PlummMeanGreen

See revised post below (only if you dare, of course)

REVISED ON GAME DAY WITH COLOR-VISION!

IF SOME OF YOU RAN IN AN ANNUAL 110 METER RACE, WOULD YOU ALSO BE HAPPY COMING IN 4'TH PLACE EVERY YEAR WITH THAT ACCOMPLISHMENT, TOO? Well, thats exactsly what we are getting with Mean Green football because of the level we're ranked nationally in NCAA D1-A at the end of each football season & pleeezzzzzz, shouldn't we really quit using a rag-tag grouping of schools just out of NCAA 1-AA known as the Sun Belt Conference as our barometer of success as a few of our leaders and coaches seem to have thrived "and survived" in doing which has bought them more time at UNT and kept us in the Bottom 25). ....................................................... UNTLifer, I put in those emails what I've posted on GMG.com but (for darn sure) worded the emails in such a way as a politician would write his constituency who wants to make a point and get a vote. .................................................. I would add that I hope there are many other emails, letters and/or phone calls coming from this board and others because our first step toward our thousand mile journey (and a Top 25 type football program) could very well come from the many of you who post on this board. If anyone chooses not to voice their concerns on this and let others do it for you, then we are probably a sunk ship with 25 more years of mostly an uneventful (& nationally very low ranked D1-A football program) ahead for us while we can just expect just more business as usual in Denton, Texas, America. NOTE: Come on people, just how much longer can we bask in the sunshine about a freakin' near miss win over a very mediocre UT Longhorn football team back in 1988 (and one whose performance against us probably cost David McWilliams his job)? .................................................... So my fellow Americans, if we continually act as though we all adore this annual Bottom 25 co-existance, then this is just what we will have delivered to us and I think if some of you could just put down the green Kool-Aide down for a minute, you would also concur. YET............if we are at such a level whereas we are having to convince people on GMG.com (and beyond) where having a Top 25, Top 50 or Top 75 type of intercollegiate football program is in our best interest, then we have just as deep of problems with some of our fans as we have with a handful of our football personnel who have had plenty of time to show us what level they will produce for our MG football program. Others have been posting this of late, too, but why would anyone object to a better (& higher profile) Mean Green football program? What could possibly be their agendas that we just keep getting what we've been getting (that has garnered the respect of no one outside Denton and other SBC outposts). One NT alum who has given much in the past told me very recently that it would not be our coaches who would (alone) keep MG football barefoot, pregnant and toward the bottom subterranean depths of NCAA D1-A; yet he said that it would probably be way too many of our own alums who have been sitting back and accepting just about anything dished down to us by our top leaders. A possible problem with some of you is that you've let yourselves get way too close to some of our UNT Athletic staffers which has created a situation whereas you probably cannot see the trees for the forest with all this. So you who I post about will (most likely) never be able to ever have an unbiased opinion on how you would judge the production (or lack thereof) of some of your UNT Athletic Department buddies and confidants.

I called UNT's metro number days ago to get some addresses after I got wind of what could be developing right under our very noses and then I sent about 3 very well directed emails out the same day. Of course, they were sent with a message and content that had a completely different tone than any of these posts I've put on GMG.com. Because too many of us have sat back for almost a quarter of a century and been led like sheep to the slaugher house, we are where we are today because of, uh, us? I think there are truly more on this board who would prefer at Top 25 program over a Bottom 25 program and I would hope that all who feel that way will send out some emails to. YES..............(in deed).............WE ARE NORTH TEXAS AND WE DESERVE MORE THAN WHAT WE'VE BEEN GETTING. For you who will one day work out here in the DFW area (if you're not already) you know more than anyone why we of UNT need a higher profile football program. We are the 4'th largest university in the entire state of Texas last I heard and its just damn time we start acting like it with the decisions being made and on the gridrion with the football being played. GMG!

How about this on the poll: "Keep football but dismiss after our last football game (or sooner) our well paid public relations genius; that is, our way under .500 head football coach and wait for a new chairman of the UNT Board of Regents this Summer to come in and right all the wrongs of a 9 year Bottom 20-25 D1-A football program" that our present chairman seems most content (as long as he gets to run the show, that is). untwillrise..............the 2 Texas D1 schools who dropped football and many of their alums and leaders have been trying to figure a way to re-institue football back on their respective campuses for awhile now. They now both know they made a mistake by dropping it in the first place. Those 2 schools would be UTA and Lamar U. UNT deosn't need to drop football, it just needs to get back to hiring the right people who fit in well in Denton, Texas, America, once again. Start-up costs can be expensive as UTA and Lamar have been finding out and UTA's (still) new president from up North seems most uninterested and has done a good song and dance step routine around the subject of bringing football back to the UTA campus. UNT just needs to get out of this hiring drought we've been in for about 25 years now, it needs to simply look at our past football history as to when we were at our best (at a higher profile thank you very much) and just copy that success story all over again--what a concept that is, eh, copy our higher profile success era? Again, folks, this is not the rocket science Bobby Ray and one particular wealthy donor who (from word I got just this week and God Only Knows how I hope its wrong info) would try to make it. And why would anyone blessed with the Big Bucks who attended UNT hold his own alma mater hostage (and keep its football program in the Bottom 20) to satisfy his own personal whims? And will (apparently) try to get his way in all this by dangling a Big Green Carrott in front of Bobby Ray and the UNT BORs; anyway, its still such a strange scenario as those 2 (apparently) are both working overtime to persevere the obviously dead career (at UNT, anyway) of Coach Darrell (who will never reach .500 while @ UNT no matter how long that is) Dickey and, folks, all this apparently happening right under our very noses at: "OUR" alma mater. Do we need that jar of Vaseline now? Some of you still want that Bottom 20 DD Ball style of football to continue in MG Country? Then just continue to remain silent and just hang onto your social status at UNT (of which that and buck will buy you a bad cup of coffee in D-FW) and not post or raise hell anytime about the way I know many of you feel about all this (and have for years) with Bobby Ray, Darrell Dickey and now, the man who made DD wear that pathetic freakin' Mattress Mac baseball cap on a TV game 2 or 3 years ago! People, are we going to allow our top leaders to whore out our university for some big bucks so one man can have "HIS" way and dictate who our personnel will be? If so, who will be the next one to come along who will demand what he/she wants and will pay for it, too? Is this the kind of trend UNT leaders really wants to allow to happen at UNT and be known for? Never have we allowed so few to try to maintain football mediocrity for the UNT masses and try to package it to us likes its the best thing since sliced bread. A new football stadium at UNT with Darrell Dickey still around? That's like winning the $10 million lottery knowing you have about 2 hours left to live. (I know, a poor illustration but most of you will get my drift). We also need a new Chairman of the UNT Board of Regents who will butt out of UNT Athletics and give our hired AD the opportunity to do his job once and for all. Now that our A.D. knows what most of us want (as I understand as of this last week he, too, also wants), I think he'd come closer to helping us reach such goals now more than all this wasted time he's had to endure while Bobby Ray looked over his shoulders micro-managing every major step he'd try to make. Jeez, Louise, can Bobby Ray (himself) read the opinions of a pretty good cross-section of UNT thought on GMG.com and Scotty's Board board, then look at 9 years worth of empty seats at Fouts Field even during the bowl years with DD at the helm to simply realize he obviously doesn't know a whole lot NCAA D1-A college football at a higher profile than the Bottom 20 schools in our division. Also, since when does UNT need the entire Dickey coaching clan to work behind the scenes to help us run the entire football show in Denton and keep our Mean Green football program about as crappy a football program as the one they were involved in most of the time they were all at Kansas State U? Kansas State U? Do remember, ex Hayden Fry assistant coach (at NT and Iowa) Bill Snyder brought all his success to the KSU Wildcats after the Dickey family left the land of Dorothy and Toto and graced us all by moving back to the Lone Star State. Have A Nice Day!

