PlummMeanGreen

Looked around at some of our fans and saw a few almost in tears when Jamario Thomas broke the long TD run. We were all very happy for that young man from Longview, Texas. It was so beautiful to watch. WAY TO GO SUPER JAMARIO! ENCORE! GMG!

Hey Harry, I think its now time to shut down GMG.com for a make-over after this thread title. Next thing, some will want other coaches back whose PR abilities may have produced 10,000 total fans for last night's game--uh, seriously. I guess some of our elect may get nose-bleed at the heights this program now has a real chance to attain, eh? GMG!

Only about 100% of those I've spoken to among the Mean Green Nation are estatic to have Riley Dodge as a future Mean Greener. Of course, I guess we could go out and recruit a 2'nd string DB from some Texas 3A high school as a project QB that would make a 1 or 2 happy, too. Matter of fact, those of us who were around during the Hayden Fry era at UNT would tell you Coach Fry never recruited a QB with the credentials of Riley Dodge. Former Mean Green great Kenny Washington (Joe's little brother) would be the closest one to it, but Kenny never had the Texas HS success at the same level that Riley has. WELCOME TO MEAN GREEN COUNTRY, RILEY DODGE!

Just so there is no substantial ammonia build-up.

Yes, we could be 2 & 1 right now. Some coaches have had banner 1'st years and not too good 2'nd years (Hayden Fry won 2 games his 2'nd year in Mean Green Country). EagleMBA, I liked your opening thoughts of your thread here. We all hate to lose and that we each & every one have in common. Yet like a fellow alum told me today: "The Mean Green Nation is like one big dysfuncitonal family, but still.............the key thing here is that we're family. We all see success for our school in different ways, but we still all project success for our future in MG Country. I like the one who is leading our family right now (TDodge) because I have the same hope I used to have many years ago in another era long past. Why do I feel this way now? Can't quite explain why I do, but all anyone has to do with me is act like they enjoy being in Denton, spread the good word on the airwaves that they're happy to be here and that while here they want to improve our situation dramatically and such a person as that has my support and loyalty. Showing a little southern charm and kindness does wonders for many of us in this part of the USA, too. I personally think our next march thru the Sun Belt Conference is going to be as a Top 25 ranked football program and I also think we will start drawing impressive crowds regularly that will show us all just the kind of football they will support; of course, that group will all mostly be new faces because right now they are still on the fence on all this Mean Green football business--but IMHO...............they will not be on this fence for long. Lets enjoy the journey we all find ourselves at this time--detours and all. Might make us appreciate our eventual destination even more and one that we call can hope will be one that not one from any era has ever witnessed before in Mean Green Country and why not...........don't we each & every one deserve it? GMG!

Ditto... I also don't think we got out-coached, but Schnelly' does have a couple of NC's under his belt from his days at UM Hurricane harbor, so "seasoned" might be a better choice of words if we are to compare him with TDodge? Coach Todd Dodge gives us an upside and a positive direction and we haven't always had that at UNT in recent decades. BTW, would our 20,000 and some change last night have been a Top 3 SBC vs SBC team attendance record? The SBC and UNT will all get better as will attendance records. I still defer to my below signature for those who want instant success in Denton, and even that in a vastly improved Sun Belt Conference. This is not the same SBC we all saw in its first 5 or so years of operation, folks.

