PlummMeanGreen

Well, I guess if my first ever NT game was the first one Hayden Fry coached at NTSU, you might say I was (in deed) at least around during the Fry era from its very beginnings to (a way pre-mature) end; and that thanks to a Big 10 school who recognized what Fry had done in Denton with some pretty Big Name schools wins and those what we'd call OOC games today. Such games that 8 years under Dickey Ball are merely a distant memory as far as being able to win any of them. GrandGreen, if you ever read the book that was a New York Times best-seller called "Mean on the Hoof" it would prove that some of what you say is very correct. That book about UT Longhorn football under DKR during the 1960's was a book written by ex UT football player Gary Shaw (who played at Denton HS of all places). It was really one of the very first sports-oriented kiss and tell books about the dark side of what was happening in college football during the 1960's, specifically UT Longhorn football in that era. As you suggested, the Big Boys could sign endless numbers of players to scholarships. In fact, UT would sign kids that they knew good and well would never start for them but they signed them anyway so the TCU's, Baylor's, SMU's and so forth would not be able to sign them. I do thnk the 30 scholarship limit started around the early 1970's, though, allowing Baylor to win a SWC football championship in (I believe) 1973 which allowed them to play in the January 1's 1974 Cotton Bowl. The 30 'ship limit also allowed Fry's Mean Green to ultimately beat some schools we would now call OOC schools at UNT that ultimately gave him his ticket to a Big 10 school. Have to disagree with you on comparing budgets from the 1970's (if that was the decade you were posting about) as compared to today. NT (as I recall) was closer to SWC budgets back then than non BCS budgets are to the BCS schools today. That is really quite depressing for non BCS schools like UNT who are now sucking hind teat in the worst conference in NCAA D1-A, ie, the SBC/Bottom 10. We are way behind even some of the better non-BCS schools with our budget at the moment and until we upgrade this football program across the board with new leadership, I fear UNT will again get bogged down and go back to our old Texas Backwards 2 Step that 12 years in NCAA D1-AA made us quite expertise. You know the Texas Backwards 2 Step, right? That is a dance that must have been created on the UNT campus; you know a dance where we make 4 giant steps forward, then we as NT Exes and fans allow some NT leaders who conduct athletic business as if they've had non-stop brain farts take our Mean Green football program 6 giant steps backwards. This is why many of us now think present UNT leadership (led by a private school trained Chancellor who doesn't even have a Phd) will help add to the same kind of confusion that really began 5 years ago at UL-Monroe when Rick V was said to have actually fired Darrell Dickey (which about 100% of this forum supported back then as well) and then our Napoleon of the North NT Board of Regent Chairman in an apparent power-surge of self importance, rehired Darrell Dickey. Like some of us have been saying for awhile fellow troops, don' look for much forward progress with NT football in light of one man on our campus who I guess is on some kind of ego trip (or whatever it is) and that would be one Bobby Ray, your chairman of the NT Board of Regents. To all of you who have said he has made all things possible at Eagle Point Campus I ask this simple question: What real choices did UNT have but to build those facilities (unless we dropped back down to NCAA D1-AA)? UNT has had plans to build a new stadium that one on campus projected to be a finished venue by 2009 (but in light of what we will continue to have with NT football for the unforseeable future, which Fortune 500 type companies do you know who would invest into any such SBC/Bottom 10 mediocrity? So when Bobby Ray told Huff (as he said in this posts) that the NT chairman of the BOR's project is going nowhere, just maybe thats because he keeps strapping with extended years to a head football coach who is absolutely taking this football program nowhere? All this the creation of NT leaders who need to get off their high horse and start remembering that they are serving the citizens of the almighty sovereign state of Texas and doing that service at a Texas public university; not serving at a Southern Methodist University whose leaders do NOT have to answer to anyone except their Board of Trustees, least of all the taxpayers of Texas. Until Dickey Ball & Dickey Attitude which has begat small expectations to only reach the top of the SBC/Bottom 10 ceases to be UNT's (and some of our NT leader's) main goal, Mean Green football will once again go back into the womb, that is go back to some kind of Dead Zone (or what some of you have called college football purgatory in the past) such as we experienced those 12 years of a 2'nd rate Metroplex sports existence called NCAA D1-AA. Still sorta' funny how many of us don't recall our self-appointed Chief Athletic Dept CEO, one Bobby Ray even being around Mean Green Country during most any era from the Fry years till he was appointed to his position. Who knows, maybe he was but I know many of us on this board from back then who would have known it because back then, you just sorta' knew most everyone who showed for Mean Green football and ancillery events surrounding that activity. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Good gosh, Bill! On the stadium subject, Bobby Ray's leadership will delay any eventual Big Donor as he gives yet another bonus year for DD's W/L record to become even more average because of his obvious Dickey-Worship. Anyone else feel Chancellor Lee Jackson might even have other plans or ideas on how UNT-Dallas construction needs could use monies that might ordinarily be earmarked for a new football stadium at, uh, UNT-Denton?!?! Folks, IMO we have a freakin' mess brewing at UNT and I don't think we have any real progressive, pro-active problem-solvers on our main campus anymore. The one we had I feel was pressured to resign by Lee Jackson and once his lame duck presidency ends he will be gone. BTW, how many SMU grads that UNT has ever hired for high profile positions just really did us a bang up job at dear ol' UNT-Denton? Anyone want to volunteer some candidates? To quote former presidential candidate Ross Perot: "I'm all ears!" Don't forget, Hadyen Fry was a Baylor grad. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

