PlummMeanGreen

Just imagine when all cylinders of this football program are running in sync, folks. One could sense the quiet excitement of Mean Joe Greene about what he was seeing in Mean Green Country last evening in his interview with George Dunham on the Mean Green Radio Network last night. GMG! PS: There is a Dallas Cowboys /Patriots thread on Non-UNT Sports since this is (after all) the sacred section of GoMeanGreen.com for: Mean Green Football! And FWIW........most Cowboys threads put in this Mean Green Football section get moved anyway, correct administrators?

STAND UP! STAMPEDE! GO COWBOYS! As much as we love the Cowboys, they are a big part Mean Green and other area colleges football programs sorta' take a back seat with DFW and the state-wide media, right? And..........they are a Non-UNT Sports subject I think most would agree, too.

That kind of speed across the board with TDodge's future recruiting classes could fool around and get us into a BCS Championshiop Bowl. Ask Boise State 'bout that.

I DJ'd an event this evening, couldn't make the game because of it and my gut feeling told me I would miss something special at Fouts Field. I am watching the game as I post. We've just put the game away I do believe. __________________________________________ MEAN JOE GREENE AT FOUTS FIELD TONIGHT! (Per radio interview he likes what he is seeing at North Texas). George Dunham of the Mean Green Radio Network did a very nice interview with former UNT & Steeler great Mean Joe Greene at half time and Joe said he was liking all that he was seeing at North Texas. Dunham called Mean Joe what many old time NFL'ers have called him for years, ie, "the greatest defensive lineman to ever play in the NFL." Mean Joe said he loved coming back to campus to remember his days on campus and also told Dunham that he met his wife at UNT, too. ___________________________________________ IMO.............UNT made a giant leap of progress this Game Day being 0 & 5 before kick-off and having this kind of crowd support (20K?) which tells many of us that our fan base is truly growing; also, with the game being televised on local DFW TV cost us some of our usual fans! Hellsbells! Look at the many of us who are posting & watching the game as we post! Our enrollment growth will continue at UNT and our attendance at Fouts (and our future new stadium @ the MG Village) will be even larger than ever once this program gets back in the winning cycle. Size of enrollment does matter and we will see more students support in the future from our burgeoning on-campus enrollment. Game still has a little over 8 minutes and this has been a great night for all North Texas Exes, all Mean Green fans everywhere and the entire...... MEAN GREEN NATION! PS: Rome was not built over-night. So lets all enjoy our construction job together, right?

Just curious, but when did Friday night pep rally's become a new part of our Mean Green culture? Really a good idea if the students are actually showing up en mass for them. Friday night HS football games may be a problem for our coaches to always show up since they are usually out on the recruiting trail to see our Friday Night Lights (heros). GMG!

SUMG, with that post, I'm calling your preacher tomorrow. Na-Na-Na-Na-Naaaaa-Na! GMG! PS: I was really thinking more about 3 wins early last Winter. I just felt we didn't have the team speed on defense to keep up with an ever-improving Sun Belt Conference and like most of you, I have yet to meet the coach who can (in deed) coach speed.

Adding a little outside containment with our "D" this year may have translated into a win or 2, too; who knows, still may yet. I'm satisfied that we have almost half the battle won during these beginning days of the DodgeBall Era and that would be our offense. Do you have the feeling that it could one day be an unstoppable juggernaut? Even SMU'ers were duly impressed with what they saw with our offense only the 2'nd time it had been on the field of battle during the TDodge Era. Now its just the simple matter of getting our "D" back in focus and then we start our march to what I really believe could be higher mountaintops than we saw during the Hayden Fry Era in Mean Green Country, GrayEagleOne. I really do believe that even as we shoot for win #1. FWIW, the SBC has shown us all to be a league you can finish last one year and then in 1'st place the next--we just need to be the SBC standard-bearer that gets Top 25 rankings with our future bowl teams. If the SBC champion beats us to the draw of doing that this December--it will be fine with most all of us I'm sure. GMG!