My 2'nd 30 plus year problem with Fouts as an NT student/then NT Ex (with the 1'st being its seats way too far from the action due to the track) is that Fouts Field is a very, very, very accoustically dead stadium. If we are to make a cheering impact, we have to cheer in unision. The Green Brigade (as fine a band as they can be) start playing on too many pre-3'rd down defensive situations when our Alumnus Side Cheerleaders and the Fouts PA guy are trying to get the fans into a 3'rd down defense chant. The UNT cheerleaders on the Alumnus Side need a PA System (with a proper volume) to get the "Reserved Section" into unified chants. They have not mastered that problem yet, but who the heck can even hear the cheerleaders (who seem to really be trying)? I saw Emmett and his group in the lower level trying to get the fans into it and we even had Brad Olsen in the upper section doing pretty good at times getting the DE-FENSE (clap! clap!) DE-FENSE (clap! clap!) chant going. BTW, that can be the most effective unified yell going for the Alumnus Side and I defer to an exciting SBC matchup with NMSU game a few years ago as a prime example. Peavey, Yamaha and a few others have very nice portable PA systems on sale at the Guitar Center in FW and Arlington. As a single income guy, I'm $trapped (who isn't these days) or I would buy the Alumnus Side cheerleaders one of those myself BUT........I will donate a very high quality AKG microphone and a microphone stand if someone/some group would purchase a portable system for our Press Box Side cheerleaders--all this only with NT officials approving for its usage, of course. Yet a PA system such as Yamaha's The Passport which IMO is the best portable PA on the market for the price; that is, one which has more power and clarity and would go a long ways in helping our Alumnus Side cheerleaders get heard as to lead out with more unified cheers going IMHO. YET.............there is nothing we can do about the accoustics at Fouts Field other tear the darn thing down, let TxDOT have their interstate expansion land and build a new 35,000 seat...........oh well, you all know the rest of that one.

REVISED SUNDAY MORNING: First of all, we still had too many tail-gating during the game in the east parking area according to several I spoke to. As I was eating my Whole #3 (please cut the cheese) sub sandwhich at New York Subway at Eagle and Avenue C earlier today, I did grab a Saturday edition of the Denton Record/Chronicle which said (in essence) "a packed house could be expected this evening" just to verify what a Denton-based friend had told me earlier this AM when I posted this thread in the first place (and based on what the DRC quote had truly said) Well, we all know that was hardly the case tonight but lets still examine a reason or two why on tonight's attendance.......OK? (1) Perhaps we can start with 5 wins the last 2 years? 0 & 2 this year with basically the same team that won 5 games the last 2 years as well? (2) Having a home season opener so late in September after playing OU, SMU @ Ford Stadium and (yet another) much improved SBC football program that we are now 0 & 4 against with 2 of those losses even during 2 DD Ball bowl years to boot? Many of us forecasted upon TDodge's hiring last December that 3 or 4 wins might be just about it for his first team at UNT in 2007 and that was even before Spring football practices began when he would find out what he had left from the Darrell Dickey Era cupboard. He then installed a complete new system with a team that (again) only won 5 games the two previous years which made this season probably even tougher for a group that may not have won too many even under the old system. (IMO, Dickey left some talent, but not enough to compete in today's Sun Belt Conference albeit we were no that far off the mark in tonight's game against FAU). The FAU Owls will probably battle it out with Troy U for the New Orleans Bowl berth this year; yet were we really that far behind this year's Howard Schnellenberger-coached FAU Owls this year-- like last night? The Attendance Upside--Just Fill One Side of Fouts Field At A Time? Lets look at it this