PlummMeanGreen

Quote From Greenbat earlier today on the FIU Stadium thread: "This university, as much as I love it, is going to fall into the athletic wasteland, unless it begins to get more big money alums involved." ..................................................... And this has most always been our alma mater's problem for most of its modern existance; that is, getting our Big Donor alums excited about their alma mater. It just hasn't happened like it has at other schools our size and how strange since we are a Texas-based university--you know, Texas...............where football is king? Some of us give what we can give & when we can give it, but all the monies raised on this forum alone would still not equal what we will make in one game in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, come this Fall. But the good news is we seem to have more of our powers that be who (from all accounts) understand that this new stadium is going to be much more than about Game Day college football games in our future, but what many Texans will all but judge what our entire university can do when it announces such a bold venture as a new football stadium. FWIW & in the opinion of many, the whole gosh darned reputation of UNT (and the UNT System as far as that is concerned) is on the line with this new football stadium venture, and especially where it will most strategically be located because once its finally built it will be there for all to see--whether that be a "smallish" erection set stadium like FIU seems to be building or a true NCAA D1-A football palace. The contention of many I've spoken to is "build it right or don't build until we can build it right." GMG!

And FFR, to quote the late Jack Webb from the old Dragnet TV series: "Just the facts, maam!" GMG!

SOMETHING FOR ALL MEAN GREENERS TO PONDER Hey fellow Mean Green recruiting junkies, here are some interesting numbers of Boise State's 4 previous years national recruiting rankings leading to their BCS Championshiop Series Bowl win over the Oklahoma Sooners in January of 2007. These national recruiting rankings for OU & Boise State are from the College Football News. OU (ties #7 & with LSU........... 2006................... BSU #78 OU #5................................. 2005................... BSU #73 OU #7 .................................2004................... BSU #72 OU #3 .................................2003................... BSU #73 Boise State athletic officials have said for years how most of their annual recruiting classes were most always unheralded even among other WAC members (and for certain not ranked so high nationally as compared to the Big Boys........... .............BUT, I think the thing that most of us would all agree is how Boise State was recruiting "lights out" speed with all their not so highly ranked recruiting classes & IMHO was one of the prime reasons they were able to hang with the Sooners and eventually beat the vaunted University of Oklahoma Sooners in that most exciting bowl game.

Agree, just way too much aluminum framework. The first photo reminds me when we were putting in our endzone seats back in 1994. One thing about the Florida schools, they seem to have very few talkers but a helluva' lot more do'ers. If UNT built a similar stadium as FIU, I'd say 1-AA would be in our future and we know what that would do to our school and how most of our alumnus body would re-act since we already had 13 years of 1-AA as a pretty accurate barometer). Think Big! Build Bigger!

Seems like an unusually flawed system if they don't go by numbers of 3* or 4* recruits and how they all add up. Of cousre, some schools can only recruit 15 (+/-) kids this year while others can recruit the full allottment, so who knows. I think a good barometer for UNT would (obviously) be how we do as compared to all the other Texas D1-A schools (since that is how most of us measure our recruiting haul anyway, right)? GMG!

Well, for an $800,000 plus guarantee from LSU, I guess we (like many other schools besides us) are supposed to just lay back & enjoy it? Yet with Mean Green recruiting being back on schedule while showing promise that it could get better as each year goes by as well as a new NCAA D1-A football stadium on our horizon, just maybe we can start doing some pimping of our own in due time. Just so our leaders don't start wearing all that tacky pimp jewelry. Let's Put The Phrase Body Bag Games In Our Past A.S.A.P. ! GMG!

