PlummMeanGreen

It will take the moxy and confidence of a name coach whose had some success in the FBS to turn UNT around; otherwise, with "up and comers" we are nothing but a low goals setting program as well as a coaches graveyard and in your hearts you know that is right. Hell, just look at our past 2 plus decades if you need proof of that. Coach Fran could be the man but lets see who also wants to come check out our new stadium that also has skins on the wall, too. That level or pedigree of a name coach with FBS success will all say we initially built our stadium (if its the same seating as Fouts) too small (or at least think it) because they will have to recruit against that fact. Yet we may all be surprised who wants to come visit the Mean Green Village because we have been before with those who have inquired about our job in the past. Leavitt is an interesting choice, too. Whats the high and low on him? GMG!!

I do recall a DFW TV station sports segment where he actually said the disparaging thing about UNT, but as I stated in another "most complex" post on this thread, "upon further review", I'd changed my mind a bit about Coack K because of exactly what you just posted as in........15 years ago he said this. What did any of us say 15 years ago that we'd take back. I remember when one poster on this board was going to go up and whip Hank Dickenson's arse about 15 yrs ago and now I do believe their best buds'. Don't know if Coach K is the answer but I do not want Rick V even thinking about hiring anyone from Dodge's present staff because if that happened, it would negate the hopeful impact of our new football stadium next Fall--no matter how big or small the damn thing will be. A Mean Green Prayer: O God please use divine intervention if you must but please don't let my alma mater screw this thing up again. Amen.

Which part? I'd be glad to put it in simpler terms, but I agree, it was all a bit complex.

Yet the college football version of Johnny Cash, ie, the Man in Black may be tempted to try black unis' for any game and last time that happened around here...........oh well, hell, nevermind. How old is Jerry Glanville now?

Upon further review my feelings about Coach K may have changed a bit since it has been quite a few years since Coach K actually said those things. He was on the TAMU staff at the time as I recall. Not sure that it would be a deal-breaker for him and all he has to say to most of us is "I'm sorry I said that because God knows I didn't really mean it." I think his comments back then was him merely being loyal to Matt Simon who I'm sure he thought got a bad deal here. Most coaches who leave UNT seem to all fit that criteria if you think about it. Addendum: If UNT hired Coach K then Spencer Leftwich would probably make yet another return to Denton since they coached together before. Honest to goodness, I don't care who we hire just so he meets most or all of the criteria listed below: My ideal HFC at North Texas (1) Type A or out-going personality (he will need to recruit ASAP, voluntarily want to do speeches at alumnus gatherings or PR type things, ect... (2) He needs to have HFC experience at a FBS school with some success and want to take our program to the next level a la Boise State (Hey, Wright Waters is already telling U of South Alabama they could be the next Boise State--wonder why he never told us the same thing)? (3) Needs to have the reputation as a coach who can outcoach or out X's & O's our opponents head football coaches. We need a coach who can win a few on his own coaching abilities which of course comes with experience. (4) In a perfect Mean Green world, would need to not be another retread hire that we seem to specialize in doing at UNT. FWIW, Dodge had been Offensive Coord. under Dennis Parker. Maybe its time for some fresh new face with a different perspective? (5) Needs to have some Texas and Oklahoma recruiting background plus...JUCO recruiting experience and contacts with those schools if possible; If we had inserted 3 or 4 key JUCOS on past MG teams who would have made their grades or stayed healthy, that could have made some terrific differences in our W/L records in past years. (6) If he stayed in Denton 10 years, would have needed at least 7 of those years be above .500 seasons so......win more games than he loses and gets UNT into bowls as Top 25 ranked football teams and then has a Big 10 or Big 12 school who wants to hire him after he's been in Denton for 7-10 years; but he also has a top assistant coach in the wings ready to take over in Denton, too, and yes.............a la Boise State who kept hiring their top assistant with all their HFC turnovers--their present Coach Petersen meets that criteria. GMG!

