game of the Century" against DKR's Texas Longhorns in Fayetteville. That, O wise counselor, was the quality of Mean Green football during part of that decade. Sorry I was not around to see it. And how old were you when Hayden Fry's Mean Green teams were making a national (not just local or regional) but national waves as a "football program on the rise" and one to be reckoned with and that in the mid to late 1970's. No, we didn't win any NCAA national championships in any of our past legacy and history, but we were hardly chopped liver by any means. And without wanting to add to my reputation with what I understand with some on this board is that of being a smart ass (which I might add sure beats the hell out of being a dumb ass without a clue or having the foggiest idea as to what a successful NCAA athletic program actually looks like anymore)..........yet at age 62 I'm still trying to remember what those ASU Indians (now Red Wolves is it?) were doing in the 50's, 60's and 70's which some call the NCAA's first 3 decades of its modern era? GMG!

So you want to come over here and high five yourself for your school's NFL draft performance as compared to the one that most of us graduated? And this begs this question: Do you have some ideas as to why a school located in what most would consider to not be the most progressive state in the Union is head and shoulders (of late) compared to a school that still has a much more impressive NCAA Division One legacy (beginning with our Abner Haynes era) than ASU in spite of our last 2 decades which last count had 3 winning football seasons? Send your ideas for our improving our own NFL draft future to the UNT Board of Regents if you really get inspired because I think they will soon (by special demand) have to start looking at a new and different criteria than what they've been using for what they think will actually create a successful NCAA D1 athletic program in Denton, Texas, America. GMG!

And the extra year of elgibility Brock will get perhaps the reason he got the 'ship over Scotty? GMG!

Scott and Brock have been out of productive college level football about the same amount of time it seems. Because I don't know, which of the 2 had better Rivals stars? Sort of a Catch 22 with Denton's Young: If he's successful we can take turns kicking each other in the butt yet................if he were to not be a fit into Coach Mac's system (now in only Year 3) then it's a lose-lose for UNT and Denton. GMG!

All who have been drafted out of North Texas (including our free agent signings) http://www.pro-football-reference.com/colleges/notexas/ This is a list of all U.S. colleges and universities NFL draft and free agent signings. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/colleges/ GMG!

At the time all this came out post referendum passage and as I recall, it had our athletic budgets around $22 million around 2011, then $24 million in 2012 and I think up to $26 million for this upcoming athletic fiscal year, but I've not seen any such numbers as that since. GMG!

OK, what are the actual athletic student service fees for TSU-SM, UTSA and UNT? And when our UNT students passed the referendum for Apogee Stadium, didn't the passage of that referendum also provide additional athletic budget monies in graduated amounts for the next several athletic fiscal years, too? ? GMG!

. DJ Plummy Says: GL2Greatness, have you been promised extra stars in your eternal crown by dissing anything that has to do with the University of North Texas? Is this the remainder of your life's true calling and mission? Jeez, Louise, if you are not a bitter ex UNT employee, the time you spend on this forum and the content of your posts which are about 100% anti-North Texas make it really seem as if you absolutely do not have a life outside the subject of UNT or its athletic program. I'm sure its not in your cyber character but come on now and square up with the house; that is, square up with all of us here in Harry's House what it is that has caused you to be so upset with anything relating to the University of North Texas? I've already broken one cardinal rule by giving you this much attention but.......honest to goodness, it is quite abnormal for one who wants a nice comfy' chair in our UNT living room with your prime reason for being in it to lay non-stop steaming piles of dog doo'. Does that get your "anti'MeanGreen blood" all stirred up to hear that, too? Ever heard "when visiting be respectful?" Your daily modus operendi rather seems to be "when visiting GMG.com just be a real bonafide turd and ramble thru "THEIR" living room terrorizing and destroying as much as you possibly can. Your knowledge of North Texas on this and other boards you lurk is too obvious for you to have not at one time been on the UNT payroll so that begs this question if that be the case: It this what all this has been about all the time,ie, your being just another bitter ex employee? If not--intrigue us all and give us even a just a subtle hint as to what your true purpose is of being a regular in our Mean Green living room or will that take away your mystery and forever cease your reason for being here? As a stock-holder (so to speak) of the school I graduated, ie, a 1976 grad, it is my right to critique my alma mater all I want but I only do so with the hope that those in charge will listen to our group collectively and then create an environment as to where our school has a chance to get better and improve to where we can all sing "Happy Days Are Here Again" so I guess our eventual singing of that song would get stuck in your craw, too, right? Still you seem hell bent on wanting to see our school burn to the ground.....or it get sacked and salted (a la ancient Carthage) with almost every thing you post--I mean almost EVERY thing you post. And when someone every once in awhile gets inside your head, you show your character & disdain even moreso by starting your own version of "isolating and demonizing" with sarcasm and "quotes" about said poster. You don't bother me one minute after I've read one of your "put down" posts about my school, but it does bother me that you get to be a regular in our living room of which you've not been invited to stay. Are you always so rude and uncouth? And for what it's worth, I believe in Freedom of Speech as much as anyone, but if I had your IP address and ran this forum you might very well become the one exception who loses that right.