Exactly... As many of you know: Businesses do much planning using trends as the indicators they would go by. Marketing firms plan for other businesses using trends as indicators they would go by to have a chance to create success for a new account. At UNT we use, uh, well, you know.....................................................? .............................................................. I apologize to no one............(sorry, wrong speech/wrong person here); Anyway, I do apologize for yet another manifesto (4 posts above this one) but, folks, at some point in time we need to take back ownership of our school's football program and we don't have to do that by marching on our campus with fire-lit torches either; but instead, we can do this (en mass) by communicating to our powers that be with emails, letters, phone calls, etc,etc, etc,............ ....................and once again using all those means of communications to the key members of the UNT Administration and the UNT Board of Regents as to what we all (collectively) feel will work in Denton and what won't work in Denton; also, what we feel will appeal not to just us, ie, the few, the bold, the brave, of this and other UNT-oriented message boards, but what will appeal to the majority of our UNT constituency (and not just the NCAA D1-A minimum of 15,000 per home game who've shown at Fouts Field for most of the past several years).

Revised on Thursday evening NEW UNBELIEVABLE POSSIBILITIES OF EVEN MORE OF THE UNT UPPER ECHELON LEADERSHIP'S BLATANT ABUSE OF THEIR POWER IN A PARAGRAPH (OR 2) LISTED AT THE HALF WAY POINT OF THIS POST (If you choose to read any of this, then read those paragraphs at the mid-point of this one--it will make your hair stand on end as to what our top leaders are alleged to be up to again Another Question: Why would any of you of our top UNT leadership want 2 more years of DD Ball and DD Recruiting no matter how this can all be bought and paid for from any potential Big Donor AND I MEAN FOR ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY? A new football stadium at UNT can be had in ways that will show to the rest of the state of Texas that our leaders do have some semblance of scruples and sense of morals as not to sellout to anyone. All this the latest very strong rumor is saying we will get in MG Country 2 more years of DD Ball and since we all know already what the last 3 years of DD Recruiting has produced, who of you think in light of present trends that 2 more years of DD on the UNT payroll at head football coach is going to do nothing but alienate even more NT Exes many of whom are already distancing themselves away from this sham of a football program that seems to be getting run from our own administration bldg where our UNT Board of Regents many times have their meetings as I undertand it. Just what is your, that is, you all as our UNT upper echelon group of leaders that makes you think this school cannot live without ol' 9 Lives @ UNT Darrell Dickey who along with his Kansas Konnection has you thinking this man is some kind of freakin' football genius and Goose That Laid Some Kind of Golden Egg? Top UNT's Leaders: Do yall ever take the time to read the most recent NT Football Media Guide that will show in plain black and white print that DD is far from being any kind of Goose That Laid The Golden Egg (but rather in his case seems to be the one that laid something much less inspiring than an egg?) 15,000 per home game averages the last 9 years indicates this man is NOT The Goose That Laid Any Kind of Golden Egg. His very sarcastic and cutting radio comments thru the years prevented many of the other 15,000 who would be the ones to fill all those 15,000 empty seats most every home game from even caring if DD is a Goose or a Duck as it is anyway! Yet another question: Why is it that some think the last 3 recruiting classes are supposed to turn this football program back to where we are the best of the worst even if DD were around another year or two? Come on, people, if we set low goals (which the SBC is just that) we are likely to meet those goals every once in a while but you can forget having any wins over any of the Top 75 D1-A schools because our recruiting under DD will not be able to compete against those OOC schools. We sorta' have proof and trends that justify that, too, now don't we? To quote El Paso Eagle from another thread: Why such low expectations with SBC success being nirvana for so many NT fans? My answer: That's all most of them have ever seen so spoon-feeding that group (from the DD Gang) into thinking SBC success is the ultimate has been a piece of cake during this DD Ball era. Another Question: Are we going to enjoy the next 2 years under Darrell "ol' 9 Lives at UNT" Dickey? Answer: Maybe a handful of you who show up at Fouts Field next season might enjoy "your boy" and the excitement that is Dickey Ball. Another Question: How long before all this low expectation with its results and continued 15,000 per home game averages (and that because of continuous low expectation) causes one of our high ranking offcials, you know, the "book worm'ish" looking one make all his fellow SMU alums most happy with him by his making his own alma mater at University Park 1 of only 2 NCAA D1-A football playing schools in the DFW Metroplex? The other one over here in Fort Worth, of course. Don't forget, anything is possible at UNT, folks, because we now even have those toward the top trying to resurrect the the most obvious dead-end career (at UNT, at least) of Darrell Dickey at each and every one of our expenses; that is, many of you Young Gun Alums as well as the many of us who have put much time and money into this program long B4 many of you were merely gleams in your daddy's eyes). Another Key Question: How long will it take Bobby Ray to pack his bags (and all his apparent non-knowledge of what a successful NCAA D1-A football program at the upper echelon even smells like); anyway, how long will it take him to pack his box and boogie off to wherever and whatever he was doing (which was not attending UNT football games) before Texas Governor Rick Perry (indirectly) introduced him to his alma maters football program? Why such a question as that? Well..................how about 'cause to this day, no one I know (and I know many of you on and beyond this board) ever remember seeing him at NTSC, NTSU or UNT games during any of the 1960's, the 1970's, the 1980's or the 1990's and maybe part of the early part of this new milleneum. Folks, thats a whole bunch of years for someone who