PlummMeanGreen

Fry's record at SMU was about the same before Prez' Jitter Nolen snatched him up after SMU had thrown him away. Coach Fry had been at a school who was trying to regroup and find its identity 10 plus years after the Doak Walker Era ended; but moreso, SMU was trying to figure out how they would co-exist with that other Big D team who moved to town in 1960--Your Dallas Cowboys. (They are still trying to figure that out all these years later, too). IMHO, McCarney does not give us that Texas-based background splash hire, but his having any association with Hayden Fry indicates to some of us that he had received a good apprenticeship. I mean look at all of Fry's Iowa assistants who became successful starting with the Stoops family who played for Fry. I know, we are not supposed to revere the only coach North Texas has had in 40 years with a career W/L record over .500, but we have more to talk about concerning Fry than the last 6 we've had in Denton combined. I would think Coach Chico could have a place on his staff if he wanted (if, in deed, McCarney is our hire). After all, we will need an offensive mind since McCarney is a defense guy, right, and Chico gives us a head start in that department. In many ways, if Chico took a job (if offered) his stock will go up considerably only if we start having winning seasons. Just another .02 worth of lagniape. GMG!

There was one other state of Iowa program that had been just as down as ISU for over 2 plus decades before the Hawkeyes hired "you know who" and from what school in Denton; not Texas Women's University, either, for a subtle hint.

Yes, DeWayne of Minden did just that and having been a frequent visitor to their message board during that time he was suggesting that it might be the SBC that would one day be their only option. Of course, the Mogen David 'Dawg choir wanted no part of Dewayne talk on that subject. Wasn't that long ago on this board that a hardy handful of us wanted UNT to at least put the numbers together for a look at WAC membership with most of us only wanting that if ASU and U of L were part of an East Division (which would include La Tech, of course). All bets were off as soon as the WAC started to crumble, especially losing their flagship and BCS bowl-buster school Boise State: End of WAC discussion. The WAC was once a proud league that even during the 80's I wish we could have been part of instead of the NCAA purgatory of NCAA 1-AA we spent 12 long years of which our UNT students bailed us out of that with a referendum vote to expand Fouts to 30,500 and our meeting NCAA D1-A criteria in 1994.

This is almost laughable. Coach Fran has already "been there-done that" at TSU-SM as their HFC when it was called Southwest Texas State U. Coach Fran really, really wanted the North Texas job while at SWTSU but (to keep our HFC hiring record in tact) we signed Texas HS football coach Dennis Parker instead. North Texas just dismissed another Texas HS football coach while Coach Fran has had a most interesting career since we turned him down the first time so........ .....is it time Coach Fran call North Texas and ask: "Are you ready now to get this Mean Green 747 airborne or what?" (Or just maybe he did that last week with UNT powers and come Monday or Tuesday we finally give the man our job)? Have no idea if either Fran or UNT even had a mutual interest in each other this time around, but it would really be an interesting end to a multi-year hit and miss would-be romance between both parties if UNT announced Coach Fran Monday or Tuesday of next week. GMG! PS: In my wildest dreams I cannot see Fran going back to San Marcos and for darn sure with Leach even answering his phone if he saw a San Marcos area code on his Caller ID.

Good golly, they have already picked a new North Texas Head Football Coach. Only big questions now is who is he and is the ink on his contract dry? IMO.......if it were Coach C they would have announced it already and probably after a win and not paid Neinas another big whopping sum of money--his 2'nd for his coach's headhunter services in less than a year. His first was an evaluation of the UNT Athletic Department and he only gave the Denton Record/Chronicle a few loose notes and tidbits of that which this board kinda' poked fun. Whoever our new HFC is will have almost an extra month of recruiting than our last staff when UNT allowed TDodge to coach the Texas 5-A football championship well into December--that was the first bad move from UNT. The 2'nd was TDodge not allowing the DRC's Vito on the practice field to take notes and 3'rd was not allowing alums to watch practice but.........that was yesterday and yesterday's gone. I think this (somewhat) quick decision after having Neinas retained in less than a week and our making a decision in that same time is pretty impressive. Sounds like our powers know we don't have any more time to waste if there really is a Monday or Tuesday announcement. Suppose all we can do now is just keep our fingers crossed. GMG! It seems that the Neinas group (unlike the Repubs and Dems) do not have anyone from their group who leak anything, either. I think we will all have to wait until Announcement Day to find out--but that's OK, too. The valium sales at all Walgreens in Mean Green Country will probably pick up a bit, though.