Back in 1977 Blooming Grove, Texas, RB Milton Collins was considered the #1 recruit in the Lone Star State by most of the media as I recall. There were no Rivals or recruiting publications such as we have today although Dave Campbell had his blue chip listings of Texas HS football's better recruits and he always had his 1'st & 2'nd Super Team in his annual giant summer edition of Dave Campbell's Texas Football. It was a snowy February day when (then) Mean Green Coach Hayden Fry drove out to Blooming Grove, Texas, to sign Collins abeit NCAA rules said no coach could be in any photo opps. TV cameras covered the signing although (again) Coach Fry was not allowed in the video coverage. Sadly for Milton Collins & all Mean Green fans, he just did not pan out as a college RB. I'd venture a guess that all Mean Green fans everywhere are very, very excited about Riley Dodge joining his dad in Denton. It is the hope of the Mean Green Nation that he breaks all of, uh, QB Vizza's records but how darn lucky for all of us in Mean Green Country that we will have both in camp this August. Congrats Riley Dodge on your Parade All American selection! We are Mean Green Proud of you! GMG!

And they didn't name another conference they'd been in before as a possible ticket to the BCS? Will BCS get too crowded for the Big Boys (once again)? "Well.............one time the NCAA used stadium capacity to separate the wheat from the chaffe; wonder if they might do that again in the near future if they want to do some cull'in' ?

Haven't checked lately & according to another thread on GMG.com and TCU's Frog Fan Forum, Rivals presently has us ranked ahead of TCU for whatever all this is worth with a bit over 2 weeks left for National Signing Day. GMG!

Yet in the minds & hearts of Mean Green fans everywhere Super Jamario Thomas even w/o a plaque from last night's banquet has won a permanent place in the hearts of many, many, many of us who will never forget what he did for our school; starting with that super, super year he had fresh out of his high school in Longview, Texas. I cannot remember one like it from a freshmen (& few from any other classification FWIW) since I've been watching Mean Green football & that beginning in Septmember of 1973. Of course, Patrick Cobbs was having his own successful moments as a Mean Green RB as well. We all wish the best for Jamario Thomas & most eveyone of us (if not all) count it an honor that he will be a fellow alumnus to all of us who call the University of North Texas our alma mater. Good luck, Super Jamario, whatever direction your life takes you. GMG!

I think many of us want to see how this coaching staff hangs onto their recruits long-term and feel there would be just as many who like this coaching staff's chances. For sure, you can't keep em' all the full 5 years since this thing we call life & its most unpredicatable situations creates unexpected attrition with all programs, but we'll all just have to wait and see concerning ours. UNT being a haven for future "walk-on's" who do quite good (like the one who was a SBC Player of the Year a few years ago) mixed with a bunch of 3* & 4* players can gives us all a very interesting future situation in Denton. GMG!

Agree, stebo, we cannot afford to turn down that kind of money, but we can watch our recruiting get better (across the board) year after year so that we can lose the term "body bag games" forever in Denton, Texas. Many may remember when those 3 words did not exist in our Mean Green vocabulary. GMG!

And I have an occassional one, Phil, with UT All Amercian running back Earl Campbell (hammy' & all) running down the field for a late game TD when a pretty decent DKR-led Longhorn team barely beat a scrappy bunch from Denton back in 1976. Back then, we didn't know what the term "body bag games" mean't & I hope Coach Dodge & Staff will soon help us forget those 3 words forever (and many of us think they will do just that). In light of our pretty decent recruiting class happening now, can one only imagine if Coach Dodge & Staff would have had more than just 17 days last year to recruit and what they could have done then? All in good time, I know. GMG!