way: We know we have filled the Press Box side with many season ticket holders now. In 30 plus years I really don't think I've seen the Press Box side as full with our fans even filling those "hard to fill" seats on the very bottom sections near ground level; those which have most always stayed empty--even during the Baylor games if you'll look at photos of those 2 games. RIGHT ON! UNT ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT! So UNT athletics has all but successfully filled the Press Box side for probably the majority of games in the future with (already purchased tickets) in what will eventually be an (improved) future for the DodgeBall era. All we have to do now in Mean Green Country is make the East Side/NT Student Side stands the next realistic project or goal as to put 10,000 NT students on that side most every game in the future. Instead of the old Dallas Mavericks's "One Fan At A Time" promo, at UNT we can make it "One Entire Side of Fouts Field At A Time", right? Once we meet that goal (and we will) we will have moved our fan base from 15K to 20,000 or more with more forecasted growth on the way for UNT and Denton/Denton County. We are hardly located in a sparsey populated backwater college town, folks. Sitting where I sat on the Press Box side this evening, the "non-accoustics" factor of Fouts Field has never been so glaringly obvious to me. It's all but 100% dead accoustically as far as a D1-A college football stadium is concerned and that makes it very difficult to get the noise factor working for you (and "OUR" team). Let's just all admit that not only is our football program under Todd Dodge a work in progress, but so is our attendance-building at Fouts, too; that is, adding new fans with all of the new population that have moved within blocks of Fouts Field (on-campus) and within 15-20 minutes of our campus throughout Denton County). We lost much attendance momentum the last 2 yrs according to many of you, so we have to get all that back plus add what I feel (in my heart of hearts) DodgeBall will do for us in a very tough major league sports market as the North Texas Metroplex, especially for all 3 D1-A entries that reside in the Greater DFW area. Nothing has changed many of our minds about the bright future of Mean Green football under the direction of Coach Todd Dodge and back in December upon his hiring, many of us thought back then that we could very well be where we were with our W/L record going into our home season opener this evening. Darrelly Dickey got his 1'st above .500 season in Year 5 and I still feel Todd Dodge (in light of what he inherited and with a much improved Sun Belt Conference he inherited as well) will have his 1'st above .500 season in his own Year 3. Whoever thought that we would not be in a rebuilding mode this Fall may need to get their College Football 101 books back out again for a refresher course. I certainly have to from time to time. Still...........amazing is how close we were to beating a SBC-contending FAU for the first time ever and an Owl football program that (only) beat a Big 10 school just last weekend. Folks, our time will come in Mean Green Country with Coach Todd Dodge, but we will all have to have the patience of Job before it does; but isn't that the way of such journeys, but when we come to a successful destination with all this in the near future how we will all appreciate it much more than merely walking thru a brand new throw-together league of schools most of whom were new to a new NCAA classification & trying to find their D1-A legs and this being the Sun Belt Conference football portion of the league which began in 2001? PS: Boo-Boo #2 From Yours Truly: I really thought the SMU/TCU game was to be at Ford Stadium tonight instead of Amon Carter. If the game had been at Ford Stadium @ SMU, I believe we would have given the Stangs/Frogs a real run for their money on the "true" attendance numbers battle; but later finding out the game was at TCU, I knew it was not happen this year for us. And FWIW, SMU & TCU still have that SWC legacy thing going for them from which 1 of the 2 schools was able to build a decent fan base. GMG!

