PlummMeanGreen

Yet ol' Norm can quote to any of us the starting line-up of the 1960 New York Yankees, their batting averages, the pitchers ERA's and all of their hobbies as if there's no tomorrow. I think ol' Norm knows exactly what he is saying when he says: North Texas State Shame on you, Norm, we know your memory is much better than that and some of us also remember when you and Brad Sham did our Mean Green football radio broadcast during Hayden Fry 1'st year on the former Dallas public radio station--WRR.

I am going to politely agree to disagree that this will be our worst season yet and here is why: Back in the mid-to-late 1960's North Texas was very fortunate to have had some very good athletes (most black by the way and some who I consider friends); anyway, the Mean Joe Greene Era at North Texas featured such stars as Cedric Hardman (former SF 49'er All Pro & UNT Hall of Famer; also, the late great Ron Shanklin who was catching Terry Bradshaw's passes before Bradshaw realized he was no longer at La Tech ; also, Steve Ramsey, a very formidable NCAA D1 QB who set a few NCAA records while in Denton and went on to play for the Denver Broncos; also, Chuck "The Hatchett" Beatty, who oldtimers tell me was quite a college football player in Mean Green Country. I have left some names out of the above paragraph, but out of that North Texas Mean Green football era came several NFL #1 draft choices and a team that was playing of such quality at one point that it almost beat a national championship contending Frank Broyles-coached Arkansas Razorback team in 1968. Shanklin told me over some Mexican food at Fort Worth's Dos Gringos that not only did UNT think it (basically) got robbed of a winning touchdown, but years later Ron (Shanklin) told me that even a Razorback from that 1968 team told him the Mean Green got robbed that day. Well, long story short....Those Rod Rust team's had all but been to the pinnacle of college football royalty with all the future NFL'ers during that era, but in 1972, the North Texas coach who led those high quality UNT football team (perhaps our best teams in our history); anyway, Coach Rod Rust had gone to the penthouse to the outhouse as he won "1" game his last year as Mean Green football coach, circa 1972. So I am not ever going to say that this has been our worst ever, but I would bet North Texas fans from the Mean Joe Greene era had thought the sky had fallen down upon them with Rod Rusts last season. Now to present day at UNT..............Todd Dodge is hardly following a Mean Green football program that had several NFL #1 draft choices and with all those teams playing in some pretty tall cotton back in the day, but rather Todd Dodge was our choice to (basically IMO) bottom-out DD's football program; a football program with many discipline problems on & off the field that hardly anyone could say DD's last 2 seasons would give any new UNT coach any semblance of momentum--even at the Sun Belt Conference's present standards. I would easily go out on a limb and bet that Coach Dodge himself may have thought after he took this job that in his inaugural season that it could be highly probable that this season may very well go just as it has to this point. I don't think he expected all the discipline problems, though, and I'm not just referring to the events of this week, either. I feel more than comfortable with what Todd Dodge is doing at our school & from all accounts I've heard since his hiring (from both black & white voices for what its worth) he is a fair and honest man. I personally hope the good officials of the Texas Chapter of the NAACP will come to Denton, Texas, be President "B's" honored guest for the Navy game in her presential suite and they all get to meet some of the very UNT black athletes that helped North Texas become the first traditional caucasian university in the Lone Star State to (and I quote Spike Lee)................"do the right thing" and integrate our alma mater back in the mid-1950's. I know we could go over-board with all this, but might not be too bad an idea to tell their fine committee that UNT may have very well been the last university to bestow an honorary doctorate to the late Coretta Scott King less than a year before she passed as I recall. That was a proud moment for all races that make up our most diversified UNT community. To My Fellow Caucasians: We cannot begin to know what all our black friends (both male & female) of any age level have had to put up with or endure in this country of ours. Yet I feel very few of us (if any) will have ever been any of their stumblingblocks as far as racism is concerned, though, and I really do feel that way. Most anyone I have ever known as a friend who attended North Texas (no matter what era, either), I can honest-to-goodness say that I don't know of a single one of that group that I got to know to some extent that I've ever heard any kind of hateful, racial remark whatsoever. I think part of all our pride of being college educated is that racism becomes something that only someone quite uninformed and, quite frankly, blatantly ignorant would consider having as one of their personal traits.