As I remember former Waco Herald-Tribune Sports Editor Dave Campbell first coining what is now an oft' repeated phrase back in the 1970's on an old KRLD Sports Central recruiting round-up show and that phrase being: "Recruiting is at best an uncertain science." I think most of us have most always seen it to be just that, yet who would ever be so foolish to try to be the one that attempts to stop these annual recruiting braggadocios, especially here in the Lone Star State? Many of us make no bones of our being a bit proud of our being Texans & very proud Texans in every way but loose, but wouldn't many of us like to think our Texas HS recruits probably just get better coaching across the board than (perhaps) those in some back-water states whose coaching (and HS facilities) could be considered, uh, a bit inferior? Just One Perspective On Texas Intercollegiate D1-A Recruiting: How many times back before the term "body bag games" became part of our vocabulary in Denton did we go down to Austin & play our state's premier school off their heels back in the 1970's when everyone & their dogs knew there was no way a North Texas could ever out-recruit the Longhorns in any year? Yes (in deed) it is a new era now where the athletic facility arms race is all but out of control at many of the super schools who are most times annual fixtures in the Top 25, but I think we can still use Boise State (once again) as a true model as to what can eventually be done at a school like North Texas. Some will still say: Yet UNT is inudated & surrounded geographically by Big 12 and CUSA schools, but Boise State (in a much smaller state) is also surrounded by PAC 12 & MWC schools, too, right? Congrats to Troy U if they have (in deed) won the mythical SBC Recruiting Title of 2008, but (to quote the great Fats Domino) ain't that a shame they seemed to have in their covy not one Texas High School football product? So FWIW...........Wouldn't many of us take our "7" 3 *'s over their "5" 3*'s any day of the week, especially with most of ours receiving their tutelage from Texas HS football coaches? PS: I feel we will all really like future recruiting contest with Troy U, all other SBC schools (and all CUSA schools) when we ante up & start putting down all our aces on the table with the Grand Opening of our new NCAA D1-A football palace located between those 2 Texas Interstates in west Denton & inside the Mean Green Village; in fact, I like our chances with many, many other schools than just those in the 2 aforementioned conferences. GMG!

Just think, if the SBC only had one more school with "East or Eastern" in their name we'd have all 4 directions covered. Haven't followed too closely what's going on in the Sun Belt's futue football plans, but is South Alabama going to be a football member (and if so--are they going to be another SBC school that gets a stadium built before another one we all know & love that has chosen the 100 year plan for football success compared to most upstart Florida schools who after they open for business have the 10 year plan in place to move up the NCAA D1-A totem pole)? Whoops! Can I even say totem pole in anything relating to the NCAA? We of UNT Shall Endure & Overcome In Spite of Ourselves! Just Hide, Watch & See! GMG!

So how many Rivals 3 * verbals does Franklin give the Mean Green at this juncture & just how many Rival *'s does Riley Dodge have now? GMG!

(Santa Clause comes to Mean Green Country early this year like, uh, on National Signing Day)?

Coach Deloach is a most welcome addition to Dodge's staff albeit he may not recognize the SBC as compared to the one that he left several years ago for the UCLA job. And if we sign the JUCO & Rivals 3 star recruit who has verbally committed to UNT then that will be a tremendous boon to our DL. And on our annually tough OOC schedule? The road to a BCS Championship Series bowl game will never be lined with non-stop non-BCS schools, although Boise State's own OOC road to a BCS Series bowl didn't seem so tough at times. GMG!

Old Timer, what is your general assessment of this year's recruiting class thus far? GMG!

Can you imagine how people around here (who were here) felt about Rod Rust in his last "0" win season at UNT in 1972? The best thing about 1972 is that there was a 1973 and..........the best thing about 2007 is that there is a 2008. Proceed with the procedure of the proceedings, Coach Dodge, and we will gloat & brag right along with you when you've turned this ship around & (strangely enough) you will find not one on GMG.com (or beyond) that ever doubted you, either. Oh well, so be it... GMG!

Jumpin'Jehosuh'phats! I'll sit in the Naked Section @ Fouts Field if it will somehow help us get our new stadium quicker! (Close your eyes, Ethel, he's streakin' again)! GMG!

It is the feeling of many that Todd Dodge and his staff (with his latest new coaching addition) will take the term "body bag" out of the Mean Green football vocabulary forever. Seems UNT's former conference-mate, ie, the Boise State Bulldogs for darn sure has theirs. GMG!