PlummMeanGreen

Jeff, that very good question is making me brain tired already here at 7:21 AM. Seriously, Keenum would be nuts to come back to UH and risk further injury. As we all know, the NFL is wary of drafting injury-prone athletes although I think this was Keenum's first. I think we're all just sick that Derek Thompson will not have a full season under his belt. Who knows, maybe our next QB at UNT is presently a Texas HS senior as it is. I think we have a nice new palatial home to show one, now don't we? GMG

Me to, rcade, but I guess we keep doing it till we get it right? GMG!

Our great UNT student body! ...and this photo only shows half the student section (which was full). So....... who wants to talk about student apathy at UNT? We have more student support than any university in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Give those students (and all those who graduated before them) a winner and North Texas goes over the top in attendance. In over 5 losing seasons we already have shown our base has broadened at the turnstiles. I'm a fan of dark green, but if these students were wearing it in this photo it would be too dark & would not be as photogenic as in the above photo or...........on future televised football games. GMG!

Partially agree, mdh0192, because our student section for the Rice Owls game at Fouts looked fantastic with many of them wearing that brighter shade of green but........it probably doesn't look as good on adults. But man O' man! Didn't we have a great UNT student turnout 2 weeks ago? Only wish we could have scored 2 extra points to beat Rice and give those students something to talk about. GMG!

How often do the pros change their complete unis' to market new sales to their respective markets? I think we have to make changes no matter who our HFC is next Fall. We still make a percentage from Collegiate Licensing, correct? Also, wouldn't hurt to have all the sports merchandisers of all the retail places in DFW who choose not place UNT stuff in Metroplex stores have a super seat in one of our club suites at our stadium debut with Mean Joe Greene physically threatening each of them if they don't start putting Mean Green items in all their DFW stores, ie, Lids (pathetic UNT caps), Walmart, Kohls, Sears, Sports Authority, etc.... GMG!

The Houston Colt .45's became the Astros when they moved to the Astrodome in 1965. (Still haven't won a World Series with either name). Of course, we are not going to change our complete mascot name, but what are your own suggestions for a "new look" as we close down Fouts Field this November 27'th and then get ready to move to our new football palace? Do we change unis'? Change to another shade of green? Have something different put on our helmets? Changing over to a new stadium is an athletic marketing persons dream (as will it be for our recruiters) so....... What do we leave behind at Fouts Field that just will not fit into the new scheme of things at our New Stadium At The Mean Green Village? NOTE: And please for the sake of seriousness--no names or personalities. GMG!

As I posted in another thread, Coach Fran applied for our job before Dennis Parker got it. It was said that UNT never returned his call. He was the HFC at SWTSU (now TSU-SM) when he wanted our job. Folks, if UNT gets a name coach he will have to have had a situtaion (a minor wart or 2?) that has him out of coaching (or even a HFC who just got fired this or in recent years). Hayden Fry had just gotten fired at SMU with a 7 & 4 record but he pissed off some of their wealthier alums from the Doak Walker era. Also, one of the Dallas Cowboy officials (my guess has always been Gil Brandt) told SMU officials that they were not getting a good job from Fry. I need to check, but I don't think Fry's cumalative record at SMU reached .500 and with wealthy alums who pay many of the bills that is enough if said coach has had numerous years to at least reach the magic .500. GMG!

If this team won 6 that would be a good coaching job in light of injuries and then (IMHO) there would be a need for a complete re-evaluation on the 7 goal. 6 wins now would be a miracle. Right this moment 0 & 6 looks more realistic than any other scenarios I've seen. This whole thing is just so damn sad for everyone concerned. GMG!

You're right--my bad. GMG!

CMJ, it was Bobby Bowden's 1'st year at Fla. St. the year of the snow game at Fouts Field, circa 1976. The game made the national television news that evening because UNT used orange cones to mark every 10 yards since there was nothing but snow on the entire field. Those of us there were also having a good time. After Florida State (barely) beat us in that game, the Fla. St. players stayed on the field and had snow ball fights. The media (as I recall) reported that most of the Fla. St. players had never seen snow. That year was the beginning of a 34 year career at FSU for Bobby Bowden...and now you've heard the rest of the story. GMG!