did not support his own college alma mater's football team to suddenly be an expert about it and be making major decisions about it that will affect us all long after he and Darrell Dickey will be no where to be seen (like its been with most of our past UNT Board of Regents of which many of you older nestors would substantiate)? Yet Another Question: How long will the blatant and stark reality of much of the things said in this post be snatched from plain sight (and GMG.com) and put into the "The Truth Really Does Hurt" file for whatever their reason or possible agendas for possibly removing this post? NOTE: Hey administrators, you know I love you all (no, not that kind of love thank you very much) but you know what I mean) :rolleyes but this is all about letting more of our grUNTS be informed about what our UNT Elitist Secret Society, that is, those 1 or 2 who seem to really enjoy keeping Mean Green football low profile, barefoot and pregnant because of who they (most strangley) most always want to keep on the UNT payroll. Anyway, our fellow grUNTS just need to be aware of these who would be running the show at UNT these days, ie, those who I now know from info I received this very week who don't allow some of our hired key personel do their jobs. ........................................................... READ THIS LONG PARAGRAPH ADDED TODAY (THURS) IF YOU READ ANYTHING AT ALL IN THIS WAY TOO LONG EPISTLE: This is speculation from things heard from those who are usually not into telling ficttional stories. We all had hints last Spring on some comments mady by Said Big Donor what he would $upport as long as Darrell Dickey was at UNT (and that from an NT football letterman who played for Fry for crissakes). So this pretty accurute speculation could most likely happen at UNT since we know our UNT Chairman of the BOR's early in his tenureship showed a great propensity to want to play "Athletic Director" when we already had one who many had condince in already on the UNT payroll. BUT...........fellow alums and Mean Green fans, our Kansas Stater has no (apparent) intentions of leaving UNT at all in the head football coaches position, and from hearing from a few of you he now has the same confidence and swagger he had when he knew he could get by with just about anything he did and said with approval from Bobby Ray; how about starting with DD's kicking his employer around at any chance he had as well as getting in some real nice pot shots non-stop aimed toward NT Exes and Mean Green fans and with much sarcasm on those broadcasted post-game shows. All this that DD did for years and (apparently) even as of now has no reason (whatsoever) to worry again because Bobby Ray Is Back In Town doing what Bobby Ray does best.............Meddles With UNT Athletics When We Already Have One Hired To Do The Job, namely Rick V...................and word is from a usually most reliable source that our Napoleon of the North is mixing business with a major Big Donor who will (unashamedly) hold our school hostage for his own personal whims (I call it whoring our school out, quite frankly); and he doing that by dangling a Big Green Carrot in front of Bobby Ray and some key UNT leaders who most of us hope will not jump at to try to take a bite out of that Big Green Carrotts SINCE............with the Big Green Carrott will come stipulations that UNT keep DD in Denton another 2 years no matter what the masses feel about all this. Folks, do head football coaches with multi-years of low profile disguised successes and mediocrity get to stay on the payrolls for very long at UT, TAMU, Texas Tech, SMU, TCU, Baylor, UH, etc, etc, etc, You bet your life they don't. Another Question: What really is the deal here? Why doesn't said Big Donor just hire Darrell in whatever company he has and give UNT Mean Green football an honest chance to start recruiting players (who would join a hardy handful of some pretty good players (but just not near enough of them) so we can compete against and who knows EVEN BEAT some OOC school in the Top 75 of NCAA D1-A in our lifetimes? Why would any potential Big Donor for UNT dangle a Big Green Carrott with any kind of personel-related stipulations that (in the case of UNT) would be so damn "counter-produtive (such as what keeping DD on payroll would be after the next few weeks). Unless some of you have forgotten, 2007 football recruiting has been going on for weeks. Do we need another DD Recruiting class in Denton, folks? YET........................why would ANY donor want to hold their own alma mater hostage by demanding we keep a broken down Studebaker when we can go out and get us a new Chevy? Is the Almight Dollor Bill (no matter what amount and I mean whatever the amount) and bowing down to it and those who would be blessed putting his alma mater in a very awkward position of keeping one of the payroll that is the most unpopular coach (over the amount of years he as ) I've seen in Mean Green Football history. Anyway, why would anyone want to make UNT make some very unpopular decisions over even ONE MAN who will never one time come back to Denton once he is off the payroll? ............................................... People, if we don't start raising hell and asking questions now as to why the top officials at UNT seem to not want to allow our school to function anything like those upper profile schools we'd like to emulate, ie............. ................ all those other upwardly bound NCAA D1-A football programs that spend more of their time in the Top 25 rather than the Bottom 10-15 schools in our division. Nevertheless, if we don't ask those upper echelon UNT leaders who can somehow explain to us and give us some answers to legitimate questions, 1 or 2 on our campus are going to extend even more mediocre time from the fan/school bashing Kansas St. Konnection at UNT for another 2 years................... as that group continues to laugh their heads off at how they can get their way on anything with what they probably see as a bunch of hay-seed bush-league UNT officials; you know, the ones they have hood-winked into accepting 9 years of low expection and disguised success at the NCAA D1-A level? PS: Any of you who think any UNT official or Board of Regent needs to read most or all of the aforementioned thoughts, you have my full permission to email this to anyone affiliated with UNT. I guarantee you some of them need to know that what they are doing in the dark is getting found out in the daylight among many NT Exes and Mean Green fans. They can run, but they cannot hide from all of us.

