PlummMeanGreen

I think 42 W's **62 L's is the tell-tell that most non-UNT'ers need to ultimately see about all this with DD and (in fact) has many of them already asking: "Why did UNT even wait to do this with Dickey as it is?" As I've said before the last 2 years, this coaching run at UNT has been the most unusual one I've ever seen after following NCAA D1 football over 40 years now. It has been a roller coaster ride of emotion for most of us who do give a damn about our school and our caring about the light we all want UNT to (ultimately) be seen by all those from the outside looking in (as in all those non-UNT'ers out there for starters). And FWIW, I believe (after all these decades later) that we are still the Big Jolly Green Sleeping Giant that once we get out of our almost "40 years of wondering in the wilderness" we are going to soon hit on another HFC's talent in Mean Green Country who will take us to that Promise Land we all deserve--no matter what era you attended UNT. I only hope for some of us older nestors that the role of Moses will not have been assigned to some of us as that ol' story goes. And if some of you haven't been going to Sunday School or Catechism of late and don't know or remember that role, I ain't going to tell you what it is now! After listening this AM to KTCK 1310 "The Ticket" with the Jubb'erator, Junior Miller (who was really making some sense with that discussion) and their trusty sidekick, ie, Gordo AND............after reading todays Fort Worth Star Telegram feature article on all this with DD and MM today at lunch, I seem to detect an almost 180 degree turn on all this practice field naming business with Mattress Mac and DD. In fact (in that FWST feature article today) Jim "MM" McIngvale says he may even give to UNT athletics again in the future, so maybe its time for us all to let the air out of this balloon in light of that fact alone and for us of GMG.com to start completely new thread subjects and themes? Just my .02 on all that. Yet I do think when all the smoke clears, even MM will start to understand why the many of us stood where we did on this subject, but (again) it was his million dollar$, now wasn't it?

Some of you young gun alums may not be aware of this but many times thru the years UNT athletics was never given the school's fundraising "A List" of potential donors. Such a practice (IMHO) kept our athletic dept. further strapped and preventing it from getting the Big Donor(s) who with one signature could have done some nice things for NT Athletics long ago; who knows, maybe one such donor back in the day could have had the influence to have kept us out of 12 years of NCAA purgatory, ie, 1-AA. It is my understanding from a fellow alum that even Mr. Warranch (Tennis Center) called Prez Pohl not knowing where to earmark his big donation and Norval deferred the call (and Warranch's monies) to UNT Athletics. (Sorry, UNT College of Music, yall missed out on this one, but yall still do pretty good by not getting all the nice plum$ out there). NOTE: Actually, our College of Music fundraisers long ago figured out who in Dallas-Fort Worth had the big bucks and then they developed a pretty good follow-up system for going after those Big Buck$ for many years. In fact, the UNT COM should be commended for such aggressiveness. With what appears to be some new freedoms for our A.D. from UNT's higher-ups, I think we will be seeing other big announcement$ from Rick Villarreal soon that will benefit what at least 2 UNT presidents we've known have called "the picture window of our university." You know, though, its one thing for any high ranking UNT officials to call NT athletics the picture window, but its another thing to make sure all the right things are seen inside that picture window from all those on the outside looking in. We all love the One O'Clock Lab Band and the international fame it has brought to UNT, but that small group of musicians still cannot command the media attention that a successful NCAA D1-A football program (that operates at a high profile) can do and do on a more consistent basis. Might not be right for music and the arts to take a back seat to athletics (which is the case at most Texas schools at any level) but after all, this is still the Lone Star State, right?

One thing I will admit is that UNT is not the easiest job on the NCAA D1-A block and we've all mostly played a part in creating that scenario to some extent (as much as I hate to admit it). This may be the most publicized UNT coaches hire in our school's history with all the recent happenings that have sorta' spiced things up a bit and because of how many gol' darn hits this website most always seems to get (and that part is for damn sure); and is probably another reason that our A.D. does exactly what Mark Cuban and Bill Gates have done with their own respective "grunt sites" in their past. GOOD LUCK, RV!