A_V, most officials at large Texas public universities such as UNT give email access to its constituencies. In fact, the only high ranking NT official that I still cannot find an email address is, uh, the Chairman of the NT Board of Regents. Anyone have it? Anyone want to link it? After all, Texas taxpayers are sponsoring much of what goes on at UNT. Hopefully, private school educated Lee Jackson hasn't been telling our people "you don't have to answer to them" type lagniape. FFR, was that pretty close to what that erroneously sent email to you said? GBT!

Much of this in deference to Arkstfan's above post: I don't think any unemployed D1-A level coach (just as Hayden Fry was a newly unemployed coach when we hired him in December of 1972); anyway, I don't think any coach looking for a job is going to really give a rat's behind with what happened at UNT for there to be a job opening in the first place. Most high profile type hires that a UNT could hire would come on board at UNT with a definite plan (thus another reason that made them a high profile coach in the first place) to take this progarm to new and higher destination points or heights not seen in Denton for a very long time. That is just the mindset of such a hire. Remember how Fry went out in his first few weeks in Denton raised (what some of you have told me) was the equivalence of about $1,000,000.oo back in that day? The age of the SBC (5 years old) and membership make-up of the SBC (with several teams just out of 1-AA classification) makes a UNT scenario in the SBC a most unique situation concerning a future change. I'd all but guarantee if many on this board merely got word that there was a known, successful in the past NCAA D1-A coach who is unemployed and who now became interested in the UNT job (just like Fry became interested with UNT in December of 1972) that sudden rush of wind some would hear would be many switching over to the other side who would also begin to see completely new possibilities for the football program at UNT. One high profile hire at UNT would create short memories of the last 8 years. If a UNT with a 13 W's/5 L's/3 Ties record against a UTEP football program who recently stepped up to the plate and outside their usual box of leaving old ways behind by hiring Price which has produced first time ever Top 25 football in El Paso, why couldn't UNT repeat history once again (but this time with a much larger NT constituency) and just as we hired the "unemployed" Hayden Fry back in the day, catch lightnin' in a bottle once again with a similar hire? HOW TO SPIN TO A NEW COACH 4 BOWL GAMES AS SBC REP & SUDDENLY A COACH'S OPENING IN DENTON? How about when that new prospective high profile coach starts looking even deeper into this UNT job and found that 4 bowl games did not get Darrell Dickey one interview at any NCAA D1-A school. This is the stumbling-block that has blind-sided most of our NT leaders (apparently) but they seem to not see the need for urgency with an 8 year coach's career record that is still under .500. Oh well, as they say....patience is a virtue. Maybe Some Interesting Notes To Some of You of DD's 8 Years @ UNT: 1998....3 & 8 1999....2 & 9 2000....3 & 8 (As would be expected at most NCAA D1 outposts, questions begin to arise about DD's abilities to be a head football coach who can take UNT to the next level. 