PlummMeanGreen

Personally, I'm glad a rebuilding football program (with more seemedly knowing why its a rebuilding football program at this juncture now than earlier this Fall); anyway, I'm glad a one-win football team even has a discussion that there are endzone seats for our students to spill into. Wonder if any other non-BCS football programs with one win in November are discussing such a scenario? BEAT NAVY! & GO MEAN GREEN!

I think the one some would call the Big Donor will be the one who leads us to the Promised Land, eulessismore. What we want to do with a new stadium (unfortunately and IMHO) won't get off the ground w/o one. I think Dr. "B", the UNT BOR's, AD Rick V and a cast of hundreds will eventually find a Big Donor for a new stadium, but I better quit while I'm ahead since this is not a new stadium thread. OK, Just One More Thing: I love the interior of ULouisville's Papa Johns Pizza (or whatever they call it) Stadium (except with all green chairback seats). It seats 40,000 and although many of us could be made happy with 35,000, 40K still helps us sell more visitor's tickets (with good seats) to schools in the Big 12 who have great traveling fan bases who we all know Rick Villarreal could get us a home schedule at our main campus.

I think the focus should really now be on all the African-Americans, Caucasians, Mexicans, etc, etc, etc, who are playing by the rules of our coaching staff and are honoring and respecting authority while doing so. Haven't we all (no matter our race) been taught to respect our elders as it is? Also, I know many of us would hope that the 3 young men who got kicked off our school's football team will find their own semblance of peace with all this, too. Name-calling to those 3 only puts us at the same level they have allegedly shown, now doesn't it? Why create 2 sets of problems with all this?

O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y...........is what OldTmer has said such multi-openings could be for UNT this next recruiting season. Darn shame we haven't announced or shown new stadium blueprints yet, but who knows what the (near) future holds with that, too. (1) Is Baylor really going to let their guy go for sure? (2) Is UCLA really that serious about TTech's Leach?

And I think thats why we also changed our HFC, albeit T'odge is having to bottom-out the last regime's problems on his own and hasn't that been one heckuva' Sunday School Picnic, especially in light of recent happenings? Troy U has done all the right things that a school that wants to change leagues needs to do. UNT has only talked about those things. IMHO, Troy U has better teams now than what we had during our bowl run because they seem to have had better overall team speed. Said it before, but if they were in the WAC, MAC or MWC, they'd be closer to (or even in) Top 25 now. We are behind in this era we now find ourselves, too, because of our athletic budget for a school our size, Dentonites & Denton County citizens stranger-than-hell reluctance to adopt or even minimally support our school for almost any reason or excuse they can come up with and of course..........venerable Fouts Field........... ...............and for many of us Baby Boomers, we feel we are about a quarter-a-century behind where we thought we'd really be by now at UNT--but what the heck, I think most of our constituency now knows what we need to do to go to the next level, but we have to build a more solid foundation than what we've had to get started in the direction that will take us where some of us got a few glimpses of back in the mid-1970's.

Hmmm? I really do like new stadium talk. Folks, we are going to have to have one soon for all this that we want to work in congruence with DodgeBall to, uh, well.......... work. I know we all aspire the next level, but wouldn't losing any SBC school to CUSA & that school not being our own and such a possible scenario while we continue to turtle walk with Fouts Field; well, wouldn't that really make us feel way behind if all that materialized? Truly, think about how that scenario would make you feel. (So again........we really do need this new stadium ASAP). Such a new stadium out at the Mean Green Village now is almost a prerequisite for our NCAA D1-A (or new conference) advancement quite frankly. We can dress up our over half-century old little pig again and again for however long, but if we look around most outposts in NCAA D1-A (and now even in some Sun Belt Conference quarters) we are finding that fresh paint and new bathrooms still ain't going to cut the mustard for a program that I'm certain has most of its constituency that aspires to be Top 25. Do we deserve less than that even if we haven't been in such high cotton since the mid 1970's? I like the ECU stadium, too, and would trade Fouts Field even up with the ECU folks.