Great point and point taken especially since it is my all time football model for our alma mater, ie, Boise State U...I guess it just feels like we are getting a brand new Jagaur that someone has keyed a hidious looking scratch from front to back whereas we didn't get to drive a perfect car out of the showroom floor. Then GreenMachine said in his above post: "I was very disappointed when the 32K was announced. I went to the AC several weeks ago and viewed construction from the deck." If 32,000 is the actual number, then this alum would be one happy camper, but I've just heard more of the lower numbers than the 32K number is all such as...... .....I've heard anywhere from 28,000 permanent seats to what I think a recent DRC article said would be "around 30,000." UH's initial stadium will be I think 40,000 wasn't it and TCU's beaut' will be 40,000. I would hope we'd think we will compete against these kind of schools for recruits once we get out of this Sun Belt'esque mindset and get more regional about our future. OK, I know this whole seating thing is probably #101 on a list of 100 other priorities and problems we need to overcome right now at dear ol' alma mater and we are all esctatic, ie, besides ourselves about this new stadium no matter how many it will initially seat, but jeez, folks, we are hardly located at some hard to get to collegiate outpost in the wilderness with no expected growth but rather our school will soon have 40,000 students in a metro area (of which Denton County is included) of aboaut 8 million citizens." Can someone link a number that actually shows 32,000 seats? If not, that's OK. Next subject, please... GMG!

"...it's not the biggest stadium" comment from TDodge I could have lived w/o but I knew it was coming because it will come from our recruiting competitors, too, since they have to say something to knock it. Many of you I've talked with knew this was coming, too. IMHO, we are just building it too small capacity-wise even in its initial stage. Yes, anything is better than Fouts Field, but in the Lone Star State, we are in the perception business with those we have to compete against. So we have our alma mater, ie, UNT.....closing in on 40,000 students and building a stadium less than SMU's 32,000? Joe Texas College Football Fan: "Why did UNT with their enrollment explosion build it so small even from the beginning?" If you have noticed or been observant, you don't see the capacity of this stadium mentioned in most articles about it and I think we can all figure out the reason for that now and you can start with Todd Dodge's "it's not the biggest stadium" comments. That is not a positive and for green kool-ade drinkers on this subject of stadium size you know it isn't a positive, either. Sorry, but UNT is still the same school whose first olympic sized swimming pool in the PEB is still............one foot short of being olympic size. So do universities make blunders with construction and subsequently perception-creators? Be truthful to yourself with that answer. We all will live with this beautiful stadium no matter its size, but couldn't we have found room for a few more seats for it to be larger than at least SMU's 32,000? As many of you have posted on this forum: Perception is reality especially among Texas colleges and universities.

UNT90, you are right about that and I have to confess I was one of those who thought TDodge would do the job, but he didn't. The key IMHO is for us to hire "an experienced name HFC" who has fought the wars elsewhere and because of his past high level coaching background he will be able to win a some games on his own coaching ability because he will outcoach many of our opponents head football coaches--we have not had that luxury for a very long time. GMG

Just put the Rice/UH thing in there for those who think UH will tear us out a new one next Fall at our stadium debut. Seems this was the same Rice team who really did have a difficult time beating a "healthy" UNT? Just makes me think our UH game will be much closer than we'd previously thought. I think whoever we hire at UNT will turn this thing around his first year. The stage is set for this to happen. New Stadium/New HFC/New Attitude From All, too. It's a script made in Hollywood! Many of us saw this before when Fry took some Rod Rust retreads and tied for the Mo' Valley Conference championship his first year. The players took on a new attitude, too, which caused them to win for the first time (ever) while they were at UNT. New Mean Green Coach ????????? will shock the entire North Texas Metroplex sports community with both him and our new stadium being the Regional Sports Story of the Year as well. We will be SBC champions and go bowling. We'll all be estatic and ready to see more of this strange new phenomena in Denton called..........................winning more than we lose. It's Our Time! GMG!

I'd have some great half time Texas history tales or vignettes to talk to my team about. And then after the traditional prayer for God to suddenly become a Mean Green fan we'd head out the tunnel back for the 2'nd half thundering and tripping all over the place like blundering idiots & spastics! I think that scene alone would scare some teams enough to forfeit the rest of the game to give us the easy win. Pay? Buy me annual dues to Billboard Magazine, Texas Music and a lifetime membership to sweet Norah Jones fan club. I'd be real happy and obliged for that. Rick V & hiring committee, I would request we have our interview on top of Commanche Peak (not the nuclear one) near Granbury if that's OK with you and the rest. I'll show you all how I can find arrowheads in a most uncanny sorta' way. This would also serve as a hint as to how I'd find those Texas HS recruiting nuggetts out there that no one else would be able to detect. We'd be on our way. Offense: A mix between the Wishbone and Houston Veer. I need just the right kind of QB to run it, too. Yes, I want this job. GMG!