2001....5 & 6 and a bowl appearance with much negative publicity that would accompany a school going to a bowl game with a losing record; yet more perspective on the SBC's 1'st year of playing football as a league was how UNT lost to 2 most interesting schools with most interesting backgrounds; First of all, a school that had (at the time) only been in the football business for 5 years, ie, U of South Florida came to "Our House" in Denton with the final score USF 28 NT 10 <>*<>*<>In that same bowl year we also lost to an NCAA D1-AA school, namely Troy State and if the Trojans had been voted into the SBC for the 2001 season (as they previously had hoped for as I recall) it doesn't take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that it would have probably been Troy U in the first NO's Bowl instead of UNT. If that had been the case and in a normal NCAA D1-A conference (which the SBC cannot say that it is at this time), a 5 & 6 record by DD could have very easily been his 4'th unrewared losing season in a row. DD thanks his lucky stars he is a head coach in a league of mostly NCAA D1-a rejects most all ranked in or near the Bottom 10 (sorry, but how could I say it any nicer than that)? 2002....Yet another loss to a (now) 6 year old NCAA football program and that being U of South Florida 24 UNT 17. But the Mean Green goes back to the NO's bowl against a Cincinatti Bearcat team whose QB throws 5 interceptions. The game was still in doubt (in spite of the 5 Bearcat interceptions) and was close till the end. NOTE: The Bearcats first run out onto the SuperDome football field was before about 500 Cincy' fans--anyone else think that inspired the 'Cats to play real hard for their dear alma mater who traveled so few of its fans? Well, the game still ended with a 24-19 score in NT's favor. 2003....Are some of the upstart SBC teams finally catching up? Check just a few of the scores... NT 24 Idaho.....14 NT 37 USU........27 NT 33 MTSU......28 NT 28 ULM........26 NT 13 NMSU......10 2004....5 year old 1-AA program FAU comes to Fouts and beats NT, 20 to 10; later in a bowl game what concerns many NT fans is how a 4'th place CUSA team shows a large talent differential between the SBC football champion and a 4'th place CUSA team by wining the NO's Bowl, USM 31 NT 10. Many on this board start posting their deep concerns with our overall recruiting and how it was (realistically with the green tinted glasses off) stacking up against schools in a conference UNT had just a year earlier showed a great interest in joining. Anyone think CUSA is interested in the UNT they see today? 2005.... What seemed to show many where our last few recruiting classes ranked were 2 tell-tell sign or red flag losses to Tulsa U at Fouts (our worst loss at home since UNT started playing football in 1913; and then another big loss to Louisiana Tech who we have to annually fight for Texas HS recruits; More outside of football issues arise and a Mean Green Nation seems divided on whether there should be a future at NT for Dickey in light of the "shooting fish in a barrell" SBC/Bottom 10 league we are in our 5'th year as a member.

I am heading to the Post Office this very afternoon with a check toward my committment to the MG Club of which my donation this year is a meager $500. Some of you even have me rethinking my not getting involved with all this next academic year. Lower Section E can be an animal house at times, right meanjoe? Yes, I know I talk a lot, a lifetime habit, and I post way too much, too, but I do listen as well. I am 55, MS, but not completely set in my ways, yet. All this has been a passion of mine for a long time, but I just want us all to bask in the sunshine of being proud alums of a school that has propelled itself to a Top 25 ranking one day soon. I thought 4 bowl games might get us close to that--it didn't. But UNT is just as good a school as some of the MAC schools who have begun such a tradition of showing up from time to time in the Top 25, as well as some in the WAC who have become mainstays each year. GBT!

