PlummMeanGreen

Merely from reading the recruiting chatter on the Mean Green Report back in that day when he left us for Tulsa, Eagle1855. Leftwich was at UNT for several years as I recall. I'm glad this one did come back to Denton. He seemed to be a good fit in Denton when we know not all always are.

Uh...........the Wizard of Oz?!?!?

Seems Leftwich could have very well been the difference for some players going to Tulsa rather than UNT, especially in his first year of recruiting at Tulsa. Hope he can now turn the tables on all that. I've always heard nothing but good about this former UNT coach (as well as his parents who were regulars at Mean Green football games). Welcome Back To Mean Green Country To The Entire Leftwich Clan As Well As Coach Gandy and His Family, Too!

Of course, I was just asking you the question "weren't you part of that business as usual crowd (and so, obviously, I guess you weren't) sorry 'bout that...... Yet..........come on, Baby Arm, with our last "crony" hire and with the past hiring records of the last 25 years by UNT AD's how can anyone who has been around all this awhile ever really be too comfortable when UNT starts talking about hiring a new head football coach? You know as well as anyone what the situation was from many posters on this board when they thought we'd be getting a new Mean Green HFC from some school in Mississippi In fact, at any other time, such a hire from Rick V may have been a good hire no matter where the new coach was from, but Helwig put a very bad taste in many mouths around these parts with his single-handed, non-regional or non-national coach's search that (basically) became a 2 or 3 man KSU connection "crony" hire and probably killed any chances for Rick V to have any semblance of a chance to have his own crony hire that would be universally accepted by the Mean Green Nation as his hiring of Todd Dodge has almost completely unified this MG Nation like many of us haven't seen in over 30 years. Of course, I will never believe Todd Dodge was UNT's first choice and I also believe many on campus (and GMG.com) are just as surprised by all the ink his hiring has given UNT. The record will show that I and others became Todd Dodge advocates before it really became popular to do so. Kind of like that Barbara Mandrell song when she sang: "I loved country when country wasn't cool" I suppose. In fact, I'll go as far as say I think that early bandwagon effect on this forum even played some part on his getting hired at UNT. Now that statement is what you migth want to call an inflated opinion. (Once I figured out that Rick Neuheisel would never be approached by anyone from Denton, Todd Dodge became an early natural choice by yours truly). Todd Dodge has been very well received from most on this board because he is one of us, ie, as in, uh, he's a Texan. What the hell, Texans are Texans! We walk with a swagger! We brag a bit sometimes! We were once our own nation and we natives don't let non-natives forget that fact! Actress Rene Zellewegger said today on one early AM TV show that she can always spot a Texan in a crowd. She said Texans are special. She is right! Ms. Zellwegger is a Houston girl herself. As far as Todd Dodge goes, it also doesn't hurt that he was also a University of Texas QB, too, because whoever has that job usually gets state-wide attention and fame, too. Many father's of recruits we are trying to become Mean Greeners today will know Todd Dodge from his days as QB of the University of Texas Longhorns. Now.....what the heck were we originally talking about, Baby Arm? I'm getting tired head so I guess I'll hit the sack! Adios to all and to all--Adios! PS: Where the heck is GreenGrenadeII? He hasn't posted since Dodge first got hired. Anyone know?