Good one, Emmitt!

So, Tony, if we count all the full time Game Day tailgaters who never come inside the stadium then might that number actually become possible? Wonder if anyone would know if Navy has a traveling marching band?

I believe this game will turn out to be "The Event" we all thought it would when it was scheduled last year. Such a game as this you can throw out the records because we are playing one of our USA service academies on our campus. A big crowd has been known to light the fire of the home team. We hope it doesn't light the fires of the visiting team, right?!?!? We have an open date this week, so there will be even more time for "buzz talk" for the Navy game in Denton, Texas, America. I read where Roger Staubach will be tailgating but will have to leave early for a committment; after all, he does have one of the most successful businesses in Big D. I know there is no way to guesstimate our attendance for this game since some have been told Navy received anywhere from 1,200 to 8-9,000 tickets for their allottment; yet their board says this game at Fouts Field is a sellout? Hmmmm? My guess: 25,000 I do think that having 2 weeks to sell more tickets for this game (since we have an open date this Saturday) might create even more local interests. I heard from a reliable source that the Alumnus Side at Fouts is already all but sold out.

If the NAACP follows up with this (and I hope they actually do for all concerned), then they could probably do so at about 119 other NCAA D1-A schools where discipline should never be confused as racism. YET.............if there is any inkling or hint of racism (which I don't think there was from reading Miller and other blacks accounts and even a lengthy post from a black ex UNT assistant football coach before the Todd Dodge era and that coach who said there was no racism among any of our present staff); nevertheless, if there was even an ounce of racism out at the Mean Green Village it would need to be corrected, but again.............. there have been enough black voices on campus and in Denton who seem to think there is really nothing to this at all. Sadly, though, when you yell "FIRE!" in a theatre (and there is no fire), before that fact is even known, people start immediately judging why in the hell didn't that theatre have better fire alarm systems in place? It almost becomes a no win for all parties concerned when perception become the sure-fire truth & reality in such things.

There is an attendance phenomena already at play at UNT with a 1 win team drawing the good crowds it already has in Mean Green Country. Heck, we didn't have these kind of per game averages even during most the years in a newly formed SBC when we made a few bowls--check it out. And what a great game to get some of our Texas Friday Night Heros to attend, eh? All the forces that have worked against UNT & Coach Dodge this year makes me think even moreso that very special things are on the way. Who really thought much more in the wins deparment as it is? Anyone else think it a real shame that DD could not have been here to completely bottom this thing out this year? Well, we are one year ahead of where we will eventually be because he ain't here. Still surprises me there is anything named after "he who begat black unis-gate" aimed directly at our school as his way to symbollically drop his drawers and moon the entire UNT community. And to a small handful who are still trying to canonize him as some kind of saint: You have not and will not be successful with the largest majority of us. Seems more fans at Fouts Field this deep into the season (even with only 1 win thus far) feel the same. So the few of you who still liked unranked SBC championships that DD Ball gave us might want to move to Utah where they are getting the same boring style of "no fan draw" football, because FWIW............we now have bigger fish to fry in Denton and Todd Dodge will be the head chef in this Mean Green Cafe. Many will be able to say we were behind "OUR" coach in his darkest hours while others will have to sneak back in through the back door to get back on the DodgeBall bandwagon (again) when things start getting much, much better; but no matter the situation, there is room for all on this Mean Green bandwagon. We will all look back to this inaugural year of DodgeBall in the near future and say: "For certain it didn't kill us so it did (in deed) make us all better fans and alums."