Glad yall are having some fun here, guys, but if you really want to see how far this has fallen at UNT, just get one of your NT football media guides and check out the 1975 football season as far as the schools on that schedule and some of the results during that year (and other years in that era); then you will see why some of us older NT fart-knockers are just not happy with what we are seeing and what we are being told even now by the Napoleon of the North what we will continue seeing. You All Like That? BGT!

ee, I am not the only one who feels as strongly about DD's inefficiencies OR about NT powers that be's accepting of (well documented by polls) NT's college football status. Even in the 4 bowl years we didn't even get anywhere close to a Top 25 ranking which a few in what many of us used to call the lowly MAC have now accomplished. One NT Ex days ago told me that he "literally" hates DD. Well, my discontent with him is not at that stage. I do hate what we are getting that our school leaders are force-feeding on us, though. I do hate the arrogancy this man showed who (gimmee' a freakin' break) coaches in the SBC/Bottom 10 when he dished out non stop sarcastic barbs aimed at people like you and me. All that beginning post ULM loss 5 years ago when some have said the guy was fired by Rick V after that game (but rehired by Bobby Ray). Have any of you heard of similarly confused management happening at any other outposts in NCAA D1-A? The part of all that DD radio bashing that is now obvious to a growing number is that NT BOR chairman Bobby Ray apparently was just fine with it all at the time OR................he would have nipped that kind of radio broadcasted lagniape at the bud the first time DD opened his mouth bashing NT fans and alums; all of that over the Metroplex radio airwaves for all to hear, including potential NT recruits. Hellsbells, maybe we now all know why we aren't recruiting at the same level of (now) some SBC schools, Tulsa U and La Tech ? Any of you really think we will this Winter in light of what some of you are posting about how bleak our recruiting appears to be (with those we usually recruit against? What you do in the dark will come out in the daylight a parent once told me as a youth. This DD deal has run amuck at NT and there are many of what I now know are a growing number who are (in no wise) happy with those who keep rubber-stampin' this annual charade , either. As they say, there will be a day of reckoning with such poor decision-making because after all, there are over 100,000 NT Exes in the Metroplex alone many of whom can read this board and recruiting lists, too, right? GOD BLESS TEXAS!

One of the higher ups in the NT Exes group told me that would be what we can expect in 2006 with one more year of Dickey Ball and Dickey Attitude. I think he was merely going by the trends of similar happenings under similar circumstances at other schools like UNT as his example. GBT!

In all honesty, ee, I never for one minute really believed we had anyone presently on the UNT campus who would have the gonads to fire DD, especially in light of all those damn extensions our NT leaders kept giving the poor guy which would only persevere and continue the stark naked truth for all to discover that DD is at best, a journeyman college football assistant coach. In a weird sort of way, you almost have to feel as sorry for DD. I know how inefficient I would look if someone made me chief CEO of AT& T, Inc. (God help them)! Hey! My heart (and pocket book) would for certain be excited about such a lofty position with AT & T, but by my talent inefficiencies would eventually begin to glaringly show in due time and would soon eat my proverbial lunch. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Donations to UNT will dip across the board as long as the "most biased toward DD" Bobby Ray continues to blindly lead an (even just as) blind head football coach who is at best a journeyman college football assistant just like his resume' showed us all before the KSU connection boys pulled this hiring coup over a sleeping Mean Green Nation. If all this kind of leadership (we are all the unwilling recipients of) at NT weren't so sad, I am sure we could find some kind of humor (sardonic as it would be) with all this acceptance of total unadulaterated SBC/Bottom 10 mediocrity by DD's good buddy, one Bobby Ray; and he's the very one who can change all this in a matter of minutes, hours or a day or 2. Looking at the 2006 schedule with its first 3 games, all our toughest SBC foes on the road next Fall and in light of the DD team we saw this Fall, Bobby Ray has one tough helluva' sell on his shoulders this next summer. I wouldn't blame Rick V now if he wanted to bail out of this 3 ring circus we now have in full display at UNT; that is, a UNT community that deserves better than our Board of Regents are keeping us from having. I can tell you all that there is ONE out there ready to come be a fans' coach, a player's coach and an above beating SBC/Bottom 10 school's (OOC wins? coach who we can get on the NT payroll. We have had such a hire before. A future NT head football coach's simple "one time" conversation with ex NT coach Hayden Fry would probably be the very thing that would seal the deal with such a higher profile hire that with his presence on our campus would be able to remove the discontent and present acceptance of mediocrity in even his first 24 hours on the NT payroll AND............ remove us from what some are finding acceptable of being toward the bottom 1/4'th of 119 other NCAA D1-A schools AND ................. such low rankings even when we went to those 4 bowl games, folks. We need our NT leaders to aim higher than merely being the Best of the Worst, GOD BLESS TEXAS!