Trust me, I think there are so many NT alums, Mean Green fans, Dentonites, Metroplex-ites and those who live out of the DFW area who have come to Fouts Field for so many decades that they will show in Year 1 just to see what they've been missing, ie, up-close "easy on the eyes" football with acutal accoustics in our new palace whereas "Fouts Like" crowd noise will no longer exit the north endzone and end up somewhere between Krum and Sanger. Our main deal is to get the right coach for this moment in time at UNT and Denton. If he's a successful short termer (6 years) a la Hayden Fry that would be fine with me, just so we follow up with an equally talented coach to carry the torch kinda' like Boise State has so uniquely done. This new Mean Green HFC IMHO will be a difficult choice to make for Rick V and his committee. I think our chances of getting a true name coach is about 50/50, but one can hope for a surprise, right? And if we were to luck into a true "name coach" it would sure need to be the right one to fit our situation. A new stadium at the Mean Green Village will get us names on our new coach's prospective list that we may not have ever believed possible. GMG!

Good Gosh! Who's left that is healthy? GMG!

This kinda' reminds me of the old "we need to fill Fouts Field x amount of times before we build a new stadium" crowd. Next year, people will show en mass out of curiosity for our new football palace IMO--Year 2 in the new stadium we need to start showing more wins than losses for our season. I agree with those on this board who think the cupboard is not bare and that a fresh new face may be able to do good things next year. I am sorry this did not work out for Todd Dodge. I guess in some cases its like Leo Durocher said about nice guys (and many of us still think that of TD). When asked, he will leave his job at UNT in style and grace. GMG!

http://highschoolsportsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/04/if-drawings-are-any-indication.html Construction for Allen's new 18,000-seat high school football stadium is expected to begin this September. And by the looks of it , it's going to be a state-of-the-art facility that will be the envy of Class 5A programs from the Dallas-Fort Worth area and beyond. In May 2009, voters approved a $119.4 million bond proposal for a new auditorium at Allen High School, new multipurpose stadium and a new service center for maintenance, student nutrition and transportation. Tim Carroll, director of public information services for Allen ISD, said the estimated cost of the stadium is $59.6 million.

First met Dallas Green in the parking lot of the old Denton Center off University Drive in the summer of 1973. He, Green Grenade II and myself were with Hayden Fry for a promo and season ticket push in the hot summer sun that day. I wish Rick Spears would post that old photo on this board. We all looked a bit different back then for sure. (Rick, you still have it, right)? Yes, UNT90, we need a 1,000 more Dallas Greens who I know has been following the Mean Green since he was a kid. DG is a successful CPA in Dallas and one of the great contributors and supporters/fans of this program--good times and bad. I've seen passion from him for this program to the point of tears and especially on one particular day when he confronted a former SMU AD at a Texas Stadium game between the 'Stangs and Mean Green. (That was a classic moment for this alum) We need the others, too, that will help fill that funky end zone seating architect in the new stadium and to fill it so many times that we have to tear it down and then oval in that part of the stadium. We cannot afford class or socio-economic warfare on this message board. It is the haves and the have nots who will make this program fly--both have to be integral parts at our new stadium's turnstiles or it won't fly. Just my .02 GMG! PS: Had a DJ gig Saturday and sorry I could not be there to share in the misery I know many of you have seen week after week; season after season; year after year. You will get extra eagle wings in your crown for sure. GMG!!

Rick V's legacy with most of us will be the new football stadium. His second claim to UNT fame will be the "name coach" he hires in merely weeks. We're OK. GMG!

I'm sure that is how it seemed in Rod Rusts last year around MG County, ie, on the eve of our hiring Coach Hayden Fry; you know, the last UNT HFC who finished above .500 in W/L's; who still has given us our biggest all time win but....... still doesn't even have even a conference room named afer him? We do strange things in Denton in the name of "upward mobility" but we keep showing up in the subterranean depths of an already lightly regarded Sun Belt Conference of which La Tech still tries to hang in with the WAC to avoid? Sorry I wasn't there to share in the misery but I still have to work most Saturdays in my DJ business, but I can listen to different segments of the delved out pain on the MGRN. There seems to be enough of it to spread around for all of us to feel. Many of us are ready for a winning, Top 25 football program in Denton now that we will finally have the stage to do such and even more ready for the one who will bring it. The time is now to start planning for this kind of future and to leave the low goal-setting of the past behind us forever--just like perrenial SWC doormat TCU has done and of course, my favorite model for UNT, ie, the Boise State Broncos who few knew about when we were both in the Big West. We can do this. GMG!