REVISED MID-MORNING ON TUESDAY A 5 Year Window For This Recent Former UNT Coach To Reach or Go Over .500 in Wins/Losses...(No names mentioned, of course). His 1'st 5 Years At UNT: 1998 3 & 8 1999 2 & 9 2000 3 & 8 2001 5 & 7 2002 8 & 5 A_V, I know many of us (just as yourself) have seen it all in Mean Green Country thru the decades, but there would be many of us who would only ask you to give this new HFC at least half the time it took DD to go over .500 (although I believe based on the work ethic of TDodge & Staff shown with their early 2008 recruiting committs that he will reach .500 in 3 years which is almost half the time it took DD to reach his first .500 season). FWIW...........I don't think there are really going to be any alternatives for those who want something different for quite awhile. Many of us gave DD Ball at least 7 years of support (out of his "amazingly" 9 years under contract). I think he had 3 winning years out of 9--almost an unprecedented almount of time for any NCAAA D1-A HFC to even reach a cumulative .500 record (which he did not accomplish in his 9 years). Admittedly, a very weak SBC in its formative years was just what the doctor ordered for DD Ball, but it did give us some much-needed moments to at least get our heads above water with the 4 bowl games, but that is just about all it did. In our last bowl game in the Big Easy, Southern Miss showed us all just how far back our "4 bowl trips in a row program" was to even matching up with some of the non-BCS school's best football programs. The USM game resulsts at the NO's Bowl was a big red flag for many of us on this board as to what we were foolin ourselves about with this football program. Some of us actually think Mean Green football can get back in the Top 25 much like it did in the 1970's--that (in fact) is our bar for Mean Green football. Most NT Exes usually set the bar from the best times of their respective eras, but I think we all know that if a D1-A program is not shooting for Top 25 rankings, then what the hell is is setting as its goals? And I think all eras of the Mean Green Nation would really prefer that the next time we go to any bowl that we do so as a legitimate Top 25 football program, a la Boise State U (our former Big West Conference-mates). I cannot fathom that we would have lesser goals in Denton, Texas, America. Like in the movie Bridge Over the River Kwai we, too, have a bridge at UNT that needs to be torn down and rebuilt (almost from scratch, recruiting-wise) yet this time around to be built on much more solid ground. Darrell Dickey did leave some fine D1-A players behind, but (again) just not near enough for Todd Dodge to have won this year. I mostly settled on 3 wins his first year, but whethet its 3 or 0, there ain't much difference between either number as far as how it relates to the Big Picture or down the road with DodgeBall. I Found This To Be A Shocking Revelation.... According to the SBC TV color commentator for our ULaLa game last Saturday night, TDodge only had 17 "official" days to recruit last Winter--that is not even enough time to let kids know what our school colors or mascots are. Who on this board would say that the 2007 version of the SBC is the same one we saw during a 4 year bowl run? OOC results even this season would suggests that this is a much stronger SBC than we've seen in the past, ie, even the recent past. This is the SBC that Todd Dodge inherited--no excuses with that, either--just the cold, unadulterated and blatant fact of the matter at hand for us at this time. Many just think Todd Dodge gives us that opportunity to build a better bridge on a more solid foundation, but it just ain't going to happen overnight in this microwave age as well as need for instant success for some college football fans. (Anyone else think the TAMU "FIRE COACH FRAN" movement has had a bit of a setback the last few days? Yet to judge DodgeBall after 5 games with mostly players that were, in deed, (like it or not) recruited by DD. This was the hand that was deal't TDodge when he took our job and he probably knew coming in the true reality of the situation. For this team to have won the SBC in 2007, it would have needed to have been the same SBC that Darrell Dickey had inherited. FWIW, even in the 2001 season there had to be some uncommon miracles to win 2 or 3 games that got us to a bowl with a losing record and in the eyes of on particular UNT Chairman of the Board of Regents, bought DD another 6 years in Denton (albeit 6 years of only setting the SBC as our bar or standard of success. FWIW..........that low set bar in the early days of the SBC is what kept Darrell Dickey from getting not one NCAA D1-A upper profile school job interview. Yet might even the most objective college football fans not associated with UNT in any form or fashion probably agree to the person that 5 games in a HFC's 1'st season is hardly a fair enough time to judge a program? Anyone wanting to judge this program after 5 games needs to only refresh their memories as to the time it took TDodge's predeccessor to even hit his first .500 season in Denton as shown in the bold print above. If some of our fans are going to keep trying to burn our barn down to kill what they perceive to be a mouse... ... lets just all quit kidding ourselves even one more second about all this while at the same time letting a hardy handful of our fans to face the reality of the one who took 9 years to build the kind of barn we now have--but at the same time even seem to want to (unfairly) blame our present UNT coaching staff of building this barn.

