PlummMeanGreen

OU has not been too nice to other Texas-based college's coach's inaugural games. Coach Fran took a big knot on his head in his 1'st season as the TAMU coach. In fact, it seems the Aggies upset the Sooners the very next year. I stand to be corrected on all this (as always). One game does not a season make was what the FSN color guy said; but did OU seem faster and quicker than in their game against Boise State? We are quite fortunte to have the 2'nd Coming of Hayden Fry at UNT, lets all enjoy all this as long as we can. BTW, former UNT Coach Hayden Fry endured a few head-bangin' losses of his own during his 6 years in Denton including one in Stillwater we'd all just as soon forget; like as in a 61-7 loss up in Stillwater in 1975--------even more ironic was that 3 weeks after that huge loss from the OSU Cowboys we travelled up to Knoxville and beat the University of Tennessee). Maybe until TDodge gets all his players in 3-4 years we might ought to just stick with playing Tulsa U in the future for our token state of Oklahoma based opponent, eh? Hey Mean Green Varsity Team! Use & Abuse SMU As A Building Block To Where We Want All This To Go! Right?

Just curious, but just how many of the Green Brigade are actually music majors? For years it seems most members of our marching band were not. The 1'st Voice of the Mean Green, Bill Mercer, used to say on the MGRN that the Green Brigade never lost a half time show, but as much as I hate to say it, we lost more than our share of half time shows. A national televised game you say? No, Mr. Dean of the UNT College of Music, you don't have your marching band wearing khakis and T-shirts, but what the heck, this is the same school that built an olympic-sized swimming pool that was actually 1 foot shy of being an olympic-sized swimming pool (which turned into a pretty expensive boo-boo). And some of you wonder why some of us get a bit testy with what we fear we may end up with for our new football stadium now? Just brush up on your North Texas history, Young Gun Alums, and then you'd see. PS: For those of us not at the game, we wouldn't have known that our band even showed up period. I checked a replay of the game and not one time do I recall seeing the Fox Sports Network cameras panning one shot of our UNT marching band; this time around, maybe that was a blessing in disguise?

I think very few of us were thinking (especially in light of the last 2 seasons & the last 3-4 recruiting years that we know weren't even close to what SMU's recruiting grades were in the same span of time if one subscribes to DC'sTF grading system); anyway, few of us ever thought that this was going to be an easy year for Todd Dodge and some of us predicted (but did not post it last week) that what happened last night might just happen. Most of the SBC football schools passed us by the last few years when no one was looking (or for darn sure............recruiting). FWIW...........this probably would not have been an easy year if we could have revived the ghost of Vince Lombardy and turned it all over to him for this season. Lets just all enjoy our journey because I feel most of us still anticipate a destination unseen in Mean Green Country for decades (if ever). Most of the parts are in place for this to happen and I feel many agree with that, too; albeit, there still looms a very large empty space of prime inter-state real estate just north of our fabulous Athletic Center that still needs to be tended to as well. The OU game is in the books...lets all try to move on best we can to see what Coach Dodge & staff will continue to build over at Gerald J. Ford Stadium @ SMU. This is a work in progress that is just going to take some time, but lets hope when TDodge takes us bowling for several years in a row that he will have built such a foundation that there would not even be a hint that it could fall apart in merely just 1 year, either. We should all try to be just as excited about our Dodge Ball future as if the OU game never happened. The OU Sooners are going to put some old fashioned whoop a$$ on many schools other than just North Texas this Fall as we all looked at their unbelievable team speed last night and.................. after all, folks..........the Boomers are still the defending 2007 Big 12 football champions as it is, right? .............. BEAT SMU! PS: Dear Governor Perry: Can we go ahead and extend that fence that will one day parallel the Rio Grande with one similar that will parallel the Red River?

