PlummMeanGreen

Very well stated, ADLER, and in so few words, too.

JUMPIN' JEHOSAPHATS! So do you have a few hours to listen to what many (and many from this very board) have done in volunteer service for our alma mater the last two, three or even four decades? Many times (according to some of you) not even getting a simple "thank you" for your efforts? Hellsbells, had many NT Exes been paid for many of those voluntary freeby hours (and that was never our intent for one iota of a second), but had that been the case, many of this group of alums would have easily been lifetime members of the Presidents Council several lifetimes over (if being in that group is what rocks your high society and social standing boat) not to even mention the many of those of us who have sent more than a few dozen (X's a hundred in some cases) students to UNT because we chose to take the time to tell the UNT story. You could give a billion dollars to some egghead-types and they'd squander it with continuous and terrifically bad hirings for their university. Hellsbells, at UNT, one can start with the position of fundraisers (or the lack thereof of effective fundraisers) of the last 2 or so decades in Denton. After all, at most major universities, isn't it professional fundraisers who are out there on the highways and hedges in Fortune 500 territory (we can all hope) with the responsibility of raising the really Big Bucks for our alma mater? Well, UNT opened for business in 1890 and we still sit on only about $40 or so million dollars for our entire UNT System endowment. Is that any fault of ours? Is that any fault of our army of grUNTs who can only give most years in limited amounts (usually $1,000 and less), and is it our responsbility to bring in the really Big Bucks for UNT since we sorta' all have our own professions that have kept us busy most our adult lives? QUESTIONABLE HIRINGS AT UNT YA' DON'T SAY? Check any recent NT football and/or basketball (men and women) media guides and make the determination for yourselves if UNT has made more than just its fair share of blunder-ful hirings, ie, some terrifically poor, bad off the wall hirings the last 25 or so years. What you will see statistic-wise with the records of UNT coaches we have now and many from the past will stand out like sore thumb in those UNT media guides. Media guides and the data inside them are like a camera's lens inasmuch as a camera just takes a photo of what it sees--no more and no less. So.................the plain unadultarated facts all listed in black and white from any NCAA D1-A school's media guides alway tell the real story of what is happening at that school's athletic program MINUS all the P.T Barnum'esque tommyrot. Won/Loss records are one of the prime measuring sticks most "normal" NCAA D1-A schools seem to most alway have at the top of their barometer of success, but now many schools have started adding season long per game attendance averages to simiar barometers of success (or non-success) right along with those wins and losses. OH BROTHER........AGAIN?.....And once again .........at UNT, we reward multi-year coaches with under .500 records and even what wins they do have are against the sisters of the poor or SBC creampuffs (check out those media guides for further proof on that); anyway, they get rewarded with extended contracts while few NT Exes or Mean Green faithful ever seem to want to challenge such unusual business practices with our real powers that be on campus. But of course, they are the ones rubber-stamping all this for the most part, too. It seems some NT employees in certain departments on our campus can pretty well do what they damn well please but still want us to help them per$evere their "blankety blanked" (a family board, right?) career-producing mediocrity by asking the masses to throw good money after what any UNT athletic media guide would tell us is pretty damn bad (money). We Can Do Better...BECAUSE WE HAVE DONE BETTER...