Dreaming? UNT's 2007 Fall Enrollment......................35,000 City of Denton Pop...............................100,000 plus Denton County.........................Approx. 600,000 DFW NT Exes.......................................100,000 (give or take) SLC Fans @ Fouts This Evening..................3,000 (+/-)) Why not dream? Sounds do-able to me, although I'm with SUMG's above post and his comments. In light of the past 2 years and last year's last 2 games, anything close to 25,000 should be something to shout about. It's just that our UNT constituency is growing very large for us to keep on accepting what we've gotten in the past at the turnstiles. Be nice when others of our very best alums begin feeling the same way as all our expectations for future attendance rises congruently with our constituencies's growth.

I know there is probably a link on this from the DRC, but my main Denton source said our officials are predicting a record turnout which means we could have our 1'st sellout of the expanded Fouts Field. FWIW..............BE EARLY FOR THE DODGEBALL HOME SEASON DEBUT @ VENERABLE FOUTS FIELD IN... DENTON, TEXAS, AMERICA! JUST LIKE THE YOUNG RASCALS HIT SONG OF YESTER-YEAR: IT'S A BEAUTIFUL MORNING! GMG!

NORTH ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! We're not supposed to win, none of our bowl teams ever beat FAU but who knows what tomorrow brings.

Tulsa U--yet another former conference mate of UNT that has moved up the D1-A food chain while we were way too busy trying to create the perfect brandings and the best shade of green. Tulsa's stadium looks much nicer than it used to. I believe the Fort Worth Star Telegram even had a different name for it as it used to be called Skelley Stadium; BTW, the TU stadium seats about 40,000. Wonder if OU would have booked games with Tulsa U if it had seated, uh, 30-32,000?

Welcome To Mean Green Country, Green Squared! PS: Will we see you at venerable Fouts Field tomorrow for the beginning of what many of us feel will be the most exciting era since Hayden Fry was in town?

First of all, I don't think a recent NCAA National Championship Football program (UT-Austin) has even 1 scholarship to throw away on "maybe" athletes who "might" play somewhere. Second of all, I still stand amazed at those apparently still stuck in our recent past, ie, those who thought (barely) walking thru a (then) throw-together conference & going to that leagues bowl game un-ranked to play another unranked school is their version of NCAA D1-A nirvana. Granted, that era served a definite purpose--mostly to get our football program's head above water and to keep from completely going under and drowning, but its high time for Mean Green football to take the next step foward and upward (the rankings latter). PS: Former NT Athletic Hall of Famer and NFL All Pro'er Cedric Hardman was (as I recall the story) only about 6'0" 180 pounds when he arrived at UNT. Before he graduated from NT and became an NFL (#1?) draft choice, he had grown to 6 foot 5 inches and 240 (give or take) pounds. Riley Dodge is a winner at Texas' highest level (5A) and he will be a winner no matter where he is; we all hope Papa Dodge will be recruiting the kind of lineman that will help any of our future backfield in Mean Green Country look good. PS II: The giant letters are for the many of us who have sat in Fouts Field for 3, 4 and more decades who have a terminal case of eye-strain. I WILL LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING MANY OF YOU AT FOUTS FIELD TO WATCH UNT KICK FAU'S ARSE! GMG!

Just tuned in... Did I hear the announcer correctly when he said Riley Dodge has already thrown 4 TD passes? GMG!

Disagree...the more the merrier and aren't non-stop 3'rd & 25 draw plays a thing of our past, too? It's a new era in Denton and some folks are calling it: DodgeBall! PS: Just wait till our defense catches up to what glimpses we've seen of our offense with even non-TDodge personnel.

Where can one get the "official" enrollment figures of all of the aforementioned schools? Didn't realize any of that group were closing in on our own enrollment numbers, but feel if that is the case that if will be short-lived if we can believe projections for UNT's future enrollment (2'nd largest in the future) from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. One of UNT's best accomplishments in recent decades is its efforts in making our campus a residential campus; in fact, the largest residential campus this side of UT-Austin. Seems as if that is a trend which will continue, too.

Ditto...

Wait a minute...this is still Fouts Field we're talking about, right? You know, ol' 40 yards from the stands to the playing field Fouts Field? All I can do is shake my head. Give the venerable ol' lady another 30+ years of strained eye-sight and you'll be shaking yours, too. I do look forward to the days when its more than coats of paint that gets us excited about our football stadium in Denton, Texas, America.

Question might be if ol' Schnelly was saying what he was saying completely sober. He has been known to like his Jack Daniels. In fact, seemed like OU officials called him on the carpet for having had too much when he had his long 1 year career as the Sooner coach.

Actually............ He's just whispering! GMG!

Surely many of them will read the DRC, DMN & FWST don't you think, Em'? Being a home season opener won't hurt the cause either, right? FAU may be down or flat and we may get more defensive, too? The game after UNT beat Tennessee we almost got beat by Cal-Poly (Pomona) B4 almost 20,000 in (then) 20K seat Fouts Field.

YES! This win probably just raised the interest level of our game versus FAU at Fouts about 100%!

Come on, FAU, do it!

And if memory serves me well, both Bowling Green (and I think even Miami-O) have made appearances in the Top 25 in recent years. Whoever wins the SBC this year, I hope Top 25 is not too far from their sights. This is what will get our league respect more than anything.