PlummMeanGreen

Bravo, Harry! Super Fan/Super Alum! (Just hope living with an attorney hasn't gotten you too far away from the center-to right crowd). Seriously, keep up the great work!

So true...that book (The Story of North Texas) by Dr. Rogers somewhat tells it all as far as why we have seemedly had to beat our heads against the wall while moving at a snail's pace as far as athletic advancement in Denton was concerned. Only recently came to a conclusion that one can spend almost his entire adult life with all this wanting more (while still getting the same or worse....getting less). Yet......in so many ways, that new stadium presently being built between those 2 major Texas interstates (are there really any "minor" interstates out there?) and at the top of the DFW Metroplex golden triangle could be such a terrific game-changer for us all. (Of course, I can still secretly lament that I wish this would have been built 25 years ago which would have us in a totally different conference neighborhood today & not just wishing and hoping. Guess it's as they always say, though: Better late than never? GMG!

An 1870's Texas legislature creating UT as one of 2 universities under the (then) newly created Permanent University Fund(which became quite rich largely because of oil, Texas tea, black gold, etc) has always set them (and TAMU) apart from the rest of us. We will do well to still (after all these years since our 1890 beginning) continue to develop our own identity and do the best we can with the resources we have. I do know oil & gas can be a fairly quick game changer. I only wish our campus were sitting on top the "gas rich" Barnett Shale which has made many of my fellow Parker County-ites quite well to do. Many of that group quite deserving, though. Back on point: I know we should never say never, but because of the P.U.F. that alone will keep the rest of us from ever duplicating the vastness or scope of our state's 2 flagship universities: UT and TAMU. Doesn't mean the rest of us, ie, UH, Texas Tech, the Texas State University System and the UNT System should by no means wave the white flag. We have all contributed quite admirably to our great state of Texas--the PUF merely gave UT & TAMU a 50 yard head start in this 100 yard dash. GMG!

Maybe I've missed something along the most every weekend DJ business trail, but is there any new kind of scenario that UNT would ever be considered for CUSA? I know our new stadium (insert a sublimenal why in the hell couldn't we have built this 25 years ago) is already giving us some (unsurprising) expected new options in scheduling (as in the first ever Big 10 school coming to Denton in 2011); but anyhoooo ...what scenario would suddenly make us a CUSA fit (other than all the ones we create ourselves on this forum)? Hope all is well, Jack and do tell Jessica "howdy!" Thanks For Asking: To some who have asked with personal emails, yes, the DJ business is going well. In fact, I sign a DJ/client contract with 2 UNT students and Bride-and-Groom-To-Be tomorrow night. Yes, they got a Mean Green discount! Shameless plug time: www.soundworksdeejay.com

Come on now, it's the (hot) dog days of summer! Let's each & everyone repeat every one of our previous posts on this subject. (just kiddin')

Checking out their 2-deep in this Fall's Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine, it appears UH will graduate their starting QB this year and will have to replace some other key positions. Of course, they may be ready to simply reload with as much quality. I believe we will have 1 of 2 QB's (whoever it is) with a good year under his belt after this football season. We have somewhat of a perfect storm on the verge of happening in Denton with Mean Green football. Perfect Storm? If Coach Dodge does well this year (as most of us I believe hope he does) we could very well go to a bowl game with 6 or 7 wins and then we'd be hosting the University of Houston Cougars as a bowl quality team. If TD doesn't do well or get his needed wins this Fall, then we open the 2011 football campaign with a new stadium and a new head football coach. (Perfect storm was probably not the best illustration I could come up with but I know many of you get my drift). IMHO, UH will travel more fans to this particular one game because how many schools get to open another school's new football stadium in any given century? I like where our team could be next Fall whoever coaches them and I think UH will lose some talent this Fall which could make it an interesting game for next Fall. Great choice of a stadium opening opponent in my opinion and being originally from the Houston area and an ex Coog' fan as a kid up untill my senior year in HS, I couldn't be happier with UNT's new stadium debut matchup. I would hope UH would bring their fabulous marching band for this trip. Whats green with lots of red goo? Give up? Answer: A frog in a microwave after a full 2 minutes of it doing a Joe Cocker/Woodstock-style spastic sort of dance, that's what! (SUMG, you can have that old one for free--I for darn sure don't want it anymore)! LOL!

First college football game I saw ever as a kid was at Rice Stadium with the Owls hosting Baylor, circa 1962. About 14,000 in the stands that day as I recall. (I couldn't believe so many empty seats in that 72,000 seat stadium). As a 12 yo kid from Danbury, Texas, (11 miles from Alvin "Nolan Ryan Country" Tx) it made quite an impression. Jess Neely was the Rice Coach and John Bridges was BU's. PS If you have time, pay me a visit at: www.soundworksdeejay.com Thats pretty much what I do most Saturdays. GMG!

Thanks for that info, Jeff. GMG!