Darrell Dickey was 3 & 8, 2 & 9 and then...............3 & 8 in his first 3 seasons at UNT. He did that largely on Matt Simon's leftovers and with his own under the radar recruiting. (In fact, DD did not have any of his teams go over .500 until his 5'th season at UNT). I think most of us (in our heart of hearts) feel Todd Dodge will not have to take 5 years on the UNT payroll for his first above .500 football team. AS A REMINDER...........Todd Dodge was hired after last Christmas and while most schools were closing out their 2007 recruiting classes, Todd Dodge was just beginning his at UNT.. His early committs for 2008 have already created a buzz from not just those in the Mean Green Nation, but from other Texas inter-collegiate outpost as well just to read other message boards in the Southwest. #8 ranked OU (with more Texas HS products than should be allowed by Nation of Texas' law) was not a good test for a team that won less than 5 games the last 2 previous seasons. Dodge Ball will not happen till its creator gets about 22 players who start their careers from the git-go under the Dodge Ball system. We may see a glimpse of it sometimes about mid-season this Fall, but most of Dodge's players have been under a totally different system (and attitude) the last few years prior to TD's arrival in Mean Green Country last December. Many of us posted last Spring that if we won 4 or 5 games this Fall that that would (obviously) be an improvement from our last 2 seasons, yet we still have the majority of the last 2 season's teams on our present roster. Todd Dodge has already built a foundation in many other areas in Denton that few of his predeccessors cared to bother with. Getting shellacked by #8 OU will be just a short detour for where many of us think Dodge can take this program. With his early commits list for the 2008 recruiting season, we already have a very clear signal that once Dodge gets thru his first 2 honeymoon years in Denton, that higher nationally ranked Mean Green football will be on the way. After all, Todd Dodge knows what he will have to do and who he will have to beat to go to his next career level (if he so chooses to do that). We could very well be 0 & 2 going into our home season opener at Fouts Field and many of you told me that many weeks before our game in Norman today. Yet after all, if we had beaten OU this evening, we'd have many on this board already packing Todd Dodge's bags for his next new coaching gig out of Denton, but I think we now know that Todd Dodge will need to "un-do" a whole bunch in Denton before he can really get down to doing the Dodge Ball Shuffle in Denton, Texas, America. Who can ever know where our destination will take us when Dodge Ball eventually reaches full fruition, but the journey to get there can many times be just as exciting as reaching that destination.

The NCAA D1-A coaching network can be very influential as far as who gets recommended for whatever jobs (at that level) when the openings start happening, including assistant jobs, too. As one alum reminded me this morning, Bob Tyler, a UNT HFC for 1 very forgettable year (1981) had letters of recommendation to our (then) UNT HFC's selection committee from none other than Paul "Bear" Bryant and Darrell K. Royal. The UNT coaches selection committee probably all but peed on themselves when those 2 icon's letters made their conference table. Those 2 letters (alone) probably ended our coaches search back in 1981. Hindsight (always 20/20) now tells us it shouldn't have ended our search. Sad fact of the matter was that our coaches searching committee still (apparently) did no follow-up research at all concerning Bob Tyler (even after receiving the letters from Bryant and Royal); that is, what a closer follow-up with MSU officials may have created a change of heart because of what really happened with Tyler in his closing days at Mississippi State. As the story goes from post-hiring and firing research from some UNT leaders, Coach Tyler had to be physically removed from his MSU HFC's office once his contract had not been renewed and he had been fired. Said it many times back when anti-DD''ers who posted regularly on GMG.com probably could have been counted on 1 (or maybe 2 hands), but for those who don't think DD's dad (former KSU HFC Jim Dickey) didn't have some powerful influence with Kansas St. alum and UNT AD Craig Helwig for his journeyman assistant football coach son to get the UNT job and then............ get our job with probably one of the quickest hires post-firing of any HFC predeccesor in NCAA history, there very well could be some ocean front property out here in Parker County that I'd gladly sell very cheap. Looking back at many of our hires at UNT from past decades, many of us are just glad we still have an athletic program with varsity football. Those who get emotionally attached to athletic officials from any era at UNT should know that their own judgements of what we really need at UNT for us to grow can be very clouded. We have to think that we most always hire good & decent people on the UNT payroll, but wouldn't it be nice for us all if those with such positive traits were productive at the level we need them to be at this time in our school's "boom growth" history?

Thanks for a reminder of this game, jgb607.

LJ, I would love a GJFord-type stadium in Denton but with the 35,000 initial seating. (With such a stadium in the Mean Green Village, could we then steal the Tom Landry HS Classic from SMuuuuuu's GJFord Stadium using the sales feature/benefit that the fans of all the participating HS's could get to our new stadium much quicker and actually park near it as well)? Sorta looking ahead here, but couldn't UNT do some very nice & special things with the Denia Duck Pond which is located at the NW corner of where our new stadium will be? With proper landscaping (and shade trees) near that pond, what a nice place for tail-gating, eh?

