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Everything posted by PlummMeanGreen
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Without the Cinderella/BCS-bowl buster effect or opportunity TCU had there would be no Big 12 for the Horned Frogs and their more astute fans and alums know that. Thus another reason the NCAA needs to open up their ridiculous 4 team play-off to at least 8 with a 16 team play-off being even better (and more fair if fair ever makes a come-back in today's NCAA). There is still something about a pick yourself up by your boot straps rags to riches story in this country that intrigues We The People (sometimed called the 'silent majority), but of course, we now have apparent unseen help with even that, too. I know I must have had the unseen help from "The Bureaucratic Phantom" when I started my DJ business on January 1, 2004, and any day now I know I'll get invited to a beer summit being the good 6'th generation Texas redneck that I am. (Divine Providence........do your thing). I regularly congratulate many of my Horned Frog acquaintances over in Cowtown and out here in Parker County of which there are many, but many of us on this board remember the TCU football program of the 1960's and 1970's whereas had they not had the big state SWC school's traveling fans coming to Amon Carter Stadium the Frogs would have had many Game Days' with as many stadium attendants in the stadium as purple clad fans. TCU had the perfect storm happen for them with all this yet they made that perfect storm happen for the most part. A little luck sometimes becomes part of the equation like for us SMU up and leaving for the Big East. TCU should still be commended for all of their pro-activity to make something this huge happen for their school, though, albeit I see they are picked in the middle of the Big 12 pack in most pre-season polls I've seen but of course still another reason as to why they tee it up on Game Day and play the game. TCU will be coming into the Big 12 in much better shape than Baylor U and that is probably an under-statement. It will be interestng to see if TCU can win a Big 12 football championship because there are still several state-assisted universities in that league who still have not GMG!
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Sun Belt commissioner: Blue Raiders 'flagship' of conference
PlummMeanGreen replied to Harry's topic in Mean Green Football
North Texas 7 Wins versus Flagship U 4 wins We've been fine against the SBC's Santa Maria, but its been the Florida-based Nina and Pinto who have given us hell on the football field during our years in the 'Belt. GMG! -
Great post, UNTJim1995...You's and I (and others I know on this board and beyond) seem to be from the same think tank. Still..........we have to keep the right perspective on where we've been of late and just hope we don't repeat it. It would be so easy for Apogee Stadium to become our next "high quality' venue a la a Super Pit that sits out there looking pretty and that's just about it. We all know what kind of basketball programs we had decade after decade before Johnny Jones came to town, now don't we? Some said or thought: "what a waste of a beautiful, glorious & "fabulous" basketball facility all those years." Cold, blatant facts are rarely acceptable on this board and even in our country's politics of late but here is one that will freeze your family jewels to their very core: Had our program been located in Ruston or Monroe or Jonesboro................. we would not have gotten a CUSA invite and that would have merely been based on what our media guides of overall performance and attendance figures would have revealed to Brit Banowsky and his staff and I'm talking about our overal performance (at a reasonable NCAA FBS level of quality and annual national ranking out of 100 plus NCAA FBS schools) of varsity athletics of the last 10-15 years. NOTE: For football, see the below link North Texas had no choice but to build Apogee Stadium. Well............duh? Why make heros out of those associated with that absolute neccessity (outside our UNT students) because our only alternative would have been to drop down, drop out or stay forever the same. And look how successful we've been doing the same of late as in SBC football? Many of us bitched for decades telling deaf ears how Fouts Field was visually (from the interstate) a laughting-stock to our entire UNT community least of all what it had been costing us to get better schools to come to Denton and then want to return to Fouts for games (ya' think Baylor ever wanted to come back after electricity went out in their dressing room during a half time for instance); plus the fact that Fouts Field would keep us from ever getting a conference upgrade which I think most would agree it did first time