PlummMeanGreen

The score of the UNT/UH game the year before yall went to your first Cotton Bowl... North Texas.....28 Houston...........00 (That Mean Green football team would have been a bowl team had there been as many bowls back then as today). GMG!

If we're talking about the same thing here, North Texas met every criteria which Texas Tech and UH met except the all important endowment coffers. I think it has to be a minimum of $400 million, so I guess it will be awhile for North Texas. GMG!

My first college team to support as a youth was Bill Yeoman's veer offense running Houston Coog's. I met your "H Association" executive director at Apogee and at our stadium's debut game. He couldn't believe how much I knew about UH athletics and names from the past. He was a very nice person and most complimentary of our Mean Green Village, especially Apogee Stadium. I attended many UH games in the Astrodome in the 60's as a youth. I remember all those UH Band Days which would have upwards to 14,000 bandsmen in the stadium with a great half time extravaganza, too. We could never talk "The College of Music" of the Southwest to ever do anything close to your Band Days. It was just not in our culture to think that big, but....oh well. YET......... to the UH poster who talks about all those sellouts at "the Rob"; anyhow, you know and I know..............just how small your crowds were at "the Rob" when yall were in your own multi games or multi-year losing streaks. Lucky for UH that yall never topped our present 8 year losing streak but we will soon come out of that. We probably have about 10,000 borderline fans waiting to come back to Denton when we start winning again. Our new Pedestrian Bridge will do more for our attendance than I think most could ever dream. It would have made a difference in the UH/UNT Apogee Stadium crowd if it had been in place at our stadium debut game last Fall, IMO. DFW is a winners town (or region) and that's about the best way to describe our local cuture whether we like it or not. I hope UNT will change its culture whereas our students and fans want to fill Apogee just like UT does DKR Memorlal when they are playing any school at any level. I don't think that happens in my lifetime but I still hope it will happen eventually because it really has a chance to happen IMHO. Good luck, Coogs, except for this Saturday! GMG!

Good memories of "the Rob" for me. It was previosuly called Jeppessen Stadium--Home of the Oilers... where I saw a few of their games there during the early 1960's--post Indian Wars era, of course. Former Jeppesen Stadium, Rice Stadium (for 2 years) & early days in the Astrodome Houston Oilers I remember without Googling: George Blanda, Billy Cannon, Charlie Hennigan, Charlie Tolar, Bob Talamini, George Webster, Kenny Houston, Don Trull, John Henry Johnson, Lawarence Elkins, Ode Burrell, Sid Blanks, Pete Beathard, Jim Norton, Don Floyd, Garland Boyette, Ernie Ladd (briefly), Charlie Frazier, Hoyle Granger, Warren Moon, Kenny Burroughs, Mike Renfro, Dan Pastorini, Lynn Dickey, Scott Appleton, Elvin Bethea. I've left off way too many due to memory constraints. GMG! Addendum: 3 of the worst trades in Houston professional sports history was the Oiler's Kenny Houston to the Redskins for ?????; then the Astros Joe Morgan to the Reds for ?????? and of course, fellow Brazoria County'ite, Alvin HS and Astros' great Nolan Ryan to the Rangers for ??????????? GMG ! !

If North Texas plays like we did against #15 Kansas State we will win.............if we play like we did against FAU we will lose. No rocket science with that. GMG!

I saw that too, and thought for our Tuesday night nationally televised game versus U of Louisiana that that wouldn't be a bad place to put our marching band for just that one game. GMG!

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, Bill, you subtle rascal, you. I think I know where your headed with all this but....are you sure you want to join the Darth Vader Chapter of Mean Green fandom? GMG! PS: Body bag games? How so close we really came against #15 ranked Kansas State. We do need to avoid scheduling the Top 5 or Top 10 schools for the moment, though, but we have to slip some ranked schools (#11 thru #25?) on our future schedules because even once we're in CUSA where Top 25 rankings have been the annual norm in year's past we as a newbie' member will not get ranked until we beat some ranked schools. GMG ! !

We've survived every disaster known to (sports)man and no matter what happens next... ...we will survive!

The last part of this YouTube video talks about the the PB

And just how has all this SBC success translated into Top 25 rankings with even the 'Belt's better teams thru the years? I thought Troy U had a team a few years ago that should have honest to goodness been in the Top 25 but....they only received votes. ULM most admirably beats #8 ranked Arkansas but they only received votes for that magnificent feat. Anyone else detect an on-going trend when it concerns Top 25 (non)rankings for the Sun Belt Conference's better football teams? North Texas will be in a conference that has schools which broke into Top 25 rankings many years ago with 3 CUSA schools that wiill still be in this league when we join it in 2013. And I guaran'darn'tee you there is not one SBC school today who would turn down an invite to Conference-USA. GMG!

