PlummMeanGreen

I think the family in Denton County with a $40 million home already is on the Mean Green bandwagon and so that immediately discounts some theories typical of our school's past. A little more tweakin' of that relationship between the Goldfield's, UNT and....? Mattress Mac (although he may be a USU fan albeit temporarily) still has deep pockets and he has even been quoted as saying (even after the black Unis'-Gate episode) that he will still be giving to "HIS" alma mater. Good ol' Houstonian Matt/Mac was a letterman under Hayden Fry's Mean Green in 1973 so all that would only make some sense in spite of all the other senseless (almost silly) situations of late with DD we could venture a guess; but we are also not putting all our eggs in MM's basket, either. NOTE: I'd bet one meeting with Todd Dodge in his Houston executive office and MM is back on board full speed ahead but even in a more positive sort of way. Yet UNT will (for certain) have to leave its long gone "most humble teacher's college attitude" or its "we can't do "THAT" up here in little ol' Denton" mentality behind for anything of real substance to happen, but this is also not our father's or grandfather's same ol' UNT anymore either, now is it, for instance (and besides our boom growth on campus) there are now a.................. ...............UNT Engineering School, UNT Law School (on the way very soon most now predict), UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth, UNT-Dallas (which will one day be a free-standing university), 3, I repeat "three" separate $1 million plus donors to UNT Athletics in the last 3 years (including the Warranch Tennis Center dude and BTW, Mr. Warranch is a multi/multi/multi millionaire out in California whose pipeline is probably hardly empty for future athletic projects) and we still have Norm Miller of Interstate Batteries who is among our rich elite and this list can (impressively) just really go on and on but the best part of all this for UNT is: All these names among others are not just names on a list that gets shoved in some desk drawer to draw dust from those of our past most incapable of doing an effective fund-raising job with any of them, but rather these donors and potential donors have all been updated recently concerning the U of North Texas story and it seems (for the most part) that they are now more than willing to listen and seem to all like what they are hearing. (Totally amazing what a few staff adjustments and changes on our main campus can do for our dear ol' alma mater, now isnt' it--yet there probably needs to be a few more made to brighten our athletic future even more). S M U historic past? Heck, their last (and only) national football championship was actually closer to an era when ranches and farms out here in Parker County were raided by Commanche and Kiowas than the present era. AND FWIW.................UNT has won 3 NCAA D1 Golf National Championships since the Stangs' won their football NC back in the 1930's.

What has amazed many is the very impressive handful of the potential donors that UNT leaders identified a couple or so years back with any one of that group who could build us more than what we need with our eventual new football stadium at the Mean Green Village. I think SMU had the right idea by getting about 4 Big Donors to take care of their new stadium needs with G. Ford being the largest contributor of that quartet of high rollers. Say what you will, but there is a high roller out there with such an ego (coupled with a passion for what we are now doing with Mean Green football) as to where they will not mind at all their family name being on a college football stadium that would probably be the most visual collegiate stadium in the USA as far as the multi-thousands of daily commuters who will be passing by our football palace that will set between both I35-E and I35-W.

Good post, FFW. The amazing part to me with this projected 2007 recruiting class is how Todd Dodge and his staff have (still) just been on the UNT payroll for a few weeks. If all this is a prelude of things to come when Coach Dodge and Assistants actually have a year (or 2) to recruit............jumpin' jehosophats!