Take No Doz' Then Read... I thought 2-3 wins for this season last December and even right after TDodge's hiring. I based that forecast on the last 3-4 years recruiting before his hiring and even no matter what kind of coaching job we got this Fall. I think we are seeing signs of left-over discipline problems from the previous regime even with todays news. Folks, we simply need more D1-A athletes (with speed) in Mean Green Country to even compete in today's Sun Belt Conference and we have to stop using what used to work for us in the recent past as our barometer because that will create unrealistic expectations (which it has already done from many) and the false pretense that instant success is within our grasp. All that was do-able in the old Sun Belt Conference--but not in today's. As has been posted numerous times, Todd Dodge & his staff only had 17 NCAA-sanctioned days to recruit last Winter--in other words, while most NCAA D1-A schools were putting the icing on the cake of their recruiting, UNT's new coaching staff was just putting their cake in the oven. Early committs for this year are most promising and may even indicate to us a new (& most welcome) trend for all in Mean Green Country. The entire University of Missouri coaching staff were under the tutoring of Coach Todd Dodge & not while he was at North Texas, but rather while he was still at Southlake Carroll High School. He seems to have more respect from those in the Big 12 than among some of our own NCAA D1-A college football experts that used our "shooting fish in a barrell" early SBC years as their barometer for today's SBC (which we now know is a completely different Sun Belt Conference). IMHO.............Year 2 for Todd Dodge will be a tad better than Hayden Fry's Year 2 in Denton (2 wins). I think next year with good recruiting and (hopefully) an infusion JUCO talent in this Winter's recruiting class, that we will get close to .500 in 2008. Some of our microwave instant success fans may not want to hear that, but I think that is what Year 2 will be in Denton. NOTE: We will still have 3 years of DD's "early SBC" level of recruits on this team next Fall. (How many from that group were on the SBC's Pre-Season 2007 All Conference teams might give some on this board a hint of what was truly left behind in our cupboard for TDodge to inherit). I still feel Coach Dodge is 3 solid recruiting classes (2008, 2009 & 2010)) from being a SBC contender in this new, improved SBC we now find ourselves part of. It is the hope of many that these classes will be the beginning of what we haven't had in Denton since the mid-1970's and that would be teams who beat some high profile schools and gain Top 25 rankings. It took Boise State a few years after we all split from the Big West to start their annual Top 25 rankings as I recall. Year 3: I believe by Year 3 we will start winning the SBC games we were a really short of enough D1-A talent to have won this year. Coaching or not--its still about recruiting D1-A talent (with speed) and I think we now have the team speed on this year's team that used to start seasons 0 & 6 and then make miraculous runs thru the SBC all the way to New Orleans. Again, this is not Norval Pohl's SBC anymore. Year 4: We would have had 3 TDodge recruited classes under our belt and this is the year we compete for the SBC championship and hopefully as a football program that is in or close to the Top 25. It just ain't going to happen over-night, folks, like it did in a new Wright Water's "throw-together" league of mostly recent 1-AA upstart schools.

For those who are newbies or just trolling GoMeanGreen.com, it should be pointed out that Ramone Archie is an African American, a former (very talented) Mean Green football player and also a former UNT assistant football coach pre-Todd Dodge era in Mean Green Country. And for your posting of this thread and your thoughts, Coach Archie...........a hearty and most sincere appreciation from your fellow alums and the Mean Green Nation. We all hope all is well for you in all your endeavors because after all........you are one of us who gives a d@mn about our alma mater and specifically, its football program.

I had heard 7,000 Fouts Field tickets allotted to Navy which best to my knowledge if that were the number would be the largest visitor contingency I can ever remember in Fouts Field history. I really don't think Baylor brought 7K to our last game with the Bears at Fouts. Last time I was at the BX over here at what used to be Carswell, I think at least half of that 7K were inside the BX doing some Christmas shopping. (Many Navy veterans shop over here in the West O' Plex aka Fort Worth/Tarrant County).

A post that pretty well sizes things up for very many of us and as for as Vito's DRC column talking about someone shouting that TDodge go back to Southlake Carroll well, uh.................... That big mouth was wearing blue and white & was from Middle Tennessee! ! ! GMG!