One never feels good about feeling bad about his/her alma mater or its direction. I am sure Rhey Nolan did not enjoy writing his feelings for the DMN recruiting blog, but FWIW, they are shared by more than those who will ever care to write them down on any kind of forum. Except for (possibly) the Homecoming game, the SMU game will be the last home game this Fall where there won't be 15,000 or more empty seats. How can one know this? Well. this is what recent tradition and Dickey Ball excitement (and play-calling) should tells us all. I don't know what it was that was the straw that broke the camel's back for Mr. Nolan in his letter to the DMN blog; but for this alum it only took the biggest home loss in Mean Green football history (versus Tulsa last Fall) to awaken me and make me do some deep soul-searching about something that has been an important part of the recreation and leisure part of my life this time of year and this starting as far back as September, 1973. Then.............last Fall's drubbing of UNT by La Tech was the final straw that got this Irishman's blood warming up about our real direction and that after 4 bowl games. 4 bowl games that seemed to have no effect (whatsoever) in our recruiting the last 3-4 years compared to the likes of Tulsa University and Louisiana Tech. Don't our big losses to those 2 schools sorta' prove that point? And if we took the "thrown together" football portion of the SBC away from our football schedule of the last 5 years, then just what would be the present status of Mean Green football now? Want a comparison as to how Mr. Nolan and others feel? It would be the same feeling some of you would (undoubtedly) have if we were schooled "big time" by SMU this Saturday night. Some of you would begin to feel the same pain and disappointment, except for you young gun alums, you would not have been on the same roller coaster many of us have been with all this as Mr. Nolan describes so effectively in his letter. Yet.........."IF" that were a loss (close or big) versus the Ponies, after reading many of your posts on this possibility since last Spring on this forum, many of you as I recall reading have already vowed to turn 180 degrees with your own thoughts concerning the direction of Mean Green football under present condtions. Still for many, this Saturday night's SMU game (win or lose) will only create a short blip on the radar screen of our last 8 years under DD as we compare our football program's standing to the other 112 NCAA D1-A schools (save all the football schools in the SBC, of course, since we are all sorta' "clumped" together most years in season ending polls). If it is true that you are known by the company you keep, then in the realm of NCAA D1-A football, UNT has been keeping some very questionable company of late (annual Bottom 10 dwellers for the most part) that not one of our present leaders at our main campus in Denton seem to have any semblance of an idea or plan on how to improve our present football social status. Unfortunately (and regrettably), some of our elect have gotten way too comfortable with this status with their having an almost "why fight city hall" kind of attitude about NT Athletics. AN EXAMPLE OF THIS? One poster just today in another thread suggested that UNT cannot even hire better football personnel than we presently have on our staff. So this is how far this thing has really fallen, NT80, remembering your question asking the question of just how far have we fallen from a post of yours a day or so back. We Can Do Better.....

Yes, Joe, I go way back for a 56 year old, but I think you have me confused with my own late father! I will miss my first Mean Green football home season opener in 33 years and thats all I am going to say about that. Have a good time, though, and pull for a Mean Green football team who I feel deserve better coaching. But nevertheless, do keep my spot warm so when we have a brighter "higher profile" future with personel (across the board) who have the skins and proven ability to make that future brighter (and hopefully at a new venue) then I'll see you and the gang again. We Can Do Better.........

Mad Hatter, your chant is very carefully chosen and worded and a helluva' lot better than chanting: I Want Woody! But come on folks, keep a perspective here? 1 winnning season in 2 decades? I just don't get it with many of our fans (sometimes) and maybe that's why there have been no real viable movements from our NT Exes and Mean Green fan base to insist to NT administration on having personel who can deliver to us more than just lipservice but a visibly noticeable better athletic program (15,000 seats available most home games?) AND an athletic program...........at a higher profile than we've seen in a long time. This group presently at UNT can pretty well say and do most anything they damn well please (Fouts Mouthin' Off To Fans in the Stands-Gate) and almost dare some of you to challenge what they've been doing and plan to do for a long time in Denton (till the Big 12 comes a-callin', of course). And...........is Brett Vito the new president of the Mean Green Club? Does he have an NT football media guide and better yet.............has he read his NT football media guide to see who DD has won against to, uh, pad his "W" column as NT coach (but still be way too many games under .500 for a coach who is in his 9'th year at an NCAA D1-A school)? But in all fairness to Vito, I wager that UNT athletic officials would go death and dumb with him if he were to really report what he probably really sees happening in Mean Green Country. So keep those PollyAnna MG sports columns a-comin', Brett.

So Jeff, which of the last 3 decades do you want me to start listing my "humble .02" worth of answers to your question? Don't worry, I will spare all because anyone think any of that group up there (led by SMU alum/UNT Chancellor Lee Jackson) want to hear any of it? They don't have any idea how much validity they are losing with many (and I do mean many) NT Exes/Mean Green fans many of whom aren't even registered with GMG.com to post their own dire concerns. Save a Big Donor who comes riding in on his white horse, a real NCAA D1-A stadium being built at our main campus (and a stadium whose blueprints keep changing by the month as its capacity keeps getting smaller if anyone else hasn't noticed that in recent discussions of our projected new stadium by NT leaders) and a real NCAA D1-A coach to coach a team in that new stadium; anyway, the group I am posting about (which will grown significantly if we lose against.............. S M U which I BTW don't think is going to happen this Saturday PM), but present UNT leaders are going to have some real problems getting many of the aforementioned group to think they are really serious about leading UNT's future back to the upper echelon of NCAA D1-A (as compared to the present) YET.................you know, after the results of the 1975 MG football campaign when I was an NT student with that season being topped off with our Mean Green win over the University of Tennessee Volunteers, I just knew at that time that I was attending a Texas university that had so much damn potential that would be in a major conference by no later than, lets say, uh.................2005, ie, 30 years later? And FWIW, would a 56-0 whooping of SMU by UNT really change the direction of any of this? How about, uh, "NOT"...........but it would be a little more fodder and info for a handful of UNT athletic officials to freshen up those resume's with. Of couse I'm sure none would state this small fact concering such an SMU win.............."in all fairness, though, this was an SMU that had had only 1 winning season in the last 2 decades.