Of course, if Box Springs Willie had his way, DD would be at UNT another 9 years and then he, his box springs employees and all their immediate families concerned could have a very intimate setting at Fouts Field among each other since no one else would be there. Damn! I'll be glad when every thread on GMG.com will be on Rick V's new HFC's hire and (hopefully) some exciting news about the new Big Donor (which makes me think there may be some acitvity happening toward that new football stadium located on prime interstate real estate between those 2 very busy Texas interstates out on that rolling Texas prairie we now call the Mean Green Village @ Eagle Point Campus.

Rick Villarreal is actually in some pretty good company with the Dallas Maverick's Mark Cuban but also with.............. ...........Bill Gates who was a regular peruser/visitor (and sometimes poster from what I read) of MicroSoft's "grunts" message board because he thought it the right and smart thing to know what the masses were saying. Anyone want to say Bill Gates was being a bit "high schoolish" for doing that?

REVISED ON A THURSDAY MORNING: I am sure we can all agree that this hire has to be something very, very different because UNT (as compared to the other 9 Texas D1-A football schools) will have to need to be more creative with this hire this time around because we don't have the SWC legacy going for us such as most the other Lone Star State D1-A schools who are not in the Big 12.... ....nor have we ever had a national program (except golf in the 50's); but the kind of national prominence that even a UTEP has had in basketball (and how that has probably even translated to their football success in some ways). (F)or (W)hat (I)ts (W)orth folks .............we've been pretty well average across the board for decades and in what many of us have even perceived to be some of our greatest sports moments (with some of that even during the Fry era if the truth be known). If we ain't Top 25 we still ain't nothing but potential, fellow alums/MG fans. We really, really, really do need to go outside the box this time around much like the time NTSU prez' Jitter Nolan said: "We can do this even at NT" (with his seeking out and then with the hiring of Hayden Fry). To UNT A.D. Rick Villarreal: Please do pardon some of our (my) anxieties with all this because in our heart of hearts we know you want what we want with all this (probably moreso). Some of us, Rick, have just been waiting much longer than others who have not seen actuall decades pass by them like that RoadRunner cartoon and those decades filled with much disappointment. So I guess you might say that is the prime reason for what may seem to you to be even more frustration coming from those of us from our era's frustration. And to think GrayEagleOne has been following this for 59 years defies desciption BUT..........from all eras I think we would agree that something very special happening again (of a higher profile nature) from our Mean Green football program is way long over-due. We all want to be winners with this next hire and for you Mr. Rick Villarreal, sir...............Good Luck with this most difficult job of yours (hey, we know UNT ain't the easiest job on the NCAA D1-A block)........ .............BUT............we all hope the new UNT administration is being a close and supportive partner with you with what will arguably be the person on our campus who gets more media attention than any other person in Mean Green Country and that being.............the new Head Football Coach at the University of North Texas As Sincere As I Can Possibly Be (and please do find it within yourself to forgive some of my own most pointed "out of decades of frustration" comments on my part, Rick) Jim Plummer UNT Class of 1976.

TRUTH SERUM JUST SOMETIMES TASTES VERY BITTER! Uh, who is Randy Butler? I'm sure whoever he is he would be a nice enough gentleman, but has he really been in demand from higher profile NCAA D1-A outposts who were really serious about hiring him away from USM? So sorry here, but I am beginning to smell a bit of "cronyism" again and it fixin' to happen in Mean Green Country all over again. You'd think we would learn some lessons every once in a decade or two in Denton, but I just don't think its in the cards for that to ever happen. What a waste of a football program that all we can really ever say about it to our fellow DFW Metroplex'ers and Texans is that it really does have all the potential in the world (but "potential" is where it most always stops and we all know what they say about potential, right)? NOTE: FWIW, it was NT's upper echelon administration (as in Prez' Jitter Nolan) and not the (then) athletic dept. who took the bull by the horns, persued Hayden Fry and secured his services. Now that is a scenario that has yet to repeat itself since. Hmmm? Just what is it that scares UNT for even attempting to try to repeat such a similar successful hire? So in that regard..............I suppose we just need UTEP's upper echelon administration to teach us a lesson we seemed to have forgotten in Denton as they themselves only recently said "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" then they took the bull by the horns and because they had the balls to do something different for a change, it only got them in the Top 25 with Eric Price's dad's as their HFC which produced for the Miners a that Top 25 ranking in only his 2'nd year in El Paso. Folks, do we deserve a Top 25 football program or not? OR......... do we just need to keep doing all the things necessary for us to keep our low expectation crowd happy with merely just more Bottom 25 college football in Denton (and dressing that up as something special at the same time)? Not nearly enough will hang around all this again much longer as far as the kind of annual standings of what we've all become pretty well accustomed to getting in Denton--that's a guarantee. And I believe its always about who you hire who has much to do with where a progressive football program stands in the final 119 NCAA D1-A standings each year? If we don't go outside the box, just stir up the "what we normally have to choose from for a HFC at UNT" pot of potential hires, close your eyes and just pick anyone at random. I guess I just should have been going to church more often most of the past 25 years, eh?