Tony, I'm afraid we just have some of the "Happy With Un-Ranked DD Ball Bowl Teams Who Got Wallopped In The Big Easy Which Really Showed Just How Far Most Our Bowl Teams Were From The True D1-A Big Time" crowd here who feel some false sense of vindication for their fella's style of football and all the low profile disguised "success?" that seemed to come with it that seems to have kept a hardy handful of these posters happy as fans. I'd rather have a winless DodgeBall team in 2007 that has an upbeat, positive-thinkin' (and positive talkin') HFC and who offers us a true upside we haven't had for almost 2 1/2 decades in Mean Green Country rather than............ ................ a SBC unranked football champion that goes & gets its head handed to itself on a silver platter by some CUSA team and a program whose leader gave us nothing but "downside", ie, bad karma, non-stop negative radio comments about our school and its alums/fans and black jerseys at the end of his own under .500 in W's/L's nine year career in Denton and while allowing his players to wear those black jerseys as he was trying to make some semblance of a statement--idiotic and bush league as it all unfolded; anyway, I'd rather have the underlined former than the latter any day of the year or decade................... and from reading this board, I think that could very well be the preference of many others, too--present defensive problems and all (which BTW, can eventually be corrected).

Time for Wright Waters to start seriously courting La Tech to take FIU's place?

And your main point that will inspire all the potential recruits and family's of those potential UNT recruits who (according to former UNT Coach Ramone Archie) do (in fact) read message boards like www.GoMeanGreen.com? Anyone with some solutions after 5 games, too? I think by now we all know what the problems are (as documented on www.GoMeanGreen.com)?

Shouldn't We Wait Till The End of Season When All The Results Are In Before We Start Comparing Statistics? The fact that this entire coaching job is being assessed after only 5 games is what is out-ragous to many. Hellsbells! DD Ball didn't usually begin its annual miraculous "SBC Ascension" until after he had been in Denton several years with 3 win, 2 win, 3 win and 5 wins seaons before the SBC became an official new conference of (basially) unknown schools (to many of us); and then those bowl years in the fledgling SBC (hardly the SBC of today, either) we would start those first few SBC seasons at 0 & 6, 1 & 5 or 2 & 4, etc, etc, etc, causing some to think we were on the verge of being the next Notre Dame after all those miserable OOC beginnings and then we would (somehow) march thru a new league and win that new league's football championship.... .....BTW and as a reminder--not one of those teams ranked in or even near the Top 25. Sadly enought, that level of Bottom 25 "so-called" success seemed to do it for so many on GMG.com who seem to (presently) be off the DodgeBall Bandwagon, but we all know how fickle Texas college football fans can be, now don't we? (And with that I defter to the "FIRE COACH FRAN" crowd at TAMU as TAMU now stands at the top of the Big 12 South at 2 and 0). Also, a hardy handful should be reminded that UNT made these miraculous runs thru a "just born" conference of throw-togethers and.................... when UNT had a 6 year head-start of being back at the NCAA D1-A level over most of the rest of the SBC (many of whom just out of NCAA D1-AA. Truth be known, UNT should have been building a true NCAA D1-A program much better than any upstart D1-A SBC program in the league's inception. Anyone really want to question just how bad a league the SBC was in its beginnings? The 2001 SBC versus the 2007 SBC is almost apples and organges and I defer to OOC games schools (except UNT) were winning even during some bowl years). If FAU had officially been in our league, their wins over us would have probably kept us out of at least 2 NO's Bowl games. Yet again..............when has any football program in the history of the NCAA been judged for its total worth after 5 "freakin'" football games? Sorta' makes some on this message board lose a bit of credibility for what their apparent knowledge of college football at its highest division is truly all about. Did any of you ever get this kind of assessments of doom and gloom from outsiders for your own jobs as quickly as a hardy handful who would not fill 1/3'rd of Section A or Section G (the 2 skinny sections on the Press Box Side of Fouts Field)?