Pretty cold, UNTX, but TSU-SM and UTSA need to go thru more baptism of the hell'ish fire we've gone through in the modern era of the NCAA instead of getting all this handed to them on a silver platter the way Benson seems bent on doing. UTSA? In a great city with a domed stadium could pass UNT so fast in football if we maintain our "non agressive approach to an FBS coexistance" it would make all of us do the Linda Blair head spin type thing as in The Exorcist. Many of us have seen so many schools pass us by while we still try to find out who we are its just enough to make you yell out: Horse Ship! GMG!

I'm with you our being the next Boise State (as I have said 1 or 2 times in the past). The WAC does not have a bowl tie to a great tourist destination city like the Big Easy which is still the best thing the 'Belt has going for it. How long that bowl tie lasts is for another thread if the NO's people start shopping for a new more prestigious league than the current SBC. I don't think North Texas will be part of the present SBC configuration when the Belt finally has its leagues' first Top 25 school in the sweet by and by plus....with the MWC and Big East rumblings, this with UNT could be much sooner than later.

W2, did you ever get the log cabin set with its green roof? Hula hoop? The Mechanical Man? A Schwinn Bike? Silly Puddy? "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" board that made a sound like a saw blade when bent back and forth? the first cheap reel to reel tape recorder for kids? Socks and ties galore?

It all sounds good to me. But what kind of marketing or advertising role for those wind turbines?

We need a conference name change no matter what it would be called. Its still all about perception with the national sports media and they are the ones doing most the voting and influence-making in Top 25 polls these days. (Of course, we need an SBC team worthy of Top 25 votes first). Name change for SBC in light of dramatic new changes (additions) soon to happen? I know you can't hide a 2 ton elephant but one can sure as hell try. Sometimes change is good.

Thanks for the list, shaft.

Many of us on and off this forum predicted that new stadium would have such an effect. Wonder how many potentials have made unoffical trips to Denton to peruse that palace already?

Who is still even left in the WAC as of this minute?

Where ya' been, Big Dawg? You do know UNT just last week re-signed super NCAA consultant Chuck Neinas to another contract to get a A-list of coach's names and he will probably aim high is my guess...but for $40,000 plus expenses most don't think he will hire anyone in Denton or from Coach Dodges staff (and it still is Coach Dodges' staff). Being redundant all over again but I think Coach C could have been the right guy but at the absolutely wrong time in our history as it is now. UNT needs to hit a grand slam home run with this hire and is why many of us think Dr. Rawlins re-commissioined Neinas to find one who can hit that grand slam. GMG!

Bulldog Barks & Bytes adminstrator Dwayne of Minden has been a pro-SBC supporter for the Bulldogs if and when the WAC went wacky and folded. I wonder if they would change their mind if the SBC became the, uh.............Big 14 Conference? (formerly the SBC) Hey! 2 kook brothers in North Carolina once thought they could build a flying machine so a conference name change to create a better perception(?)among the national media is peanuts comparatively. Yet...........IMO, LaTech will hold out for CUSA until New Orleans, a once great USA city is underwater and I believe that more than life itself; well, maybe not that melo-dramatic. GMG! PS: And I pray NO's never is underwater in spite of where they built their city.