Isn't it amazing how low expectation, low goals and sometimes reaching those low goals has affected the psyche of those who need to check where DD Ball has us standing nationally (and even after 9 years)? "Hey boss! I know out of 100 other salesmen in our company I finished #90 the last 2 years (insert "a trend, perhaps?") but why the hell did you have to conjure up such an idea as firing me over that?"

Many of us would think at some point in time when unclutterered and clear-thinking starts to prevail in Denton once again, that the only coach UNT had on its payroll who is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame could have something named after him. And BTW, he actually had an above .500 career W/L record and some impressive wins over a "somebody school" which might hurt his chances at "Low Expecations U." Sorry about even more sarcasm, but we are hardly the the epitomy of a normal operating NCAA D1-A program for the last couple decades and I think we have paid the price for being that and...............you can find many area non-UNT'ers who will tell you that we do things a tad different in Denton, too. I sure as hell get those direct and pointed comments about UNT here in the Greater Fort Worth area when me and my confidants start talking DFW area college football. Some of you young gun NT alums just starting out in the job market, just wait till you get a job in the DFW area and you will find out what many of us are talking about with all this.

Now didn't pollster just do all this for a recent election with how "they" thought other voters might vote, fellas? OK, that was a different deal. Come on, guys, this poll could not make the "Worst Poll Ever" list if I did all those things you suggested. No poll on this board will ever be scientific since there are so many registereed on GMG.com who (firstly) did not attend UNT and (secondly) might vote what they think could be our worse possible choice (and that in other kinds of polls, not neccessarily this one). As far as the choices to vote on, I thought they represented ( no matter how skewed) most of the choices we will have to choose from. I don't think UNT will ever go outside the box for the name coach because that would be breaking a 25 year cycle of all those other successful hires we've made in that same span of time (insert sarcasm). Nothing personal to any A.D. we've had at UNT in past decades, but the unfair part of all this to many is how we usually get our football program defined by someone who didn't give a rat's a$$ about UNT or MG football during most of the time that many of us have followed this football program. Not from just an A.D., either, but we do seem to get our program defined by those in the broadcast booth, too, now don't we? The aforementioned comment is not directed toward Rick V at all as I just only recently received pretty reliable info on just how strapped he has been by some UNT officials (like UNT officials are all suddenly experts as far as NCAA intercollegiate sports is concerned?) BUT..............we do seem to get our school defined by whoever our A.D.'s have been most of past decades, but of course.............. this is the just the way things are at the NCAA D1-A or any other level (but not that we all have to particularly like that that is the way it is, of course). Now (if you wish) vote how you think the casual fan; you know, the one who has 15,000 seats to choose from most any Game Day? Nevertheless, go outside your own box and vote how you think this kind of fan/alum would vote to have the kind of HFC at UNT that would cause him/her to buy a football ticket next Fall, right? Ok, I am now working on another "Worst Poll Ever" that I will be posting in the next week or 2 or 3. PS: FWIW, this does help us take Deep Green's suggestion in another thread of his where he suggests we all get off the subject of Mattress Mac and DD Ball, now doesn't it?