SouthBendGreen, beggin' your pardon but I just have to agree to disagree with you this time around. How could anyone say that our bar is set high with Mean Green football when KingDL1's above post shows a poll that has 20 NCAA D1-AA schools ranked above UNT? I know some of our fans will get just plain giddy with what I feel will be an expected home field win over "1 winning season in 2 decades" SMU this Saturday night, but even with such a win over the lowly Mustangs this win should never be considered as one of our schools top 10 wins because we are playing a school who has had their own bar set pretty darn low the last 2 plus decades, too. Again, I defer to an SMU football media guide for those who need a reminder of that fact. AND...............if not for the fact that 4-5 SMU alums pooled their monies to build SMU a new football stadium, might SMU's bar even be lower than it has been of late? If not for a new stadium, would SMU have done like Rice and Tulane the last 2 years entertaining the idea of dropping Mustang football? I realize after a 2-win season last year in Mean Green Country that any win is a plus for DD's program, but do keep our expected win over SMU in perspective, folks, because we are not playing the SMU that our father's and grandfather's used to read about. And that another reason SMU will probably bring the same number of fans they did for our 1990 game which was abysmal as I look at the DVD of this game as the cameras pan the crowd. But there is some good news to report: Parker County had a helluva' bunch of rain the last 48 hours and my pond (about 50 feet from my spacious wooden deck) is all but over-flowing!

KingDL1, thanks for the research in your above post. Unfortunately, there would probably be a handful of those 20 NCAA D1-AA schools ahead of UNT in this poll who would provide a better matchup with the CUSA rep in the 2006 NO's Bowl. I just don't know how low we have to go till someone says enough.

And KingDL1, aren't there just 119 schools in NCAA D1-A now? And the beat goes on....

I am losing sleep that anyone can get so pumped playing a school that has had 1 winning season in 2 decades. Sometimes I really wonder if this is the same NORTH TEXAS that I even attended in the 1970's when our direction was dramatically more upwardly mobile and our excitement was measured by playing schools who had been winning that when we went out on the field against said school, NT fans (and our NT coaches) thought we had a chance to win the football game. As a reminder, the Mean Green almost did beat Darrell K. Royal's Texas Longhorns the first time we ever played them. If not for some RB named Earl Campbell, most of us at that game feel we would have won the game.

I give money to those who I like what they are doing and don't give money to those who I don't like what they're doing--simple as that. I think from all accounts, others on this board have recently adopted this concept, too. But FWIW, that's their personal business--and for damn sure not mine or anyone elses on this forum and beyond. Any UNT graduate is a stock-holder of our alma mater and (because of that) has as much verbal capital available to them to voice their opinions as anyone. For those on campus (specifically athletics) who can't handle this, then they probably need to join the rest of us out here in the non-academic world where mediocrity is never rewarded with extended contracts or bonus checks.