Big 14 Conference (formerly SBC & SBC staff still in tact)) East Division 7 Teams (you fill in the blanks) West Division 7 Teams (you fill in the blanks) We pick up a WAC bowl from this for our West Division best team and New Orleans still for the overall champion determined in a league championship game played in the AlamoDome? Lets buy the name now if available (you who know how to do that kind of thing online) and just fill in the schools with who we want from the WAC. It gets us out of the negative perception the SBC name gives us whether we admit it or not; heck, the national media has pronounced us a a go-nowhere conference for at least another 100 years as far as a BCS bowl is concerned. (A ranking from that voting group would be nice for starters anyhow). (Heck, it would take that national media group 2 years before they knew we even would have had a conference name-change because we are of such insignificance to them now with our "1" team over .500). They (national media) don't buy into the SBC kool-ade of present Belt'-pushers at all to put in bluntly and its the national media who we of the SBC will eventually need to give us those votes for our first ever Top 25 team. I know its out there for those who don't want to be trailblazers but it could also be a conference-saver in time if a "Big 14" lost a member or 2 or 3 that could be replaced w/o losing your entire conference? Ask Benson how losing your entire FBS conference sorta' feels right now.

Coach Fran was probably a bit too much cosmopolitan for the good ol boy, shi&-kicking, burr-headed, cowboy boot-wearing crowd of TAMU. I had 2 of my favorite first cousins attend TAMU--both were in the Corps and they were from Groesbeck, Texas. And they met the above criteria as well, but the ladies of TAMU are all mostly "ladies" from all accounts and my Aldeo vet just happens to be one of those (and a great vet, too). RC Slocum was a perfect fit for TAMU--just didn't take the Ag's up the national rankings ladder to suit all the Former Students. Had a friend run into him at a Crawford, Texas, Tractor Supply Store and he said the guy was just a regular ol' country boy and the type to never meet a stranger. TAMU with all their resources & facilities is still an athletic program enigma to many of us who have been in Texas most our lives. Hmmm? Wonder if Neil Sperry can coach? GMG!

In many of our heart of hearts, I don't think UNT just re-signed Neinas last week to a $40,000 plus expenses consultant contract for him to fly into DFW Airport, rent a car, drive to Denton and hire someone presently living in Denton & coaching at North Texas. Now I may be wrong about that, but too many others I talk to said the same thing. I like Coach Chico, have had PM's from some of his closest and they were class acts with apologies from prior things said by some not in the Chico Camp but I still defer to....."probably the right coach but at the wrong time in our entire varsity athletics history at North Texas." This hire is about: (1) Public Relations We almost need a head-turner of hire to win over all our skeptics who with our illustrious past have more than 1 or 2 reasons to be skeptical--how about even "6" reasons as in our last 6 hires in Denton? This time it just can't be a "business as usual" hire at UNT--too much now at stake with our $78,000,000 stadium investment between those 2 Texas interstates. (2) Luxury Suites Sales: We all but need the "not the usual" kind of hire in Denton to sell those out before next Fall and one alum who would know told me there were plenty left to sell. (3) Season Ticket Sales: We never get told from UNT Athletics what those are so that plainly says we haven't sold too many of those of late. I have a fellow alum here in the West O'Plex who after he saw the stadium said "Plum, we both need to get back to buying season tickets and I don't (him talking) care if you have DJ gigs every Saturday or not next Fall, either." (He was quite convincing). Coach Fran would be the closest to a coach known across the state of Texas that we might could hire but.....this is why they are paying Neinas the Big Bucks to come up with the right list of names for us to make a choice. Strong rumor says there will be enough money approved by the BOR's for both the "known" HFC plus his assistants whatever that amount would need to be. Coach Fran was said to have been interested in a $400,000 per year job out West a year or 2 back.

The best culture change that could happen to North Texas now almost has to come from Rawlins, Neinas and the athletic department itself and that is the long time/no see culture of us acting like the 3'rd largest university in Texas instead of a J.C. Matthews'esque teachers college attitude of "we po but we sho' proud at North Texas but we still like to think small no matter what--just like our founding fathers taught us to think." One man changed the whole dynamics of a much smaller UNT (16,000 students around 1973) and with a Denton (rural) County pop. of 99,000 according to a Texas Almanac during that same era. I cannot begin to imagine if we had a Hayden Fry type hire in 2010 now that we really have some impressive numbers in our entire UNT constituency compared to the diminutive numbers of the early 70's. Fry was not a commodity when NT Prez' Jitter Nolen single-handeldy hired him but he was a known commodity across the Southwest and that is IMHO what made him a success in Denton and later at Iowa (who hired him based on what he did in Denton--not SMU). GMG!