Before you vote (if you vote), don't forget...........put yourself in the casual/borderline "would be" Mean Green football fan mode; you know, like the kind who would come to most home season openers the last almost decade at Fouts Field and leave at half time because you were bored, a bit pissed and tired of watching predictable uninspiring football? And then even at one game you saw a UNT assistant coach verbally acost a Mean Green fan who had silver hair. What kind of hire would inspire you as one of the "always" M.I.A 15,000 empty seats to cause you to want to buy tickets to fill one of those 15,000 usually empty seats? PS: Would be interesting to know who all the non-UNT "could care less who we hire" registered members of GMG.com would be placing their votes?

...and if TAMU were to fire him what this means is that money probably won't be a prime or immediate consideration for him for awhile since he will have a small gold mine in his bank if the Aggie elect fire him years before his official contract is over. Now if Coach Fran has a clause in his contract that says if he takes another head football coaches job immediately that he forfeits much of his gold mine then all bets for his taking any non-BCS job would be off. We all know Dennis Francione is a big dollar guy who even left a $1 million a year contract on the table when he stiffed TCU for Alabama. Even more amazing how he had had already applied for our job before at the time our college football hiring experts (of that era) in Denton chose Dennis Parker over Dennis Francione. But even if Coach Fran is not even vaguely interested in our job, shouldn't the real message with this be that UNT needs to wait and see before we jump into any new hire; that is, if we find that a new Chevy might be available out there over a used Ford; or there might be a better choice for our job over an unproven, untested commodity who has never been an NCAA D1-A head football coach? Even with UTEP Coach Mike Price's up and coming of a coach sons interest in our job I think many of us might be very surprised with others who will apply for our job; just like they supposedly did when they were all headed off at the pass so Helwig could make a quick hire of Darrell Dickey. At UNT the last quarter century, we seem to shoot ourselves in the foot a whole bunch when it comes to hiring head coaches for our varsity programs. NOTE: Of course, if Coach Fran's Texas Aggies beat the Texas Longhorns on Thanksgiving Day, he will have probably saved his job yet for another year in College Station. ........................................................ Just more food for thought as we all hope whoever we hire can hire good assistants (recruiters), help Rick V raise money for a new football stadium and just shows some common sense and words of praise and encouragement when he becomes a radio celebrity in post game radio shows in this 6 million populated DFW Metroplex of which many can pick up the Mean Green Radio Network when they want to.

ee, I think we all admire Jim McIngvale's rags to riches Horatio Algier-type story with his Houston furniture successes. Yet...this is all about Mattress Mac (and I'll bring in a word I use many, many months ago while many on this board were praising DD's disguised successes over a bunch of SBC schools few of whom were ever over .500 during most of the SBC's illustrious football history--all 6 years of it: anyway, when MM stated many, many months ago while making hints about his "ONLY" supporting UNT as long as DD was our head football coach and a word I suggested quite awhile back might becomg a reality for our school before it would become the "theme word" for recent happenings concerning MM and that word was: HOSTAGE I don't know the reason DD has been allowed to coach his last 3 games because once you are no longer a part of a football program's future, then don't you sorta' need to very quickly become part of its past? So go ahead and name the field after DD even if he had a 42W**64(?) L career at UNT; because thats about par for the course for our school of the last 25 years as it is anyway. We are becoming even more the laughing-stock when it comes to athletics with all this with DD and MM being the icing on the cake I'm sorry, but beating the dregs of NCAA 1-A with that exciting kind of football some named "Dickey Ball" about the time of that infamous TCU vs NT "Throw The Ball" football game at Amon Carter Stadium still kept 15,000 empty seats at Fouts most every Game Day in Denton and that even during 4 bowl years. HOUSTON! WE HAVE A PROBLEM? There were positives with the national televised games, but don't we all know by now how any SBC football champion has yet to impress any viable sports media outlet outside all the SBC media outlets? ESPN play by play and color commentators had to make the SBC football champion look like the next Notre Dame to draw some semblance of ratings (which as the 1'st bowl game played in the bowl season seemed to do and that the reason more than who was actually playing in that first bowl game of the year--come on, folks, take off the green-tinted glasses at some point and face some stark reality as to why in 9 years of DD Ball we are still sucking wind toward the bottom of NCAA D1-A. Why don't a hardy handful of you want to join the "we want to steer this thing toward Top 25" rather than your continuous supporting of what DD Ball hath wrought to us all and all that toward the bottom of NCAA D1-A? My TCU friend may have been correct with his assessment with some posters on this board (of which he has been reading during all this controversy) when he told me: "You have some posters who don't know their shit from their oatmeal when it comes to knowing what it takes to head toward the NCAA's elite and the kind of personnel who can steer UNT toward to that upper echelon (like his Horned Frogs have tasted in recent years). BUT THE VERY THING THAT MAKES ME THINK MATTRESS MAC MAY BE A BIT TOUCHED (as we say out here in the country for people who might be a just a tad mentally impaired) IS FOR THIS REASON: Why would Jim McIngvale having played for a coach at UNT who is in the College Football Hall of Fame choose not to give his million($) in the name of that infamous Mean Green legacy of a coach he played for while some of his teammates (albeit not being in a wussy of a football conference that had a bowl tie-in back then) made some hay by beating teams Darrell Dickey could only dream of staying on the field with and would tell his shrinking post-game radio audience that were such games UNT had to play to pay some bills? Rick V: Take Your Time But Hurry & Get Our Man Who Will Take Us Forward & Upward (and make us forget the subterranean aspects of NCAA D1-A football forever)! And to all: Have A Nice Day!