Care-givers deserve purple hearts, but they do it because of the love we have for our parents---the greatest generation. God-speed to you Denny and Family.

Forward? Maybe a better slogan than "THAT!" LOL! KRAM1, some of the older ones on and beyond this board will tell you that I once played the same role you play as UNT's version of Norman Vincent Peale, but jeez-louise, pal, after you see what is not getting done over a more than fair amount of time for it to get done you just start asking yourself as a UNT alum....why isn't it getting done and why in hades is mediocrity getting rewarded with extended contracts and pay raises to boot? Do our powers (Rawlins and his BOR's) really actually think no one else in the NCAA can do the job which is needed to get done at North Texas? We are grossly under-achieving at North Texas with many on payroll who have proven time and time again--year after year that they cannot produce at an NCAA FBS level. When they never want to announce what their season tickets sales are that is a not so subtle hint as to what is not getting done in that area of athletics. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see it, either. If I didn't work weekends as a DJ, you and I could most amiably discuss this and other subjects of mutual concern, but Fall is my busiest time of year for DJ'ing Weddings and other events. Nevertheless....stay positive, KRAM1, until you, too, can't condone all this any longer. GMG!

A good start for Rawlins... UNT needs to hire the marketeers away from the TSU-SM athletic dept. that (according to their fan board) sold 6,500 football season tickets for this Fall, though. For you who have been asleep, TSU-SM has also surpassed UNT's endowment coffers while we were not looking. UTSA has passed us by in other areas in only 2 years. The trend and modus operendi at North Texas needs an overhaul as well as a major upswing or we will see ourselves in a 8 year football season losing streak in CUSA before we begin Year 9 as a member of that league, too. Anyone remember when we last sold 6,500 football season tickets? Most of you fellow Old Gun Alums who've seen more than just a few Mean Green rodeos know the answer to that question. If we're going to be in CUSA and hopefully be in the upper echelon of that league, we cannot continue to operate like we are still in Fouts Field or NCAA D1-AA or even the Sun Belt any longer. We also cannot continue to let Apogee Stadium be the apex of our programs reason to exist for the next 10 years, either. We need wins and we need a better defined marketing program designed to put many more new fans and faces in Apogee's 31,000 seats. For what its worth, its not like we are in some remote rural collegiate outpost where there is no population from which to draw. TCU has their 45,000 fans pretty will locked in for their games at the Amon Carter Stadium make-over. That only leaves about 6 million more in the North Texas Metroplex for out marketeers to located our 31,000 fans for Apogee. Look at what ULM drew last week and then ask the question....How long will it actually take us to draw over 30,000 for a home game (as ULM with their $8 million athletic budget did) in one of the most fan friendly as well as modern NCAA football stadium in the entire USA,ie, Apogee Stadium? Yet how soon will it be tiime for another Apogee Stadium victory lap and pay raise you say? Will we be doing that 5 years from now, too, with similar lack of success we've had in the SBC in Wins/Losses and at the turnstiles? The long term stakes and opportunity for more national success are much higher than we've ever had in the 'Belt even with 'Belt school's spurt of success over CUSA teams in recent weeks. That, too, will pass in due time. Give pay raises to those who can sell--not maintain the status quo and brag about venues that still have way too many empty seats for a school our size. Just repeatin' what I've heard many of you sayin'. GMG! PS: I would never make a very good goverment employee or goverment teat' sucker, now would I?

We just need to reach upward to CUSA standards (now) and hope the league doesn't bring theirs down to match some of the newbies coming in next year.. UNT was the Belts' first standard bearer until the 'Belt passed us by some 7 or so years ago and thus a prime reason we hired Dan McCarney. C-USA membership will put an extremely high powered microscope on others presently functioning at non-C-USA even 1-AA-esque standards & excuses for under-performing after we enter that conference will be seen for what they are.....excuses. We seem to have hit a brick wall as far as trying to reach out for new "non student" fans and with Denton County as a good base in which to start developing new fans perhaps occasional goal-setting for ticket sales would be in order? Why not? Every other NCAA FBS program (including UTSA) has them. Texas State-SM according to their fan board sold 6,500 football season tickets this Fall which I believe actually exceeded their goal set last Spring. I cannot remember the last time UNT came close to selling 6,500 season tickets--can any of you? Quite frankly, only 21,000+ for the SBC conference opener in one of the finest stadiums in the known universe would not be acceptable at most C-USA outposts. C-USA will be a barometer for North Texas in so many ways than just varsity teams performances. So just how many more years will the "must build or drop to NCAA FCS level or worse" Apogee Stadium buy for annual under-performers on the UNT payroll is a question I was asked a few weeks ago. I had no answer. GMG!