REVISED First of all, I think we all realize that we will build what our present fund-raiser's talents & abilities are able to raise and what those total monies will allow us to build. I think Todd Dodge's motivational spirit coupled with Rick V's similar pro-active attitude will play a part in helping us catapult to a stadium of at least 35K. I don't think Todge threw the numbers of 35K to 40K out on 103.3 FM by accident last nite. We as alums are all future beneficiaries of the labor of those who presently lead us at UNT. ....................Texas Tech once had a Chancellor who asked for (and received) $20 million from SBC Communications for the sole intent of helping "refurbish" their football stadium. What could UNT do with $20 million now as far as our future stadium plans are concerned? Do we have a Chancellor at UNT who is a fund-raiser delux or extraordinairre at this time? Maybe we do--maybe we don't. Could we use some Big Time fund-raisers at the very top of our administration in Denton? Speaking as only one whose cracker, snowflake, lilly white derrier will fill but one seat, I'd be very, very, very happy with a 35,000 seat stadium as our future new football venue's initial capacity. That would make us larger than UHouston and several others here in Texas. But lets look at all the schools whose stadiums are anywhere from 32,000 and below. Not exactly the college football neighorhood most any D1-A school based in Texas would hardly want to be part of and I would think the majority on this board would agree. If we are content to be thrown in (and disappear off the D1-A radar) with the majority of those schools on the above list in this thread whose stadiums are 32K and less, we can kiss off any CUSA ambitions because CUSA powers that be would probably not think us to be ambitious enough. At UNT, we're really going to have to do all the extra things to get noticed in our own state, probably in our own DFW Metroplex to boot. Did 4 bowl games do that for us? Without a ranked bowl team each & every one of those 4 years, we were all but brushed aside & ignored by most of our state's large city's TV, newspaper and radio media. <>*<> NOTE: I think we'd all agree that the upside of those 4 bowls were that they got Mean Green football's head above water level so that this program would not completely drown (if you will). There were some posiitves even if we seemed to start our SBC part of the football schedule at 1 & 5 or 0 & 6 some of those seasons. BACK TO THAT LENGTHY LIST OF SCHOOLS: I think most would also agree that we are not competing against most of the schools on that list, either, but rather we are trying to make some semblance of headway with the 9 other D1-A schools all based in Texas and it will be that kind of (hopeful) success versus most of those Lone Star State based schools (forget UT and TAMU, they're out of reach budget-wise for probably 8 out of 10 Texas D1-A schools truth be known--sorry Red Raiders and BU Bear fans); yet UNT will have to do the extra (seats?) to get any recognition in Texas. 35,000 seats at our new football digs would make many happy campers who I've spoken to. Now...............T. Boone, you listening?

JD, with all the growth and more progressive thinking which would ordinarily come with such newfans/new faces, maybe we would actually have a few sellouts? We have to all think that we will actually advance much more than our present (and faithful) 15K, right? Geez, folks, we ain't always going to function in Denton like we have the last 25 freakin' years, too, now are we? Lets all hope not for the sake of all that is green and all that is good, right, FFR?

Defering to a recent ADLER post and to answer your question as to what could be more humiliating: To walk inside a new college football stadium in the state of Texas whereas the seating capacity is smaller than your school's enrollment; in fact, the only D1-A school that would meet such a criteria according to ADLER (as I recall). Now THAT would be un-Texan and.................humiliating!

Is it time to start wagering on how many seats it really ends up being, though? UNT would be humiliating itself and most of its progressive thinking alums if they build smaller than Fouts Field. No bets required on that part, either. UNTflyer, you won't go catatonic on us if it actually is built larger than 30K, right?

Silence on some subjects is quite golden. (Anonymous) What we all hope Todd Dodge will say in the near future: "I really can understand why we went to 4 bowl games in a row since (after all) we were ranked in the Top 25; you know, just like our former Big West Conference collegue Boise State has been the last several years? PS: Wouldn't it have been nice back when both UNT and BSU left the Big West if we had followed the same roadmap as the Broncos?