Amen to both you & Old Timer, Stebo. I gave DD 7 years (out of 9--long enough for any D1-A coach BTW) to show upward bound-ness (future rankings for starters) for our football program, yet he still kept on recruiting (only) at a SBC level of competition (which in its first 4 years was a very weak league of rag-tag throw-together football teams). Not only did that kind of recruiting hurt us now, but it literally kept Darrell Dickey from getting "not one" interview for another D1-A HFC's job. Anyone want to tie a few things together with even that and why that happened? This forum is going to have to get out of its burn the barn down to kill the mouse mentality. It will only hurt recruiting for those recruits who do read this board (and their parents) according to a former UNT assistant football coach who said both parties do read GoMeanGreen.com. So...............do any of you really want to hurt our alma mater's football recruiting in the future so we can (in deed) rid ourselves of our very low profile most recent past? Well? Most of us didn't forecast too many wins this season in light of the last 2 seasons. As OldTimer said, lets give TDodge the benefit of the doubt (and the same amount of time DD Ball had which one UNT Board of Regent chairman of the board forced on us to hang onto much longer than was needed. 4 bowl games as SBC Champion its first 4 years of operation for certain; but whose to say Rick V may have found a better fit for UNT (with positive PR at the top of the list) HFC back in 2001 who would have had UNT as "ranked" SBC football champion sorta' like that WAC gang has been having of late? We deserve better than what we've been getting the last 2 1/2 decades in Mean Green Country and lets all hope Todd Dodge will be the man--but lets give him time to be the man with his recruits and give him more than 1 season to prove it. If you went into a sales office as that sale's office new Director of Sales for a department full of sales persons you inherited, would you immediately want to be judged on your predeccessor's record with that same sales staff..................and in your first 3 months of production to boot? Didn't think so....

What has been going on this season was determined on the Winter Texas HS recruiting trails the previous 3-4 years; sorry, there is just no other way to say it. I would be curious to know how the next 2 recruiting classes (even beyond this early class which includes a Texas State Top 100 Quarterback); anyway, had we had those DFW/Texas HS recruited classes on campus now, how many games would we have won this Fall with mostly Dodge Ball-type players such as we are are seeing in his early class of commits who will soon enough be housed in one of our fabulous ultra-modern Mean Green Village dorms? Looking at this another way, the good part of all this is that there were some winnable SBC games this Fall with just a small handful of Dodge's recruits (that he had 17 days to recruit after his hiring last December). I think some chill pills need to be prescribed in abundance for a hardy handful on this board who after every loss this season with DD Ball players now under a totally different system seem to always want to burn the Mean Green barn down to kill the mouse. You who gave Dickey 5 years to have his first above .500 season in Denton need to consider hosing down your torches.

Outside of getting our school to build a new A/C of which Mattress Mac paid 1/9'th of its cost with his $1 million (and with his 1/9'th held our school hostage "again" making us name a practice facility after a coach with a 9 year under .500 W/L record; yet what did 4 bowl games really do for us, especially as an SBC champion and an unranked one at that? Did it get us in CUSA? Hellsbells, a school that had the only Death Penalty in NCAA history was suddenly exonnerated and forgiven by other CUSA-ers' as to get them in that league before we even had a chance to say Hello (all you) Darlings of the rest of CUSA--you who should have had the gonads to stand up over one school, ie, a 2 decade-loser of a school that had an N.C. 70 years ago now. BUT WHERE DO OUR PROBLEMS REALLY BEGIN? Many on this board's answer for our future is to replace one 30,000 seat stadium with another one (in light of all the boom growth happening right under our noses). I think NT Exes and Mean Green fans across the board need to raise their own expectation for what a school of our size and scope can ultimately do (and I don't think that was even happening during a 4 year bowl run, either, cause look at how many would be satisfied with being an unranked SBC football champion just to get back to what used to be a New Orleans that was larger than Denton County in population pre-Katrina)? On another subject, and since hindsight is most always 20/20: Might it have almost been better for Darrell Dicky to have really been asked to come back for a (gulp) 10'th year so he could have been here for the complete bottoming out of what is still mostly his program? (I jest, of course). Yet what if he had come back to show us what he really left behind? Even coming back after what was his "black-jerseys-gate" football program which might have been his style all the time as far as his symbolically mooning his very employer and his employer's stock-holders, ie, NT students, NT Exes and Mean Green fans? Didn't black-jerseys-gate (with poor recruiting even on a SBC level his last 3-4 years) prove that discipline problems existed even beyond his own football players? The attitudes left behind by such things as black-jerseys-gate (the tip of the iceberg was even that?) will only be gone when a couple more Graduation Days go by. So carry on, Coach Dodge, many of us are really glad you (and your long-term upside) are here in spite of what you have inherited--where talking the talk is what we too many times have always done best in Denton, Texas, America. Again, replace a 30K seat stadium with a, uh, 30K seat stadium? That level of thinking is one of our main problems at UNT, folks, just as DD recruiting "ONLY" to win the Sun Belt Conference was yet another which now has us sucking hind teat in even the.............Sun Belt Conference. And sorry, DD was given 5 years to reach .500 so I think Todd Dodge needs just a bit more time to (yes) get his players to do what will eventually make us forget DD Ball and no OOC wins over significant schools was ever even around Mean Green Country. And to you Coach Hayden Fry: Can you even believe all this all these years later since you left town?