No where have I said I get cousin Guido over from Sicily to take care of those who don't read anything I post, MS. Some do know I (and many others) who have been around the Mean Green scene for awhile (going on 4 decades for me) and might (along with those others) just sorta' know what works in Mean Green Country and what doesn't? We can do better than DD on our payroll (because we have before) and many of you out there know that, but why our NT leaders want to delay those upcoming improvements because they think ol' DD is just a good ol boy is the $64,000 question that has many now asking questions about our very NT leadership. Now I know that some will try to take some of this to a personal level toward me because thats human nature; and some of that group can't handle the truth of what 8 years of DD Ball and veiled SBC/Bottom 10 "so called" success has shown us all...............but my stock, bloodlines and Texas legacy comes from a great-great grandfather who was one of the first appointed Texas Rangers back in the early 1830's of which one of his jobs was to go out and kick some Commanche/Kiowa ass, so if anyone thinks any kind of personal barbs aimed at me is going to stop this NT Ex from expressing his opinion on any matter as many times as I want, they wouldn't know a Texas Ranger from a Barney Fife! GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Repetition of good habits is what made the great Helen Keller the person she became. Its just necessary sometimes at some state of Texas influenced institutions. You think if Hayden Fry were AD (again) that DD would be around next year? We have a good AD with Rick V, but apparently he has been getting some unsolicitated assistance for much too long in Mean Green Country. Bobby Ray: Let the NT AD do his job and you do yours--which probably should include having the UNT-Dallas project transferred to the TAMU or Texas Tech Systems since we are having a difficult time funding it and make it a free standing university; and that even with the Texas legislators trying to bend some enrollment rules to help with that. LEAVE ATHLETICS ALONE, BOBBY RAY, BECAUSE LOOK AT WHAT WE REALLY HAVE NOW AFTER 5 YEARS IN THE WORST CONFERENCE IN NCAA D1-A. Darrell Dickey is like ex Presiden Jimmy Carter inasmuch that he has half of the Mean Green nation accepting mediocre malaise and has created a helluva' lot of Stepford Eagle fans with that group as well (if you get my drift). Funny how many of that group were the biggest critics of Dickey Ball and non-stop radio barbs by DD aimed at NT Exes and fans. I just don't get it with this 8 year long chapter of NT Athletics, I really don't. GBT!

I've got plenty of it and have the last 2 months especially--its called truth serum. GBT!