MEAN GREEN CANDYLAND THE FOLLOWING IS NOT... KingDL1, when you have some of our bunch who all they've been is brow beat with accepting wins over schools most of whom just out of 1-AA, then might it very well be suggested they could pretty well believe anything dished down to them? All this with DD now happening I think a hand full of us were projecting and even forecasting quite a while back could very well happen when his personal D-Day arrived. Darrell Dickey could have very easily asked Mattress Mac to butt out .............of all this with the DRC ad as he was winding down his careeer at UNT, but I am going to suggest to you who haven't believed a damn thing I've been posting concerning the reality of this UNT athletic program of much of the past 2 decades); anyway, some of us would suggest that DD has egged on much of this with Mattress Mac and will (if given even more chances) get in a few more well-directed barbs before he leaves Denton. DD has become even more a liability (if that could at all be possible). You see, folks, I'm sure DD deep down knows he should have never gotten this HFC's job in the first place and if not for the KSU Konnection Krowd, he would have most likely never even made a short list of HFC candidates with any semblance of a normal selection process (of which we know by now we hardly had at UNT back when he was hired). AND............FWIW..............DD should have never been given the last 3 games to coach at UNT no matter what the circumstances. With other coaches maybe, but with all that we know he has said on way too many post-game radio shows the last few years, for damn sure not this coach. DD is only showing what some knew was well within the realm of possibility to occur from this man once he would (eventually) be asked to leave his post. And hasn't DD for years shown his value as a real bonafide public relations blooper and blunder that would hardly be the kind who would inspire the "much needed but noticeably lacking" new fans/casual fans who could have very well filled those 15,000 other empty seats at Fouts Field on most every Game Day of the last 9 years?

Agree, Aquila_Viridis... What seems odder to me is that the greatest coach in UNT football history who even gave us some semblance of national recognition (with a truly national win) and that over an SEC school (not a CUSA scrub) doesn't have anything named after him at NT. Only at North Texas, folks. Jim McIngvale is making himself to appear to be a horses butt on all this. If he truly was a letterman under the great Hayden Fry (I, for one, cannot remember him being on any Fry-coached Mean Green football team), anyway, why didn't he throw in an extra million for the very NT coach who gave him an opportunity to be a letterman on a truly D1 football program (at that time) and his being a letterman on his alma mater's football team? This whole thing that is going on at UNT would make one helluva' soap opera. Maybe ESPN will one day have a "sports oriented" soap opera series and some of us can get together, collaborate and give them about 25 years worth of some pretty spicy scripts? Hellsbells! We could even write-in some of those scripts all the hormonal aspects of what many of us know to have taken place in that athletic department in past decades. This soap could easily be about sex, lies, tapes, video-tapes, locker-room bloops and blunders--the whole enchilada! FWIW..........I (for one) can live with the practice field being named after DD after further thought on all this. If Mac will give the money for a new footall stadium, I can even live with naming that stadium: "MAC's BOX SPRINGS STADIUM." In fact, might a variation of even that name be a pretty darn good name for a proposed ESPN soap opera, ie...... MAC's PLACE? We all know where ESPN QUATTRO--SPORTS SOAPS can get a good sponsor for this UNT-inspired show, too, right? BUT there is a catch here.............the entire ESPN QUATTRO--SPORTS SOAPS staff will also be held hostage as to have to wear a "Mattress Mac" baseball cap during that new soap's entire inaugural season or........... ..................all bets are off! ! ! !