I never saw C-USA as that dominant over the SBC because (after all) our first bowl win in decades came over a CUSA (now Big East) school, namely the U of Cincy' Bearcats. Yet it just doesn't boil down to occasional wins by opposing conferences over a C-USA program. After we beat Cincy' in that NO's Bowl, did we beat our chest and say.................. "we'd never want to be in CUSA because we just beat one of your schools in a bowl?" Heck no we didn't say that...least of all think it. We'd taken a CUSA invite the next day after that Big Easy bowl win if we'd been offered. Silver Lining In An Other-wise Very Temporary Dark Cloud: I think all would agree that CUSA has a better brand and still has 3 of its schools (even after those who leave) which have broken the all important Top 25 football poll barrier in recent seasons. Over the last 10 or so years, though, some of us have not quite figured out why the SBC still has not captured the imagination of poll voters as to get any of its better teams ranked. Based on no respect from the poll voting media alone makes you feel your part of a 2'nd rate conference. Yet how many Top 25 "votes" (not a ranking mind you) did ULM get when they beat #8 Arkansas---so for now can we rest the case)? All in all, don't we want one of our future North Texas teams that has a big win over a major conference (maybe even ranked) school and when we have an accompanying & good W/L record to have a chance to be ranked? By being a member in CUSA, we have that opportunity. I don't think it happens in the SBC for another decade or more years, quite frankly. Last night's loss against Troy in "OUR" house for certain hurt the coaches, the team and the entire UNT community, but some of us have been saying all along that Coach Mac's 3'rd season (our inaugural C-USA season) in Mean Green Country would be his and our teams breakthrough season and even believe that moreso upon the further review of looking at how so many fewer scholarship players we had in Denton when the Hayden Fry disciple got our HFC's job. Apparently before McCarney arrived, Coach Dodge's recruits were leaving the program en mass for whatever reasons. Back To Our C-USA Future: It is still all good though because North Texas will benefit across the board when we host at our fabulous Apogee Stadium (and the Super Pit) the likes of Rice U, Tulane U, Tulsa U, La Tech U, Southern Miss U, East Carolina U, Marshall U, UTEP, FIU, UTSA, ODU and UNC-Charlotte (the latter 2 moreso in basketball for now). Also sorta' fun when we have some of those schools who will bring upwards to 3,000 visiting fans to Denton along with their marching bands which just adds more spice to the Game Day pie. Yes, we all have hangovers this morning from our Troy U loss and even a T-bone steak will not tastes so good today for most, but tomorrow (or the future) it's still about what our school will receive in the long term with C-USA membership; that is, with better known opponents that have far. far better brands but still foremost and toward the top of the list a more realistic chance for North Texas to get a Top 25 ranking when they have the W/L record to merit it. C-USA seems to have a pool of regional (maybe even national) poll voters who have no problem ranking our future conference's best programs while the SBC has in over 10 years not (for whatever reasons) been able to cultivate that same or similar group of voters. Yet those that remain in the SBC will be in a somewhat painstakingly sorta' way still be pioneering to be the first ever SBC ranked football team and (again) I don't see that happening for that conference for a least another 10 years. Just an opinion based on what we've all seen in the past. GMG!

Would love to see how many extra seats we'd have to bring into Apogee (to make more in gate receipt sales for starters) had the Mean Green just defeated the #8 ranked NCAA FBS team in the USA (that week) as ULM did against Arkansas just weeks ago. Yes, we can do more than most we are grouped with if we merely started acting like the 4'th largest university in the Lone Star State beginning with Denton, Denton County, UNT alums and UNT students who need to look down at UT-Austin's students whose culture is to show up en mass even when they are playing an SBC program like......North Texas. I think Coach McCarney is on schedule to take our program higher than any we've had no matter this season results. GMG!