If any non-BCS school's athletic department is not losing some of its personel to higher profile programs, then at most non-BCS schools that would be a most obvious red flag as to what real bonafide and actual college football hiring experts would think about that school's employees. So with that in mind, just maybe all of those who would be called college football program novices "who don't really know anything about the workings of a college football program" may even have more things in common with many of the higher profile college football program hiring authorities than a hardy handful even on GMG.com would ever want to admit? And BTW............ whatever happened to the concept of free speech? Surely we can post about things that are happening at our own state-assisted and tax supported major Texas university or are we going to go the route of the elitist and (almost) snobbish (insert sublimenal Logo-Gate) private university and completely withold pertinent information that will ultimately affect many, many more thousands of NT Exes for years to come over the very few who would force-feed their agendas on our thousands of UNT alums? And then (like we've seen so many times before at UNT thru the decades), those who would make such crucial and long-lasting decisions for the rest of us to support seem to do some version of the Cotton Eyed Joe and ramble off into the wild blue yonder rarely to be seen again in Denton, Texas, America? Have A Nice Evening

UNT_playmaker, we'll have to excuse those on our campus who have had some most intense brain farts non-stop? All this makes me wonder if Lee Jackson and His Gang have an ulterior motive or agenda of down-sizing athletics with their obvious lack of making decisions that would have already been made at the majority of the other 118 NCAA D1-A schools with W/L records, poor average attendance numbers at Fouts Field over the last 9 years and the fact that those who had been hired to focus strictly on fundraising for athletics have also not done that (and FWIW............ NT BOR chairman Bobby Ray for damn sure didn't stand in the way of that happening). I suppose as the length of time UNT leaders have had us with their version of success in the lower subterranean depths of NCAA D1-A that they can convince some of you that the Pope is really a Southern Baptist evangelist in disguise? If UNT leaders are trying to make all this very easy for NT Exes to not support (or more importantly) to invest into with what they have delivered of late AND..............have buffalo'd some of you into believing is some kind of "got it goin' on " athletic program, then they are finally being successful in something they're doing up there. You see, its not fans like myself and others who have a pretty good record of suppport for this program over (not just a few years) but a few decades, that UNT leaders should concern themselves; matter of fact, its actually the casual/borderline fans that always give our marketing geniuses on campus their 15,000 empty seats most every home game the last 9 years of which the DD Ball brand of football that our (seemedly) most naive group presently in Denton will never (and I do mean) "NEVER" reach with their style of football. If the Kansas State-graduated Darrell Dickey (please, no more Kansas hires, from you native Texans who might still be left on our campus in key positions of leadership); anyway, if DD Ball has any kind of a future at UNT, then there are many (more than you'll ever want to believe) and those who actually graduated from UNT who will no longer have a future with DD Ball. Come on fellow alums, the guy has gotten away with murder with his lack of public relation skills that mostly have come across in a condescending manner toward those who even pay him a nice pay check and those he'd like to show up en mass to watch his brand of boring, non-imaginative football..................but FWIW................ he really never did need to exhibit any semblance of social skills to anyone (even on those numerous post-game radio shows) because he knew he had the main man, ie, Mr. Bobby Ray in his back pocket for these last 9 years Do You All Like That? Would some of you buy a sack of donkey dung from this present group on our campus if they told you if was exactly what we needed to be successful in UNT football? "Well" (with the Ronald Reagan accent)..........I think some of you already have. Just don't put that sack over your heads this Saturday. Folks, we will never be considered for CUSA (or any higher profile conference) in the future because we have a lights out tailgating program on Game Day. 15,000 empty seats averages per home game for the last 9 years would tell most Texas university's leadership that something ain't quite right at their schools because most would use such numbers as their main barometer of if their football program was succeeding with who it needed to succeed with the most. ie, THE FAN$$$$$$$? ; in fact, most progressive schools in D1-A even tie attendance increases to their head football coaches contracts--but not at NORTH TEXAS.........folks, something is truly rotten in Denmark, or in our case (in Denton).

SOME WHAT IF'S.............. First of all, I've never seen a time that UNT officials could not come up with the neccessary monies if they really saw the need to fund someone or to fund some project. After all, we did have some monies that suddenly became available to finsih out the Athletic Center; albeit monies that had to be paid back as I recall. ANd.......I think one could easily find anywhere from $200K-$300K additional funds today by tweaking the present UNT Athletic Dept. payroll and by simply ridding ourselves of some un-needed deadwood. For a bottom-feeding NCAA D1-A athletic program, we sure seem to be top-heavy with a very large staff. SPEAKING OF DEADWOOD.............Deadwood that could be eventually be replaced in due time because a high profile name football coach who might come to Denton would have (because of his presence alone) created for a "very hungry for higher profile" constituency (that mainly being all of us) to start having record-breaking season ticket sales and per home game averages at Fouts Field which would sky-rocket because of all the new interests of which I believe UTEP officials (and maybe those from Idaho) would substantiate that all this can really happen because they've experienced it first-hand. And FWIW............there would ultimately "NOT" be a shortage of those newly created openings on staff because they would eventually be filled again (if necessary) because the UNT athletic department would suddenly have new monies never before available to have flexibility with its budget with all this coming from dramatically expanded football season ticket sales as well as record-breaking Fouts Field gate receipts Who knows, this all might be just too easy for it to ever materialize in Denton. After all, we would like to make rocket science out of all that has us presently feeding from the bottom of NCAA D1-A in most every varsity sport we are fielding in Denton, Texas, America. Shouldn't we be open to trying something different than what we've been doing in that regard? And fellow alums, we have been way too gullible to accept just about anything dished down to us. :rolleyes: Second of all, this is also not the time to start "brother-in-law'in" your favorite UNT employee in the present UNT Dept. Look at the following as a possible way to measure what their success or non-successes have been; that is, if we want to continue with those who have (in essence) played a part OR have been part of a very unsuccessful athletic program using...................W/L records and annual attendance figures (that all the Associate AD's in the UNT athletic dept. have as much to do with its success or lack thereof as anyone AND..............quite frankly, what else is there to use to measure the fruits of all their labor than the aforementioned)? Being good tax-paying citizens in Denton who attend church every Sunday are all nice but none of that will not be near enough as to what we really need in MEAN GREEN COUNTRY, folks. There is no mandate that says we of UNT have to keep those on our payrolls just because they've been at UNT for a few year, either. Hellsbells, crap fire and save the matches, UNT had even elected a P.E. teacher and had him inducted into the NT Athletic Hall of Fame years ago and this was a "re-assignment) who was no where near a .500 W/L record when he coached varsity basketball in Denton. Who on this board coined the phrase I now use...............Only at North Texas? Another barometer we might also use at UNT would be: If they have created such a reputation as a real bonafide mover and shaker in the UNT Athletic Dept, then why aren't other larger (or even smaller) schools knocking down their doors to try to hire some of these who some of you have crowned cream of the crop types as to hire them away from us already? I don't think we should mix too much of the old philosophy (that comes from multi-year UNT employees) with our upcoming new philosophies (and hires) because doing that may cause many of these future new hires to catch (what some of us have called for years the Denton Malaise) and start thinking and acting mediocre very quickly. I know it probably can't be done en mass at a state university, but UNT needs to start slowly culling out the old guard as to allow the new guard to come in and try to turn around 180 degrees what their predeccessors could not turn around with way too many years to try. Once worked at a technical school where the previous and entire sales force had been fired across the board because they (collectively and across the board) were all doing a poor job. So as far as Mean Green athletics is concerned, why taint all of the upcoming new hirings we will eventually get with all of the old guard with their old set ways & attitudes that have not been successful as to bring in a significant number of new fans (along with what could be all those new fan's donation$)? We just need to start running this thing at UNT like the entertaiment business that it actually is FWIW..................and IMHO.

As I recall, there were many of our "forever small thinkers" on campus back in the day that thought Hayden Fry would never give NTSU the time of day either. (That group also wanted a 6,500 seat all purpose coliseum, ie, the Super Pit, too). You really don't know about such things with that upper echelon of college head football coach until you, uh, actually ask them if they would be intested (with something in the teal ($) to back up that question)? style_emoticons/ (What a concept all that would be, eh)? style_emoticons/ NOTE: I think the main reason we got to even talk to Coach Fry was that we had a president at NTSU back then who was pro-active enough to not sit around and piddle time away dreaming but President Jitter Nolen and his staff actually sought out Coach Fry because that future College Football Hall of Famer would not stay unemployed for long. UNT needs to learn another lesson in life that says: He Who Hesitates Loses? Hayden Fry was fired with a 7 & 4 record at SMU so those who think it absurd that a coach with two back to back "2" win seasons (most likely) being fired even at Santa Clause State U (our school's 7'th name change) should get their college football history books back off the shelf and brush up. In fact, last time we had a Mean Green football team that beat S M U at Fouts Field we had a coach that season who finished with a 6 & 5 record, but that didn't prevent him from getting fired after that season, either. As many of us predicted, all these (forever) non-stop contract extensions approvals for DD would come back to bite us in the a$$ (and they most certainly have, Ollie). style_emoticons/ UNT officials are making all this "so-oooooooo" EZ to make it as to where even more Mean Green enthusiasts will not to want to invest into all this (if that, in fact, is their secret agenda up there and with your boys Lee Jackson and Bobby Ray, wasn't all this athletic confusion to be predicted anyway)? .......... So why should anything surprise us anymore for what that groups most obvious problems with hesitation to make decisions will continue to cost UNT long term? style_emoticons/ Hellfire and damnation, just look again at the terrifically stranger than hell problems our leaders have in pulling the trigger on employees some of which are closing in on a decades-worth of "effort"? and such efforts which still keeps 15,000 potential Mean Green fans away from most every Game Day at Fouts Field)? How many more red flags do we possibly need at UNT until some more light bulbs turn on and shine brightly up there? style_emoticons/ Folks, we have too large an enrollment with our school being located in one of America's boom towns and counties for us to keep averaging 15K per home game the last few years. BTW, do you ever hear this group talk about year to year attendance at football games anymore? Of course you don't. Those figures (15K) alone should be the biggest hint that some pretty well paid people are just not gettting the message across to those who need the message (which indicates some of our career UNT employees are simply not getting their jobs done, either). style_emoticons/ If DD is back next year, that will be a scene that will not be very pretty at all (and those of us who've been around the Mean Green scene awhile will guarantee that). Quite frankly, I am sorry all this has boiled down to all this. style_emoticons/