I believe I read a couple of weeks ago that Roger Staubach already had a pre-planned business committment that he just couldn't get out of to attend this game. The blurb said something about him attending some pre-game function whether that be tomorrow or early Saturday but............. ................. that was all before Navy beat Notre Dame last Saturday, ie, the first time for the Middies' to beat the Fightin' Irish since Roger "The Dodger" was (himself) the Navy QB, so.............maybe because of Navy's Big Win, Roger's plans have suddenly changed and so maybe he has all but agreed with UNT officials to be that special guests but still left himself an out just in case? SUMG's idea early last Spring was to have Roger Staubach and Mean Joe Greene meeet each othe for the coin toss would be quite cool. If I recall, it seems those 2 played against each other in a few Super Bowls back in the 1970's, right? Nevertheless, that would be my "dream special guests" for this game just as it is EagleMBA's (and I'd bet many of yours, too). Saturday is going to be a real fun event that I hope many of our alums/fans can change their schedules if they had prior events in order to attend this truly historic happening for the University of North Texas, Fouts Field and Denton, Texas, America. Throw out the records because this is now all about being an Event & One That's Fixin' To Happen in about 48 hours now. GMG!

“I am not surprised,” she said of the outcome of UNT’s own investigation into the matter. “We knew we were going to have to go to an outside resource. We knew the school wouldn’t do anything. That is not the end of the story. We definitely are going to continue to pursue it and are thinking about taking legal action. They have a lot to lose with those coaches they have under contract.” We have a lot to lose? Like what? Coaches that discipline players getting a pretty nice college education no matter what their color? If I set a theatre on fire and then yell "FIRE!".................should that take the focus off of me and the blatant fact that I am still the one who set the fire? What some might need to consider is that Caucasians do not have a corner of the market when it comes to racism and if Todd Dodge is a racists........then hellsbells, I suppose I am too and probably about 250 million other Caucasians in this country, too. Of course, most of us have a lifetime of (not just words) but actions that would indicate that we are not racists, but if we would be called out or accused of being such, most of us won't take that kind of thing laying down, either, no matter how many other liberal do-gooder "always politcally correct" whites who would feel guilty for their own "white-ness" would. And we seem to have a few of those on this message board, but what the hell--different strokes for different folks. America? Still a great country that offers many freedoms with Freedom of Speech being toward the top of the list for most of us no matter our race, creed or religion, but that still being a freedom that need not be abused or made to be confused as to fit one's personal agendas while at the same time defaming the character of another to (perhaps) camouflage one's own character short-comings?

Just spoke to a fellow alum who said the DRC has been working hard to find a place for Dr. B's response and he said for us to look for something like this in next Monday or Tuesday's edition: DENTON RECORD-CHRONICLE CLASSIFIED SECTION (Page 14) As you likely know, the university administration has investigated allegations made by three student athletes against members of UNT’s football coaching staff. The university took the students' allegations seriously, and immediately launched an investigation that now has been completed. The investigation revealed no discriminatory behavior, nor any pattern of racial bias in the decision-making and communication of the UNT football coaching staff, nor any within the football program as a whole. The investigation also concluded that one of the football players was suspended not for the use of his speech or slang, but rather for behaviors that violated the conduct expected of team players. Head Football Coach Todd Dodge and our entire football coaching staff continue to have my unwavering support. When I hired Coach Dodge, I knew him to be a person of the highest caliber and character. I find the goals and standards he has established for his football program to be exemplary, and I am pleased with the progress that he has made in applying them here. I am confident that the commitment and abilities of our athletic leadership will elevate the university’s football and other programs. I hope each of you will join me in continuing to support the mission of our athletic programs to develop the academic and athletic talents of our students. Gretchen M. Bataille President

Someone is going to need to apologize to someone before a "common ground" basis of communication can become a part of all this--no matter which side is guilty. If its the 3 players in question, each had his own case of circumstances that got them kicked off a football team and each would have to be re-instated (if that happens) based on each of the circumstances they were disciplined for in the first place. It would be nice if this story had a happy ending for all, but time will only tell with that. Quite frankly, though, I don't know what the solution of any of this will be or how it will eventually play out. The Texas Chapter of the NAACP will mostly likely never come to Denton if after a few well selected phone calls to African Americans who are both UNT coaches or players that this truly turns out to strictly be a discipline problem and "ONLY" a discipline problem (which many from both races contacted have already said it was). BUT....................before anyone would have called Todd Dodge a racists, though, they might have wanted to do a bit more research on his minister's son background before making such a broad swath of their brush painting him as such. Todd Dodge is hurting to the core of his bone marrow with this--but wouldn't any of us who know we aren't racists yet would be called out as to be one? Hmmm? I wonder if any of th 3 players had known that one of the Dodge family's children had an African-American as a god-father if they may have thought twice before using the race card at all? Of course, if the race card focus had not been put fully placed on Todd Dodge's shoulders, then the focus would have (once again) been back on the players kicked off the team. The Mean Green football team's (both black, white, and Mexican) response to all these allegations may be the very thing that convinces the local chapter of the NAACP to just quietly let this thing die; but the local print media that blew all this up to all but 3 inch headlines needs to think about what they need to do..............to do the right thing.