Back in the day when I supported DD Ball (like 7 out of 9 years), I posted something just like all this "star" business even back then because I remember this happening back then, too; and now with our new Dodge Ball Era I merely repeat this unusual phenomena. I couldn't understand all this back then during the DD era as I can't now. NT03's post should raise more than just all those so-called "fun pokin' " conspiracy theories for those of you who gravitate to the conspiracy card anytime a post's subject doesn't quite conform to you or your own theories. Lest we forget, this is still an opinion board with quite a diversity of college football fan backgrounds on GMG.com, too. I probably got a bit spoiled with my beginnings of following NCAA D1 football as (a Junior High and HS kid) as I followed UH Cougar football pre-SWC days when Coach Bill Yeoman was building a superb football program. Then................. my first taste of college basketball was when myself and our HS BB team would travel over to the Houston ISD's Delmar Fieldhouse to watch the UH Cougar freshmen basketball team (when there were such teams back then) and that UH frosh' team that had players on it such as Elvin Hayes, Theodus Lee, Don Chaney, Kenny Spain among others. Quite frankly, I've not seen anything like any of that since, but many others in our state haven't either (no matter what their Texas collegiate affiliation). BUT BACK TO DODGE BALL...............I think the difference now is that TD's kids will get coached by coaches who really want to be at UNT and Denton to build something well beyond what DD ever set as his goal for our football program (of which not shooting for more than just SBC/Bottom 20 goals eventually became one of the reasons for his demise in Denton) and that TD's coaching staff will also be guilty as charged of actually developing many more our our athletes than the previous staff. IT'S BEEN SAID BEFORE BY SOME OF YOU AND YOURS TRULY BUT: Darrell Dickey tossed it in with our football program, our football players (who lost the most out of all this IMHO), our school and all its "M-F'ing" fans (to use DD's exact quote) after their 9 & 3 season a few years ago and when Papa Dickey (and the agent that DD had actually hired for those of you who seemed to have forgoteen that small fact); anyway, he could not for some reason (how bout' starting with no significant signature OOC wins that got anyone outside of Texas' attention?); anyway, all that had happened up to DD's 9 & 3 season could not even produce one high profile D1-A school interview for DD except (insert Norm Hitzghes giggle) the one that supposedly took place at Moscow, Idaho, which was nothing more than a lateral job or worse had it opened up for DD.

Back in the day when I supported DD Ball (like 7 out of 9 years), I posted something just like all this "star" business even back then because I remember this happening back then, too; and now with our new Dodge Ball Era I merely repeat this unusual phenomena. I couldn't understand all this back then during the DD era as I can't now. NT03's post should raise more than just all those so-called "fun pokin' " conspiracy theories for those of you who gravitate to the conspiracy card anytime a post's subject doesn't quite conform to you or your own theories. Lest we forget, this is still an opinion board with quite a diversity of college football fan backgrounds on GMG.com, too. I probably got a bit spoiled with my beginnings of following NCAA D1 football as (a Junior High and HS kid) as I followed UH Cougar football pre-SWC days when Coach Bill Yeoman was building a superb football program. Then................. my first taste of college basketball was when myself and our HS BB team would travel over to the Houston ISD's Delmar Fieldhouse to watch the UH Cougar freshmen basketball team (when there were such teams back then) and that UH frosh' team that had players on it such as Elvin Hayes, Theodus Lee, Don Chaney, Kenny Spain among others. Quite frankly, I've not seen anything like any of that since, but many others in our state haven't either (no matter what their Texas collegiate affiliation). BUT BACK TO DODGE BALL...............I think the difference now is that TD's kids will get coached by coaches who really want to be at UNT and Denton to build something well beyond what DD ever set as his goal for our football program (of which eventually became a reason in his demise) and that TD's coaching staff will also be guilty of actually developing many more our our athletes than the previous staff. IT'S BEEN SAID BEFORE BY SOME OF YOU AND YOURS TRULY BUT: Darrell Dickey tossed it in with our football program, our football players (who lost the most out of all this IMHO), our school and all its "M-F'ing" fans (to use DD's exact quote) after their 9 & 3 season a few years ago and when Papa Dickey (and the agent that DD had actually hired for those of you who seemed to have forgoteen that small fact); anyway, he could not for some reason (how bout' starting with no significant signature OOC wins that got anyone outside of Texas' attention?); anyway, all that had happened up to DD's 9 & 3 season could not even produce one high profile D1-A school interview for DD except (insert Norm Hitzghes giggle) the one that supposedly took place at Moscow, Idaho, which was nothing more than a lateral job or worse had it opened up for DD.