This is the same thing I've been hearing, KingDL1... To help us fund ourselves out of all these extended contracts that have us in a financial pickle (thanks to Bobby & His Gang's approval), maybe our money guarantee games need to be larger n the future than schools like UT-Austin seems to have been paying us of late? Someone told me they heard Auburn (and others similar) pay out anywhere from $700K to $800K per game for their guarantees. Couldn't UNT have used the extra $500K this year? Yet we get anywhere from $300K to $400K from U of Texas-Austin? With our present staff's attitude with OOC games, would there have been much difference with the results on the scoreboard whether we had played Auburn or UT the last few years? This whole thing is one big fat me$$ and there are those who need to answer for getting us in this mess.

You know, with all of the (most impressive) growth of UNT's main campus' enrollment, the city of Denton and Denton County's impressive and expanded population counts of the last few years, we should be in an era at UNT that we would never have less than 20,000 for any game no matter how crappy we all think of the product we've been getting of late in the lower depths of NCAA D1-A has been. Matter of fact, we still have many new UNT freshmen faces and (yet to be completely tainted by our athletic program's SBC/Bottom 10/low expectations)sophmore class at UNT who may not have figured all this out as of yet; but it won't take long once they, too, set back and (even as novices as to whats going on around them) figure out that this school is tunnel-visioned and determined to keep doing business as usual in Mean Green Country). Can some of you young gun alums understand why NT Exes from the Abner Haynes era (1950's), the Mean Joe Greene era (the 1960's) and the Hayden Fry era (the 1970's) keep wondering and questioning why we keep putting all this in "reverse mode" (instead of fast forward) with this Mean Green football program? Hellsbells! One has to wonder if in another 10 years will our UNT leadership (most of whom are always non-UNT grads/ non-Texans) force-feed on us all roller derby instead of an upwardly mobile NCAA D1-A college football program?!?!?! So just why is it that we always seem to regress as far as our college football program in Denton goes in comparison to some (higher profile and impressive) successes we've had decades ago and all that spread over the 3 decades in the aforementioned paragraph? Folks, none of this that our leaders would deliver to us just never seems to compute whatsoever.

Anyone who would have a part with bringing back the worst public relations disaster of a head football coach in UNT history back for one more year should go back to home-building or selling furniture. Island Eagle, since you mentioned Jim M in your post: If Jim McIngvale is so enamored with Darrell Dickey (for whatever the reason that could possibly be), then why doesn't he just hire him at his Houston-based furniture company and allow his alma mater a realistic chance to get back to the days when he was a Mean Green football player during the Hayden Fry era; that is, unless ol' Mattress Mac really gets a bigger rise beating the the MUTS (and other SBC'ers) over the likes of the University of Tennessee Volunteers. I posted this last Spring because this very same subject came up even back then, but if UNT is going to be held hostage by any one or two or three large donors as they might hold their money over our school as a mild threat concerning any of its personnel (from whatever department), then let them keep their gol' damned money. Money cannot buy everything and those who would use it for personal gain or to put their agenda to the front should be shown the back (door). .......................................... Man O Man! Does this just not seem like the same NORTH TEXAS we all used to be prouder than hell because of our leadership and the positive direction they gave us? ......................................... TO WHOEVER'S IN CHARGE OF THE UNT ASYLUM TODAY: CLEAN HOUSE... ...AND GIVE THIS PROGRAM A REALISTIC CHANCE 2-B SUCCESSFUL! ......................................... P.S. & IN THE RED: If certain UNT officials are working over-time to make all this easy for NT Exes to not want to invest in and be a part of, then they are being pretty damn successful. .........................................