And stebo, from that same kitty, they could get the necessary funds to buy out DD's contract so we can move ahead and get a coach whose alums would quickly be show that there is life "above" a SBC/Bottom 10 existence. DD has many of you merely wanting to get back to the top of the SBC/Bottom10 as will be just what the doctor ordered. Seems funny that many of you were concerned in years past about DD's approach to OOC game which was just basically showing up for the games, now that, even against the La Tech and Tulsas. Does anyone realize that this football season was the culmination of 3-4 not so good recruiting years? Yet good ol' homespun DD with his George Goble "woe is me and it's me against the world" at UNT seems to have the other half of those of a MG Nation split just as duped. Again, in 40 plus years of being a fan of NCAA D1 football, I don't think any other schools could top what Bobby Ray is allowing to happen at UNT with a coach who will never get to .500 no matter how many contract extensions Bobby Ray keeps giving him. And Mr. Ray: Do we have to give good this Kansas State ex the same amount of time NT has given our Lady Eagle's head coach, which for her is no 17 years and still way under .500, sir)? Is this some kind of new trend with progressive NCAA D1-A athletic programs? Some of us would like to know if we are going to keep on supporting this mediocrity as to why on all this? stebo, DD shows up for one flag football game and your (suddenly) a DD supporter forever? Seems this time last year that was not the case. Come on, Steve, you are one of the best NT fans and supporters, just study that NT football media guide a little closer to see where many of us are now coming from...please? GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Do we have to wait till our own NT BOR chairman gets off the board in 2007 to get all this charade to end with Darrell Dickey? A DD who has most successfully gotten even many of the MG Nation thinking as small as all those BIG SBC wins (many close ones BTW) that allowed the Mean Green to back into 4 bowl games? Bobby Ray: Why hasn't the rest of the NCAA embraced DD's bowl successes by even putting him on even one (serious) candidate list for consideration for a future job opening at a school above the scope of UNT? Bobby Ray, you want to answer that strategic question for all of us who have been growing a tad weary of Dickey Ball? Many who don't post who you know by first name are part of that group, too. Bobby Ray: Do you see the Big Time schools your vacation buddy has beaten in 8 years; that is, those (even) in the Top 60 or Top 70? Are you so impressed? This ex Ulys Knight Spirit Award (1996) recipient (and 30 plus year MG fan) is not impressed at all. You think I'm the only one? Bobby Ray: Do you realize that had 1-AA Troy U would have been in the SBC back in 2001, that it would have mostly likely been the Trojans who were the first host to the NO's Bowl since the Trojans beat our Mean Green? Did you know that? Do the rest of our Regents know that? That just one example of more veiled success for DD-led football at UNT. The future has never been so bleak in MG Country to those you want to sell all this to and I was even around here for the Bob Tyler 1981 disaster--were you? Bobbby Ray: Have you thought about sending your Boy to Radio Public Relations 101 so he (after 8 years of under .500 football) can begin to realize that you don't continually throw barbs on radio broadcasts at the people who have been showing up to watch what many call Dickey (Boring) Ball? And many of that same group who even give money to support all this SBC/Bottom 10 charade that a head coach who is not head football coach material has given us for 8 years (now going on 9)? Is our goal at UNT to be ranked #100 out of 119 other NCAA D1-A schools Mr. Ray? Well, thats the general annual neigborhood of Sun Belt Confernce schools if you dare look at ranking systems such a Jeff Sagarin has weeky. Bobby Ray: Why don't you get each of your Regents a copy of the 2005 NT FB Media Guide so they can sit down to study just who DD teams have beaten to go bowling but more important, all the teams (I-AA or just out of I-AA) who DD football teams have laid eggs on the gridrion with losses to such? Mr. Ray, if your Regents would study that NT FB Media Guide, they would discover that UNT has been playing football since 1913. So I guess you might assume we had a bit of a head start on all those Florida schools that we seem to cannot compete against for a school that has been playing FB as long at UNT? Mr. Ray, we will all get to watch an FAU team beat a DD team for the 3'rd year in a row in 2006. You going to go down and console your Boy after that loss with yet another contract extension (because most likely DD once again got out-coached for the 100'th time since he's been in Denton)? Bobby Ray: You have lost all semblance of unbias with your buddy, Darrell Dickey and have allowed the Kansas State connection to throw you into a malaise of accepting SBC/Bottom 10 football. Amazing how that KSU connection (pre Bill Snyder KSU I speak of) haven't really been all that successful before. Bobby Ray: You want to explain yourself to the very ones you's like to show up to continue to watch most undisciplined Dickey Ball in 2006? You going to market this product next summer and if so..............good luck. Please, Mr. Ray, sit down and put the pencil to all the upcoming red ink for UNT football because of your wanting to continuously keep off the NT payroll the ONE who will raise Mean Green football above and beyond the level of the SBC/Bottom 10 whose annual mediocrity has made DD the next Vince Lombardy of Bottom 10 NCAA D1-A football. Don't let your friendship with Darrell Dickey set this football program back another generation, sir, thats all we ask. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Please, please, please tell us you are jokin' about our Chairman of the NT Board of Regents grandson--PLEASE?