Not sure if the Go5 conference social climbing aspects will ever cease, but doesn't it still really boil down to what the individual school does.......Casepoint: Boise State? When the BSU Broncos beat OU in that exciting Fiesta Bowl classic anyone recall fans saying: "Boyhowdy, that WAC is one powerful juggernaut of a conference or how much that national win did for that league? (I stand to be corrected, but last I recall the WAC will soon be disbanding). In 2002 North Texas beat not the #2, not the #3 or the #4 CUSA team at the NO's Bowl when 15-16,000 of you most impressively traveled to the Big Easy for a Tuesday night game, but rather Coach DD's Mean Green team beat CUSA's Co-Champion, ie, the U of Cincinnati Bearcats. Moral of all that above sentence? Did that Mean Green bowl win do much for the Sun Belt Conference's reputation in only the league's 2'nd year of football operation? No, I don't think so because the national sports media seemed unimpressed. Addendum: The new CUSA still has enough of its original members as to create a scenario as to if any present Sun Belt school (and I do mean any) were invited they'd ask "how soon can we join up?" . Yes, most would do the same for the upstart AAC, but for North Texas we are still in a conference divisional set-up that truly benefits our athletic program and will also benefit us at Apogee's Stadium's turnstile numbers because of our new CUSA West Division rivals.. With the new AAC, it will still be "business as usual" as (for the most part) they keep playing the same schools. Wonder if that is going to change some of their "low draw" school's attendance numbers? GMG!

Good post! I don't think any of us would have any problem with DT putting it all together to have a career year his last Fall at UNT giving BB more under-study time. Still good to know that we have 2 other QB's in the wing if #1 goes down. We've needed 3 QB's at UNT many times since I've been watching this, circa 1973. . GMG!

I think our Go5 commissioners need to go back to the the TV powers & moguls with this: "Hey, we ain't asking for $17 million per any of our schools but we would settle for a measly $7 million per school." http://blog.syracuse.com/sports/2012/05/accs_new_deal_with_espn_worth.html

The new CUSA has and should continue to accentuate its positives no matter how recent or not so recent, ie, the very things that constitutes a league's historical legacy such as: (1) UTEP.....won an NCAA national championship in basketball plus a great Tinsel Town-produced movie about that feat, too. (2) UNC-Charlotte.....once was a March Madness NCAA Final 4 participant; they will be a force in the new CUSA (3) Old Dominion.....an NCAA name basketball school. Most of us here in the Southwest know about ODU because of their fine basketball past, too. (4) La Tech.....in the Top 25 just last Fall in football; has a great legacy with its womens basketball program as well. (5) Marshall.....a former MAC school that is still finding its CUSA legs and will be a leader in the new CUSA.. Some of the NFL's finest talent played their college football for the Herd. (6) Rice University.....a storied history in the old Southwest Conference, a top of the heap academic school no matter what conference they'd be in plus a strategic and very important city to be in the new CUSA...Houston, Texas, America! Rice Stadium has hosted one Super Bowl, the Houston Oilers for 2 years and was once home of the annual Bluebonnet Bowl game before it moved to the Astrodome. (7) Southern Miss.....without a doubt be one of CUSA's flagship programs. (8) North Texas.....won 4 NCAA Division One national championships in golf--yes, a few decades ago, but (still) how many FBS level schools today can say they have won any NCAA national championship? Many CUSA member schools posters have said on other boards...... "watch out for UNT once they start winning again and because of their huge DFW constituency start drawing superb crowds in their newly opened stadium." (9) All the newbie SBC schools now in CUSA bring tremendous upside with their locations and athletic programs albeit they've not been members of the NCAA's highest division all that long. When North Texas' Abner Haynes was taking his Mean Green team to the 1959 Sun Bowl many of the SBC (now CUSA) schools were members of other NCAA classifications. GMG! .