REVISED ON EARLY TUESDAY MORNING... ................................................................ HE WHO HESITATES LOSES AND WE ARE LOSING OUT ON SOME GOOD TEXAS HS FOOTBALL RECRUITS WHILE WE HESITATE IN MAKING A DECISION THAT MUST BE MADE! Sorry, no can agree with this latest idea I just picked up on: Hank D as AD at UNT? Hellsbells, with that guys self-serving ego and apparent image of himself wouldn't he prefer to be Chancellor? AND after all..............there is no opening for that position, either. WILL NEVER FORGET THIS WITH OL' HANK O' BOY! First time to ever meet HD was at a MG baskeball game (and I'll never forget the words he said because SUMG was just as astounded as I as to what he said to both of us and with such sincerity.......... .................but good ol' progressive-thinking Hank told both SUMG and PMG that evening at the Super Pit how UNT would "NEVER" really want to be part of a league such as Conference USA!" SUMG and I just stared at each other in disbelief and "where the hell did our alma mater come up with this one?" Yet imagine that, a newcomer fresh from some wherever the hell school he had just come from to UNT already telling long time NT Exes and (at the time) pretty damn good MG football fans and his telling us where we of UNT DID NOT need to be part of like, uh, CUSA?!?!?! (And on my saintly mother's last resting place there are 2 of us who would tell you that is exactly what he said). Only at North Texas, folks, only at North Texas..... If you've even been in any kind of sales, your bull-shitter antennas just come up quicker than most out there from other professions and with the many we've seen come and go thru the NT Athletic Dept. in Denton, we've had more than our share of truly bonafide bullshitters who Talk a Big Talk but rarely Walk A Big Walk. AND NOW WE HAVE.................many of this group of ancillery-athletic staff types in the UNT Athletic Dept. who have all seemed to have adopted that old gospel song as their theme song entitled: "We Shall Not Be Moved?" No, no, no, no, no, folks, lets be very "un-UNT'esque" and (once and for all) go outside of our usual box of the last 25 years (specifically by starting new personel searches off the UNT campus) with a goal of getting some fresh new faces with fresh new ideas and quit this UNT tradition of most all our bad eras of perservering the old guard in the UNT Athletic Department. We do not owe one yankee dime to a bunch of Kansans (or those other non-Texans who have obviously buffalo'd some in Denton) as far as a state of Texas retirement is concerned, especially those who have bull-shitted some of you into thinking they are the best thing to happen to UNT and Denton since sliced bread; and you know some of that group I am posting about here, right, as in the ones who (seemedly) still can't get jobs even at lower classified university athletic programs? But at UNT we have become like New York's Ellis Island: GIVE US YOUR POOR, YOUR NEEDY...Etc, Etc, Etc.....and we'll put them on staff in the UNT Athletic Dept. payroll and hang onto many of their mediocre performances till the cows come home to roost. UNT needs to just clean house and get all the S.T P's off payroll, ie, you know, the Small Time Producers (who've had more than enough time to prove themselves other-wise). Why don't we ever want to improve ourselves at UNT with the kind of people who have the skins on the walls from other collegiate athletic programs and hire those who have track records of getting attendance numbers higher? That is, hire those who can get us out of this 15K per home game mode that this present group at UNT never seem to ever want to discuss or talk about but (I suppose) just ignore it thinking we will ignore it, too, and they just try to hide such glaring insufficiencies as required NCAA football atttendance numbers under the green carpet. And while they try to hide obvious failure of our not attracting new fans during any year of this, the DD Ball era, some of you can still only think about recycling mediocre performers with some of the same ol' crowd in the UNT Athletic Department and just re-package them thinking we are going to take stripes off a zebra? So are all these non-performers and ancillery staff members in the UNT Athletic Dept the next ones up for their own contract extensions in Mean Green Country? This whole program has just simply been laced with mediocrity throughout and even with that first bowl game appearance we were (somewhat) a national laughing stock with many with an under .500 W/L record of 5 & 6 going into a bowl game. Under .500 won/loss records seem to be a continuing theme at UNT so why would we even consider keeping anyone on a future new staff at UNT who have been just as big part of all these years of under .500 varsity programs as the coaches themselves? So what do we do, just go ahead and give all of this under-achieving group contract extensions of their own at our alma mater which has become ............................Santa Clause State U ? Why do a hardy handful of NT Exes think so much in the past with used up talent who cannot get jobs anywhere else (and don't we know they've tried by now)? And with those we keep on hanging to who seemedly have the same old tired ideas)?!?!?!? Folks, if we keep this modus operendi on-going our next 25 years of MG football will turn out much like most of the last 25 years have been once you size everything up and see we really haven't accomplished much at any semblance of a higher profile at the NCAA D1-A level. . AND SPEAKING OF THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE: Most of us will never use the Sun Belt Conference as a true measuring stick of a commendable performance for our school simply because the SBC simply just is not a good measuring stick for those many of us who want out of the Bottom 15-20 NCAA D1-A football programs (which we basically have become).

And to all our non-UNT affiliated voters (and fellow SBC'ers) we thank you for voting in such a way that will keep Mean Green football barefoot and pregnant (or completely impotent) for another 9 years in the NCAA D1-A subterranean depths we've all become much too accustomed most of the last 25 years. NEW IDEA! Let's just keep on hiring the same kind of head football coaches (cronies and unknown commodities) to keep this streak alive! If UNT leaders don't do the right thing with all this, then it is that group that needs to resign. And to some of that upper echelon who would be hesitant with way too many decisions that should have already been made at our alma mater; anyway, many of us would have this question to ask to some of you: And which decade will it be that UNT-Dallas (finally) become a free-standing university? :

Agree, DeepGreen... UNT needs to very quickly move on to a bright new era that only new faces, new talent and fresh ideas will be able to give our alma mater IMO and FWIW............ my hat is off to the few, the bold & the brave of all of you who cared enough (many weeks ago for some and a few years ago for many of you) about whats been going on to let your voices be heard on this and other forums even when doing such was not always the popular thing to do among our all our peers. And lets all keep a realistic perspective with all this and I am "NOT" talking at all about our football players to any degree at all on this subject but............no one is obligated to show loyalty to those who would lead us with continued poor performance and whose trends after more than a fair number of years on the UNT payroll to prove themselves; anyway, whose performances indicate little is really going to change for the better no matter how many extra years they might be givem. IMHO, this would even be the case for anyone with their job if they are not getting any semblance of loyalty in return from those who would write their paychecks. Like one boss of mine who I respected very much said to me years ago: "Loyalty is a 2-way street." ( (And I'll add that that particular boss certainly knew his part & role in such a 2-way street). UNT has a decision (or 2 or 3) to make that any collegiate football novice would not have any problem making at all. Timing is everything right now at UNT. There is some recruiting that needs to be done (yesterday) and that (hopefully) being done here in the DFW Metroplex first of all and then out in the uttermost regions of Texas.

What do you mean I've insulted them? They have insulted me (and many of my fellow NT Exes )one of whom has followed MG football for 59 years and is going to cease even doing that soon if DD and the level of SBC/Bottom 10 football which has some on this forum thinking this man is the 2'nd Coming of Vince Lombardi) is not removed from his job prettty damn quick--like he should have been post-MTSU loss several weeks ago)? A-V, I think you've lived from afar with all this for awhile now, but I've been (like many others on this board) very close to the action for most of 30 plus years and have not been on the outside looking in much of that time with some of our athletic personnel. I don't choose to do this any longer because I've seen and heard enough. I've also seen and heard about one of our athletic staffers who has on several occassions insulted some of my fellow NT Exes (and personal friends) in a crowded room full of UNT supporters embarrassing them to no end because of such treatment and this from a freakin' state of Texas employee? Well..............I say bullshit to that from any state of Texas employee and to the one responsible, I would like for them to have their asses kicked out of the Denton city limits as soon as we have the kind of leadership with the balls to rid us of this kind of UNT employee no matter what dept they'd be in at our campus. I do believe in some "less violent" forms of frontier justice, but just as effective. Many of us also see what our university's top leaders seem quite content to support at the level they choose to support it and minor league college football ain't going to be what most NT Exes support en mass. A-V, (again) we live in a major league sports market and minor league anything is not a horse that is going to run (to put it in Parker County terminology ). BUT..........."I" am not making sense? You mean we should all accept carte blanche all this athletic crapola at its lower depths and under .500 performances of most every varsity coach we have on payroll at UNT and just look down at our shoe laces and tell our BOR's country-style: Yes suh, we sho' glad we have yall leading our school with all this that yall are rubber-stamping every year while giving to all of us all those coaches extended contract extension approvals at every turn for coaches who should be at Midwestern State and NOT an employee at an NCAA D1-A school even at the"UNT level." present-status. No, sir, A_V, I have NOT insulted them...................They have insulted me (and many of my fellow NT Exes) who have actually seen MG football played at a higher profile or level than some of this board's 'Johnny Come Lately's" who think they have seen the best of the best with bottom of the barrrell successes (come on, people, how impressed has the Texas media and Texas HS recruits been with those 4 big bowl games)? SMU started outrecruiting us after our 4'th bowl game when we should have been putting them in the recruiting grave-yard here in the DFW Metroplex.......................NOT! A_V, just how many people in the DFW Metroples (of which Denton is a part) do you think would go back to supporting a minor league baseball team (en mass) over the Texas Rangers? How may people in the DFW Metroplex (of which Denton is a part) do you think would support a semi-pro football team over the Dallas Cowboys and do so en mass? You, sir, need to experience all this first-hand by being at every pre-game, then every game and then every post-game as many of us have for most of the last 3 plus decades and then get back and see if you would post what you are posting now. At UNT......................we hang onto mediocrity longer than any NCAA D1-A athletic program (outside the SBC) than I can ever remember observing the 40 plus years I've followd college football at its highest level, but this group at UNT seems to be working over-time as they continue to persevere with something which 9 years worth of trends (and small SBC-type goals) indicates is not going to change for the better unless we get new leadership in the UNT Athletic Dept. and many of us mean new leadership............... ACROSS THE BOARD! Have A Nice Day...