I think most of us will give the Mid-Shipmen a very nice ovation mainly because of their service to our country; that is, their service to help keep our country free so we can keep the kind of Freedom of Speech as we even exhibit on GoMeanGreen.com Of course, there are many other reasons in our U.S. Constitution as to why I believe most of us on this forum will honor some of our nation's best this Saturday at 3:00 PM............. YET................once there has been a kick-off, it will be like we are playing one of our most heated SBC rivals because we are: NORTH TEXAS! Trivial Fact: If we have the crowd we all expect this Saturday afternoon, it will be the largest November home crowd in our entire Mean Green football history. Weather For Saturday: Sunshine, 80 degrees and NO WIND!

This has nothing to do with any war or politics or anything like that, but this is a unique match-up, none like we've ever had in Denton in our entire football history. Don't you know Navy officials (and fans) back in Annapolis would kill to have this game back home post their huge Notre Dame long losing streak win last week on the national NBC telecast...................but this football game will be at Fouts Field instead. As the NBC Notre Dame anouncers said in Navy's win over the Irish, "Navy has no blue-chippers" but those who joined the Navy to serve their country first and then play football second. As we all know, this Middle Eastern bru-haha is probably going to be with us for awhile and many of the Navy football players we see come out of the Fouts Field north tunnel will (eventually) be part of this war. Granted, our team wears green and we show Navy who our support will be post kick-off, but for one shining (patriotic) moment this Saturday at 3:00 PM Central Standard Time, lets surprise the Mid-Shipmen by giving them the kind of ovation their fans back in Annapolis wish they could be in Denton, Texas, to give their team. Yes, it probably would be so un-North Texas-like for us to do something like this as the Navy football team officially comes out the tunnel onto Fouts Field right before the kick-off-------------but lets do it anyway and give their press box radio broadcasters and their listeners back home in Maryland something to all but be shocked about from those fans of "that Texas university down in Denton, Texas, America, who gave our team such a thunderous ovation. Who knows, such a response by our Mean Green fans might get both AD's talking about more games for the future, albeit won't be the main reason we would give the Middies' such an ovatoin. I suppose (like many of you) I'm just another native Texan wanting to be hospitable to our visitors this Saturday, especially special visitors that just happen to be one of our United States Service Academies and with team members who signed up to protect all of us and our national defense for starters.

Now NT80................wouldn't the "decision-making" staff over at the Denton Wretched-Chronicle say that those volleyball playoffs were of utmost prime interest to the majority of its circulation? I lived in Denton awhile and read that paper daily, and I've never been sure they ever quite knew what the majority of its circulation thought was of front page material, specifically sports-wise. Sometimes wondered if any of them ever played the game, quite frankly. I do know that UNT has the largest constituency of any other group in Denton, but sometimes the only thing some of the old nestor proprietors up there understand or are ever interested in when it comes to UNT is the MasterCards and Visa cards they hope all the Mommies & Daddies send their kids up to Denton with as new UNT students. Wouldn't be so bad a trade-off if they (the city's movers and shakers who wield influence) would ever once in a while let go of about $15-$20 of such for an occasional visit to Fouts Field. When that starts to happen em mass in Denton, Texas, America..............then both the city and its largest employer win.

I don't think we know all of the other discipline aspects to all this because most coaches (very wisely and maybe now, even legally) don't air them for public consumption, but as far as the "hood" aspects of all this.... ...wasn't it more the supposed "mother'f'er" part that was allegedly used with "hood" that might be the main problem to this whole thing? Unlike past regimes, I don't think the present HFC is all that hip with non-stop cursing as part of his coaching staff's vocabulary. I'd bet Coach Dodge is hardly a prude, but it seems that all the "family oriented" wordage from the past will not be a staple with our present group in the Football Department over at the Mean Green Village.