Hellssbells! I ain't going to play devils advocate with this; I am going to play ol' Lucifer himself! (just kiddin', mom)! Jeez! Baby Arm! You still got that ol' chip on your shoulder with ol' PMG here? I can't quite remember now, but weren't you one of those who wanted to keep things "business as usual" in Denton with the way things had been going with all those highly and nationally ranked D1-A teams we had at UNT the last 9 years? (If so, all this presently going on now must really be frustrating to you and your small army that some of us just kept posting months ago was a shrinking army). YET...... weren't you another one of those who would not admit to all of us who knew that this thing was going nowhere fast that just maybe we all might have been just a tad on target with our assessments of Mean Green football all the time under the past coaching regime and the conditions they presented all of us (especially all the events that reared their ugly head in the last 3 weeks of the 2006 football campaign)? Well, if so, that's OK, BA, because there have been several others who have yet to step up to that plate of admittance as well. (Can anyone just imagine how recruiting, fundraising and future season ticket sales would have been in 2007 had some of you gotten your way with another year or 2 or 3 or 9 of "you know what" Ball)? And Baby Arm, there is a difference in a UNT AD hiring a (crony) coach or buddy than a UNT head football coach hiring his own assistants; and I think most on this board probably know the difference (except for perhaps, uh, one)? And as far as coaches at UNT go, isn't it apparently already clear that we are comparing apples to oranges with our recent past compared to the present? Just those Texas HS football players responding to Coach Dodge and his staff with planned visits to Denton already with our coaches having only been on payroll 2-3 weeks is short of amazing; even if we don't sign them all (which few schools ever do). ON ANOTHER FRONT: The Louisville AD said in one of the DFW papers today that they may have had the quickest hire (or search) in NCAA D1-A history with Kragthorpe, but there are a helluva' lot of us on this board (most of whom that will continue to remain silent, of course) who would disagree with that Louisville AD.

Another NT Ex and I were talking about this subject just today and we both wondered: Why do so many from our own try to impose so many of our own on new NT employees (Todd Dodge?) who would probably just as soon hire those they have a familiarity or past with and won't feel like they are taking a chance on an unproven commodity? When I chose to be in management in the tech school recruiting business, I really preferred to succeed (or not succeed) with those who I was responsible for hiring. Erric Pegram was one of our all time Mean Green heros and one of the best, he made us all proud during the Corky Nelson era and I'm sorry he seems to be the odd man out on all this hiring business going on now in Denton, but Todd Dodge is probably going to go with some old familiar faces, ie, those he has a past with (just as most of us would do if our necks were on the line with such a high profile job as TD has at UNT). Anyone he may hire that he doesn't have a past with will probably come by recommendation, but from someone not affiliated with UNT or presently on our campus. We don't need to copy too much of what we've seen for most of the last 25 plus years if we want to reach the kind of heights the Boise State Broncos have showed us are even within our reach in Mean Green Country. Hey folks, there's nothing wrong about getting sentimental about all our past football heros in Denton, but just as we all have to as we go out in this cold (sometimes cruel) world and make our own way job-wise or for our own careers, we should probably let those most admired heros from our Mean Green Nation's past (probably) just do the same. E.P. should know by now in this thing called life that when one small door closes that (many times) a much bigger garage door (and golden opportunity) will open for something much better. Just my .02. Off the subject, Harry: But why did one political party think several months ago that we needed more soliders in Iraq but once President Bush wants more in Iraq this same political party (suddenly) doesn't want those additional soliders in Iraq? Do those people know what the hell they do want or is this all really mostly about them than the citizens of the USA--who they should think about more than just themselves perhaps? (Sorry, but I vote independent and most always have)--in fact, I have yet to vote for Bush (except for his dad) but I do support our President just like others might think about doing themselves). Will it take a mushroom cloud over some of these people's constituencies before they finally realize that this is more than just about partisan politics and their own self-serving agendas that they have yet to fully sell the rest of this country on truth be know? Put that in your pipes and smoke on it, Rosie O' and Barbara S! Now turn to your hymnals to page...............

Actually, the DFW Christian station KWRD (100.7) is one that many of us in the West O' Plex (FW, Tarrant, Parker, Johnson Counties, etc) can pick up its reception pretty good; yet (strangely enough) those of us out west cannot pick up KTCK 1310 The Ticket after 6:00 PM. As far as KWRD, it also doesn't hurt that our working cooperation with that station also opens up their Longview radio affiliate, too, to help us get some East Texas coverage. Of course, the internet is always available, but HS kids in strategic Texas recruiting areas like Houston/Galveston, the Golden Triangle (Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange, etc), Austin/San Antonio and El Paso (that one for you, El Paso Eagle ; anyway, the kids we need to hear the UNT story and our Game Day play by play coverage are (most likely) not going to be pulling up our games on the internet. I think UNT should first focus on our state's largest city and that would be Houston. We've made attempts in the past with the Houston market but for whatever reason ($ ?) this has never been followed up on as to keep it going on an annual basis. I am sure Rick V would not mind if any of the local NT Exes chapters of all the aforementioned Texas cities would take the bull by the horns and for each of their respective chapters to help find (1) a radio station that will work with UNT with their local programming in the Fall and (2) to identify local financial sponsors from each of the above listed cities which the local NT Exes chapters could be vauable in helping UNT to line those up. I have a Baylor football souvenir program from years ago and their long list of Texas radio stations that covered BU football back in that day was quite impressive. I'm sure they have not changed much of that coverage, either.