I would guess posturing for the Troy U game, but moreso for his future new boss that he may want to be part of that projected new UNT coaching staff? To me the hardest part of reading as well as participating in all these posted discussions is our sincere attempts to separate our coach's or athletic staffer's performance from the person themselves or the good human beings that most of these people really are. We've all been civil with most of our athletic department staffers at one time or another and they've been civil right back. Many of our group will never be invited to parties thrown by anyone from the present UNT staff because those of us who don't spare words to express some true feelings usually find that they are not welcome (even at their own alma mater) to break bread with those who would lead at the moment. Oh well....................... .......... most of us won't lose sleep over such prospects; that is, by not being invited to such gatherings because FWIW some of us have been known to throw some pretty damn good parties of our own. BUT seriously................if someone, ie, anyone? ..................on GoMeanGreen.com can produce a list of guidelines we can all follow on how to criticize those whose performances we can no longer accept or support but not the performer themselves (even after their having had plenty of years on the UNT payroll to make a difference one way or another)............ .............anyway, if there would be such guidelines that would show us all a nicer way for any of us to question or criticize our UNT leadership, please do enlighten us. YET............................is there a problem when many of us feel there are others out there who can do a better job for our alma mater (based on the fact that other schools our size & even one SBC school who has shown us how to not just talk about building a new football stadium but have actually shown us how to get it done; and then, the TU Trojans debuting their new football stadium on ESPN in a national televised game against a Top 25 school with the TU Trojans even winning the darn football game against the #19 ranked Missouri Tigers. Nevertheless, many of us would most likely be open to reading (and following) such guidelines on how to criticize the performance, but not the performer themselves, ie, the family man aspects of all this but to be perfectly frank and honest about it.................... last time I fired a recruiter in the technical school business of which I worked 25 years, I would be the first to admit that I was not on that person or his family's Christmas gift list to say the least. So in affect, I'm not sure such projected guidelines to follow I am attempting to describe here exists when it comes to hiring and firing, right? And some of your take (if any) on this subject?

A_V, if UNT were located in Appalachia, ie, which (according to some media) is America's version of a 3'rd world country wherer poverty abounds I might agree with some of your thinking; but UNT is not located in Appalachia (although hearing a few post game radio comments the last few years you'd think were were). Yet UNT located in one of the Fortune 500 meccas of the USA with those out here in the DFW Metroplex (about 6 million population according to NTCOG) with the largest marjority of business types (many with UNT degrees) who have never been approached by any official from UNT because too many officials from UNT don't know their way out of Denton once they leave their offices at 5:00 PM (for those who would be doing the needed fund-raising). Most of us grUNTS out here don't have the time (or the potential UNT athletic dept. donor's list) to do much in the area of fundraising and many of us won't do anything anyhow to make it look like we support our present direction by supporting this present group over in the UNT Athletic Dept. (Any of you read a few days ago where a 59 year supporter of Mean Green football is at his wits end with this group at UNT, too)? But why show any semblance of moral support to our bottom-feeder producing group at UNT because their efforts have annually produced SBC/Bottom 10 type results in football and even low national rankings during 4 bowl year (and we won't even get into a discussion of our minor varsity sports programs). BUT FWIW, at UNT we actully have those whose job descriptions suggests that they do have the time to go out there and cull new donors and it would only be "ONE" who they would need to capture his (or her) imagination that would be able to put a very large down payment toward jump-starting our new football stadium at Eagle Point Campus. BUT sadly to some extent..............many do not want any of our present group to even be at a ribbon cutting at UNT's new football stadium because of the extremely low profile results and production we've seen from this present crowd with our present athletic program (of which the Super Pit can never be used as an excuse for having a very average NCAA D1 basketball program). AND by the way..................Just who was it that hired our basketball coach who is also struggling with an under .500 overal record after a number of years on the payroll (right along with most his fellow UNT varsity coaches save the woman's soccer coach)? Who (God help us all) will play a major part in hiring DD's successor who we will be stuck with for (probably) another decade of an under .500 college football performance while those who have done the hiring most likely get fired or boogie down the road to some other business venture? Jeez, folks, just how long do UNT coaches whose trends after a few years show us all that they are not going to do much better in the area of improvement of which is most visible (and obvious) to the entire Mean Green Nation? Hellsbells! Just how much longer will these people get to stay on the UNT payroll to show us all more of the same? We out here in the civilian world would call that a dream career what some have going on at our alma mater, although most of us would have more pride to say what we are actually doing is an integral part and is helping all of our respective companies to actually improve and grow on an annual basis. At UNT, they (apparently) just bide time (with the approval of Bobby Ray's BOR's) until the Big 12 comes a-callin'. How cushy a deal is that, eh? 25 years of mostly pathetic football coaches hiring at UNT sugggests that UNT never does learn from its history and quite frankly, I look for UNT to hire some Deep South souther fried "Buford T. Ledbetter" with ties to some school in Missiissippi this time around. I WILL SAY IT ONCE AGAIN: At UNT we just don't learn from our history and seem to just keep repeating it. A high profile hiring is not what UNT will do but rather we'll get another one like a Dennis Parker or a DD (who "only" had his first above .500 season in Year 5 on the UNT payroll. QUESTION: Can UNT really afford (again) such a coach who will deliver his first winning team in maybe his 5'th or 6'th year at UNT? What kind of impression would such a coach as that make among DFW area high schools all over again? Maybe just one reason why our present group of coaches cower down to the thought of recruiting DFW area high schools the last few years until they saw the criticisms of many of our NT Exes (even on GMG.com) demanding that that absurd practice of ignoring recruits from this 6 million populated area cease and cease pretty damn fast? Nevertheless, I doubt that we will learn from the past 25 years of hiring head football coaches at UNT because trends suggests we won't, but this time around, there will be fewer (than the NCAA D1-A's required 15K average minimum per home game who will even care when they detect such a "projects" hire); that is, the many who would care less to watch another UNT head football coaches hiring that has run amuck and is stuck in a multi-year under .500 career at THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS. TO THE UNT BOARD OF REGENTS: CLEAN HOUSE ACROSS THE BOARD & GIVE THE ONES YOU'D LIKE TO $UPPORT ALL THIS A CLEAN SLATE COUPLED WITH FRESH NEW IDEAS THAT DON'T STAY ON THE IDEA PLANNING SHEET (and which might even get us to averaging over 25k-30,000 per home football game like we should have been doing the last 9 years with all our growth). NONE OF THIS IS ROCKET SCIENCE, FOLKS!