Many of us would say to NT03's post: We rest our point. But don't other similar stories like NT03 just posted make others of you wonder about this? I think the true "tell-tell" on all this so-called "stars" business is how many more stars a HS kid gains at the college level with a good coaching staff that coaches and develops the kids they recruit. Those are the real stars we need to concern ourselves with compared to the ones they have right after they sign their letter-of-intents.........right?

And there were many who couldn't even believe that a sitting govenor of the sovereign state of Texas would participate in some of $mu's $henanigannery (new word), either, which ultimately led to their death penalty (among many other NCAA violations). But emmitt's post really should make some be curious enough to ponder: Just why would SMU have 2 star recruits suddenly bumped up to 3 star status while you (still) probably won't see any of that happen with any of our 2 star recruits because quite frankly.............that hasn't ever happened for us just yet, now has it? In fact, we've had some who got demoted a star once it appeared they were going to sign with UNT or that they (in deed) signed with UNT (and that according to some of this board's recruiting gurus in times past). SOMEONE LEFT OUR CAKE OUT IN THE RAIN (except the rain seemed to have yellow'ish tint to it). I guess the icing on the cake for many of us was when the $mu president bally-hooed freakin' La Tech (n the DMN) for CUSA membership over our school should tell all of you who think we can somehow, miraculously smoke the peace pipe with the Stangs that that is just not going to happen in any our/your lifetimes (and probably not even in any of your future kid's lifetime for those of you who have that gleam in your eyes for your special lady). You can call it a conspiracy theory all you want; a pinko' around every street corner or try to make some of this sound like McCarthy'ism from some fan'atic and do all of this till the cows come home, but some of us have watched all this pretty closely for more than a decade or 2 or 3 or 4 and some of us will tell you anything can happen with that crowd. Can you really take stripes off of a zebra where money and whatever makes more of it seems to be their main emphases over there? OK, here it is: I don't like SMU because of how damn condescending they've traditionally been with us even when there was absolutely no reason for them to be condescending. SMU will continue to foil anything they think UNT will ever try to do which would take the limelight off of their campus. Don't we have more than enough proof and examples thru the decades to go by with that? FWIW...............Did you read all their tommyrot on PonyFans.com even after we beat them last September at Fouts? If not, you missed a real authentic "smoooooooo'ish type of treat. I say UNT needs to do what we do with or w/o SMU as a future schedule consideration. We've gone over all this time and time again about SMU, so why do we think they'll drop all they have planned for their FB program to give us a 10 year home and home football or BB series? A new bonafide NCAA D1-A football stadium at our Eagle Point Campus will make most of you forget about SMU rather quickly quite frankly, but till they have their Ford over our, uh, Studebaker, whoops, I mean't Fouts, we will be in competition with them for many of the same recruits for however long we wait on a completion of our new stadium BUT..................... once we do have our football palace in place over at the Mean Green Village, I really do think S M U will for the long-term be choking on some rather green-tinted dust.

All those fence-sitters thru the years that saw too many ("yawn") "3'rd down, 25 yds to go and draw" type plays at many home season openers (with many of that group who would leave at half time) I would venture to say live within 15-25 minutes from Fouts Field. This has always been the focus group we never seem to focus on most any year of most any decade. To make it even plainer, most of that (fence-sitting) group come from the city that our alma mater has called home since 1890. Once that group finally becomes sold on MG football, then all talk for a new 30,000 seat "only" stadium at the Mean Green Village will cease and common sense coupled with the knowledge of our main campus and our main campuses home city's future growth will (amazingly) prevail. We cannot build for tomorrow based on yesterday at UNT; maybe at some backwater (sparsely populated) collegiate outposts you can, but not in DENTON, TEXAS, AMERICA.