Good post (and just the right length, too). You who post too short and to the point need to quit doing that kind of stuff now, ya' hear! All of our NT community trying to come up with (and agree with) a logo for a UNT helmet is kinda' like that search for the Holy Grail, now isn't it?

If Steve Kragthorpe takes the UL job, anyone else want to wager that Papa Johns Pizza Stadium was a very large deciding factor in that decision? TU's Skelly Stadium is an expanded "trackless" version of Fouts Field. Had the Texas Department of Transportation not told us that they needed some of the Fouts Field property to expand I35-E and therefore forcing UNT to build a new football stadium, we probably would have done just like Tulsa U and just kept on patch-work quilting our own stadium as the 'Canes have been doing with Skelly Stadium. THANK YOU TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION! Of course, UL's new conference affiliation (Big East) will probably have something to do with Coach "K" leaving Tulsa, too (if he decides to take the job). Personally, I think he'd be crazy not to take the Cardinal's HFC's job and Tulsa will be very lucky to keep him. At UNT, the time-table to build our new stadium needs to (still) be sooner than later. Hey T. Boone, gotta' little extra pocket change left over?

Wow! Instant service on that one! Thanks for this "quick" info, Eagle-96. Let me add this one small thought, though: The one key thing that a non-BCS school needs to recruit no matter how many stars Rivals has given each of their recruits is good overall speed; and any D1-A program needs that for any annual recruiting haul because as we've all heard forever from both coaches and commentators alike: "You cannot coach speed."

But what Rivals, Max Emfinger, Hunky-Dory Recruiting Services, etc, etc, etc, cannot do are rank what the heart of these kids are. Give me a 2 star recruit with lots of heart and you might think you have a 3 star and up talent on your hands. Would love to get a list of how many of Boise State's recruits over the last 4-5 years were actually 3 stars and up type recruits. Of course, Coach Boomer (Barry) made it explicitly clear that OU had not recruited any of BSU's players before BSU handed his Sooners a rather sizeable goose-bump on their crimson and cream noggins'.

The 'Stang Gang are going to be doing a lot more rippin' over the next few years with Todd Dodge as Mean Green head football coach; but probaby more like, uh, "rippin' at the seams?" And yes, NTPhiKap99, it is funny that our future star linebacker is larger than their DE, ie, Yenga. FWIW, has Yenga signed anything official that says he is officially at SMU just as of yet? Someone mentioned that Padron will fit well in the Dodge system and I think many of us would wholeheartedly concur. With Boise State having had 5 head football coaches the last 9 years, anyone else think the Broncos have had some sort of system put in place that seems to have be working for their football program (even when there were so many personnel changes)? Not too sure I've been this excited about the future of Mean Green football since Hayden Fry was hired at NT. And BTW, SMU'er's, did we ever get around to telling you thanks for firing a 7 & 4 Mustang HFC in 1972 so we could hire him in Mean Green Country? If not.........a very belated thank you. Hold on to your seats, folks, it's going to be a wild ride!

Agree, buff64... Anyone out there prefer last year's DFW recruiting efforts (under Flanagan) compared to the "barely scratched surface" recruiting in DFW we are seeing thus far with Coach Dodge's staff; most of whom (BTW) who have not yet even unpacked their boxes to set up their new offices out at the Mean Green Village? Our annual "national rankings" (out of 119 other D1-A schools) for most of the last 9 years was a pretty big hint to most that we needed a change of direction in Denton. YET.............lets allow our new MG coaches staff to get thru at least one year before all this intense microscopic critiquing begins and lets all support all these new efforts during this new era. Hellsbells, even I gave Dickey 7 years (out of his 9 yrs. in Denton) worth of moral, financial and ticket-purchasing support. Sometimes this board reminds me of those L.O.L. (Little Ol' Lady) sewing bee circles we've all heard about with all the non-stop gossip and chatter that supposedly goes on at those events. PS: Size of a college linebacker concerns some of you: Anyone remember Mike Singletery of Baylor and then the Chicago Bears? Was he even 5' 10" truth be known?