CUSA looked at us. I can only imagine how Hayden Fry had to to do a Fred Astaire dance number with SWC officials when he wanted North Texas in the SWC and all that because of Fouts Field. (It's been a very interesting ride at North Texas for those who've been around since post-Ice Age, folks). Now UNT powers-that-be can keep rewarding those for things that they really had nothing to do with till the cows come home, but it will still always be performance which needs to one day in our sweet bye and bye be the reason for getting bonuses and contract extensions at North Texas (and performance of teams who are rising in the rankings and that also being far away from Bottom 25 for starters). And please.........no more awards at North Texas for merely being on staff up there for a jillion years with mediocre (or less) performance results would be something for our higher echelon UNT powers that be to think about before another one of those kind of awards is freely given out with yet another............pay raise. Performance awards would be so much more meaningful and worth the extra income for those who produced over a fair enough of time. Dan McCarney and Tony Benford give many of us hope for our future in our 2 biggest revenue-producing sports. Outside of that, past performance of others who have produced a helluva' bunch of mediocrity and even been praised for it I would think the jury would still be out as to if they can take this thing to the next level; that is, from an overal poor to moderate success performance at the SBC level in all varsity sports to a much more competitive CUSA level. We need some of that group to re-invent themselves to become something yet unseen for a decade and more or we will I'm afraid in Mean Green Country see much of what we've seen during that same period. Prevention of repeating much of our history of the last few decades will still be worth a ton of cure for our future NCAA FBS and C-USA success at North Texas is how this all just about sizes up...........IMO. ______________________________________________ http://mcubed.net/ncaaf/teams/nt.shtml ______________________________________________ GMG!
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2012 college football national TV schedule
PlummMeanGreen replied to Harry's topic in Mean Green Football
And you're here to spread just what kind of special cheer and joy to those of us who bleed green? Big guy, I'll be 62 years old this November and I've lost count of all the times Texas Tech won the Southwest Conference and now the Big 12 in football. Hey, we know Texas Tech U is a fine school and honest to goodness salt of the earth folks come from the Llano Estacado, too, but why a Red Raider wants to come right into the middle of our Mean Green living room here to take a steamer every time he gets a chance just beats the hell out of me. GMG! -
Quantifying NMSU's conference uncertainty (UNT Mention)
PlummMeanGreen replied to Harry's topic in Mean Green Football
Fessor' Floyd Graham maybe gave him a "F" in Music Appreciation decades ago and he hasn't forgotten it? GMG! -
And an 8 game play-off would bring back future Cinderellas such as those from the past as the Boises, the Utah's, the TCU's back into the play-off mix which I think the entire NCAA FBS, ie, the Big 5 conferences needs more than it maybe realizes least of all would ever admit. Americans have most always had a passion and love affair for the under-dog at all levels of our culture. Horatio Algier-type "rags to riches" stories have captured many of our imaginations thru the years sorta' like a feel good movie does the same. GMG!
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WEHT: Ex-OL Tyler Bailey Coaching at Bullard
PlummMeanGreen replied to Harry's topic in Mean Green Football
Congrats to Coach Bailey! Didn't coaches most times represent many of our favorite people at all our respective junior and high schools? GMG! -
Riley Dodge Named Grad Asst at Texas A&M
PlummMeanGreen replied to Harry's topic in Mean Green Football
I hope for nothing but the best for Riley Dodge. He has many admirers on this board who liked what he laid down on the field on behalf of our school. Riley Dodge will be successful in any endeavor he seeks whether in the football business or the business world. Good luck at TAMU, Riley! GMG!- 46 replies
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Restored Civil War-Era Covered Bridge Walked through a pedestrian bridge similar to this near Birmingham, Alabama, many years ago.
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This is Wikipedia's "red shirt" icon adjacent to all the red-shirted Mean Green football players on our 2012 roster. http://en.wikipedia....n_football_team Also, listed at bottom half of the page are all the SBC school's Wikipedia write-ups, too. GMG!