Are our, uh, "good neighbor" friend$ from $mu up to $ome of their old trick$ again with $ome of their friend$ in low place$ who might just bend the rule$ a tad for the local darling$ off Mockingbird Lane? Now just what was the final score of the UNT vs SMU game at Fouts Field just a few months ago?

Yes................we all know what and who inspired me, Eagle Man. Dear Lord: Why couldn't I have been an Aggie or a Longhorn (like most of my other Texas Gulf Coastal cousins)? Amen..... (just kiddin'--It's Good to Be Green, frustrating as hades sometimes, but still................good).

Whatever our initial capacity is will probably remain at that capacity the rest of (even) you Young Gun Alum's lives. It would be a terrifically large mistake to build a stadium smaller than Fout's present capacity of 30,500----a very "BIG" mistake if that actually happens. If you can afford a 30,000 seat stadium, just how much more could 5-10,000 extra seats possibly be? Why buy a Cadilac w/o wheels? We don't need to rush into a small D1-A stadium with all the projected numbers we have for our enrollment, the city of Denton's expected continued growth and Denton County's present boom growth as well. Only short-sighted types would even think of building a (too) small stadium. We need those who would make such small capacity decisions for our new stadium to make them as if they were going to actually be around these parts another 20 years from now when they, too, have to sit in a stadium thats so small we cannot schedule UT, TAMU, OU, OSU, etc, etc, etc If UNT were in some small, sparsely populated backwater locale, maybe 30,000 would be fit the bill, but UNT is "NOT" located in some small, sparsely populated backwater locale. Come on, folks, lets leave the "teacher's college" mode of thinking behind forever or we'll be enslaved by the our school's small thinking/ low setting goals style of thinking forever. REMEMBER WHEN? ? ? ? ? We had those on campus who wanted to build the Super Pit to seat 6,500. Well, had that happened, we would have never hosted 3 very prestigious NCAA Regionals, we would have never hosted anyone with much higher profile than MOST D1 bottom-feeder basketball programs and many of us would have never been part of UNT history when we had 10,700 Standing-Room-Only for an NT/SMU basketball game many years ago. In fact, wonder when we might possibly get back to those days again?

No, TIgreen, that "hastily called press conference" was just a projection of what will most likely happen when all the monies are in (whether that be by one Big Donor or a consortium of Big Donors). Maybe "hastily" was not the right choice of a word, but that word does mean UNT would not be able to contain themselves or wait too long to get such exciting information of a completely funded new stadium out, eh?

Indeed, but explain it for everyone else. Gotta' go make some money...later E.M and MG collegues.

As its been said and I will very loosely paraphrase as I cannot remember the exact quotation but: A 1,000 mile journey begins with the first step. The geat thing about folks like the Goldfields is the fact that people that have the kind of bucks they reportedly have can end that 1,000 mile journey with the next step. I think that is what we will see at UNT whether that be from the Goldfields or someone with similar coffer$.

I lived at 316 Fry Street my first couple of years at NT, so all this made me get a bit misty-eyed and nostalgic, too; but Fry Street will soon take on the role that Fouts Field will soon enough and that is: Nice to have known ya' but its time to move on to bigger and better things now. Fry Street never became the UT-type 6'th St. scene or scenario it could have become IMO. We all have our memories from Fry Street, but all the new UNT students projected to come to Denton by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (43,000 enrollment at our main campus) will never know what they missed and they may actually prefer (in larger numbers) what they are going to be getting over at Fry Street. Just my .02.

May they all find good bargains on insulated underwear. Did anyone really expect that DD would be recruiting Rhode Island for USU?