Hmmm? A 35-40,000 seat stadium in Denton of which Coach Dodge talked about in the Randy Galloway 103.3 FM interview? What a novel idea. It is very obvious that Todd Dodge did not graduate from the University of North Texas; that is, as our school (and region) gets larger makes some of our elect think even smaller? I'm just glad we don't have 50,000 enrollment now or we might have a hardy handful who'd think a 20,000 seat stadium would suffice. Simply amazing...

Peavy, Yamaha, Fender and a few other brands have some very nice portable PA systems that could take care of this matter. AKG and Shure have quality microphones you can attach to any of these PA systems, too. (BTW, all these portable systems also have volume buttons, too, if anyone in the back of Hooters are having problems hearing what is being said simply, uh, pump up the volume. Maybe Coach Dodge intended his collegues to make all the extra noise so he could have a "closed" coaches radio show?

Thanks for that word, "interim" Rick V. Now that is a very nice word to hear. (And thanks for showing the patience of Job when you could have done otherwise with what you read from many of us all on this forum). KEEP STAYING PRO-ACTIVE, NOW, YA' HEAR?

NT Ex and Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry has been a frequent visitor of one of the favorite spots of many, ie, Recycled Books, when he comes to Denton. He had a book store in Archer, Texas, but I think he closed it down to go live in Los Angeles for awhile. I've purchased many of my own Texana collection of books from this superb book store located on the NE corner of the Denton Courthouse Square.

So the general college football public would see our scheduling LSU instead of Miami as our way of getting out of playing the 'Canes for a, uh, creampuff? ....but wouldn't it be fun (at times) to be of such a high profile that would could get a bit condescending at times, too? Oh, probably wouldn't be prudent for the many of us raised on humble pie. GMG!

Sorta' like probably zero (0) of the over 2,700 registered on GMG.com were asked their opinion, ie, or likes and dis-likes from our recent crack UNT branding committee (of which FFR received an errnoneous sent email from one of that group saying "we don't have to answer to any of "THAT" group)?" Wonder if such an attitude is shared by many of our other various on-campus "Keepers of the UNT logos and brandings" is why we see Mean Green gear just about anywhere in Texas or even the USA? (To many of you new'bies on this board, that last sentence was being a bit facetious & even sarcastic, too)?

Now that is a funny "1,000'th" post! Congrats on your milestone, EagleD. PMG

40,000? And what were our home per game averages during 4 bowl years? The next level is what I think most of us want, UNTflyer, because we've had that "other" level for most of our entire varsity football history. So might it be that a true, bonafide D1-A football stadium which gives us a future out of Bottom 25 may do for us what Fouts Field seems to have not done for us even during winning seasons?

Lets see now...............Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson a few others of (almost) similar predigree coaching the 'Canes up to their present coach. I will not list our coaches names during that same period of time beginning in the early 1980's--we all know their names (and pedigrees as compared to all the 'Cane's coaches). Lets see now..............Miami, Florida? Hmmmm? Sun, fun, bikinis, white sand beaches, tourist destination, etc, etc, etc, And, uh, Denton, Texas? We all love our little ol' Denton, but I don't think any of us could ever say it will ever compete with or compare to Miami, Florida. Lets see now..............the Orange Bowl versus Fouts Field? Their storied old stadium and home of numerous Super Bowls versus ours (which mostly has many funny stories and the butt of many DFW area non-NT Exes jokes)? Lets see now..............Miami's schedule thru the decades? Perhaps a bit more Big Time than our steady & continuous diet of big crowd-drawers such as the McNeese States, the Nichols States, the rest of the Southland Conference and a few major schools we persuaded into coming to Fouts Field and how many of that group will come back to the Fouts Field they saw? Baylor probably won't be one of that group because of their electrical black-out experience in the Bear's locker-room at half-time; and their Big 12 last place team getting beat by DD's best team in his 8 year tenureship. Again, we drummed the last place team in the Big 12, but it wasn't like they were ranked like when Troy U beat #19 ranked Missouri in their "new'ish" stadium's debut on national TV. Lets see now...........yes, the 'Canes WON alright, but on a bit different level than we have over a comparative last quarter of a century in our venerable ol' digg called Fouts Field--and here we go again with Fouts in the midst of yet another one of its famous polishings (of which many on this board have said you just can't keep polishing this "what" was it now?. Yet we are who we are and I suppose some are just content to go another 25 years of being just that, but there are now a whole bunch who are not.