Best part of Todd Dodge's new staff thus far is how they seem to have "re-introduced" the University of North Texas to DFW area HS coaches. Seems we lost that former pretty decent local pipeline of late. Some of you remember when ex UNT Coach Hayden Fry signed those 6 or 7 players from Dallas Carter HS one year? One of those ex Carter High Schoolers/ex Mean Greener is now the recruiting coordinator for the Texas Longhorn's football program. It is still quite early, but I really do like what I see with all these fresh new faces who are giving us a fresh new beginning in Mean Green Country. IMO, it will take Coach Dodge about 3 recruiting seasons to start building the kind of base of the kind of players who will help us go up the next level (Top 25) and eventually, what Boise State has taught us all are do-able goals. Yet, good things can happen even now on our journey. A new football stadium in all this mix is most vital and important (as I think most of you would agree). So let's all enjoy this new journey as to what could really be an exciting "never before seen" destination point for Mean Green football.

Of course, some of these kids pick one school over other schools who have long lost interest in said player, too, with some of those schools who never offered in the first place. Guess it happens to everyone, though. And FWIW........Denton Ryan seems to have become a mini-pipeline for SMU lately, eh?

If he isn't good enough for SMU and TCU, then he does seem to be good enough for the Fort Worth Star Telegram sports staff. They have this future Mean Greener in their Texas "State" Top 100 list which was in today's edition? The FWST's state top 100 list in the past has been heavily influenced by TCU coaches it also seems. Could someone post a link to the Houston Chronicle's Texas State Top 100 list? Thanks in advance...

Right on, Long Jim! (BTW, hope you, your wife and kids had a happy holiday season)...and do tell our mutual K-LUV radio DJ friend hello for me. Hellsbells, LJ, even Sam Houston State Teacher's College had a billboard in "downtown" Fort Worth about 2 years ago. I almost had a wreck off Belknap when I first saw the darn thing. For some reason, UNT is not much into billboards except for about 2 I have known of one of which was near Lewisville and the other near Denton as I recall. My auto has a UNT mini-billboard (window sticker) on its back window. Many of your autos do to and we'd all encourage you who don't have one to put one on auto's back window as well. CHANGING DIRECTION: Some of you are talking about scheduling; one of the many things most of us appreciated about former NT Coach Hayden Fry was how he made playing the Big Boys an opportunity for his Mean Green football teams (and, quite frankly, for himself as well). Just too bad there weren't the large number of bowl game opportunities back then that there are today because he had several "bowl worthy" teams. FWIW, it wasn't beating Mo' Valley Conference-type schools that got Coach Fry his Big 10 HFC's gig (if you will). Too many NT coaches since Fry left Denton have made our tough OOC schedules their own personal albatrosses and probable cause for their eventual downfalls and bitter attitudes toward "packing their office boxes" time, too. One even as recent didn't bother with or worry at all about being competitive with our OOC Big Boy's schedule (much to many of your's and my chagrin); and his predeccessor (Matt Simon) made Helwig's Big Boy scheduling his own personal Waterloo in MG Country, too. I really do feel new Mean Green HFC Todd Dodge because of his prior experience as a Mean Green assistant coach will have all this most valuable past history at UNT as a lesson for which he can learn. I think TD will know the kind of teams he will need to beat to get the Notre Dame job in other words; but then again, he may want to stay and build something very special in Denton, Texas, America, too. IMO, there are only about 10 NCAA D1-A jobs that I would consider to be "final stops" for any D1-A head football coach and we would all only be kidding ourselves if we thought the Phil Bennetts, the Gary Pattersons, the Guy Morris', the Steve Kragthorpes, the Art Briles', etc, etc, etc, would not listen to job offers from such higher echelon schools as those in the Big 6 conferences. Folks, all these kind of coaches eventually want a chance to play in front of crowds of 80-90,000 and for a realistic chance to win a national championship. Sadly, all the ex SWC schools who didn't make the Big 12 cut will probably never have that opportunity again (like they "theoretcially" had or did when they were in the now defunct Southwest Conference). Of course, there are some Big 12 schools that will most likely in our lifetimes play for an NC, either.