Uh, consolation prize? E.M. as Ricky Ricardo would say: Please 'esplain, Luceeeeee? There's a time to be positive, there's a time to be negative (if that is the word one has to use to make a very clear "no question how he/she for feels about something" sort of point, perhaps?); BUT GANG..............this is a time for all of us to be positive because so many positve things are coming from "ALL" quarters of our campus at this time. With a new football stadium at the Mean Green Village as the subject of an aforementioned post I offer this: One hastily called press conference by the Chancellor and our new main campus President to announce a Big Donor will change our Mean Green lives forever. For you Young Gun Alums, we really do have some people with UNT ties who have some very impressive financial coffer$$$$$, even more than enough to build what we need in a new football stadium (palace?) at Eagle Point Campus. Lucky for all of us, we have our 2'nd UNT president in a row with Dr "B" who knows the short-term and long-term of her being able to meet her own personal goals to nationalize UNT and that happening quicker with a nationally recognized D1-A intercollegiate football program. I really think there's a fine line that can separate being positive from being negative. I know which side of that line that makes me feel better about life (in general) and for sure about myself (and that part for darn sure). We may never all become "huggy bears" (or drinking buds') with each other, but I feel we all know what the common thread is among 99.9% of all of us on this board lest we ever forget. Personally (and I've posted this before) but myself (and many, many others) have truly not been this excited about Mean Green football since Hayden Fry signed on with NT in December of 1972. Many of us on this board enjoyed that Fry-coached era joyride, too (as we've posted a time or 2 on GMG.com ; and many of us would highly recommend that we all enjoy this new Dodge Ball joyride. It's Magic-Mania Time in Mean Green Country once again and in a way we haven't seen in very long time, too.

Oh yeah, I remember when Oklahoma State graduated a future NFL'er who could not even read after he left Stillwater. Didn't Texas Tech just a few years ago have a kid from DeSoto who never went to class but still made it to his senior year? Not sure I am quite ready to put all Big 12 schools at the "Ivy League" level. In fact, I think getting in most of those schools would be similar to getting into UNT for what its worth. UNT is hardly an open enrollment school. It's also not a teacher's college anymore, either. For those who still want to call UNT a commuter school we have more students percentage-wise who live on/near our campus than UT-Austin (according to an NT Ex whose son graduated from UT). AND.................UNT is the largest residential campus this side of UT-Austin. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to start counting all of UNT's older, newer and soon to be finished ultra-modern dorms to figure all of that out. Sometimes its not getting in all these schools thats the toughest thing to do anyway; but rather its getting out of all these schools that can be the real challenge.

...Ken Washington, Scott Hall, Troy Redwine, Jim Burkholder, Burks Washington, Mitch Maher, Scott Davis, Eric Pegram, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kevin Galbreath, Patrick Cobb and many more. Would this be an impressive public display for all of MG fandom (of any era) to have all these Mean Green football greats and UNT icons announced on the F'F PA as each and every one of them run (or walk fast?) onto the field to form the end part of the Green Brigade's victory line as they all Bring Out The Mean Green thru the south end zone tunnel at our 2007 home season opener right before the kick-off. What a way to start this exciting new era of Mean Green football. And what a grand excuse to get all these past MG greats together at one time for the common cause and on the field pre-kick-off as well as a very public way to get them in the MG fold again (and more involved?) at the start of this new era of Mean Green football. Just something I thought might be a (possible) neat idea; and a great "welcome" to Coach Dodge, his assistants and all of our MG football players for their first game at Fouts Field this upcoming season.

It won't surprise me that we start seeing Robert DiNiro and Al Pacino (as well as Marlon Brando's ghost) at Fouts Field this Fall, it really won't. Aren't we all now having fun for a change with a a brighter "higher profile" future on our horizon as the main reason for all this fun? The timing of all this could not have been any better. The next big story at UNT in the Mean Green football campaign of Fall 2007 is when we warp speed our per home game attendance figures dramatically upward in record-shattering numbers. This will be the icing on a cake that has long needed such icing as that.