As a student at UNT back in the 70's, if you showed up at campus functions where alums came back to campus you would have most likely seen George Derr. Super alum! Super MG fan! Happy Birthday, George! PMG

Guess I missed it, but did something happen to the UH Coog's being our stadium opener?

Milton Collins of Class B Blooming Grove (Texas) High School...Probably Hayden Fry's most heralded recruit while at NT. Collins had (I think) well over a 100 letters from major universities across the USA wanting his services as fullback. I felt so sorry for this guy when he couldn't cut the mustard as advertised; hellsbells, he couldn't even lick the mustard jar for that matter. Fry and UNT sure got a bunch of statewide publicity, though, with the Milton Collins signing on that snowy, February day back in 1977. In Class B, he was a man among boys, but it didn't turn out that way at the major college level for sure. PS: I got to see future UT great Steve Worster of Bridge City play a bi-district game at Clear Lake, Texas, and I was hoping years later Milton Collins would have been (at least) a Worster-type of a bruising fullback--he wasn't.

Rick, I am sorry to hear of your mother's passing. Your extended family of GMG.com's prayers for you and your immediate family.

Their SBC schedule will probably prevent such a pipe dream from happening, but it would be nice for all. Seems most of the past 'busters had stronger schedules which played highly in their getting one of the Big Boy Bowls. (I still have a copy of the Boise State/OU bowl game which I watch from time to time--that game was a true barn-burner which we all took delight in its results, right)?

Seems almost unfair that UTSA does not have to go through their own 40 years of a roller-coaster co-existence in the NCAA wilderness rather then getting it all handed to them much too easy; that is, moving to an automatically built-in stadium situation with their Alamo-Dome. Oh well, I guess some of us just have to suffer while others get the NCAA version of silk-stocking row handed to them on a silver platter. Still amazing how quickly things can go for your program when you have a legitimate major college football stadium from the git-go. Sorry, but I'm a bit envious of what UTSA is getting without even having fielded a football team yet, but like most of us were taught quite early: Who said life would ever be fair? End of my green-tinted rant.

I think on Chuck Neinas' short list of recommendations to get done ASAP (if at possible) could be for UNT to remove itself from a very large consortium of schools (many on GMG.com want separation from as it is) that all have 30,000 seat stadium capacities with his probable suggestion to try to start out a bit larger with our new stadium if possible. He will use our continually staggering growth demographics for campus, Denton and Denton County as the reason to start out with a larger stadium IMHO. If this is on his list, perhaps his reason to start out with a larger stadium might be there will be more upper level schools that would be interested in coming to Denton to play in our new palace when we know many who did not want to play at Fouts Field. Such schools that would bring remarkably more fans than we're used to seeing in Denton that would only make UNT wish they had more tickets available to sell for such games if we only had a 30,000 seater. Neinas might suggests the difference of a 30K stadium compared to 35K-40K would be worth it all; that is, the extra seating would provide extra revenue coming in from schools that traditionally travel large numbers of fans (OK St., Kansas St. Baylor, a Top 25 TCU program, etc, that could increase our athletic budget across the board dramatically--for both men and womens varsity sports. The other part of the equation is that (hopefully) the Mean Green will be much more competitive but a a higher level (a la Boise State, TCU, Utah, etc) whereas our own fans will come out in record numbers. When I was a student at NT, we had 17,000 students with many more commuters, far less dorms than now and 99,000 pop. in Denton County in the mid 1970's (as I recall seeing those figures on Denton County in a Texas Almanac). And then............ Neinas might not suggest any of the aforementioned at all. .........but won't it be interesting to know what he will have on his suggestion list for UNT to try to do rather quickly? GMG!

There are handful in the NCAA who can just get you from point A to a higher point B light years quicker than the rest. We had one like that when I was an NT student who could get on the telephone and call some of his ol' buddies and then we'd be doing things and playing people on the Mean Green schedule that we used to could only dream about doing such. IMHO, Chuck Neinas is one such player. He will raise our dreams a whole bunch & who knows, maybe help us reach some of them within the next few years. The new stadium being built under AD Rick V's watch & leadership is making all this happen now IMHO. To advance UNT athletics is not a one man project for sure. Maybe in our case it will take a community of movers and shakers to raise our school up to where it really needs to be. Great job, Dr. Rawlins! Things may start moving faster than any of us would ever believe. GMG!

And per our recent conversation, Rick...prayers & thoughts to your mother.

For those of us who have dogs, Operation Kindness (and other similar "no kill" shelters) is a great charity. One of the saddest things a person will ever see is going to a shelter that puts animals down when no one comes to their rescue. mrsgreengoblin, a salute to your group for adding Operation Kindness as a beneficiary to this event.

It's been 15 years for GMG.com already, Harry?!? And you think your old? LOL! I'm going to have to start going to church to study for finals myself! Great job, though, Harry to you and all who have made this forum a mission of devotion for dear ol' alma mater. 15 years? PS: One of the things I've always observed on GoMeanGreen.com is how our alums all seem to have expectations and bars set for Mean Green athletics (seemedly) based from the eras each respectively attended UNT.