You Had Me At Hello &.....We Will Win In Denton In Due Time. Thanks, charlie nt73 for your post. We hear ya'! Yet maybe its more of a thing that most of us have all been guilty of just having a bit "too much" green in our blood and (thus) a reason we "ALL" want this thing to work out & be successful so damn much in Denton? We all want this thing up in Denton to be successful for everyone's sake starting with Rick V, the Athletic Dept. Staff who have had to take it on the chin probably much too often from way too many of us (and I'll fess' up....with me toward the top of that list at times)..............we all want this thing to work so much for our bright, innovative and energetic Head Football Coach Todd Dodge (one who has inspired many of us who followed all this for decades to not give up with Mean Green football and that positive thinking and positive doing will soon reign); we want things to work out for Coach Mendoza, too. Put yourselves in his shoes, folks? Would you want more than 5 games before you made it to the Mean Green Day Court of www.GoMeanGreen.com? I sure as hell would (and I'd bet 99.0% of you would, too). Most of us have made comments about Dickey's recruiting. I think the consensus of that is, though, that Coach DD did recruit some fine D1-A football players, but I think many of us have also said he just didn't recruit the volume of those kind of athletes we needed to win at the NCAA D1-A level and even beyond the Sun Belt Conference (which is what most of us will call real progress for Mean Green football). I've see a few Mean Green football games, too, charlie nt 73, and I just happen to have a gut feeling that the former UT starting QB and now UNT Head Football Coach is just what the doctor ordered for the University of North Texas............ ................ in fact, I'm like SUMG in a post of his yesterday inasmuch as I, too, wish UNT officials would extend Todd Dodges contract now*, make his buyout clause much larger than it is, as well as give him and all his assistant coaches raises to match schools we'd all like our program to be associated with AND........hellsbells! give everyone in the UNT Athletic Dept. raises, too, because they have had to put up & endure way too much bullshit from many of us on www.GoMeanGreen.com. Do any of us get daily appraisings of all of our jobs on an internet message board read by more than anyone of you would believe? (Ask Harry about that one--it staggers the mind). I've been wrong about too many of my own personal assessments of things going on in Denton, BUT...............like most of you, I also do know what I want our program to look like nationally versus the majority of schools in all of NCAA D1-A, too. GMG! * When Dallas Cowboy's HFC Tom Landry and his coaching staff all thought they were going to be fired after the 1965 season, "then" Dallas Cowboy owner Clint Murchison shocked the entire sports world and signed Coach Landry to an unprecedented 10 year contract. Folks, that is the kind of confidence many of us wish we would show Coach Todd Dodge.

Coach Dodge is already getting it done. Like the TV commentator said last night during our game, TDodge only had 17 official recruiting days last Winter to put some semblance of a recruiting class together, but with a full year to recruit now, look what he's done (for the first time ever in our history) with North Texas having so many earling commits? Of course, they may not all sign, but that happens even at Top 25 schools.