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Of course, the rankings will change as the recruiting season goes along. Saw this on the other board and have no idea of the credibility of yet another recruiting service but they have a fairly decent ranking for North Texas as of today and at this stage of the game. http://247sports.com/Team/Ranking
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Sun Belt Tried To Grab Four CUSA schools
PlummMeanGreen replied to MeanGreen61's topic in Mean Green Football
UAB's stadium situation should be a matter of concern for CUSA veterans, though.. Not sure what their next move is to be honest. GMG! -
Sun Belt Tried To Grab Four CUSA schools
PlummMeanGreen replied to MeanGreen61's topic in Mean Green Football
And just as fortunate that SMU left CUSA for the Big East because had that not happened we would all know our present plight (and conference). Lady luck has not smiled often on UNT football or basketball for most of us older alum's lives but this is one time she did. We still need to do much more with Apogee Stadium than we did with the Super Pit in its first 4 decades of its existence, though. If ever we thought a venue would create a program we can always point at the Super Pit as an example that it doesn't. It still boils down to whose in charge and who is hired or replaced. We waited much too long for a Johnny Jones kind of hire and basically had a Cadillac basketball venue with Studebaker mechanics working on it decades before JJ's hiring. As most always....I digress but am at the age now to where I have an excuse. GMG! -
Actually, San Diego State Aztecs were tied with another school for a ranking of #19 in that Top 20 poll. I think SDSU came into Fouts that day as a Big West Conference member but (as always) I stand to be corrected. I had to check with one of my main Mean Green resources for confirmation on the #19 part, though. Funny part was how the Aztecs "then" HFC Claude Gilbert after that game kicked the visiting team's water cooler off the wall destroying the cooler he was so mad. Our good friend Rick Spears told me "A.D." Fry had to send them a bill for the damage, too. (I never heard if they paid it or not, though). NTXCoog, it really seems to me that back in those era, you didn't seem to have to have a prior 50 year NCAA golden college football legacy or reputation to get ranked as it seems you do today. Our former conference-mate Boise State showed us all what it takes to get ranked and henceforth, we who are not in the Big 5 FBS conferences have to all aim high and follow their example. If you're reading this, NTXCoog, do you remember how high Duffy Daugherty's Michigan State team was ranked back on that 1967 Fall Game Day when UH shocked the nation with a slobber-knockin' of the Spartans? Our HS football team was on the way to a game in Schulenberg, Texas, against Sacred Heart HS but we were all listening to that UH game on our, uh, "transistor" radios. Our HFC was a UH alum and had no problem with us doing that, too. LOL! GMG!
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Happy 4'th of July Fellow Americans & Mean Green'ers!
PlummMeanGreen replied to PlummMeanGreen's topic in Mean Green Football
If you haven't been, every American should try to make at least one visit to Washington D. C. in their lifetime. I was there at a church related national convention for teens in August of 1963; actually, one week before Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech. (I was 12 years old). President Kennedy had been scheduled to speak to our church group's national congress that week in August, but Jackie lost her newborn baby that week so the President was by her side and had to bow out of his speaking engagement. I remember being so darn disappointed that I didn't get to see and hear our President but understood why he needed to be by his wife's side. For certain don't go to Washington D.C as a Democrat or a Republican, either....go as an American. We are (after all) on the same Red, White and Blue team here. -
Hey "D" man! Well, on your advice.....I've been eating more oatmeal, granola bars, brocolli, turnip greens and guess what? I already feel better about this Fall and I sure as hell have been more regular (if you know what I mean). So I guess that says one thing: When one is full of $h&t it sure can cloud up the mind and create bad premonitions for upcoming football campaigns. Happy 4'th again all! GMG!
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The Horsemonkey of Recruiting
PlummMeanGreen replied to The Fake Lonnie Finch's topic in Mean Green Football
And Bill Snyder did much of the same when he became Kansas State's new HFC and he also from the Hayden Fry Coach's Tree. I found this on YouTube--not one of our Top 10 Mean Green football moments, but we did help a Big 12 (then Big 8) school break a 31 game losing streak and then begin their football program's resurgence (if they ever "surged" at all in the old Big 8). Of course, we would have all preferred that we hadn't helped their cause, even moreso for Corky Nelson. (I was at a Texaco station off Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, gettting a flat tire fixed when this play took place). -
Did any of the musicians play the banjo theme song to the movie "Deliverance" while our guys were in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee that afternoon kickin' butt, Phil? GMG!