MORE OF THE SAME DAMN LAGNIAPE WITH A FEW VARIATIONS First of all, let me say that I am not vying for the post of the week award with this or any other post. Many just feel we are being cheated out of having a good athletic program at UNT because (basically) we have almost my whole adult life a history of UNT officials hiring athletic personnel who usually don't get a job much higher than........NORTH TEXAS. Again, just check out your UNT varsity sports media guides and go down those corridor of years with our W/L records for all UNT sports if you need further proof. Obviously, I am also not trying do all the right things (whatever those would be) to be awarded another Ulys Knight Spirit Award if that possible (of which the one I did very proudly receive back in 1996 along with Jub-Jub some may want to take back by now) (Seriously, though, I really feel an NT Ex can be a good alum by not always following the status quo of which most of you I know wouldn't want to be accussed of being a part of either). I think most of you on this board are actully the kind of fans a Notre Dame, OU or (gulp) even a Texas would be proud to have as fans and that's the honest truth. BUT............... FWIW, I am not alone with my feelings (some have stronger ones than mine but just won't post them) that I have posted in the above post to the point of ad nausem for many of you who I personally know but also, I ain't going to stop posting or caring about UNT until I just feel the inmates have completely taken over the asylum up in Denton and go completely zonkers! extending contracts to coaches that few (if any) NCAA D1-A school would probably not even consider keeping on their payroll, least of all extending contracts to. UNT seems to be an easy hit, ie, an easy place to work and get to stay for a long time and all you have to do is buy a few beers, be one helluva' good bull-shipper and dangle a few carrots to keep some of our masses excited. How damn sad........ I also actually believe I can count about 25 or more of you posters on GoMeanGreen.com (after having read your own philosophies the last few years) who could come up with better ideas and be part of selection committees who would offer more sensible advice to "our people" as to what kind of hires would must make more sense (cents) for a school that annually hovers toward the bottom of NCAA D1-A (even during those bowl years). I believe some of you who I have known personally for awhile could come up with ideas for varsity coach hirings that would fit the "whole" UNT community compared to what we have been getting force-fed to us most of the last 2 decades. Come on, folks, some "genius" at Idaho U came up with the suggestion in one of their meetings asking such a question as this: Why don't we ask Dennis Erickson if he would be interested in coaching our Vandals." You know, I still would like to believe we have a few smarter sports savvy football people affiliated with UNT here in the sovereign state of Texas, you know, where football is king compared to a "freakin" Idaho, where, uh, the potato is king? : Do I have a suggestion at this time for a head football coach at UNT? No I don't have a suggestion, and thats only because we don't have a vacancy for the head football coaches job at UNT. I have to think UNT would somehow/someway go outside the box we've seen of late to come up with ideas (a la Idaho) if the day, month or year arrives that our new UNT president needs to put together a selection committee for a new head football coach at UNT BUT................... ............hopefully, she would also take a veru long look at our track record of past selection committees and who they've had on their short list for varsity coach hirings by borrowing someone's UNT sports media guides on campus so even she could do her own unbias research as to what the hell have we been doing wrong in Mean Green Country that has created so many losses in th "L" column compared to the "W" column the last 2+ decades. Also, hopefully she could come up with her own suggestions as to what do we have to do to get this Mean Green football program in the Top 50 NCAA D1-A football schools? As we all know, a good start toward Top 50 would be wins outside the Sun Belt Conference and the NO's Bowl. And FWIW, even a win over SMU this Saturday night (which I think will happen) will still not change the overall direction of where this program has been pointed by those who won't care about UNT's future athletic welfare 5 minutes they are off its payroll. Lets do keep this SMU game in a proper perspective, too, since we are talking about a Mustang football program that has had, uh, "1" winnning season the last 2 decades, right?

Quoner, the main problem is over half the board fears the unknown and the unchartered waters of having an upwardly bound NCAA D1-A football program (again) that can actually win an OOC game (even against Top 50 D1-A schools); and by all means, forget the Top 10 schools for now. UT has a new Jumbotron that would light up our entire campus at night! They'v got the resources in Austin I think we (and most of the other 118 NCA 1-A schools) will never have. Fry came to UNT after having been fired at SMU so he was not exactly a hot commodity when we hired him, either; also........... many older nestors (NTSU employees) on campus didn't think we'd be able to even hire Fry with his SWC name value and ID. Neither was Coach Price at UTEP with his Topless-Bar-Gate situation; Idaho's new Coach Dennis Erickson lost much of his previous luster by recent non-success; but FWIW, most any high profile name head coach a non BCS school would be able to hire will have some kind of blemish; but non-BCS schools have proven to be just what the doctor orders for both their football program and the high profile coach trying to get back in the mainstream. To do that, he "MUST" have a high profile success at his new non-BCS coaching job, right? I just fear UNT is back to its "going back to the womb" mode with our athletic program and all that beginning minutes after Pohl resigned as our president. SO HERE IS THE ONE WHO WILL HIRE OUR NEXT COACH: IF DD has to be replaced after this or next season, we will be force-fed (a la Craig Helwig) and have to accept non-UNT graduated employees choices for our next head football coach. Lets see now, don't we already have more than a handful of present UNT varsity coaches with multi-year under .500 W/L records who seem to keep getting contract extensions (that BTW, have to be approved by the NT Board of Regents? So doesn't that just give us all the warm fuzzies and that special "feel good" feeling about our football future? Folks, get your NT varsity sports media guides out---WE OF UNT AINT ALL THAT SUCCESSFUL IN INTER-COLLEGIATE SPORTS ATHLETIC HIRING IF WE CAN USE W/L RESULTS OF THE LAST 2 DECADES AS PROOF, RIGHT? Hopefully, a certain strategic and key UNT Board of Regent who attended UNT will take all this bull by the horns come future new UNT coaches hiring time and tell our new leaders: HEY! HOW 'BOUT LETS TRY DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR A CHANGE?!?!?! WHAT WE'VE BEEN DOING AIN'T SELLING TICKETS A SCHOOL OUR SIZE SHOULD BE SELLING, IT AIN'T CAPTURING THE ENTERTAINMENT IMAGINATION, VALUE OR ASPECTS OF OUR PRESENT FANS AND.......... FOR DAMN SURE IS NOT PUTING NEW BUTTS IN SEATS........ ............................................................ So just who is UNT athletics for anyhow? Is it for UNT students and faculty? Is if for NT Exes? Is it for Mean Green fans? Or............is it an intra-departmental vehicle for NT athletic staff-types to butter each others bread (contract extensions?) while biding time as they wait for the Big 12 (or anyone in some cases) to come a-callin'?