A Mexican stand-off here? UNT is like a piglet whose mama pig has 10 teats and we are on hind teat #10 trying to make some headway to go forward on the teat chain (if you will). . (10, of course, represents the 10 D1-A schools that have to co-exist with each other in the Lone Star State). I'm just saying a 30,000 seater will keep us on that hind teat in the geographical area our school (unfortunately) is located and with all our fellow Texas D1-A schools we have to compete. Sorta' why I "suggested" in the below signature that UNT may most always have to do extra to make some semblance of headway with the other 9 Texas D1-A schools? FWIW.............and IMHO...............this is the kind of stark simplicity of a scenario that we have been stumbling all over ourselves for the 4 decades I've been around as an alum. A 30,000 seater may just be all we can afford, but if we can do more, a school like UNT needs to do more because of all the company we have to keep here in the Lone Star State. Boise State and UNT's athletic situaitons are apples and oranges. Boise State doesn't have 9 other D1-A schools in their state, so they can probably get by (for now) with a 30,000 seat stadium. I will say their stadium is much nicer than Fouts Field blue football field and all. We will just stay on hind teat if we build a smaller stadium than Fouts Field. It's just all seems pretty elementary. UNT must have top leadeers who are visionaries because we will be stuck (good or bad) with what our present hired UNT employees give us (but they still have the option of moving on while we do not, now do we)?

Merely responding to the subject as posted by jimmyjames_99; but (still) give yourself another 30 years of what Small Time thinking has given us, UNTflyer and then (and only then) will you understand the frustration of a few past generations most of whom have completely disappeared from our alma mater and specifically, its athletic program. Todd Dodge will not be long for Denton with what you have said is UNT's (already made decision) to build a 30K seat stadium. Can you link the article where you saw an actual statement made on the 30K seat stadium decision (and who was it that made that quote)? Thanks in advance...

Athletic fundraisers at Oklahoma State made the "All World Inter-Collegiate Fundraising" team when one man with the letter T. in front of the rest of his name came forward with a, uh, Big Donation. Most progressive football programs at the NCAA D1-A level have all had similar donors (and I'm talking about those who give more than $1 million). In light of the last 25 years, it is very understandable why we have those who think this program is only worth a 30,000 seat stadium in Denton even in this new millineum of boom growth all around our main campus and all this happening in Denton, Texas, America, where many of us have called home at some point in our lives. Maybe its just in the drinking water that causes some of our best fans to most always gravitate to that small time thinking mode. Yet only those who would actually have no plans of being at UNT or around Denton, Texas, America, in 10 or more years would even think of pursueing for our school a stadium smaller than our present one, especially for the fact that our school (still) has has 6 million citizens (who ain't going nowhere else soon) living near or within one hour of Fouts Field, our most venerable and highly visible stadium that has now for over half a century created for our school much in the area of negative perceptions from all those numerous DFW'ers most of us have worked around in the DFW workplace for decades. NOTE: You who will graduate from UNT & choose to stay in DFW for your careers, will all one day see what many of us Older Nestors mean as long as Fouts Field still has a place on our campus map. BUT.............just build the darn thing the right size now or just wait till we have leaders from top to bottom who are true visionaries; that is, those who will look beyond their own personal agendas of which a new stadium of most any size (even smaller than 30K) would unfortunately satisfy for what its worth. Folks, there are reasons we still had only 15,000 per home game averages (even during 4 bowl years) and those we never, never, never see anymore from past decades who merely just chose to not support what their perceptions of NT athletic's direction has been all about to them and.................Small Timer's-Style stinkin' thinkin' is at the very top of their list. And if you want proof of that-- just ask most of that group of who live in and around the Metroplex because they'll tell you most the time what has kept their seats empty at Fouts Field. What we need to happen at the University of North Texas still transcends the hiring of one person, even if that person is Todd Dodge.

Yeah, we probably could, but there are at least 2 of us of the Mean Green Nation who are pretty darn sure Fouts Field is built over a gol' darned Indian graveyard and do we really want to be responsible for fooling around with those kind of spirits? I'm out of here..........Larry McMurtry's Texasville is on the Flix and Archer County, Texas, (strangely enough) makes me feel a bit at home.