All this very well researched data from stebo should be a "case closer" for DD Ball enthusiasts, even for Jim McIngvale if he or any of his would happen to be reading.

Damn!

What will make this guy a success in-conference? Come on, CaribbeanGreen, you know the answer to that as much as anyone and that is what the consensus of this board wants, what Rick Villarreal has wanted (probably all that beginning with RV with a post ULM-loss in 2001 when he would be veto'd by Bobby Ray) and what our new UNT prez' wants; but unfortunately, it was all about what Coach Dickey was just not able to deliver even with 4 bowl teams and that was: OUT OF THE BOTTOM 25 AND INTO THE UNCHARTERED WATERS NOT SEEN IN DECADES @ UNT AND THAT BEING... .....An NCAA D1-A Top 25 Ranking..... (And such regular rankings as that being the only thing that will ever put us ahead of the rest of all other Texas D1-A/non-Big 12 schools truth be known). : ..................................................... Have we ever heard DD in past years in any post-game radio show talk about getting this program ready to move up where Price took UTEP in 2 years? No, we didn't but what we did hear was the cold fact that we would only be shooting and aiming for SBC success; and on a national ESPN radio show (of which he could have taken the time to proudly announce to all of the USA and that station's national sports audience about a new A/C which was at that time being built............but our man DD still chose the "woe is me" card, and (again) that even on a "freakin'" ESPN national radio show for crissakes'? Some of you were fit to be tied as I recall posts after that radio happening. UNT had an almost 10 year head start on most of the other SBC schools with our being in NCAA D1-A when the SBC football league was formed. What we had going on at UNT that no other SBC school had was: (1) In the 1950's some NCAA Division One success with Abner Hayne's Sun Bowl team (2) In the 1960's the Mean Joe Greene era of which one of Joe's and several NFL #1 MG draft choices on those teams who all but beat the nationally ranked Arkansas Hogs a year B4 they played Darrell Royal's UT team in "the Game of the Century" in 1969. Question: What were all the other SBC schools up to during all this? (3) Then we had the 1970's of which most of that decade included Hayden Fry's well documented (on this forum) successes and then... (4) Some of the success of HFC Corky Nelson which included several wins over some SWC schools with fewer 1-AA 'ships and our football facilities that continued to be some of the worst at any level of the NCAA. THIS FOR YOU Mr. JIM MCINGVALE: And for one who played for Hayden Fry you seem to have forgotten very much concerning your own alma mater's football history and traditions (of which you even played a part). AND MR MCINGVALE: Before you do some revising of Mean Green football history to make it seem UNT had nothing (whatsoever) going on before Darrell Dickey arrived in Denton, just check out your Mean Green football history for about 50 years prior to DD's arrival (such as the MG football history vignettes in the above #1 thru #4) and see for yourself that DD came to a school that had far more tradition going for it than all of the upstart former 1-AA SBC schools could ever have dreamed of having and such schools like those DD would need to beat up on to go bowling. So...............Mr. McInvale, is all that that you wrote in that full page DRC ad today really your idea of an emerging NCAA D1-A program for your own alma mater? Is "Top 25" also (still) not part of your own vocabulary, too, like it is not with so many on this board who seem to be having a problem working it into their own as they continuously praise (for whatever stranger than hell reason) SBC/Bottom 10 successes? GMG!