Well, if TD gets his 5'th year that means he would have taken a tremendously injured football team and (most likely) won th Sun Belt Conference to get to a bowl. It would be a miracle for one who has done everything right in Denton except have enough "W's--the most important criteria to boot. Many of us have prefaced our Mean Green football future posts with..."if TDodge does not have his miracle of 7 wins..." Many of us never dreamed after the Iowa Hawkeyes hired Hayden Fry that this football program (and athletic program truth be told) would go through so much freakin' non-stop adversity as we witnessed a cast of thousands Fry "wanna'be's" go through the UNT Athletic Department turnstile-like front door. Many of us said "this too shall pass" but it really never seemed to. Even Fry's successor (Jerry Moore) who in 2 years only had a .500 W/L record was never fully accepted in Denton because of leftover talent Fry left that Moore tried to put his brand on by virtually taking that talent and changing the offense to one that did not fit the talent; that is, his non-success at trying to put a square peg in a round hole pissed off most of our elect. North Texas alums/fans were literally shocked when Texas Tech took him as their HFC after only 2 years and a .500 W/L record at UNT. FWIW, I think they eventually sufferred a little shock of their own. GMG! Our Next Coach? IF WE NEED TO HIRE ONE, THAT IS: A known name who may have a wart or 2 (like Fry did post-SMU firing) but one who wants our job so bad to prove himself that he will accept our salary (which I think will be higher than most of us now would ever believe) GMG!

Agree... Our Fan Base? We had a few bodies short of 24,000 after 5 losing season for a home season opener. Yes, that number will go down some (unless our latest UNT student body bucks our usual trend and shows up on Game Days anyway). I don't think that number will go down as much as past years because we do have a larger fan base aided by record-breaking enrollments each year at UNT. Our annual record-breaking UNT Freshmen Classes really gives our program a nice attendance boost each year and when we start giving everyone in our UNT community a Top 50 program in our new stadium, old Fouts Field record attendance games will be going further down on that Top 10 Crowds At UNT list we see in our souvenir football programs. GMG! To OwlFamily: The advantage of your time-tested and obviously ageless Coach Schnelly' is glaringly obvious. He has schooled the last 2 most recent coaches at UNT at every stop; even during 1 or 2 of our bowl seasons which was a downer for some of us. Our next coach I predict will not be as easily schooled. We ain't going to take failure over to that new football palace your Owls will soon one day be visiting. So yall get your licks in while you can because the pendelum is fixin' to turn.

After Dennis Parker and TDodge, I think the Mean Green Nation is convinced that Texas HS football success does not translate to the collegiate gridiron. Notre Dame tried it many years ago, too, with the same (lack of) success we've had 2 times in Denton. And yes, I was one of many on this board who pushed for Todd Dodge. If you who didn't go for the Dodge have been wrong before in other things in life, you'd know how our group feels right now. I used to just have to know the Mean Green HFC's when a younger alum, but I now know I would have a hard time being objective if I was too close to any of them and can fully understand you who do get close to them trying to be loyal to your personal friend, but we are also not in the Mean Green Retirement Center For Mediocre Talent business, either. It has been a most expensive venture when we've tried to extend those who gave us no upwardly bound future. GMG!

And as Mean Green fans, we also became complacent about "so called" Bottom 25 success, too. We need to forget comparing 2 coaches who had programs in the Bottom 25 neighborhood but look forward to moving up the NCAA totem pole with the kind of college football success not seen around Denton for a very long time. Bottom 25 college football by any coach with overall career Win/Losses of under .500 is merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and no matter which coach at UNT got the closest to hitting .500 in wins and losses, you still had the feeling that our ship was going nowhere and was still in sinking mode. This new football stadium will hopefully invert the Bottom 25 part to Top 25. UNT has been there long before there was a Sun Belt Conference albeit so briefly a time during another era. When we get there again with what will obvious have to be new leadership (barring a miracle of biblical proportions), there will be no "I told you so's" from any of our group but rather one unified group of Mean Green fans getting what we've missed and deserved for such a long, long time. GMG!

CougarsDen.com posters say their Pre-Season All American QB who got hurt will have to play his next football season in the NFL. I was sure hoping Derek Thompson would have gotten this football season under his belt so he'd be ready to fire those sprirals at our new Mean Green Stadium's debut but, oh well.... Anybody thought that next Fall's starting QB for the Mean Green could very well be a HS senior now? GMG!

We talking, uh, the great Ruth Buzzi who loved to beat Dean Martin on the head senseless with her purse on his Celebrity Roasts? On one of those shows she almost knocked off Frank Sinatra's toupe' with that purse, but ol' blue eyes took it in stride. I think he really mellowed out in his later years. Monday Morning Musings? GMG!