And if Denton, Texas, America, had more citizens like Drex living inside its city limits, we would now be talking about expanding a stadium of 40K seats to one of about 55-60K. Drex is one of Denton's best of the best NT Exes/MG fans of the 8-10,000 Denton-based fans I suppose who come out to most Mean Green football games in most years. Just think................for each Game Day if we regularly started getting 10K from Denton/Denton County............10K from our NT DFW (& beyond) alumnus base........... and 10K UNT students............then a 30,000 seat stadium seems rather small for our future (of which forecasters predict even more dramatic growth).

Edited & A Few More Thoughts Added On Tuesday AM Amazing how the President of the United States of America wanted a White House audience with Coach Todd Dodge (and got it) and how a future NFL Hall of Fame NFL Coach & former coach of your Dallas Cowboys wanted to hire Todd Dodge "straight from HS" to America's Team? And this same Coach Todge who is still apparently going to be judged for his 1'st year by mostly DD Baller/sympathizers (all 50 of them and all 50 apparently GMG.com posters it seems) and DD worshippers that apparently thought Bottom 25/SBC unranked teams that went to bowl games 4 years in a row is the best that our alma mater will ever be able to do? Now even more amazingly...........some of their attitudes even suggests that they want all "THAT" high quality style of (boring) unranked football back in Mean Green Country! Oh sure, we did beat a bunch of bad SBC teams some of whom newly D1-A classified schools. BUT ONE HAS TO WONDER: Would those close to 20K MG fans watching a Todd Dodge-coached football team with mostly DD recruits at those first 2 home games would have wanted all that & a bag of DD Ball chips back in Denton? From our present group of masses attending MG football games I'd venture a guess of--hardly not. YET.........might a 10'th year of DD Ball have had a problem getting out even 20,000 total fans for 2 games? I'm sorry, but some of the band-wagon jumper-off'ers" on this forum and what they are posting during the same kind of times we endured in DD's first 4 years has become a sad statement of some segment of Mean Green fandom, but then it will be even more predictable just how quickly many of these same ones will be praising Todd Dodge when he gets thru this time of transitioning and some will even say how they were behind Dodge Ball all the way & even during its darkest days--the days Todd Dodge was quietly trying to (without ever criticizing the train wreck he followed BTW); anyway, while he was quietly trying to dismantle the previous coaches football program that ended in team unis' which colors usually symbolizes times of mourning and all this in one football season after a 4 year bowl run showed us all that things were not as they had really seemed.........; or moreso................. .......a football program that 4 bowl game appearances in a row seemed to have not built any semblance of a foundation at all in Denton, Texas, America, for any successor of DD (no matter who that would be) and not a situation whereas the next Mean Green HFC would have any immediate chance to be successful with a program that "solid foundation" would not be the words to describe what had been left behind....... ............you know, the same kind of foundations Boise State Bronco football showed could be left in place when one of their coaches got a higher NCAA D1-A calling? And FWIW............BSU only had 3 or 4 head foodtball coaches over a period covering about 10 years with each being able to build upon a solid foundation left behind by their predeccessors over in Bronco Country.

My bad...You're right--I'm wrong on that one. BUT....the Utah BCS Series Game game (versus ?) was I'd suppose not nearly as exciting nor was one that created the buzz that the Boise State win over the OU Boomers did.