You've hit the target right on the bullseye, stebo... I, too, only shudder to think if the Black Unis-Gate gang had been back for a 10'th year. First of all, there would be few posting on this board any longer because so many would have interrpreted another year of DD Ball as our school officials just flat not giving a damn about the future of our football program. We might have drawn 10K for our first home game; more sarcasm on the radio broadcasted airwaves and you all know the rest of the story. I still think our present Defensive Coordinator will be flexible enough to change what he needs to change, but just like TDodge needs more of his recruits to suit his style of offense, so will our D.C. (IMHO). If we compared one year of Mean Green football to one inning of a baseball game, we're still half way thru the first innning of DodgeBall, folks. DD Ball had a full 9 innings to make or break it on the national stage but our succes was mostly contained in the safe confines of the Sun Belt Conference yet.................. DD Ball had almost a full decade to break this football program out of the unrespected SBC and into a national (and ranked) presence..................... so why are a hardy handful expecting so much half way thru TDodge's 1'st inning? I feel TDodge will be just fine by his "3'rd inning" (if you will) albeit I realize not soon enough for some, but UNT officials (I would almost guarantee) are going to give Coach Dodge all the neccessary time he needs to build a true, solid foundation in Mean Green Country. I think they are also well aware of what he inherited and what he is going to have to do to build this program bigger, better and, uh, .................Top 25 ranked. They (UNT upper echelon leaders) have a big part to play in all this, too, and I think some of you have been making that point of late. Like Stebo posted, we have a true frosh' QB to start this building process now of which (IMO) one of the traits of this building program's future will translate to Top 25 ranked bowl teams. When we start our winning cycle all over again (and we will), let's make a national impact this time around--whadda' you think? GMG!

Annual stats are usually tallied at the end of a football season. We've had 5 games, 2 of which were against OU and Arkansas, so I don't think we can compare anything just yet and thats whether it be 2006, 1999 or 1988 for that matter. And again, the SBC of 2007 is hardly the same one we found ourselves in in its first 6 years of existence; also with a UNT (back at the NCAA D1-A classification since 1995) AND because of that............ Mean Green football having several more years head start at that level than most SBC schools did sp maybe with our having such a head start back in D1-A we should have been beating most of our fellow member SBC schools (most out of 1-AA) worse than we did in our league's first 6 years? On another front, anybody think all those Aggies wanting Coach Fran's head the last year or so may all be sporting that Sylvester the Cat Just Got Caught Eating the Canary (Guilty) Look on their faces today? TAMU now sits alone at the top of the Big 12 South at 2 and 0 at the end of all of yesterday's Game Days.

One of last night's TV commentators had a comment about TDodge's first recruiting class when he said "Coach Dodge & his staff only had 17 days to recruit his first class after North Texas hired him." I suppose with all the designated official times (set by the NCAA) a coach and his staff can actually recruit narrowed Dodge and his staff's time to recruit than most of us could have ever dreamed. One has to wonder what Dodge & Staff will be able to do when they have a full year to recruit? GMG!

Agree, UNTLifer... Sometimes one just has to take a vacation from this gol' darned message board. I am thinking Hawaii, Nanakoolee Beach or the North Shore (just out of Honolulu). Once went body surfing with a group of fellers (and all our "then" wives) at Nanakoolee Beach and this group of guys who used to back-up Elvis Presley when the Jordanaires were unable to join EP for his very first Las Vegas shows. Sorry, I do tend to reminisce.... Should I leave the old laptop behind if I go? GMG! PS: This, too, shall pass? Come on one and all...lets really put whats going on now in its proper perspective (and understand all the years it took us to get to this point) so when TDodge gets us back to the kind of mountain top we've not seen in close to 3 decades--we'll all have a much better appreciation for it.

Coach Archie, thank you very much for that post. GMG!