This is hardly breaking news for our GMG.com veterans, but Dennis Franchione wanted the North Texas job before and was said to have wanted it badly. Coach Fran was then HFC at SWTSU (now TxSt-SM). I heard UNT never returned his call because we were on the verge of hiring Dennis Parker. There must be a special place in heaven for Mean Green fans, ya' think? GMG!

TTG, did you get my PM? Just curious... GMG!

If a coach can't win what most college presidents, BOR's, football AD's and fans expect, he should be let go. I felt that way about DD and I feel the same way about TDodge, yet he was told he would be given a chance to stay if he won "7" games--if we are 0 & 6, then most of us would probably agree that AD Villareal needs to have that private meeting with Todd and give him the news of his termination. Both will need to make plans for their respective futures. I was a sales manager many years of my 25 year career in tech school recruiting. Some of the best people I ever knew I had to fire because they non-stop "almost got the sale." One was a young guy with a young family that I kept giving so many chances that I almost lost my job for doing it. UNT AD Rick V will do what he has to do and Todd Dodge will accept it in good character and grace. I still hope for a miracle with TDodge but I just don't see it now in light of massive injuries. GMG!

Mike Leach might very well do all you say he would do but.....IMO.......UNT will not talk to Leach and Leach will not talk to UNT. He seems content as an ESPN analyst and living the good life with his very nice TTech severance pay in Florida. But.........a former TTU coach sacrifices all that for a job at North Texas (a known coach's graveyard where only 2 coach's the last 80 or so years have advanced to bigger jobs as in Hayden Fry and Jerry Moore); anyway, anyone think Mike Leach would do that and not have the funny farm people come pick him up? And there is still that "small matter" of Leach sueing the state of Texas with his Texas Tech mess "he created" and had he only followed his superiors (bosses) to fix that problem he would still be at Texas Tech U. TTU AD Gerald Myers had been having terrific problems negotiating a new contract for Leach to continue his job in Lubbock and might it have been the case of whatever raise Leach would have gotten might well have been his base salary in Denton? Leach's Lawsuit Toward State of Texas? Last I checked, it will be the state of Texas legislators who will grant (or not grant) UNT's Tier 1 status, that is, our over a decade long quest for that most desired status as a top ranked Texas research university which will open the floodgates for much more research monies for UNT-Denton. So what kind of sacrifice would UNT be making by hiring Mike Leach would be the main question of many of the UNT community who I honest to goodness think that the large majority would think the risk of a Leach hire would simply not be worth the reward. GMG!

Amen, bro'! GMG!

We are near leukemia stage with our anemia as it is with all these QB injuries . What does UNT have to lose at this point? Makes for a more interesting season for all concerned and, come on, there are many kinds of pass plays in the flying wishbone. I think Fry's SMU ran that "so-called" version. I can still see UT's James Street dropping back in their wishbone throwing a long pass to Peschel(?) setting up the winning touchdown in a Cotton Bowl game versus Notre Dame, although I stand to be corrected--maybe it was "the Game of the Century" at Arkansas. If the Cotton Bowl game, I think it was the Irish' first ever bowl game since they did not go to bowl games as school policy. GMG!

Quite frankly, back in the day , no one thought Hayden Fry would give us the time of day, either, except for the fact that.............he had something to prove and I think we and some good folks in Iowa would agree that he proved himself quite well. All this coming after SMU jump-kicked him out of his job off Mockingbird Lane, University Park, Texas. GMG! PS: This new football palace we are building will be a magnet to some high profile types wanting to revive their coaching careers...guarantee it!

Tommy Bowden? And then we get dad Bobby Bowden as a new Mean Green fan, too, right? Heck! Dad Bobby still wanted another year at Florida State. The Bowden family connection could help us cherry pick 1 or 2 out of the Sunshine State each year? Dad Bobby could tell Son Tommy about bringing his team to the snow game at Fouts Field when Fry was coaching in Denton. Endless possibilities, Texas tales, Florida tales and yarns here. Speculation can sorta' be fun albeit does produce tired brain at times. GMG!

Hamilton was a former HS QB. He can run and surely he can pass some? Let's do it! Addendum: Because I thought it was such a great idea, I thought I must have come up with it first, (uh, just kiddin' troops--I am a tad more humble than "THAT") but it was actually SUMG who came up with this idea yesterday in one of our many brain-storming idea phone sessions we've been having as NT alums starting around 1979. I would actually be more on board with Bill Yeoman's Houston Veer but what the heck........sadly, very few ideas that have ever come from www.GoMeanGreen.com over they years have ever been used as it is.