That's OK, Danish42, but Hay'Boy's last year in Denton was 1978. How many of us wish he would have been there in 1979 (and beyond), though. Coach Fry would have never taken us out of the Mo' Valley had such leagues back then had bowl tie-ins as all BCS leagues do today. He has often said he would have stayed in Denton had his teams been rewarded with bowl games, but we all have to remember how few bowls there were back in that era, too, and how leagues such as the Missouri Valley didn't have the vision (and probably resources) to create such a bowl for itself. I'm afraid Hayden is probably enjoying his retirement too much to want to come back to Denton, but we can all dream and wish a little on such things, now can't we? Many of our wishes for Hayden Fry would have been had be been coach at NT with all the present growth our school, Denton and Denton County have had since he left. If that had been the case, we would have needed a new stadium in place a very long time ago and if would have been Fry who would have probably gone out and found the Big Donor, too. The guy can do some serious fundraising. Let's pull for Rick V to find the Big Tater(s) out there in Fortune 500 country (DFW) with a person or company who would help us to start turning dirt out at Eagle Point Campus and that very, very soon. I feel because of events of last week we are closer to such a thing happening.

Well, Coach "I Never Take The Blame For Anything" Dickey, if they are that good, why didn't you coach them to an SBC football championship and do them all a favor by recruiting them the kind of help they needed to get ranked in the Top 25 football schools in the USA? Our Mean Green football players deserve such rankings, not all that other crapola you have dished out for years using them as your own personal scapegoat. Lets all move on from all this folks and let him get all the final licks in he wants to get in since he seems to still be the very vindictive type person that most on this forum should have learned that he was long ago from all those post-game radio comments he started making toward us and "OUR" school years ago on the............MEAN GREEN RADIO NETWORK. Another alum said: "Only we would have attended a school that will have a 42 and 62 career W/L HFC in the NT Athletic Hall of Fame because he beat a bunch of just out of 1-AA wussies to get to 4 bowl games." People, we have needed to have raised our standard a long time ago in MG Country as to prevent all this subterranean acceptance of disguised success and that is why we will have such a coach with such a record in what should be our alma mater's "harder than hell to get in" NT Athletics Hall of Fame. Next thing you know, well have a coach who........................well, nevermind with that one.

First of all, before UNT makes too quick a hire, please let some water run under the bridge so we can all get real surprised with some applicants many might be very surprised will have applied for our UNT HFC's job. FWIWI.................seems we acted a bit too quick last time around we hired a new MG HGC if some will only take the time to think back. And greensteve, thanks for participating....I am working on a poll far worse than this one. Some of you will hate it so much you'll even vote in that one, too. As they say............vote your conscience and vote often. PS: Glad to see where most have placed their votes in this bad poll, although I think we don't have a snow balls chance in hell of getting that kind of coach at UNT since I don't think we have for one second entertained the idea of doing such. That kind of coach and quick Top 25 ranking (Year 2?) are reserved only for basketball schools like UTEP. AND..............you want a coach from Texas? Well, looks like we'll have to have an A.D. from Texas for that to happen as we have yet another (too) noticeable trend in play in Mean Green Country: And Helwig is from what state? So who did he hire for his swan song hire? Rick V is from what state? Wanna' place some bets from which state (or school from that state) our next head football coach will come from? ON THE OTHER HAND: Whatever state our head football coach comes as long as he points this MG football ship in the direction that ultimately was the non-direction that cost Darrell Dickey his job (can we all say TOP 25 in unison?); anyway, no matter from what state such a coach would come would probably have all of our votes. TEXAS, OUR TEXAS, ALL HAIL OUR MIGHTY STATE: Hell, yes, we native Texans all love our nation (excuse me) state of Texas and most all our fellow Texans, but even if our coach came from Moscow State U (which would obviously mean our A.D. would have to be from Russian or have roots from some Russian university) ANYHOW............even if such a coach from WHEREVER STATE U can get us to a point of emulating former fellow Big West Conference member Boise State as to get us in and keep us in the Top 25 most every year, I'll raise a toast of the best vodka available and that to all eras of Mean Greeners for such a coach as that. Rick V made the tough choice last week **and we should all support him in light of that as he seems to finally be getting all the reins to be A.D. at the University of North Texas. Haven't many of us wondered had he had a chance to have hired a coach back in 2001 post-ULM loss and such a new coach who would have made a 4 year bowl run in a very soft thrown-together Sun Belt Conference yet his hiring of a coach that could have had those 4 bowl teams in the Top 30 (minimum ranking) football schools? ** Any guesses how far up the 119 member NCAA D1-A step-ladder even a win over ULaLa will get us ranked this week? Once again, thanks to Rick V and our new UNT prez' for surprising an entire Mean Green Nation (and a donor who would hold us all hostage) with their decision last week and anyone want to know who the ultimate winners of all this will be? How about............ The 2007 Mean Green Football Team & Our Upcoming New Recruits, That's Who!