Of course, with all the starters out this season would we have really known about his last 2 recruiting classes? His defense has sharpened up and even special teams have shown signs of new life. TDodge came to Denton on the cusp of DD's (reported on this board) 2 bad recruiting classes. There were a few bright spots left behind but many of DD's who stayed for the Dodge Era I understand had to be run off due to disciplinary problems. Not making excuses for TDodge, but he did not come into the best of situations in late December his hiring year especially in light of the fact that there were even no guarantees for a new stadium his first year either as I recall. This program will probably have a new coach next Fall, but there are reasons for that, too, and we know lack of "W's" is at the top of the list. Winning all those close games last year would have given him the capital to bargain with this year with the injuries and all, but was just not mean't to be I suppose. GMG!

If TDodge & team pull out the necessary miracle for him to return then he returns. UNT could not stand the negative pub to not bring him back and the major part of the criteria would be a bowl team with less than .500 wins this season and as we all know--this has happened before at UNT with DD DD in his supposed "last year" post ULM loss then ran the SBC table, went 5 & 6 and took his team to the first NO's Bowl. It was one of the most continuous weird bounces of the football I'd ever heard of in the NCAA that created this back in 2001. Oh yes, it was great for all of the UNT community and DD's negative stuff with many fans would not come until his last 2 years, specifically his last year when our school colors turned black for one game. Fact is: With the injuries, if the Mean Green are able to run the table and get to NO's because ( I presume) of a tie for the SBC championship, then TDodge deserves the same opportunity that DD got with his 5 & 6 bowl team. I don't think it possible because of so many starters out, but it could still be considered a 12'th hour probable? Just my .02. I think TDodge is a class act who has brought everything back we all wanted except more "W's." GMG!

Wade Phillips press conferences would put the Sominex people out of business. (yawn). Where is Bill Curry these days? GMG!

Injuries & hope? UNT beat a 6 & 5 Tennessee (still our biggest win in history) back in 1975 with our..........3'rd string QB. If TDodge pulls this thing off, ie, salvages his job it will be a miracle that would bring all of us Irish tenors to tears. It would also make many of "our" threads on his replacement give us that Sylvestor the Cat "just got caught" look, too. GMG!

I mentioned no names because this has happened before on threads I had nothing to do with. UNT90, I was a bit quick with my response to you and for that I apologize. Yes, testy is a good word for many of us who are ready for, uh, "change we can all believe in?" Jim Plummer aka PMG

Enjoyed reading your post, eulessismore. Yes, myself and a few others have tried to bring in some different topics in light of this season and sometimes the thread subjects have been (admittedly) quite a stretch, but we can only post so much on the same things. Yesterday was a slow post day for GMG.com albeit many were I'm sure reading On that other thing? To quote another fellow alum, "A hardy handful of GMG.com posters sometimes takes on KTCK 1310 The Ticket'esque attitude of Gordon Keith and "The Cobra" with the irreverent to the far side responses. We all get off topic from time to time but with me, there are just some threads I don't read because the subject may not interest me? So I don't go on said thread and try to destroy the spirit of the thread with something funky or rude or, uh, Ticket'esqe? No biggie with short fused tempers many of us may have from time to time since we all seem to get over such trite or trivial things fairly quickly, but we're all a bit testy with this 3 plus decade "mostly losing" football program. All I have to hang my hat that was of an upward bound (Top 20 & Tennessee among other upward accomplishments) nature took place when I was a student and that has become ancient history even to me. Those before me had Mean Joe Greene and the great Abner Haynes... ...we are really over-due a whole bunch of winning in Denton and the new stadium has re-invigorated this alum among others because can you imagine what we'd all be talking about now if there were no plans for a new stadium at all? (It would be quite bleak to say the least). GMG!

You having a bad day, young gunner? Don't like the thread--don't read the thread. Duh? KMA!

Most of us had 2'nd teams we liked as kids and I'd bet few of us who grew up outside the Metroplex would have listed UNT that far back. Hell, I thought UNT was located in Denison, Texas, when I was growing up in SWC-oriented Houston area. So...your favorite team as a kid or should I have just stuck with Fire Dodge, Hire A New Coach, Need New Shade of Green or whatever? (Variety is the spice of life)