If not FAU, look for Troy U to get some CUSA buzz. Our being in the Lone Star State (and DFW) is a CUSA deal-stopper for dear ol' alma mater I have feared all along. IF...... UNT officials could meet with Boise State (our former Big West league-mate) and guarantee us (if that even possible) that they have no real chance for MWC membership and are staying put in the WAC, then I'd say we need to re-consider this whole WAC issue. I don't know if the SBC will ever lose its stigma or reputation in many of our lifetimes--maybe even some of you Young Gun Alum's lifetimes. Being in the WAC will also force UNT to get in the facility-arms race quicker which even a few SBC schools seem to be ahead of us. THE MAIN WAC SELLING BENEFIT NOW: After all, the WAC is the only "non-BCS" league to produce a team for the BCS Championship Series to actually win one of its bowl games (last year vs OU). FWIW, that is pretty solid recruiting fodder when you can tell a kid that one of your league's teams has already passed up half of all BCS (and Big 12) schools to gain a BCS Series bowl berth and "one of our WAC schools" even won the gol' darned football game. We need a solid guarantee from Boise State U with this one, folks--that IMHO, of course, and we know what opinions have been compared to.

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Alabama and UNT? Sorta' apples and oranges wouldnt' you say? Are you not understanding, untbowler, how the SBC passed us by during the DD Ball Era? They were probably passing us by during all 3 times FAU beat Darrell Dickey-coached MG football teams truth be known. The SBC also passed us by while SLC was winning Texas 5A UIL Championships (best HS football in the USA) with Todd Dodge being the national coach of the year twice if I recollect. OK, he was a HS football coach--big deal, but DD was a journeyman assistant college football coach whose dad probably played key parts in helping his son get a few gigs, too, right? If DD's last name had been Smith, would he have ever gotten the UNT job in the first place? I say he wouldn't have even gotten an interview--like he didn't after 4 bowl games, either. I post of DD Ball because that is the bridge that Todd Dodge is going to have to dismantle and build on a more solid foundatoin that (once again) 4 bowl games showed we did not have such a foundation all the time while the rest of the SBC was stocking up players (many with speed) and getting ready to pass us by in DD's last 2-3 years. And no, Coach Dodge's inherited team did not beat Scnellenberger's FAU team this year, either, for you who think he was supposed to be SBC Coach of the Year with DD recruits................but DD Ball did not beat Coach Schelly in his first 3 tries against the veteran coach who had a football program less than 7 year old. Again, folks, we are all going to have to take our strong doses of patience.

None of us want to hear the word rebuilding because that term in NCAA D1-A college football means we are going to have to take our licks, but that is what we have ahead for us, folks. OK, I WILL USE THIS ILLUSTRATION JUST ONE MORE TIME: Like in the award-winning movie Bridge Over the River Kwai, when the British POW's hurriedly built the first bridge for their captors, it was found to not be on a sollid foundation and what did they have to do with both British generals and Japanese leaders agreeing with each other that this had to be done? Well, they both knew that the original bridge would have to be completely torn down and a brand new bridge would have to be built from scratch BUT............... .................a bridge that would be be built the right way from the git-go and a bridge that would be built on a solid foundation. No quick fixes...you know, like running thru a brand new SBC league of throw-togethers most of us from the Hayden Fry had never even heard of (except maybe a couple); and then in this fledgling league going to 4 bowl games as an unranked football program and then FAST FORWARD............. ..............the foundation of that Mean Green bridge became to waver as we witnessed all our SBC conference mates doing their best Road-Runner "BEEP! BEEP! as we watched a Mean Green football program that had gone to 4 straight bowl games as the SBC representative "suddenly(?)" fall apart at the seams? Folks, does that suggest that our original bridge was not built on a true foundation that would show us the kind of results that the Troy U football program has been getting almost from the Grand Opening of their new football stadium when they beat the #17 ranked Missouri Tigers on a ESPN 1 national telecast? Well, you might say: "But wait a mintue, we did go to 4 bowl games, right?" Well.............we did but what did that as a Bottom 25 ranked "bowl team" and a buck buy us in Mean Green Country? OK, we got a new A/C out of the deal (which most D1-A programs now have), but what else? Many of us on GoMeanGreen.com made a folk hero out of Todd Dodge before he even recruited his first official UNT recruit last Winter during those big 17 days he had to throw together some semblance of his first class. YET.............never one time did that man say he would come into Denton & turn what he inherited around in one year--not even 2--maybe not even 3 years. DD was in Year 5 before he went over .500. DD in the opinion of many inherited a better sitution that Simon left behind for a coach who would be in the Big West and then a brand new conference of schools most of us never heard of back in the Fry Era. Coach Dodge & Staff have a bridge that they will need to build from scratch, but the kind of bridge that may one day in the next 10 years get him a Top 10 job interview (although he & family love where they live) BUT FOR US he and staff leaving behind the kind of program that we haven't had in over 30 years and a MG football program that another coach can continue; you know, like Boise State has done with their last 4 head football coaches leading up to their BCS Championship Series bowl win over OU last bowl season? Patience is a virture we will all have to become familar with, fellow alums & MG fans. Let's enjoy this journey while we do, though.