I know our conference options to go "upwardly bound" are almost nil, but these little cookie-cutter conferences that have been a regular staple from posters on GoMeanGreen.com since Day 1 of this forum's existence still look like football leagues whose champion will go to a bowl with a Bottom 25 footballl team. Certainly of late, ol' ugly is better than ol' nothing and any bowl would look good but.......... ...............are we of North Texas not in the chase for the kind of bowls that Boise State, TCU, Utah and others similar seem to set as their standard of football excellence? If not, I guess we can keep playing Robin Hood on GMG.com, that is, putting all these cookie cutter conferences together and bring all these other schools "up?" to our standards of football excellence in the Sun Belt? Speaking of LaTech: LaTech has had some impressive OOC wins in past years starting with a Big One against the Crimson Tide of Alabama in recent years. Didn't the Dawgs just a few years ago even beat a ranked WAC team on a week night national TV game, too? Crimson Tide? Can't remember us being in a game with the Tide that would be considered even close to being a moral victory. If the Sun Belt is to start expanding, lets start with a school like LaTech. Lets all from both sides bury the hatchet to make it happen. The possible demise or downgrade of the WAC to another "cookie cutter" league of no-names may make it happen sooner than later for the LaTech Bulldogs. My impression of La Tech has most always been they think much bigger for their program than all these other potential SBC upstarts who will merely keep us grounded in a "never a chance for a BCS bowl a la TCU" type of football conference the next 2 or 3 generations. With a spanking new modern stadium and our (always) growing numbers on and near campus, isn't that a bad case of "under-kill" or always thinking of "dipping downward" for us of the University of North Texas? CUSA? Pleeeeezzzzzz............As our crack U.S. Vice President Joe "foul mouth" Biden might say it; as long as these following 3 words are an active member of CUSA and they are.......S M U........................we of UNT can kiss off any idea of CUSA. It's just the way politics in Texas football goes, folks. We don't have cooties at UNT, we're just a football program in the wrong geographical location to be considered by CUSA IMHO And FWIW..........it's really not just SMU, because it really does go back to the the old argument that there are already too many Texas schools in CUSA (like they used to say about the SWC) and they just don't want another one no matter--especially a humongous system university who will one day figure out that with all the right personnel in place and with the stars of the galaxy in alignment that the sky is the limit. GMG!

Nevertheless, many of us to this day still admire ULouisiana (and La Tech, right?) who bit the bullet to never have the extra "A" added to their classification. Not sure how that really hurt North Texas with the college football politicos, but I think I know how most UNT alums felt about it.

And hasn't Phil Steele's College Football magazine been as accurate as most in recent years? He & his staff seem to really research all schools more than the others who almost never give any school who finished in the middle half of a league on down a chance to move up. I hope Steele's magazine is correct with his forecast of the Mean Green finishing 3'rd in the SBC. Of course, we can all be sure Todd Dodge does to.

Hey "Drex" it will probably be a task force to decide how much to charge Mean Green fans to park in their yards on Game Day, right?

You still add North Texas, Arkansas State and/or ULouisiana and you have a "do-able" conference with 4 bowls and a league with a legacy of having made the collegiate football version of the Big Dance, ie, a revenue-generating BCS bowl game. A good salesman from the WAC would be able to market that league with the dramatic new upswing of a Top 10 TV market for the WAC, a new Texas presence that would include the future 2'nd largest university in Texas, too. The NCAA is all about playing musical chairs now. If the SBC loses any one of its top programs, then it becomes even less marketable/formidable and who they would replace said school(s) with would probably make all of us start looking for our Gillette razor blades.

Well, it's like ol' Blue Eyes sang in one of his jillion hits "That's Life"...."riding high in April shot down in May." Out here in Parker County the FWST is a strong influence. Hellsbells! People out here think because the Van Cliburn Competitions originally started on their campus that makes TCU a better music school than UNT (no kiddin' on that). Here is one less West O' Plex reader of the FWST until they get their priorities in shape. Heck, the biggest car dealer in the West O' Plex is a UNT graduate, ie, Jerry Durant. Maybe ol' Jerry D. needs to make a call? Agree with another poster inasmuch as: What is UNT doing to very diplomatically correct this problem? How many on the FWST advisory board present and past have had degrees or backgrounds from our UNT College of Journalism (if thats what they still call that dept.)? Bob Ray Sanders one of that papers local icons, also of PBS/Channel 13 fame is a UNT graduate and a casual acquaintance. UNT's largest resource is still our numbers (which are hardly shrinking) and all those numbers have faces attached to them that do still tend to buy newspapers. Once the FWST corrects this problem, I will start buying their paper again. (Like Quoner said, though, all this with a scaled down UNT coverage started about a year ago).