So it's now the off-season for major varsity sports at North Texas hence.... The below most interesting thoughts from a USM fan, ie, cyc46, on the CUSAbbs board: "Well there are several things that the AAC members need to keep in mind when trashing CUSA. First we (new CUSA) are getting MORE BCS revenue than ever before with the new Go5 agreement. 2nd our contract has not changed (the AAC's has drastically and not in a good way). Your marketing plan failed, your commissioner failed (oh how many times I heard how Arsenco was going to get you BIG money) and CUSA isn't starting over from a marketing perspective. Do you think the average fan of the Big 10 even knows what the AAC is yet? For better or worse CUSA has 15 years of name recognition and the AAC doesn't even have a months worth yet. The AAC has no accomplishments sure the teams within the AAC has accomplishments but none of those are under the AAC banner. Also don't forget SMU Tulsa Memphis UCF - CUSA to a large part helped build you. CUSA will do just as well with FAU FIU UTSA North Texas Charlotte and ODU heck in some cases a few years down the road it may even be much better for them than you. But just in case some of you don't believe me here is a short version of everything previously claimed by defector schools: You all continually talked about how you were going to remain in the Big 6 (now Big 5), you guys continually claimed how you were going to get 100 Bazillion dollars for tv revenue, you guys continually claimed that your basketball was going to be helped out by playing teams like Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette etc, you guys continually claimed you would keep the Big East name, you guys continually claimed you would keep your marque bowls. Those are just a few from the greatest hits library. Truth is you got 2 million per team, a brand new conference, no traditional Big East basketball schools to play, and from all indications a reduced bowl line up. Basically the difference is the new CUSA knows where it is and what its market is. The AAC thought it had a market, basically it finds out its on the same footing as CUSA. Bigger step up for the Sunbelt schools to CUSA than it was for the CUSA schools to the AAC and I think that in the long run is where you will see the most improvement is from the Sunbelt and IAA schools in CUSA versus the CUSA schools to the AAC because you've maxed your potential and moving from CUSA 2 to CUSA 1 isn't going to be the great boom many of you claimed it would be. I'd also like to point out just because I am in a snarky mood today that those Big East Time Squares Banners are pretty freaking hilarious now."