2009 for the completion year of our new stadium out at the Mean Green Village is very do-able if we have most of the money raised in this silent phase of our fundraising and on the subject of the silent phase, what Big Donor Deals are really ever for public consumption anyway? The Dallas Cowboys will open up their $Billion Dollar$ stadium in 2009, also, but they will have more to build than UNT. Funny how those in the past who have been identified as potential Big Donors (and we will not mention names because none of us want to screw up this deal and who knows, maybe some of their people are reading this board by now); but these high rollers are the kind who could build UNT two or three 40,000 seat stadiums with the the kind of bucks they have. We are living in a time when pro athletes are (amazingly) making the kind of money that would build us a top notch 40,000 plus college football stadium at UNT, I like our chances on all this more than ever and we need not let nestors from the past shoot any of this down because "we never did things like this before at UNT so that must mean this can't be done now?" Proceed With All This Unbelievable Progress @ UNT For Those Responsible.

Of course, many on GMG.com would recall that Randy Rogers also had a son who played at UNT, ie, Jeff Rogers. Just how many other Texas HS QB's would rank ahead of Vizza would be many of our questions, right? Vizza making DC'sTHSF magazine's first team (if its the one I think the poster is talking about) is not too shabby, either. UNT facilties? For those who think they have us by the short-hairs with that subject out there in the recruiting wars here is Todd Dodge's quote about those facilities: "They're just really not that bad." Seems Coach Dodge and staff have had no problem selling what we already have and what we will have in the very near future, either. I think most of us have made a bigger deal about Fouts than those who actually play on its turf. We should not forget the fact that our MG footballl players will be spending most of their time at the ultra-modern and (still) new'ish Mean Green Village. Wonder if our recruiting competition care to mention that aspect to kids they are trying to take away from Todd Dodge, his staff and................Mean Green Country? I'm telling you, folks, all this is exceeding many of our expectations in this the first few weeks on the UNT payroll for Todd Dodge and his staff. We have to all do our part best each of us can. In fact, aren't Todd Dodge and his staff most subtlely and in an indirect sort of way telling all of us: "We are doing our part--are you doing your part?" Many of us will do our part as each of our incomes allow, but we need many new faces/new fans coming on board, too, and that is where those who get paid on campus to bring in that group must do some tweakin' and do some things different than in the past.

Nope... In fact, my serving of Texas-style chicken fried crow concerning my initial thoughts of her hiring has been a pleasure to eat. FWIW, I don't mind eating some crow when I'm wrong and what I'm wrong about means good things for UNT. I hope I'm wrong about a few other things and toward the top of that list would be a UNT athletic dept. ancillery staff that helps (with consistent "large crowd" producing promotions and no, I won't mention a Band Day); anyway, that that ancillery staff helps our school with the kind of creative promotions as to get the casual/borderline fans out in record-numbers as to help us move up to the 25-30,000 plus per home game level. Speaking of crow: Has anyone really ever eaten some real crow? Well................I heard it tastes a bit like, uh, chicken-snake?!?!? Dr. "B" has exceeded many others expectations, too, from what I hear.

"Crazy".....sung by Patsy Cline; words and music by Willie Nelson. Completely off the subject, but why are so many of the women in movies of late from England while even so many of our American actresses seem to think they need to sound "Brit" or as if they're from the land of fish and chips? Just a crazy kind of thought as I watch previews of Showtimes "The Tudors" about Henry VIII. Wait a gol' darned minute here, I forgot, my own ancestors were from England--nevermind, forget this completely "off" subject. BACK TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL: For those of us who prefer our college football to be played in the upper stratusphere of NCAA D1-A, does anyone else ever wonder now if we would have been where Boise State is today had Rick Villarreal been able to make a HFC's change post ULM-loss in October of 2001? Oh hell, I know........................."If if's and but's were candy and nuts we'd all have a Merry Christmas." Carry on....time to eat some prunes.

I would think after most our 'ships are filled in a couple of weeks (but don't they always keep several available for walk-on's, right?); anyway, after this recruiting haul is in I'd bet that we will still fall way short of 105 total varsity football players over at the Mean Green Village; but I wonder just how short? I think this Spring and Fall would be a great opportunity for any walk-on who plans to come to UNT during this exciting new era we find ourselves in.