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And this is the reason why I think Mean Green Coach Dan McCarney's 3'rd year will be his best at North Texas and the timing of that could not be any better with our inaugural year in C-USA. I've checked other newbies coming into CUSA with us and one key newbie who will be a rival will lose 15 senior starters after this Fall. I think we lose 8 or 9, but will have many young players with more experience after this Fall. I have no idea about this Fall, but Fry's 2'nd year disaster (2 wins) keeps coming up in my mind for some reason and (ultimately) I hope that's all it is--a false premonition. I hope that Coach Mac avoids or overcomes what many NCAA coach's have happen in their 2'nd year. GMG!
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I was a junior at "Nit-Su" in 1975. We played Cal Poly Pomona 2 weeks after we beat the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville. Can you believe we had a freakin' Open Date the week after we beat the Vols? Excitement on campus after the Tennessee win was at a fever pitch. Many saw our game results on ABC TV that Game Day Saturday when Keith Jackson made a comment about "that Hayden Fry bunch from North Texas was playing Tennessee close" I had been at the Willis Library that afternoon and then went over to a dorm living area when a fellow student told me we were playing the Vols a close game in the 4'th quarter. The dorm living room area with the TV was filled to the brim with students so I knew something pretty special was going on with our game. Radios were turned on very loud in that dorm's living room area as we were all listening to a most excited Bill Mercer calling our game and our fans listening with amazement that Keith Jackson on a nationally televised game mentioned North Texas and Hayden Fry. Then the Mean Green's diminutive RB Sears Wood ran a kick-off return for a North Texas touchdown--bedlam and high fives took over in Kendall Hall. North Texas would win the game before a shocked Volunteer's home crowd of about 75,000 that day in Neyland Stadium. If this was how Big Time college foodtball felt, man o' man, we had to have some more of this at North Texas! (The Dallas Times Herald next morning in its Sunday edition had a front page photo of our team being met at Love Field before a huge crowd of North Texas fans). North Texas versus Cal Poly-Pomona: We had right at 20,000 at Fouts Field (its capacity) for the Cal Poly-Pomona game and that was the most we'd had at Fouts I believe since it had opened. Wayne Ray in the NT Ticket Office said had that game been played the week "after" our Tennessee win that they would have had to park in Lewisville and Gainsville to get a spot for their cars. Amazingly and as I recall, we had a hard time getting our mind on Cal Poly but finally put them away. Everyone was still buzzing about the Vols win by the Mean Green. (The Vols would win 6 games that Fall and would have been a bowl team had the game took place in this era). Yet beating one of the Big Boys was a feeling that most of us who were around during that era wanted to see keep happening. There was just something about it that felt real damn good. GMG!