FWIW and IMHO, I think UNT will probably beat SMU this next Saturday night, but at the end of this football season I still don't think a DD-led football program finishes any higher than #90 among all the other 116 schools in NCAA D1-A. If these kind of SBC/Bottom 10 successes are what floats some of your boats, then yall go ahead and enjoy the next 10 years of DD Ball and read about how many NCAA D1-AA schools are much better than most in the SBC. UNT alums and MG fans need to start telling, writing and emailing UNT leaders as to what kind of NCAA D1-A football program they really want to have back in Denton once again. If we were to even win the SBC this Fall, go back to the Big Easy, get beat by the #3 or #4 CUSA team and still finish in the Bottom Quadrant of NCAA D1-A in the seasons final rankings, wouldn't that all just be more of the same; or as they say---- same song different verse? If that does it for you--good for you, but it won't for many. We can do much better because we have before (against schools even your grandfathers have all heard of, too). Why should we settle for less is the question of many more alums.

Leaving our present coaching situation out of all this, but a new "name" coach at most any non-BCS school like a UTEP, Idaho, etc, etc, etc, seems to most always make an immediate impact. Players eagerly look for a fresh start and fall in line behind such a high profile hire and the fans get all excited (again), get the pocket books back out and start re-newing season tickets and re-joining football booster clubs. But (also) with the high profile hire, many non-BCS schools (like an Idaho) start selling thousands of additional football season tickets. IMMEDIATE IMPACT YOU SAY? Mike Price at UTEP had the Miners in the Top 25 in 2-3 years--for a non-BCS school how much more impact can it get than that? How close is our program of being Top 25 caliber now? Yet (sadly for all concerned and thats most all on this forum) I don't think this present group of UNT leaders would ever go for the high profile coaching hire if there ever became an opening at "Extension State U" even after this season (unless things really go south for DD). One has to wonder what UNT's next head football coaching shopping list would look like? Good ol' boys and buddies of present UNT athletics leaders who want to help their buddy out? Or friends of a friend of friend who some UNT leader went to school with or even coached with who would never (and I mean NEVER) be considered for a head football coaching job at any other NCAA D1-A outpost except, uh....................... NORTH TEXAS, of course? IMHO, we have a couple on our UNT Board of Regents who (if they only would) coul just say "this is what we are going to do, Mr. UNT System Chancellor and Madam UNT-Denton President" and thats for UNT to go with the high profile hire. Because FWIW, hasn't most our "higher profile NCAA D1" success been with such a hire B4 in Denton? Yet wouldn't it be interesting to sit in on our present UNT Board of Regents future meetings to see who (really) is in line with Chancellor Jackson and our new lady president of our main campus?

C-O-N-S-P-I-R-A-C-Y ! ! ! ! !

Well, I've seen both play..................Johnny "Mac" can fling that football with great accuracy 50 yards and up..........Scottie has more touch and finesse with the short passes but can be just as effective..........Would have been interesting to see both alternate series to see who could have been better at handing the ball off to our Mean Green RB's. Glad there were (apparently) no major injuries.