Damn good post, UNTLifer....Except I would have sensationalized it a bit more, uh, National Inquirer-style?!?!?! (Just kiddin' on a subject that is very serious to all of us who have been following this a few decades--sorry, but I got a one year head start on most of you with my personal boycott and it makes me even sadder to read where a 59 year supporter of Mean Green football (and long time friend of many of ours) has just about had enough with this group in our athletic dept. All this just makes me feel even more anger toward UNT leadership because I don't think they give a rat's ass about how some of us who were even at the snow game versus Bobby Bowden's Florida State team at Fouts Field back in the day feel about all this. BTW, I don't recall seeing Bobby Ray at that snow game or any others for most of the 3 plus decades I've followed Mean Green football and now he makes most of the Big Decisions and leads us as chairman of the UNT BOR's in getting all this mediocrity rubber-stamped? Again, damn good post, very concise and to the point! I want to take your writing course, UNTLifer!

Bill, with NT Exes and MG fans still having had only "one" quarterly meeting the last umpteen years (after many, many broken promises of more to come) I'd guess most can assume they really don't want to hear from all of those they'd like to buy their season tickets and give some hard-earned monies? Sadly, there are still some on our UNT Board of Regents who have been fooled by a hardy handful in our athletic department. Wonder if each of our BOR's could have been flies on the wall inside the UNT athletic dept. the last few years just to see how many resume's had been regularly getting updated on company time (of which I'm sure fiction would have even been part of some of those)? What is it that we are missing out here in the UNT community of which decisions should have already been made that our UNT powers that be have years of results to go by which (would have already been made at any other NCAA D1-A outpost) and even from that group might suggest to our UNT leaders that the decisions they need to make are of the, uh, no-brainer variety? CLEAN HOUSE! GIVE US ALL A FRESH NEW START! (even for those who would be moving on who may need one worse than we do).

The thing that we know about Stephen King's books are that they are fiction, are subjects not likely to happen in real life and are books that one reads just to fill one's spare time and empty space of each of our lives. (I know some epistles you can also read on GMG.com to help you with that, too. Hellsbells! I've been praised by a few of you for helping you with your sleep disorders). So-ooooooooooooooooK, UNT_playmaker, its time you finally come out and tell everyone on this board that you are really the, uh, real, authentic and bonafide................. STEPHEN KING! ! ! ! (Hope yall noticed the Halloween colors in his name) ...................................................................... This Saturday night is "Fall Back" time--so set all your clocks back one hour. So see, even this post had some non-fiction and (perhaps) something of real value for you to read. ...................................................................... So time for a new thread subject, UNT_playmaker, pretty please?

If I were any UNT upper echelon leader or a UNT Board of Regent, I think I'd pay close attention to a 59 year follower of Mean Green football who says if Darrell Dickey is back in 2007 then he (himself) won't be back to watch yet another way too predictable season of Dickey Ball. In fact, any smart UNT leader would be wise to focus on that kind of response from one of our best fans and then start trying to fix each and every problem that has created such a scenario that would cause GrayEagleOne to say after this football season, he's done with it all if UNT officials plan to give us one more year of DD Ball. What is gaining even more momentum like that of a runaway freight train in Denton and Mean Green Country and what will be the results of this kind of momentum is "NOT" going to look good on the resume's of a few strategic UNT officials if they are naive' enough to think what they are doing will gain more football season ticket sales and MG Club (or significant private) donations in 2007. IF DD IS ALLOWED ONE MORE YEAR THEN....................I'd say the in-mates are truly running the asylum at UNT if such an absurdity as that is allowed to continue for yet another year in Denton. I'd also say I smell even more rat crap with SMU alum Lee Jackson as the UNT chancellor along with his hand-picked LYG,ie, Little Yankee Gal as his Denton campus president. Sorry fellas' but many of us have been there, done that and heard all this before and our new Madam UNT President can say how great athletics is to some of you (who are most impressionable) till the cows come home but wouldn't we all rather see some dramatic and positive moves that will prove to all that she means business and will support with budgets and new hirings whatever takes for us to have an upwardly bound UNT football program. HEARD IT ALL BEFORE.................I can close my eyes and still hear coming from Dr. Hurley's mouth with his saying what smart NT presidents have all learned to say upon their hiring and that is their using the "athletics is the picture window of our university" card at UNT. Folks, we've heard all this before from most other recent UNT presidents only to see budgets under their watch (save one Dr. Pohl) get mysteriously slashed and NT Athletics being put (basically on a life support type of athletic budget. I've been saying this awhile now, but not only do I smell 1 or 2 skunks on our campus, but I think there is a whole pack of the little stinkers running loose in Denton and putting their mark on just about everything around Denton with their most special perfume that when they make yet another marking with what seems (of late) to be a very un-Midas type of marking. Only North Texas would buy a Jaguar (UNT-Dallas) it cannot possible afford with our probably having the smallest financial endowment of any school our size and years of existence not only in the Lone Star State, but probably the entire United States of America. The focus is on Dallas and Fort Worth in the UNT System, fellow alums, while Denton (and a new football stadium) comes in 3'rd place. Fund Raising? Wasn't there one in the UNT Athletic Dept. charged with that major responsibility upon his hiring and all that has yet to materialize even to this day for a school of our scope and size? From what I've heard from a couple of you one such UNT athletic employee has been taking credit for what some who have been in the sales business any length of time would call a, uh..................house account? ? ? For example, the Warranch gift materialized in the first place because it was he who made the initial call to UNT leaders as to take their suggestions as to what part of UNT needed his rather large gift of monies the most. Yet (again) one source told me it was Mr. Warranch who made that first initial call to UNT with monies that one source said that once Dr. Pohl got the call from the NT Ex & California home building magnate that he actually forwarded it to UNT Athetics; so sorry folks, (again) in the sales business such a donation as that would be called a "house account" since no one on our campus made the initial contact with our fellow and very wealthy NT Ex from the great state of California. SO @ UNT ISN'T IT STILL ALL ABOUT FUND-RAISING AND MARKETING? I suppose in Denton we are getting much in the area of well thought out and very profound theories on athletic fund-raising and marketing to the masses from UNT Athletic Department staffers , but (once again for those who seem a bit "cranium impaired" thinking we are setting the woods on fire because we now have successful tailgating........................YET.............. don't those 15K per home game averages spread out over the last 9 years still suggest that theories and hypotheses for fundraising but specifically athletic marketing are still all that we are getting in Denton, Texas, America?

If DD leaves before his contract is out, he will still leave with a very nice chunk of change in his pockets. It might end up being a bitter/sweet scenario for DD, but many out here in the non-sports (maybe a bit more realistic day to day world) have left jobs with far le$$ severance pay as DD would have at UNT and thats for damn sure. With DD's heart situation, the timing of all this if it happens sooner than later may turn out to be almost perfect for him and his entire family.