OK, CG, you brought up the comparisons....and so I bite. Revised, Tuesday AM First of all, IMH (and others) O, Darrell L. Dickey could not hold John Hayden Fry's jock strap yesterday, today or in the future and last time I checked, the producer of DD Ball has not had a D1-A HFC's career that will likely earn himself a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame. You mention some schools Fry played that were in the Missouri Valley Conference, ie, a conference (with teams) that had been playing NCAA D1 football longer than most the SBC cupcakes (some of which just turned D1-A from D1-AA) and SBC schools of which in our conference's early years we many times just barely beat. Tennessee Was Not A Big Win? Think Again... Last time I checked, we also haven't had any Top 20 (now Top 25) teams since we had a coach whose team won a game over Tennessee. NOTE: The 1975 UTennessee Volunteer football team which we beat in Knoxville finished 7 & 5 which means that it would have been a bowl team in today's NCAA D1-A. Might This Finally Be A Case Closer For The Handful of You Who Want To Continually Revise the Hayden Fry Era In MG Country--If Not, It Should Be. EAT EM' UP! MEAN GREEN! Should we also mention that that same UNT team which beat Tennessee also (stumbled around, I suppose) and beat the University of Houston 28 to 0 and that the very year before the Cougars went to the Cotton Bowl (with much of the same talent we beat them with) while they went major bowling in their first official year in as a Southwest Conference member. Hmmmm? Wonder if Fry had gotten his wish & UNT had been in the SWC in 1976, then which of the 2 teams would have gone to the Cotton Bowl? FWIW.....IMHO (and I'd bet many others who have witnessed both eras)...............Fry's better teams would have schooled most of DD's better teams just as veteran coach Howard Schnellenberger showed how it could be done with his (then) 5 year old football program which did it his first 3X's to play UNT with his very first win over a DD-coached MG football team during a year we even went to a bowl game. We lost to FAU this season with players largely recruited by............oh, never mind, some will just never understand that one, either. Anyone else wonder why we are where we are? Can we start with a hardy handful of (still) way too many "we never expect or demand too much in Denton" types we have as alums? That's about all I have to say about this subject...............................................but FWIW............ all that was yesterday and yesterday's gone. Support Todd Dodge Now When The Going Is Tough Because Isn't It Always Quite Easy To Do Such When It's Not?

FFR, never did any of us expect that this would be such a season of purging from a most non-disciplined past; moreso than any would believe with all the horror stories I've been told the last year. Attrition numbers that Charles has listed in his thread-starting post are unreal and do play a huge part in what has happened to our team, specifically defense. The best is yet to come--but we just have to overcome all this other stuff for now. Go Mean Green!

New coach hunting at NCAA D1-A schools is as popular as the Texas HS football/D1-A collegiate recruiting time of year itself. SouthernMustang, yall have spent more than your share of time in post D.P. purgatory. Hope your new hire (whoever that may be) is the right one who gets yall out of that purgatory, but pleeeezzzzz.........................tell your elect that it may take your (eventual) new HFC more than half a season to turn it around. I know SMU's recent recruiting classes have been more than holding their own with DC's Texas Football Magazine recruiting gurus (one of which is the father of a former Mean Green football player), so its not that your new HFC won't have a few hosses in the stalls to start out with next Fall. Good luck.

Expectations have been so low while at the same time demand for a true upward bound (ranked) NCAA D1-A football program has been almost non-existent for such a long time in Denton that nothing hardly surprises me anymore at what some of our elect will accept as their perception of quality and what they won't accept as a brand new chance for us to get out of this cess pool of Bottom 25 we've been drowning for so damn long. In other words, there are reasons this program hasn't been ranked since the mid 1970's, bigntex, and I'll let you fill in the blanks on just a few of those reasons. It's not always about the coaches, either. They (as led by the UNT Administration) will only produce what our UNT constituency demands. Still, the good news (besides Geico) is that our fan base seems to have grown even with just one win thus far. Not sure why some expected a broken down Buick (that took awhile to break down) can suddenly be effectively replaced by a new driver in that Buick who has to contend with its "broken-down-ness" along with all the reasons it broke down in the first place. There are some on our campus and even some on this board who I believe know how important a new football stadium will be for our entire school and its football program, but I still don't think there are near enough from both the aforementioned groups who do. We are our own worst enemy in Denton, bigntex, many times as we continue to choke on all these continuous gnats, while several others (even in the SBC) have moved on past us and got rid of their own pesky gnats which kept them log-jammed long ago. Still, the amazing thing is when TDodge does turn this thing around (and he will) how some of his present and most negative nay-sayers will be right there by his side slapping our coach on the shoulder saying how they've been behind him the whole time; but what the hell...... we need all our fans (even those who are presently negative) on this Mean Green bandwagon as our new staff is still trying to right many wrongs (that have never been put out for public consumption) from the previous regime. I have a Saturday AM gig (Grand Opening), but I will be in the stands around 2-2:30 PM to support Todd Dodge, his staff and their/our football team who represent the University of North Texas. We need to show our entire country (who will be focussing in on little ol' Denton, Texas, America, and on this game because of Navy's BIG Notre Dame win yesterday); nevertheless, we need to show the whole USA (especially the East Coast) what Mean Green fans are made of and what we are really all about, but we don't need to show them a bunch of whining whimpy fans who jump off bandwagons as fast as you can say.................we are in the beginnnigs of an extreme rebuilding program or "starting completely over" situation due to the some recruiting class deficiencies the last 3-4 years. GMG!