Very encouraging information, Ole Green Guts... I think Coach Petersen was just part of a situation that had grown stagnant the last few years with Coach DeBerry who in the last year or so made some remarks that "we need more black athletes" or something to that effect, but whatever he said got him in trouble with the top brass. Well..........although that was just one coach who made that statement, it was probably (still) the whole AF assistant coaches staff who were most likely associated with the statement of one man. As they say, sometimes you're known by the company you keep (although I don't always concur with that theory, either). After all, Jesus Christ hung around some prettty seedy characters, too, as many of our "Bible belt" training would have taught us; of course, JC was on a different mission (if you will). Might we also assume (yes, I know about that word "assume") that Coach Dodge was able to convince Rick V and then our AD convince the UNT BOR's that our assistant coaches salaries needed to be paid much higher than they've been in the past, but (still) I am going to guess that most non-BCS assistant coaches salaries are still not as high as even Coach Petersen may have received at the Air Force Academy. Who knows, maybe we even got lucky to be getting the former AF assistant with the price we most likely got him?

Amen to FFR and "the real grad88"... ...although Coach Boomer along with his trusty sidekick Jimmy Johnson (who Coach Boomer made sure everyone knew how his Sooner (than Later) teams used to dominate JJ"s' OSU Cowboys almost every year; anyway, Coach Boomer made it quite clear to us all, ie, the national TV audience that OU had not recruited one player on the Boise State U roster. I guess we (including Coach Boomer) now know maybe the Sooners should have recruited some of the Broncos after looking at the scoreboard's results. Best Bowl Games I've Seen: * BSU vs OU Fiesta Bowl (One heckuva' roller coaster of the emotional gamet sort of game with the right team winning in the end). * Last year's UT vs USC Rose Bowl game for the NC lest we already forgot; the UT QB did have a pretty fair game. * Texas (DKR) versus Notre Dame (Ara Parseghian) in a Cotton Bowl classic & the first time they played when UT (quartebacked by James Street) won the game. Very exciting game and UT won an NC from this game as I recall.......It was also the bowl that broke ND's "we will never play in any bowl" tradition, too.

Might be a good guess that Coach Petersen will be Todd Dodge's Assistant Head Coach?

whoops...

Harry, how do you know who is who they say they is and who ain't who they say they are? I know stealth recruiting may have become a thing of our past, but I don't think Coach Dodge and staff will completely dismiss all aspects of it, no?

I know in light of where we've been rankings-wise forever (nationally) that we all so much want this to be almost perfect up in Denton and even now with most of us hoping it is UNT who becomes the next Boise State (of which 25+ years ago I would have never uttered such words because how many of us back then even knew such a school existed?) ............... ................but lets give this new UNT coaching staff the benefit of the doubt and give them (like many new employees in many fields get); that is, lets back off of concerns that may not even need to be concerns and give our new coaches their honeymoon period of which I see that being at least 1 year for any coaching staff at most any non-BCS school. After all, how many years was it before DD had his first "above .500" season at UNT? Well, we don't need to wait that long, but I don't think we will with a hiring that went thru the proper process of our having looked as several potential HFC's this time around. HIRING A COACH WITH A FEW QUESTIONS SURROUNDING HIM? WELL..............At UNT, we once hired a HFC that had just been fired and most of us who were around during the era of that coach were mostly pleased with his coaching career in Mean Green Country.

One of the best things about a HS coach making the move up to college is how most of them will work very hard in recruiting to prove themselves (and to seal a whole bunch of deals). I think Coach Dodge will have a healthy combination of HS coaches and coaches with college coaching experience on his staff.

Harry, did you get my PM and request? If so, disregard this post! Happy New Year To You and Yours! JGP