There is only one man on the NT campus responsible for all this DD-support and he is not even on the payroll. You all know who that one BOR is and what he says gets rubber-stamped by the other Regents. TO ANY REGENT OR NT OFFICIAL READING THIS THREAD: Find 1,000 NT students (out of 32,000) who know anything about college football who think Dickey Ball is the wave of the future at UNT and "IF" they fully suport it and enjoy watching it in light of his 8 year way under .500 W/L record and I'll stop this embarrassing (even to me) tirade of posts that express my own dire, deep concern that there is no "above" SBC/Bottom 10 future with a Dickey-led football program. I swear to it, any unbiased outsider or paid consultant would look at this 8 year situation with Darrell Dickey and ask why he's getting so much time to hang around after they would take a much closer look at the NT Media Guide to just see who we had to beat (with even many of those close scores) to back into 4 bowl games and get this: Just how many transitional D1-AA schools or schools just recently removed from 1-AA status who are in the SBC/Bottom 10 that Dickey-led footbal teams have lost to in the last 4 years and beyond. Our NT Board of Regents are living in a "Bobby in Wonderland" influenced co-existence with the completely veiled and disguised success of one of the strangest coaching tenures (especially with how a head football coach feels toward his employer's fans and alums) that I have ever witnessed in 40 plus years of being a pretty damn close follower of NCAA D1 football. I only wish all this were happening somewhere else other than Denton, Texas. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Be careful, emmitt01, you'll be labeled a "shoot from the hip/loose cannon" heretic at UNT (and from some huggers on GMG.com) with such boldly written thoughts. Last time such a treatise (similar to yours) was written a whole bunch of people broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. Well, maybe not as dramatic as that one, Emm', but you get my drift................YOU THE MAN! We just need about 10,000 more as passionate with their feelings who each and every one would request breakfast sometimes this week with Bobby Ray. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

First of all, are you related to Darrell Dickey or Mattress Mac? I have never seen the man's name listed as a donor on about 25 plus years of NT Mean Green football souvenir programs because myself (and other older fellow NT Exes who already pointed out the same concerning not seeing his name in the past) would remember a name (in print) like: Jim McIngvale So you are going to lose your temper over DD mediocrity, H-towngreen? How sad that is. You, too, have been duped by the Kansas Konnection boys. This 6'th generation Texan finally took his head out of the sand on all this, though. Wait till next year when a helluva bunch of us who could tell some of you: "We told you so" probaby won't choose to do that at all but will be more excited about who will be the one to be hired who will take us out of one of the most (to say the least) interesting coaching jobs (inundated with disguised and fake success) in NCAA history. Again lets all say this together in unison: "Backed into 4 bowl games due to a lousy SBC/Bottom 10 football conference and almost didn't even make it 4." REMEMBER THIS? If Troy U would have been in the SBC in 2001, they would have most likely been the NO's Bowl's first host team because they beat us (cough, cough) as a 1-AA transitional school in that same year of 2001. Sorry to bring up that small fact to a few of you huggers out there. A question H-towngreen: After 4 bowl games, why can't DD get on any serious future head coach's lists of NCAA D1-A schools trying to fill their positions of head coach? If that is not further down and out blatant proof of what the rest of NCAA D1-A administrators (& hiring authorities) think of DD's 4 bowl games, then what is? They, too, would tell many on this board that the man is simply not NCAA D1-A head football coaching material, except at--North Texas. I just wish another "Board" at North Texas would soon start realizing some of these glaring realities, facts and red flags now. GOD BLESS TEXAS! PS: Yes, an insomnia morning this is.

OR..........elevate our football program above SBC/Bottom 10 competition, too. What we have in Denton is (basically) a college football assistant coach who is not head football coaching material. Yet it may take him being on the UNT payroll as long as Tina Slinker (and her 17 years of an under .500 record) has been for some to realize what an unbiased to UNT or DD college football novice might be able to clearly point out to many of our elect more effectively since some of that group don't seem to think that some NT Exes really know their college football, knows what makes it marketable to the casual/borderline fan as to be able to draw much larger numbers of fans than just merely the NCAA D1-A minimum we have mostly done at UNT and (moreso) to be successful beyond an SBC/Bottom 10 level. Surely most of our fans/alums want to climb higher than where most SBC teams usually rank at the end of most football seasons, right? BTW, have you seen where UNT is now ranked at the end of this season? These are truly sad days of poor decision-making on our campus and its not over yet. Even sadder is that there is one out there ready to take the UNT head football coaches job and quickly get us out of this 8 years of veiled and disguised success of this Darrell Dickey era, but he is being put on hold a year because 8 years of mediocrity and no real significant (Top 60?) wins that would impress anyone outside UNT or its Board of Regents has just not been a long enough time for some to still face the cold harsh reality of DD mediocrity. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