I feel it would be safe to say that there would be many on GoMeanGreen.com (and beyond) who would have had no problem with, uh, "Dr." Noval F. Pohl as the Chancellor of the UNT System. Of course, UNT politics have shown us in the past that just when we get somebody that alums like, then the professors don't and so we go out and get a Texas politician without a Phd to be our Chancellor. Sorry to be so subtle with this, I'll try to be more to the point next time. Quite frankly, I believe had Dr. Pohl been name the UNT Chancellor (which our campus politics would make that possibility virtually impossible)................ or if Dr. Pohl would have continued in his role as UNT president; anyway, that UNT would have (1) an upwardly mobile direction athletically across the board since we should know by our past history that standing still at the NCAA D1-A level is tantamount to going backwards and (2) with Pohl's leadership we woujld have had by now more than just a good jump-start with our new football stadium fund for UNT-Dallas, whoops, I mean't UNT-Denton. Arkstfan, with Dr. Pohl, you'd also have an ASU Chancellor who would be a very effective (and pro-active) cheerleader for ASU Indian varsity athletics (instead of the passive type attitude we now have at UNT from one who says he doesn't have a passion for athletics but won't stand it its way). I know which type of attitude most on this board would most likely prefer. .................AND FWIW..............I think we also know which kind of attitude from a top university administrator is conducive for the advancement of a school's varsity athletic program, too.

Was watching CSTV early this AM and saw what I thought were some UT/UNT video clips from past games. Well......upon further review, it was the Baylor Bears in that video clip wearing "OUR" green and white. BTW, UNT is the only university in the Lone Star State whose official colors are, uh, "green and white." Has Baylor made a color switch w/o telling the rest of us here in Texas? NOTE: As most polls on GMG.com, this one will also "not" be a scientific poll since many non-UNT affiliated registered GMG.com voters will probably participate in this poll.

Sort of a sobering but tell-tell statistic most realist would have to admit to. The 1988 UNT/UT game was still a great football game to be at and witness, though, and you'd get many T-Sippers who'd probably even agree. Some may also be interested to know that that was also UT Coach David McWilliam's last season to coach the Texas Longhorns. POOR DAVID AT THE WRONG PLACE AT THE THE WRONG TIME?..............If he had only been at UNT, he would probably have gotten one of many contract extensions and (as of today) have one of the best state of Texas retirements and pensions among all his fellow state of Texas employees and collegues. Also wonder how many of the present UNT Board of Regents who attended NT were at that game? I know one who I'd wager was at that game, yet another who I'd wager was probably not at that game (and many others until recently)?

Ken14, it does warm the soul to see UNT gear worn in the uttermost parts of the great and almighty sovereign state of Texas. With the number of NT Exes we have (and growing very rapidly) those opportunities to see such gear will happen even moreso for us all. As most of you know, just simply wearing a UNT or Mean Green T-shirt, baseball cap, etc, etc, etc, will be noticed by Texas HS kids, too. Few days ago, I posted about a Weatherford College (a JUCO) student I saw several nights ago at the local Wal Mart who saw my MG T-shirt and then for the next 45 minutes (hope I didn't get the "future" UNT student fired) we talk about (who the hell else) the University of North Texas. ....................................................... Other another front, Ken14, have you ever been out to the old cemetary near Elkart, Texas, (which is basically a suburb of Palestine)? There is a replica of the first Baptist church established in pre-Republic of Texas in that cemetary with a Texas historical marker adjacent to it and many of my folks from the Cynthia Ann Parker/Fort Parker Massacre story are buried in that Elkart, Texas, cemetary. Just curious... GMG