No, you're actually right, nothing in it would really make much sense to some on this board but it probably would to those from campus who this poll was intended for in the first place; and that group of which I'd bet some of that group have already perused this poll as to get the real gist of its message loud and clear. Sadly, I will still defer to my TCU acquaintances quote; you know, the one in the big gray letters because that has been my own impression of way too many of the UNT elect in recent years while we have been regularly bottom-feeding. AND.....................sorry, a very large portion of our elect still feel beating SBC schools to get to a bowl has impressed few outside of Denton and all the other SBC outposts--I suppose the regional and national media has more than subtlely hinted that to all us SBC'ers more than anyone?

First of all, all should be reminded the year Corky Nelson got fired he opened up his final season with a Fouts Field win over the SMU Mustangs; but in Corky's case, his final team went 6 & 5 and for what its worth, it was our NT administration who dropped the ball when they didn't hire "THE RIGHT COACH" who could or would take us to the next step after the Nelson years had ended. This is the cycle Rick Villarreal must break (and is trying his damndest to do so from what a very good source told me yesterday). In reference to DD telling his own recuits "they said I couldn't recruit"; anyway, I am trying to remember anyone on GMG.com posting that we (collectively) don't have good recruits. I think the main theme that has come from some of us on GMG.com is that we just didn't have the volume of good recruits we needed to have to complement a hardy handful of some pretty good football players we have in camp now and into next season. Just seems to be more of "DD versus The World" psychology of which for his next job he might need to re-examine its long-term value and effectiveness for all of the constituencies he really needs to take into consideration if and when he decides to go that card in the future. We all have to hope our next HFC will not only take our "across the board" recruiting to the next step, but when we beat one of the better SBC schools (like we did tonight) that we are not just curious as to where it puts us in context to the rest of the SBC but rather how high such wins will put us as far as a Top 25 ranking is concerned. THIS IS NOT FOR TENDER MEAN GREEN EARS: I ran into a TCU alum acquaintance over in Fort Worth a couple days ago at a Kinkos and one who has been reading GMG.com off and on for the last few years. Nevertheless, he has been reading this forum a bit more this week because of DD getting fired and his reading most all the articles in DFW papers on the firing and his comment to me after reading many posts on GMG.com that even made me flinch a bit (although I had to agree with him to some extent was): "Jim, some of your alums on that message board of yalls don't know their shit from their oatmeal when it comes to knowing what it takes to having a progressive D1-A college football program and the kind of personel who can make it happen. Then in closing he said.........."Your Athletic Director made the right decision with Dickey."

Hey! You were fore-warned! The worst poll ever on GMG.com! But a hardy handful of various levels of officials from our main campus will read this and get the drift--guaranteed. Seriously, I do hope there is a candidate that rises to the top very quickly and he becomes the most obvious fit for our situation at this time in our school's most staggering "boom growth" history and then................ Rick V signs him to a 5 or 6 year contract. There are tens upon tens of thousands of Denton County-ites who are waiting to see some high-flying, exciting Mean Green football for their first time ever. We are way over-due for such a hire in Denton, folks, waaaayyyyyyyy over-due. GMG!

If El Guapo is from El Paso, Texas, he's got my vote! BUT...........if he's from across the border over in Juarez, Meh'hee' ko..............FORGET IT ALREADY! El Guapo would be a very marketable name though come season ticket buying time as in: BUY SEASON TICKET/SUPPORT EL GUAUPO OR EL GUAPO WILL EL KABONG YOU! (original quote from Quicks Draw McGraw)