PlummMeanGreen

I lived at 316 Fry Street (one block from campus) but I was officially called a commuter. We have enough population in Denton County and on our campus to have impressive attendance, we (still) may have to alter our philosophies a bit on just how to market this football program?

Truer words have not been spoken...Good post, stebo. I've predicted Year 3 for TDodge to get his first above .500 year. DD got his first in Year 5. The upside with Coach Dodge is that he is getting our feet back in the doors of DFW area 5A & 4A high schools. This will pay off in due time. As far as the UNT/FAU game, lets hope for a "pull out all the stops" blitzkrieg from both our team and our Mean Green fans (who need to show up at Fouts next Saturday evening as if we were playing the Baylor Bears). GMG!

UNT has as many students living on (or near our main campus) than over twice the combined enrollments of SMU and TCU. Now if anyone wants to call us a commuter school so be it, but they really might want to start checking out Webster's for a more appropriate description of our school. Oh, we are also not a "teacher's college" anymore, either.

Geez, what the hell we been doing wrong all these years in Denton? We know how quickly U of South Florida developed and U of Central Florida to a certain exent, but now we have, uh. ..........FAU keeping it close with the Big Boys?!?!?!

If we continute to average 20K & less in the future (especially with our enourmous constituency from which we can draw new MG fans) then we might have to finally fess' up to the fact that we (w/o a doubt) have had the wrong marketing program in place, you think? At some point, we're all going to have to start acting like significantly more growth for Denton and our main campus will translate into new fans--why not, it seems to everyplace else. I'm not quite sure why it (new fans) hasn't in Denton and UNT officials may need to even focus on the reason(s) for that also, IMHO.

Agree, P&RR... TDodge and his staff's (1) work ethic, (2) disciplined style passed down to our players and (3) positive thinkin' nature will bring them success, but it may not be this year and I think most of us thought that even his first week as our new Mean Green HFC back in late December. Yet all 3 of the aformentioned are usually good traits for anyone with a job (no matter the job).

Lucky these same ESPN broadcast fellers didn't call the Boise State/OU game... They may have both had major strokes toward game's end. (Wonder if they even remember that Boise/OU score)?

Since Day One in their (all but new) stadium Troy U has been going to another level that we (after all these years back in D1-A) still only talk about. I know its not always about a new stadium, but Troy U's seems to have synergized their recruiting as to beat the kind of teams that if DD's teams had had some success would have gotten him (at least) some job interviews at the next level. Don't many of us remember when Troy U debuted their new stadium on national ESPN TV with a win over #19 ranked Missouri? Last time UNT beat a Top 25 football program was in 1974. To All the UNT Powers That Be, ie, Our Upper Echelon-Types: There is a moral to the Troy U story. Those of us who've seen and heard it all in Denton can only hope we don't gravitate back to the usual "North Texas" modus operendi we've most always gone to in the past. We do have a cycle that needs to be broken up in Denton and all of you who've been around the Mean Green scene for awhile know exactly what I'm talking about. Congrats to the TU Trojans for doing the kind of things on the field of battle many of us wished our school would have been doing the past 1 or 2 decades. The law of averages has to catch up with our football program as to where we can start beating (much) higher profile OOC schools again. PS: Look for Troy U to start positioning themselves to make an eventual move to another conference.............. and with their facilities and higher profiles successes in those facilities in such a brief time, CUSA may just be that conference. Wonder what we'd be talking about (or doing) if that were to happen?

Even a former offensive coordinator from SMU who got the UNT job with one interview (and no apparent competition for the HFC's job) was given 5 years to come up with his first above .500 W/L season in Denton. And (again) Dickey had all this college football coaching experience from a few pretty nice higher profile type programs. Dickey inherited Simon's players and won 5 years later and now TDodge has inherited DD's players, but my bet is TDodge gets over the .500 hump much sooner than DD's 5 years. Any takers on that bet?

Jeff, since the Randy Galloway Show on 103.3 FM when old Jose Cuervo himself interviewed TDodge, I really think the stakes (or the capacity) have now been raised to (at least) 35,000 since "35-40,000 seat stadium" is what our HFC quoted as the capacity on the Galloway show 2-3 weeks ago. I just don't think TDodge is the kind to loosely throw numbers such as that around; especially for what will end up being one of the most important construction projects in our school's entire history. Just my .02.

And as far as OU coaches (supposedly) laughing at "OUR" defense? Anyone think they might have had a few Boomer giggles after they slobber-knocked the Miami 'Canes last Saturday? Folks, could it be that this OU team will (once again) win its 2'nd consecutive Big 12 football championship and be a serious contender for an NCAA Football National Championship this bowl season? Give our new coaches some time to sort all this "Mean Green D" business out, but please give them more than 2 games to do it. We all want instant success because of the times and the era we live, but it may take a season or 2 (or 3) to get all this righted in Denton. After 4 bowl years, it didn't take long for it all to fall apart, either, now did it? I believe TDodge's non-stop work ethic (known to most of us by now) is of a nature that he wants to build something that won't fall apart over-night once he gets his foundation laid solidly. Also, have we all forgotten how low our last 3-4 (stealth) recruiting classes under DD were ranked by DC's Texas Football?