TO QUOTE RONALD REAGAN WHEN HE TOLD JIMMY CARTER IN A DEBATE..............."THERE YOU GO AGAIN....." or...........Here I go again--get your coffee and caffein fix now! It really just depends on what one's definition of positive and negative is, Quoner. You are a young gun alum (or maybe you're still a UNT student) who has to drink from the fountain of what is being served to you by our present UNT leadership. FWIW, so do the rest of us at least for the moment. Quoner, we all have no choice but to drink what we are drinking from that fountain if we choose to drink from this fountain at all. I defer to the next paragraph..... On a September evening at our state's capital city in 1976.................many of us on this board sat in UT's Memorial Stadium (now DKR Memorial Stadium) before a sellout crowd to watch (inside that stadium whose team was coached by its namesake) a Mean Green football team whereas the great Earl Campbell had to score a "toward the end of the game" touchdown to beat the University of North Texas by the score of 17 to 14. I really do believe there are a hardy handful on GMG.com who might call some of of us wanting to get back to those kind of competitive UT/UNT games here in the year of our Lord 2006 as being negative; that we should just fall in line with the rest of the blindly-led sheep herd and invest into all this status quo AND to just be happy with someone on campus's Big Talk about what we are going to do with UNT athletics but seeing no significant fund-raising that would create true believers with all the Big Talk. . Some on this forum may actually call other posters negative for having the audacity of wanting to see this football program gettting out of its present status of annual rankings of somewhere between #80 thru #117 at season's end and some of those kind of rankings after some bowl losses. And now with our program which Sports Illustrated has put us on their pre-season Bottom 10 watch list. Sue us all if a handful of you so wish, but there are still many of us who would rather this football program get back to the days where we (once again) have the kind of back-to-back recruiting classes as to where our present and most valliant Mean Green football players (such as we have on the team this Fall) would have fellow teammates that would help them be competitive against schools like the University of Texas Longhorns this Saturday morning with its 11:00 AM national televised kick-off. So if you want to call this post negative, so be it, but I know a helluva' bunch on this board who will read this post, many of them (& some of them from campus computers) read this anonymously which I always find to be very amusing you know, the ones who read PMG (and other's) posts without your ever seeing their names at the bottom of the page? BUT EVEN MANY OF THAT GROUP anonymous or not will still say a hearty AMEN to some of the thoughts expressed in this post because many of those registered members of GoMeanGreen.com have expressed similar thoughts thru the years. You see, Quoner, many of us on this forum have been to the mountain top and have gotten a glimpse of the NCAA D1-A Promised Land and once you've been there like many of you young gun alums unfortunately have not had a similar luxury, you just no longer want to accept lower goals or a lower profile co-existance that we have seen of late. JUST WHAT DO OLDER & EVEN MANY YOUNGER NT NESTORS WANT? We merely want to get back to having those NCAA D1-A mountain top experiences where we can see the Promised Land once again, and with all the booming growth resources we now have in Mean Green Country (compared to our much smaller NT constituencies of the 1970's), we want our UNT version of Moses, you know, as in someone who will not only lead us back to the mountain top but one who will take us all the way to the NCAA D1-A Promise Land this time around. End of sermon! Turn to your hymnals............. BOTTOM LINE FOR PRESENT AND FUTURE MEAN GREEN FOOTBALL PLAYERS? I really have to think most (or all) on GMG.com want our present and future Mean Green players who sign their letters of intent with our alma mater, ie, the University of North Texas and an NCAA D1-A school; anyway, I feel we all would want our NT football players to have realistic chances on the gridiron against most of the other 116 schools who also play their college football at the NCAA D1-A level--that's all. But you know what, Quoner (and others), it is also NOT "OUR" present Mean Green football players who are the ones who have the responsibility of going out there on the highways and hedges visiting the high schools of Greater Dallas-Fort Worth (one can hope, right? , the state of Texas and beyond recruiting the kind of talent who will give them (as Mean Green football players) all those chances to go into all those future 4'th quarters with realistic chances to be competitive and acutally win some of those games against the kind of OOC schedules UNT has traditionally played and has played for many decades. GMG!

Maybe I'm wrong, but didn't Don January, Billy Maxwell, etc, etc, win 3 NCAA Golf National Championships at UNT? Was at my local WalMart the other night and a young kid sees my Mean Green T-shirt and starts asking me questions about our dear ol' alma mater because he wants to transfer from Weatherford College to UNT. I started listing our famous NT Exes and he could hardly believe some of the names I was listing. My decades and decades long question still remains: Why the hell do we have to be the ones who tell lifelong DFW'ers about our rich and famous? Don't most universities pay pretty decent monies to professionals who can do this more effectively and more widespread?

One on this forum said he hoped our players never read GMG.com because of player criticism. Honest to goodness, though, I don't see that much in the area of player criticism from GMG.com posters (and if I have read any toward our players I probably would ignore such). For certain I don't (and have never) dissed any Mean Green football player inasmuch as my criticisms have been pointed to those who would lead our football players and those, ie, the UNT administration/BOR's who would lead those who lead our football players............. but nevermind all that because this is not the time and the place.... Yet to make what some of you might think will be another longer than the entire Old Testament diatribe I will say this: BEAT THE HELL OUT OF THE TEXAS LONGHORNS! (and if at all possible--win the football game, too).