On this whole situation, I'm sure all of us still hope cooler heads will prevail, the guys will be educated as to know what true racism is and that all of us of non-color will always be mindful as to not ever show what could even be considered a hint of such, and that all on both sides will be able to discern when something is true racism or rather just a bad case of sour grapes over having been caught not following rules as laid down by authority--which we all have to do follow in life no matter what the color, creed or religion of our bosses..... .....anyway, let this thing be put to rest by both sides ASAP. If all this is given a chance to festor because of the time given to it to do such, it will for darn sure do so. We all deserve 2'nd chances when we screw up, and most of us remember how most of us did more than a few times when we were in our post-teen years (early 20's); so a good ending for all of this if at all possible would be all of those kicked off the team given another chance on this Mean Green football team, but with a zero tolerance this time around. I don't know of anyone (red and yellow, black or white) who thinks Todd Dodge is a racist. This Gil Lebreton fella, a columnist from a major Texas newspaper, ie, the Fort Worth Star Telegram, comes out and says the same thing). Also, Coach Dodge's past players (both black & white) have come to his defense on these alleged charges, but still......... ............... all this is like someone who is accused of rape, although the accused might not have even been in the zip code of the rape when it occurred and then........... said alleged rapist gets fully exxonerated of such a blatant and intense charge it still becomes a case of............. the roaches that have fallen into the pie have still left their mark and the general public (as to quote Coach Dodge) feels that perception is reality. (And no, I am not calling our recent upset players roaches, either, OK)? Whoever on our campus and/or the Texas Chapter of the NAACP can put this (still) potential fire out--please get the water hoses out and do so. And although Coach Dodge's eventual exxoneration will turn up on page 12 of most DFW Metroplex and Texas newspapers, please all you good media types out there, still consider getting the word out of a person's complete innocence out to the public at the same level that it was with his alleged guilt, OK? BEAT NAVY! & GMG!

Congrats GrayEagleOne and all you Navy Vets who post or lurk GoMeanGreen.com. Add a few more thousand to next week's game (probably wearing Navy blue and mix in some extra green , too). What an energizer for the Mid-Shipmen. I was 12 last time Navy beat Notre Dame and I believe it was just a few weeks before JFK journied to Dallas. PS: Fellow UNT'ers and MG football players, check out both teams as Notre Dame plays its school song. Isn't there something about college football that the NFL just cannot produce? GMG!

Today: Go Navy! Next Week: GO MEAN GREEN!

2 Things: (1) Racism is against the law (2) Racism will get your fraternity kicked off the UNT campus for an indefinite amount of time (if not permanently). Your fraternity best heed the advice of one other fraternity at UNT that was kicked off campus a few years ago because of the racist outburst of just one of its members; in fact, that person may not have been a member at all but was at a function sponsored by that particular UNT fraternity. It is a serious matter and it only takes one person to screw up things for an entire group. Seriously, you might want to ask for a meeting with your frat's leaders to go over our main campus by-laws concerning the consequences of racism if what you are saying is the absolute truth.

UNT alum (and Eagles crooner/songwriter) Don Henley has much to say about the media in his hit "Dirty Laundry." Also, Dale Hansen on Channel 8 Sports once said concerning media coverage: "We never hear about all the planes that make it to their destinations, but we do hear about the plane that did not."

Lets "GREEN OUT" Fouts Field versus Navy! PS: I'm going to increase my guesstimate to 28,000 for this game now.

Count me in... As some have said, the night is at its darkest right before the dawn. Dawn is on the way, folks. We just have to be patient. PS: Totally unrelated, but eulessismore, I used to know a gal from your fair town. Her name: Eunice Eudy of Euless! (no kiddin', that was her real name before she married a fellow UNT alum of all of ours named Danny Mitchell (of Benbrook, Texas).