And FWIW, folks, until Coach Dodge & his staff start recruiting speed, we are going to have some more SBC losses since most of those schools seemed to have being doing that fairly successful while we were going to bowl games and getting beat at bowl games because? ? ? ? ?.......UNT didn't have speed to keep up with most of the CUSA schools we were playing in those bowl games, and unfortunately for all of us now, this thing called speed has translated to even most of the SBC schools. TDodge has a mix of experienced college coaches on this staff mixed with some from a Texas 5A HS level who were pretty damn good at that level. In fact, while they were at that Texas 5A high school, they were able to build bridges with other Texas HS football coaches across the Lone Star State that our previous staff had all but somewhat alienated from the UNT football program; so if we'll just all give a new HFC in Mean Green Country the time to (truly) recruit his kids with the kind of speed he already knows he will have to have to even compete in the lowly Sun Belt Conference, nevertheless, if we'd give him the time, we'll all be better off for doing so. For you who think we were supposed to win this year with a team that won 5 games the previous 2 seasons with a coach who really didn't even want to be in Denton and do all the PR that HFC's do, maybe its time for a handful of you to go back to College Football 101 classes again? AND............if that statement pisses you off, go ahead--make my day........................sue me.........................but some need to get ahold of themselves and try to gain some semblance of the same perspective that I'm sure Todd Dodge had when he first decided to take the North Texas job in the first place--with a piece of shit track stadium that is our infamous t_rd that just keeps getting polished over and over again-year after year after year after year. I'm almost 60 freakin' years old and all I want to see now is the implosion or demolition of a stadium that has probably (truth be known) kept us out of at least 2 better leagues than the one we're in. Todd Dodge did not take on an easy job at North Texas, sports fans, and for proof ask every coach who has been in good ol' Denton, Texas, America since Hayden Fry. For many of us, its been one helluva' roller coaster ride. And for you Young Gun Alums, none of us older nestors would ever wish the next 25 years be like our last quarter of a century in Mean Green Country; you know, like in our not having one Top 25 (maybe even Top 50?) ranked NCAA D1-A football team? The NO's Bowls were nice, but not as a Bottom 25 ranked program.

Still........why make a new HFC at UNT who only had 17 days to recruit last Winter as responsible for all this that some seem to be doing? We have a dreadfully slow football team of which most were not recruited under Todd Dodge's watch, folks. Why is that so difficult a concept for some to really understand? It's been said before but why not say it again since its the truth of our present situation at hand: Most of these players were recruited to play in a Sun Belt Conference that no longer exists. Speed is the missing ingrediant for our team and in the SBC's first few years, you just didn't have to have as much of it. Again, why judge TDodge on (mostly) recruiting classes that were hardly highly ranked even from an SBC perspective? Some of you are trying to make TDodge a bad coach with DD Ball recruits. Just as a reminder, DD's 1'st 4 years at UNT and his last 2 years for certain you're all aware of and hardly needs to be posted: 1998 3 & 8 1999 2 & 9 2000 3 & 8 2001 5 & 6 And we have a hardy handful who have the audacity to judge TDodge's present tenure as if he's already had his first 4 years in Denton? Come on folks, lets show that our UNT education was truly worth it all by our showing all our educated sense of reasoning abilities with what we have with our present situation as well as to all the reasons it is this way for the time being.