But still.............2 games under our belt? I think most of us all want Top 25 for this program, but that's likely not to happen this year or next, either. Wonder how long it took Boise State to become a fixture in the Top 25 after the Big West football part of the league disbanded and when they went their way and we, uh............ went ours?

Like a healthy financial UNT contributor from Dallas told me today: "We are talking about a defense that was part of a team that won 5 games the last 2 years so, why are some of our best fans/alums beginning to panic now?" Just like TDodge is in his honeymoon stage, so is Mendoza, folks, so shouldn't we also give him ample time to adapt to NCAA D1-A as well? Most of us got more time in most our new jobs in the past to get the learning curve down, too, didn't we? Yet lets raise the bar for what we all want in the future and not necessarily what we got in the SBC's (insert sublimenal veiled success?) ugly duckling formative years (although even some of that level of success kept this program from completely drowning and (at least) got our heads above water. GMG!

You be preachin' to the choir, brutha'!

So is that a cue for another "new stadium" thread? GMG!

We will find a way to win this home season opener. I would also take a wild guess that a large majority on this board probably had a gut feeling that it was highly probable that we would come into this game 0 & 2. Who knows, if we are 1 & 5 (like in the past) that may be a pretty big omen that we might just win the SBC & go to the New Orleans Bowl, right? That would be fine, but our long term goal should still be our being the 1'st SBC football squad to go bowling ranked in the Top 25. Anyone else agree?

Let's just wait and see what kind of budget we do end up working with, UNTflyer, and who knows maybe we will all be surprised beyond all expectations? Yet I know what you are (probably) thinking and (if you are) you are probably right to some extent when you and some others may think: "Can't some of these old fart alums ever be happy with any gol'darned thing?" Would I take what UCF has over Fouts Field? In a New York minute I would, but (still) lets not sell ourselves short on what we may end up getting. Our North Texas story may still surprise many before all this is done over at the Mean Green Village.

Couldn't have been much since it looks like it came from the old Erector Sets you could buy cheap at a Mott's 5 & 10 store. I don't know, fellas (and gals), but I just don't know about being under-neath a stadium that when you can look up you see people's butts.

Speaking of patience, myself (and many others on this board & beyond) have been patient for a new football stadium for our beloved alma mater (and for me) since September of 1973 when I attended my first Mean Green football game; also Hayden Fry's first to coach at Fouts Field as the new Mean Green HFC. Well, some of us older nestors (baby boomers on up) are getting impatient (and older than Cooter Brown). It's shake & bake time, UNT stadium fundraisers! GMG!

And would GoMeanGreen.com be a true and legitimate collegiate message board w/o some semblance of a QB controversy? GMG!

What a great school (with thousands of traveling Wildcat fans) to open up a new stadium, eh? ??? And what a great weekend to announce their former Coach Snyder as the latest member of the NT Athletic Hall of Fame? Have we ever had an ex NT assistant football coach (from Fry's NT staff) who did get inducted?

Congrats, Casey Fitzgerald! Can't wait to see some Mean Green wins accompanying some of our player's nationally ranked statistics. That will be one fine day when it starts happening (and anyone else have a gut feeling that it will happen sooner than later)? DD was in Year 5 when he had his 1'st above .500 season and I still believe it will be Year 3 when Todd Dodge has his own, but I think his may include some of the OOC wins we've all been waiting on to happen (regularly & consistently) for quite awhile now.

It yall are talking about that game at old Ownby Stadium, I was so gol'darned mad after that game I almost threw my school ring (diamond and all) onto their football field. Changed my mind on doing that when I thought the SMU'ers might find it, take it to a pawn shop and put the proceeds into a new stadium building fund. GMG!

FWIW, can't the same thing be said for most any up & comer college coach at most any NCAA D1-A school except (perhaps) a handful? Why can't these sportswriters worry about the price of wheat in Russian rather than how long a coach "sticks" at said school on the rise? Just my .02... Lets get TDodge a 35-40,000 seat football palace over in the Mean Green Village and see just how long he sticks then, right?

I think the other final straw for SMU, KDL1, was an SMU recruit named David Stanley (from my birthtown, ie, Angleton, TX) that was the icing on the cake for the SMU death penalty. I cannot remember all the details surrounding Stanley, but (as I recall) Dale Hansen put it on his Sunday night show for all to hear. The NCAA Infraction Committee would be in Dallas just a few days later. I'm amazed that the NCAA ever gave any school the death penalty and I think they are resolved not to ever do it again.