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Conference Realignment Winners and Losers
PlummMeanGreen replied to Harry's topic in Mean Green Football
Yes, another epistle: I believe most of us would admit an admiration for TCU with their own multi-conference journey to the Big 12, but I believe their long journey to the Big 12 actually began during the Jim Wacker Era at TCU. Also sometimes attrition can help in such a journey and I think that part came about when their very well respected TCU President/Chancellor Tucker and AD (former TCU baseball coach) Frank Windegger (for lack of better words) simply got out of the way of progress and (in deed) both retired. IMO......after the aforementioned 2 retired TCU started spending some serious money to promote their athletic product with new and expanded facilties becoming a huge part of that spending. Sometimes it just takes a few high level staff types getting out of the way of progress (retiring or just moving on) for a stagnant athletic pogram to be able to get from Point A to Point B. Some of you have mentioned a concern and question of do we have all the hosses in place to take North Texas to the next level; that is, to get us to a true level of CUSA competitiveness after so many recent years of non-success in SBC football, specificially. Well, our old friend Father Time will once again tell the tale on that and God only knows we've wasted much precious time in past decades on some whose presence on our payrolls would merely keep things from advancing. What is the saying about "doing the same old failed things over and over again and expecting different results?" Back To TCU: There was really a time when Fort Worth could have cared less for TCU Horned Frog football, basketball, etc, etc, etc. Most of their best crowds from the 1960's on up were when the SWC Big Boys and all their traveling fans came to Fort Worth and without them TCU would have had some very embarrassing turnstile numbers, a la SMU. Fort Worth showed it would support a winner, but during our Mean Joe Greene and Fry Era's TCU (and many others) would never be found on our football schedules because during much of that era the Horned Frogs were sucking hind teat as far as a college football program was concerned. Enter Jim Wacker: It was an exciting time for TCU until the late, great Jim Wacker got wind of some very powerful and influential TCU alums who were paying off TCU football players. Didn't most all of us still admire the late TCU coach for turning his own program in when you know good and well that he knew every other SWC school was doing the same darn thing? Yet during the Kenneth Davis era TCU Horned Frog football experienced a true revival with the "unbelieeeeeeeeeevalbe" Jim Wacker in charge. Their "Your Home Team" multi-year promotion began to also make headway as they hammered that theme to the locals not for just one year but on an annual basis. Sometimes sticking with what works really is a good idea, but sticking with things and personnel that don't work is probably not so wise but quite expensive. Enough about TCU already but.................it is very easy for us to get all wrapped up in all re-alignment talk and maybe even have a few anxiety attacks as to how some of it would eventually affect our own school. Most would admit that North Texas caught an unexpected break when SMU left for the Big East because had they not we would be in the Sun Belt Conference for a very long time (which would not have been the end of the world), With UNT's CUSA membership (and Apogee Stadium) we have really advanced ourselves across the board at every level. Still........our leaders need to keep in mind (as Silver Eagle would say it) our "culture" to realize that not all in Denton, Denton County and Beyond share the same excitement that most all of us on GMG.com do and IMO a reason our UNT athletic leaders and ancillary staffs must almost immediately step it up triple time with all that they'be been doing at a much, much slower Sun Belt Conference pace. Like they say .................. "it's a whole new ball game." The City of Denton and its citizens will not be shamed into coming to our football games so we can float the "look what San Antone' did for UTSA in one year" theme till the cows come home and the Denton most of us know and understand so well because many of us at one time lived there will not flinch and thus..........the reason North Texas athletics must promote Mean Green football (and basketball) as if there were a 1,000 other things our area alums could do on Game Day. Honestly, does UNT have any other choice but to change its entire recent philosophy on Game Week promotions but maybe should look seriously at adding other "get them out to Apogee" promos alongside all the other annual Game Week promotions already set in place? Many of you have said it and I will repeat it but it's still a matter of..............North Texas just needs to take care of North Texas, but now the stakes of our doing that on the eve of our CUSA membership has a dramatic new meaning; that is, UNT taking care of UNT is now a neccessity rather than some pie in the sky by and by thing that we do way out there in the future. GMG! -
Neither you, Jack, or you, too, Bill may remember this, but I introduced yall to each other in the stands at the infamous Amon Carter Stadium "throw the ball" UNT/TCU game when the entire UNT coaching staff were giving our fans some most mean'esque looking stares that afternoon. Should we all collaborate on a book of our Mean Green experiences and maybe call it, "The Good, The Bad, The Worse, the Ugly and 'F'uglier" as our title? And then could you imagine a movie being made from such a book? Maybe fellow UNT alum Larry McMurtry could be our very invisible ghost writer for this book-to-movie, too? Title: Lonesome Dove in the Fouts Field South End Zone Seats ? GMG! GMG!
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Big East boss: No guess on BSU’s call
PlummMeanGreen replied to Harry's topic in Mean Green Football
The Big West saying no to BSU's minor sports could eventually turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Bronco athletics. Of course, a whole new cake walk with the Twilight Zone theme song as the background music would once again begin, too. Nothing really ever stays the same in the NCAA anymore. It's just a microcosm of our society in many ways. GMG!