The SBC has performed admirably and nothing will be wrong with the league when it loses 2 of its members in 2013 but...............CUSA has 2 or 3 flagship programs (not going to the Big East) who have still broken the all important Top 25 football polls barrier this and prior decades which the 'Belt has had any school to do even one time since its beginnings. I didn't look at the polls after ULM beat #8 Arkansas, but I don't think beating a top 10 school even got them in a Top 25 poll, right? I didn't see the polls last week but did their big win even get ULM votes for a Top 25 ranking (which I can only assume they got at least a few)? Anyone? Looking at the big picture, CUSA is still a much better conference for North Texas for many reasons even if for nothing else being the first NCAA FBS conference for us to be in that has a regionalized division with most all divisional opponents in Texas or adjacent to our state. Our future home football and basketball schedules improved immediatley once we got the invite and I'd bet we will also cut some future travel cost down, too. FWIW......at the end of this football season when all have come back to earth and reality rears its ugly head there would still be no SBC program who would turn down a CUSA invite if they were (in deed) invited and that reason is at the top of the list as to why none of us should even remotely entertain the idea that our decision to join CUSA was wrong. GMG!

And having been to a few of those old Aggie/SMU or Aggie/TCU SWC "classics" in Dallas and Fort Worth (or watched them on TV) I will say that North Texas had as many fans at that one Texas Stadium game as the Mustangs and Frog fans of that old SWC era gone by most times ever drew. In fact, that crowd would have probably challenged any of TCU's Top 10 top Amon Carter home attendance figures. (Listened to some of the TCU pre-game broadcast last Saturday and even their broadcast team said Amon Carter had had so few sellouts since it first expanded to about 47,000---and now it seats a projected 45,000). One can only ask "what if" North Texas had had all those visiting SWC fans from UT, TAMU, TTech, etc) coming to Denton all those decades how that would have enabled us to galvanize a much larger UNT alumnus body into Mean Green fans because of their having been more interest in such games? I'd say a difference of night and day compared to present time. GMG!

I still say our year will be next year, ie, our inaugural year in CUSA, but I know we will all still take Dave Campbells Texas Football magazines writer's prediction that the Mean Green will be a bowl team this year. Coach Mac has said he came into Denton without the ususal stock-pile of players on scholarships and these injuries will prove all that much quicker than had he had the full contingent of players on 'ships. If only we could stay healthy with just the occasional nagging injuries that our players only miss 1 or 2 games but I know that is just not in our hands. We do not need our players missing the entire season like we had happen one recent season in great abundance. GMG!

Way to go, La Tech! We future CUSA schools may love to hate each other but we should always pull for each other when we ain't playing each other. One of our main goals should be to join other established CUSA football programs as frequent visitors to those Top 25 polls, too. It has been awhile for us to be in one. GMG!

I am still quite blown away that a ULM program annually operating on a shoe-string budget has the biggest win in Sun Belt Conference history and trumps any of our other member schools all time greatest wins including North Texas win over Tennessee with what now seems light years ago. GMG!

This needs to happen every game no matter who we are playing, too. Our home schedule will dramatically improve next season as a new member of CUSA and I hope that helps with their continued "all season long" interest. I still think UNT needs to expand its horizons and mind-set in the area of promotions because being located in DFW there are many other entertainment interests and activities vying for our fans, too. Not real happy to hear that even some youth & kid leagues are now even using Saturday nights for some of their games. Not sure why those who lead those youth leagues would do that since that has traditionally been family night for families to utilize as they wish--not a time to transports kids to football and soccer fields. GMG!

Mo Green, I will always remember your Chinook (?) you used to come up to Denton and Game Day back in the 80's. It was classic!

I came home from DJ'ing a wedding and watched the re-broadcast around midnight and Dave did fine. Like all of us in the middle age crowd he has put on a couple of pounds but not that much. I, too enjoyed the Bill Mercer interview during the game and Bill was quite gracious with his comments about all his former students which he named one by one, but he seemed to want to get off camera and go back to wherever he was watching the game. I had hoped he would have stayed on with our guys for the entire quarter and they would have let him do a little play by play just for old time's sake. GMG!

This a subject we posted about a year ago; that is, find a way to fill the Wing and the east and west sides will all but take care of themselves (assuming the football program continues its rise which most of us think it will). Plans for such an under-taking have to be planned (if planned with success in mind) at a time of year other than football season. UNT officials still seem to not understand the culture of the DFW metroplex with a thousand other things people can do on Game Day than be at Apogee Stadium; thus a reason we very uncannily lose our UNT student body without any sensible reason for 1 (maybe) 2 games each Fall. We don't play Big 12 opponents at Apogee so promotions must give our UNT students a reason to come out and support the team and to not take another Metroplex entertainment option. UNT leaders are really going to have to in due time hire professional college athletic promotions people with proven records elsewhere who will promote each Game Day as if their jobs actually depended on it. GMG!