Your 2008 graduation explains much with your posts over here. This below from another thread with a few additional comments about your TCU; albeit a year or 2 dated thoughts from the internet it still indicates problems at the turnstiles for even Top 10 ranked TCU football teams and come on now..............what are your true underlying fears and insecurities about North Texas which can easily be seen between the lines of your posts? Is it that UNT's Metroplex constituency,ie, enormous enrollment, home city and county population base, DFW alumnus numbers, etc, etc, etc, are about 10 X's larger than TCU's? And you tell your Coach Patt' his pipe dream for TCU being "the Metroplex college football team" will not be possible because of a large state of Texas public university like North Texas (and even SMU) and that is no matter what conference your school is presently a member (with the Big 12's "present" membership hardly set in stone)....Casepoint: Texas A & M who left the Big 12 for what is turning out to be a successful run in the SEC--you don't think DeLoss Dodd's and OU's AD are noticing that-----think again. ______________________________________________________________ And below in bold letters are a few internet notes about TCU's attendance even during your team's winning years. You obviously were not around ACS during the Frog's decade and a half of losing years (as I was) to see how losing teams affected TCU's attendance. One of major criticisms regarding TCU during the last several years has been that TCU, in spite of its great success of the football field and its location in a top-10 market, has failed to attract a large home crowd. (I say: It's amazing how long it takes some area school's fans to discover they have something very special with their football team and then later in a season to finally start showing up on Game Day. Slow starts, early money game disappointments and lets face some facts here, not our best football teams in our 100 year history at North Texas have hurt our attendance building momentum--even during our bowl years last decade. In DFW, its best to have a good season start (with early wins) to have good season long turnstile numbers). In 2005, in spite of its top-10 finish and 11-1 season, TCU only averaged 31,254 at home. (I say: Apogee Stadium would have had a large enough capacity for that Frog football team). Again, in 2008, TCU finished at No. 7 in the polls and averaged just 30,389 (I say once again: Apogee Stadium would have been large enough for that TCU team). From 2005 to 2008, TCU averaged just 30,897 fans. (I say: I think North Texas with a string of winning seasons will reach those kind of numbers with our constituency of close to 37,000 students, approx. 700,000 pop. in Denton County and over 200,000 NT Exes living in the Metroplex; in fact, past losing seasons will create doubting Thomases from our own but it should still be a piece of cake for UNT to get such numbers once the win cycle begins again and................ with most of those in attendance at Apogee Stadium still being our own fans since (as is always the case in our athletic history) we will not be seeing many UT or OU travelling fans at Apogee to seal the deal on easy sellouts). IMO, our AD still needs to schedule the Texas Longhorns in Denton if possible to show all our DFW area Froggie fans and supporters just how easy it is to sell out Apogee. Who knows maybe a winning football program at the DFW Metroplex's largest university will make "OUR" school "The Metroplex's College Football Team." Even with TCU in the Big 12, it is still a private school affiliated with a small membership Disciples of Christ denomination. GMG!

You mean those Northwestern State U Demons of Nachitoches, Louisiana, Harry? Yes, I remember that 1-AA team walking out of ACS with a win. And Froggy Guy, below in bold letters are a few internet notes about TCU's attendance even during your team's winning years. You obviously were not around ACS during the Frog's decade and a half of losing years to see how even losing teams affected TCU's attendance. One of major criticisms regarding TCU during the last several years has been that TCU, in spite of its great success of the football field and its location in a top-10 market, has failed to attract a large home crowd. (I say: It's amazing how long it takes some area school's fans to discover they have something very special with their football team and then later in a season to finally start showing up on Game Day. Slow starts & early money game disappointments at North Texas have hurt our attendance buidling momentum--even during our bowl years last decade. In DFW, its best to have a good season start (with early wins) to have good season long turnstile numbers). In 2005, in spite of its top-10 finish and 11-1 season, TCU only averaged 31,254 at home. (I say: Apogee Stadium would have had a large enough capacity for that Frog football team). Again, in 2008, TCU finished at No. 7 in the polls and averaged just 30,389 (I say once again: Apogee Stadium would have been large enough for that TCU team). From 2005 to 2008, TCU averaged just 30,897 fans. (I say: I think North Texas with a string of winning seasons will reach those kind of numbers with our constituency of close to 37,000 students, approx. 700,000 pop. in Denton County and over 200,000 NT Exes living in the Metroplex; in fact, it should be a piece of cake for UNT to get such numbers with most of those in attendance at Apogee Stadium still being our own fans since (as is always the case in our history) we will not be seeing many UT or OU travelling fans at Apogee to seal the deal on easy sellouts). IMO, our AD still needs to schedule the Texas Longhorns in Denton if possible to show all our DFW area Froggie fans and supporters just how easy it is to sell out Apogee. GMG!

meanrob has the more sober account of what might happen this season yet I do underline and put in bold a key part of my green koolade'esqe post with this quote from, uh, myself:).........................(not sure I've ever quoted myself to be truthful)! LOL! _____________________________________________________________________________________________ "....This is if all our North Texas players with NCAA FBS potential realize that potential. We may also need for a few other teams to have bad games and/or down years for us to get to 7 or 8. We will not have had enough consecutive winning seasons for our team to get Top 25 consideration, but that should still be an eventual goal for Mean Green football. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Backing into a winning year depending on much of our 2013 schedule to be re-loading or just having down years is not the best way to have a winning season, but for next year in Mean Green Country it may be the "only" way we get out of our walk in the NCAA college football wilderness but won't most of us take that gift if it comes wrapped up that way? Didn't we go to a bowl game one year with (maybe) a similar scenario (plus every bounce of the ball which came our way)? GMG!