Interesting fact Dunham just mentioned that Troy U and Army has more Florida HS signings than any other non-Florida schools. You'd never read this kind of stuff in the Denton Wretched/Chronicle: No matter the outcome of today's game it's still sorta' bothersome that our top UNT officials were lulled to sleep when by the time of our 4'th bowl game (where the USM Golden Eagles completely dismantled us) we were still no where even close to any semblance of a Top 25 ranked football program YET...................... (1) All the while....Troy U was building what was basically a new stadium (while we argue about how large ours should be while even moreso, we wonder where our Big Donor will come to build whatever size its initial capacity). (2) All the while...Troy U was building a team that would (before a weeknight national ESPN TV audience) beat a #17 ranked Big 12 school, ie, the Missouri Tigers in the grand re-opening of their stadium in Troy, Alabama. During that same time, we played such schools only for the money with teams whose leaders never suggested winning games like Troy U has been winnning (or playing very close) the last few years. (3) All the while...Troy U was building quality recruiting classes who even last year tore apart the Rice U Owls in the NO's Bowl (and while Troy U was building their recruiting class quality we during a 4 year run of bowls had so many of our higher UNT officials thinking we had one helluva' real juggernaut of a D1-A football program (albeit never ranked). How naive' we can really be in Denton. It seems our problems at UNT when it comes to inter-collegiate athletics have most always started toward the very top of our administration coupled with those who would be in charge of our Board of Regents. While they were fiddling away our athletic program to what would turn into mediocrity in (gulp) the Sun Belt Conference, Troy U was building a program that will eventually be a ranked SBC football program--Hide..Watch & See. For certain hindsight (most times) should be 20/20, but at UNT sometimes we don't seem to have clear vision even when we look back at our mistakes and try to understand them or correct them; that is, behind the reasons this football program is where it is now (even before TDodge was hired) while we had a 4 year run of bowls with our teams not even being close to Top 25 (or Top 20). In fact, we haven't had a Top 20 team since I was a young man in my 20's. And now, soon enough, I will be 6 decades old and still cannot quite fathom how for so many years several regimes of UNT officials were all but clueless when it came to their knowing when to hire (and fire) personnel that would give a major Texas university located in a major league sports market and in the nations 6'th largest TV market to boot some semblance of a chance to have a representative NCAA Division One football program; or for that matter, an entire varsity athletic program. So some wonder why so many are putting most all their hopes for any higher profile football future in Denton with a Todd Dodge-coached Mean Green football program? FWIW....................UNT AD Rick V was (and is) a true visionary and tried to make a major personnel change back in October of 2001 that might have us truly ready for CUSA today, but he was veto'd by yet another UNT higher echelon official who just (basically) didn't know his caca from his oatmeal as far as the kind of leadership that would produce for us a winning non-Bottom 20 kind of football program. (FWIW, Troy U is now closer to filling a CUSA membership than we will probably ever be and the fact that they are not in Texas would probably help their eventual case with eastern CUSA member schools). We all need to have hope above all hope that this thing is headed in the right direction and that upper UNT officials will keep their traditional most uncanny un-Midas touch (and hands) out of the way of what our real UNT A.D. was hired to and is trying to do (like Rick V was attempting to do when he was veto'd back in October of 2001)? In fact, if our present upper echelon UNT officials want to show they have a real authentic Midas Touch needed by a university of our size and scope and (BTW) found at most schools like our own, thenlet them begin doing that by simply finding a Big Donor; you know, similar to the one that just gave crosstown Texas Women's University $5,000,000 in what a donation such as that had it been pledged to UNT would have been a record-breaker for us from an indivual donor?

Or maybe UT is just needing the extra pub'? Any non-Texan visiting our state not so familiar with all our universities would go into many stores across our state and go back home swearing we only had 2 universities in the Lone Star State (if you go by college gear sold en mass in most stores). Not sure that will change in my life time anymore, like I'm afraid so many other things won't.