Not only some of us who were around but the DFW media in general still stirs it up with Fry. I recall one write-up in one of the 2 major DFW newspapers when Dodge was hired said something like "In UNT's quest to find their next Hayden Fry" and things similar to that. And maybe some still talk about Fry because he happens to be the last UNT coach to win more games than he lost when he left Denton. He also had a M.O. not seen around Denton almost since the day he left as in "aim high?" Most ambitious and upwardy mobile NCAA FBS schools fans/alums still amazingly use how they rank nationally and with their coaches how they are doing in the wins over losses department as their barometer. Which UNT Coach even up through today still has more wins than losses? I rest my case. Do forgive us all for still using a winning UNT coach as our barometer and how we actually think UNT can get Fry-like lightning back in the bottle. With a new stadium, we are running out of excuses as to why we shouldn't. GMG!

...seem to out-recruit North Texas in our own backyard year after year? Yes, our new HFC will hire his own and probably from schools he and some of those future new UNT assistants coached before. Like one posted yesterday, it was evident that ULM had better overall talent than UNT but they also had key players from Texas making them better than us yesterday. Who is recruiting those players away from UNT to go to ULM? And La Tech? And UL, too? New North Texas Stadium ='s........Pay Back Time? We will finally have the vehicle (stadium) which may give La Tech, ULM and ULouisiana a reason to leave Texas and go to Florida to do their major recruiting but why not our next UNT HFC looking at the top state of Texas recruiters from each of those 3 football programs and offer em' a job in Denton? Strong rumor has it that the future assistant coach's salary budget at UNT will not be a problem to do such. GMG!

Come on, w2, the NCAA had about 1/4'th the number of bowl games back during Fry's time at UNT than it has today. If back then we'd have the same number of bowls we do have today, Fry would have had us in a bowl his first year at UNT with his champion Missouri Valley Conference team but.........the old MVC had no bowl tie at that time. The Fry Era compared to today is apples and oranges. And if more bowls in 1975 as there are today, Fry's win over the Tennessee Volunteers would have been a sweet win over a bowl elgible UT Vol/SEC football team since they won 6 that year; of course, with more bowls that same year, Fry would have had his "2'nd" bowl team his 3'rd year in Denton. BACK TO THE PRESENT: If the SBC had a 2'nd team that actually had the number of wins to become bowl elgible this Fall, the 'Belt could have had 2 teams in bowls (but we know that ain't going to happen). GMG!

Try feeling that way 4 out of the last 6 HFC's hires with even more empty promises from above saying: "yeah, we are going to have a big time program here in Denton alright" and then watch them hire a bunch of D1-AA or D-3 type personnel at the same time to, uh, help us go up the FBS ladder?

When I buy a car I always have to remind myself that I need to look at at least 2 or 3 others before I make a decision and when I've done that--I'm always glad that I did. This hire is so different than any we've had in our entire athletic history and for that reason, we have to defer to what Chuck Neinas comes up with and who our powers decide fits the bill after seeing his recommendation. My hope is for a dynamic name hire that will cause us to all think or say: "You mean he really wants to come to North Texas? WOW!"

Yet even in the first year of Sun Belt play and at the level it was the NMSU Aggies may have played us in the most exciting game ever at Fouts Field when half the stadium rushed the goal post after a Mean Green win. None of our SMU wins were that exciting albeit most satisfying. Weeks after we beat NMSU, we had our heads handed to us by Colorado State but the Mean Green/Aggie game of that season was a great game for the fans--NMSU had about 1,500 of their own there that night, too. The stadium crowd noise that night was very impressive even in one of the most accoustically dead stadiums in the NCAA. Many of us will marvel next Fall at all the usual things you do when you first walk inside a new stadium when our long over-due football palace makes its debut, but I will moreso look forward to hearing increased crowd noise we know this dug out bowl of a stadium will allow to happen. GMG!