What North Texas needs are fan/alums who give a coach at least 9 years to get his football program above .500. Oh! Wait a minute! We've already done that. I know the NFL and NCAA D1-A are apples and oranges in most ways, but this example may not be one of those apples & oranges things at all: Coach Jimmy Johnson won (was it "1") game his first year as the new coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Probably the #1 thing that Coach JJ had in his first diastrous year in Dallas was a young QB in which to begin his building program, ie, Troy Aikman. What Coach Todd Dodge has to begin his own building program at UNT is true frosh' QB Giovanni Vizza. On that, true Mean Green fans, we can build upon. Now for those who were most recently on Todd Dodge's Bandwagon, now off of it and (typically) will be back on it when he, uh, starts winnning because of............. future and much better across the board recruiting which will translate to wins above the past Bottom 25 programs we all endured; anyway, don't further embarrass yourselves with what you are posting now while we are down. We won't stay down--we never have now have we? I gave Darrell Dickey all but his last 2 years (out of his 9) in Denton to "git'er done and myself and many others did not jump off his bandwagon his first 6 games OR even in................... his first 4 years when things looked pretty darn bleak, either. I recommend to those who are flakier-than-hell and typical Metroplex college football "front runner" fans to give this thing more than just 6 gol' darned football games. Hellsbells! We gave another coach 9 years to reach .500 in W/L/s and get us out of our annual SBC/Bottom 25 cesspool--it just didn't happen and he's at Utah State as an assistant coach (for the time being). Give our new HFC some time (because UNT officials are most definitely going to); but TDodge's work ethic as well as getting us back to recruiting DFW area high schools for beginners suggests to many that he will, in fact..............GIT ER' DONE! The upside and most positive spin for this 2007 Mean Green football campaign is that we have a true frosh' QB in which we can build something very solid in light of what present trends for our future recruiting classes are telling us. Come on, folks, lets all enjoy this Mean Green journey--detours and all. BTW, Old Timer, your aforementioned post was excellent (and so right on the mark). GMG!

REVISED EARLY SUNDAY MORNING WHLE DRINKING THROUGH A POT OF COFFEE... AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GREAT SANTA CLAUSE (and a thought-provoking"?" PS at the bottom of this page). Dear Santa: The Sun Belt Conference has truly passed us by in MG Country, Mr. Clause, and its even more obvious tonight after watching our game versus those Ragin' Cajuns of U of L on DFW's TV21 (you do have satellite up there at the North Pole, right)? We have some of our best elect, ie, best Mean Green fans who are dreaming that this "D" can somehow become the SBC version of the Monsters of the Midway, but based on what? Statistics from the last 2 losing seasons were decent but the main stat was that we still only had 5 wins during that time. Santa, based on some SBC OOC wins this season and even close games played by our SBC football programs against a few higher profile programs tells most of us that the Sun Belt Conference is a much better league this Fall than it was in 2005 and 2006--in fact, dramatically so it seems; unfortunately, it's better and we (UNT) are just about the same (deferring to 5 wins the last 2 seasons, Mr. Clause). Fact remains, our recruiting from the past 4 years prior to the "late December" hiring of Todd Dodge has us a bit strapped for the time being. So you, Santa, might even ask about our "new" HFC Todd Dodge's recruiting? Well............just last night on our TV game, one of the TV commentators said Coach Dodge only had "17" days to recruit once we hired him late last December; you know, there are those dead periods post-December of which the NCAA stipulates "no recruiting?" So in essence, Coach Dodge's first real recruiting class will be the upcoming one and with all this early signings results thus far suggests a pretty good recruiting haul this Winter. DEE-FENCE! DEE-FENCE! DEE-FENCE! What about our Mean Green "D's" talent level (across the board) that has so changed over 1 year (removed from our prior coach's tenureship) that Vince Lombardy (himself, if alive) would have probably not even been able to dramatically change in his first Spring Football practice sessions and into this Fall's camp? We have 3-4 (prior to TDodge's hire) recruiting classes that highly suggest that we just haven't been getting a large volume of good players. Yes, we have some fine talent, but at the NCAA D1-A level, you just have to have a whole bunch of em'. Big losses to Tulsa and La Tech 2 years ago suggests we were way, way, way behind the level of non-BCS school's recruiting that we thought we were (at least) on an even par. Everyone in the SBC seems to have improved their own recruiting the last 4 years except us at UNT. Proof in th pudding with that? There are SBC member wins over a Top 25 school or 2 and this year even a Big 10 school. Haven't heard a final score this AM, but even our "sexiest" of SBC schools, the MUTS, were close to an upset just last night over a high profile school. PLEASE HEAR US OUT, SANTA............. We didn't have any of those kind of wins even during 4 bowl years, Mr. C. So who's been zooming who with what we had during all that time? So Santa, granted, presently, we do have some good players in Denton who will develop and become key contributors to the future of MEAN GREEN FOOTBALL, BUT THEY, TOO, NEED SOME OTHERS WHO CAN HELP THEM WIN IN THE NEAR FUTURE (sorry, ddn't mean to get so loud, but here is what myself and other NT Exes/NT Students and Mean Green fans are asking for a post-2007 Christmas present (since national signing day is in February, 2008)............ ...................PLEEEEZZZZZZZ, send us some defensive stoppers this recruiting season (maybe even a few JUCO's could facilitate all this, Santa). And for us to get all this (and a bag of chips)? Here's what we will do: We'll all be good little UNT alums, UNT students and Mean Green fans until Christmas Day (only 2 1/2 months away as you'd certainly know, Santa). Hope Mrs. Clause is doing well and.....................thanks in advance.... An NT Ex, Mean Green fan & Believer of What Todd Dodge Will Eventually Deliver in Denton (but not over-night), PlummMeanGreen PS: Thanks for one of our special gifts from last Christmas, Santa; that is, true frosh' QB Giovanni Vizza. You know, Mr. Clause, the Dallas Cowboys only had 1 win in Jimmy Johnson's inaugural year in Dallas, but what Coach Johnson did have his own first diastrous year in Big D was a young QB (Troy Aikman) in which to begin his own building program. So at North Texas, we now have QB Vizza in which we can start our own and for that--we can all be thankful. SEE YALL AT FOUTS FIELD THIS SATURDAY NIGHT!

Of course, you are talking the SBC Era, but some of us remember scoring 14 on Texas (they scored 17 mostly because of Earl Campbell) and that was when Darrell K. Royal was the Longhorn coach and then others remember a Mean Green win over U of Tennessee; but of course, that is before we raised our standards and went Big Time by becoming charter members of the Sun Belt Conference. (This Baby Boomer can get a bit sarcastic when he wants to--but I do know you were talking "the SBC Era", counsel). May we all become Top 25 football programs, Arkstfan. Wouldn't Frank Broyles turn over in his grave if ASU were in it and the Hogs were not?!?!? Whoops! I'm sorry, he's still among us and is the UA AD, right? (BTW, good luck to your Indians this Saturday). OK, folks, I'm going to get some breakfast and get some sugar in my blood which will make me lose all the sarcasm--well, at least, most of it anyway!

And more players are on the way... Patience, fans, patience...it's only Game 5 of the DodgeBall Era. Instant success would be preferred by fans of any football program, but thats not what is on the menu at many D1-A outposts starting almost from scratch; but rather... ...lets allow TDodge to build something bigger and better than our past success (w/o rankings) from a newly formed Sun Belt Conference; lets give him the necessary time he needs to tear down a bad bridge that we found out the last 2 years was a bad bridge in order for him and his staff to build a better and more solid one; that is, a Mean Green football program worthy of Top 25 ranking's this time around in Mean Green Country. We as NT Exes/Mean Green fans deserve no less considering the last 2 1/2 decades many of us have witnessed (and that without "one' Top 25 ranked Mean Green football team).

Jambalaya crawfish pie, fillet gumbo! LET'S FILLET THEM ALL AND MAKE GUMBO OUT OF THE RAJUN'CAJUNS! THE LATE, GREAT CAJUN COOK/HUMORIST JUSTIN WILSON, A LOUISIANA MEAN GREEN FAN SAYS: " I 'GAI-RON-TEE A MEAN GREEN WIN!"

Thanks for both links, MCMLXXX... GMG!