You will let that man threaten and take your alma mater hostage by saying he'll take all his toys (or mattresses) and go home if we ever get rid of Darrell Dickey? Your also OK that this gent who NTSU gave a scholarship to play football had not been giving all the time to his alma mater before DD started his long running under .500 career at NT? I think all this with DD reeks to high heaven, its reeked with the way he got the NT job in the first place and its going to get really stinky if that man doesn't soon get off the UNT payroll. We all know how he feels about UNT fans and alums. Do yall like that kind of treatment? The fact that his 8 year record with "backed into bowl games" successes because of a lousy conference has so many blinded is almost as sad as DD's 8 year record at UNT (and with the fact that he is going to be given a 9'th to add to that record is beyond ludicrous). You and I are made of different stuff, fellow alum. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

IT'S GOTTEN DOWN TO DIRTY CAMPUS POLITICS, FOLKS! Honest to goodness, I know this sounds like a broken record here, but I really do think the problem starts at the top in Denton and that is an NT Board of Regents Chairman who has lost all of his abilties to have any kind of unbias when it comes to Darrell Dickey. I mean word got out only a few months ago that the Bobby Ray and Darrell Dickie families even go vacationing together for crissakes'. Well, nothing wrong with that really, until you start to focus on the realization that Bobby Ray has committed the cardinal sin of an employer getting too close to an employee. Those kinds of things usually happen in small businesses across our land but surely this should not be happening at the 4'th largest univesity in the sovereign state of almighty Texas, should it? AND............If Mattress "Jim McIngvale" Mac doesn''t want to give to UNT anymore because we will have to fire his golfing buddy DD next year (which should have really been this year), then so be it, but I'll be damned that if our small stinkin' thinkin' decision-makers at our alma mater allows Jim McIngvale to hold UNT hostage over such a stupid comment that " I'll support UNT as long as DD is there" I am afraid ol' Mattress Mac is going to be a little pissed when his buddy after 9 years of what is basically the kind of job a college football assistant coach trying to be a head football coach would do (even in the SBC/Bottom 10) gets his butt replaced by someone with real aunthentic NCAA D1-A head football coaching credentials. The coach who takes NORTH TEXAS to the Top 60 level of NCAA D1-A is being temporarily kept off the NT payroll because of our present NT Board of Regents lack of understanding of the horse shit league we are in that has made DD look like Vince Lombardy. If you are not pissed about all this now, you will be in due time. I am talking about a coach (we've had them before at UNT to all you young gun alums who Dickey even has you thinking as small time as he has to hope UNT stays so he can be successful at the SBC/Bottom 10 level). I think UNT has all the characteristics of a school that can exceed a UTEP/Price scenario based on where we are located and our growth. Again, UNT hold a football series W/L over UTEP by many more wins than losses over the Miners. UTEP is not Notre Dame, folks, we have been better than them in football more times than worst. (Check your NT football media guide for proof). Yet I wish everyone of the DD huggers could look past their noses and beyond the league DD has to be a head coach in to be a success even as disguised as that has been with UNT bascially backing into those 4 bowl games because of the patheticness of the Sun Belt Conference. What humors many is how so many have bought into this veiled success; that is, all except the rest of the American college sports public. BACK TO THE MATTRESS MAN: Yet the gall for an NT Letterman and 1973 NT grad to have not been supporting the school who gave him a scholarship in the first place all those years and his should have been giving to UNT based on that long before he knew there was someone out there named Darrell Dickey. Jeez! Are the inmates running the aslyum at UNT any more? I don't think our NT Board of Regents have any clue as to what UNT needs to the football program above SBC/Bottom 10 competition and if they do, they are being a bit stubborn in doing something this year that they will be forced to do after the 2006 football season (with the schedule we've already seen) when DD stumbles after his 9'th year at UNT; a at that time when he will be about 25 or more games under .500. ARE YALL JUST REALLY ON BOARD WITH ALL THAT MEDIOCRE BULLSHIT, NT EXES? Yet when the time comes, our NT BOR's don't do what 99.9 % of other NCAA D1-A similar boards would do with a head football coach with no chance of succeeding because of himself being his worst enemy and no speciall skills to be a head football coach, then there is going to be some real gnashing of teeth and teeth flying all over the place in Denton (and of course, I don't mean that literally) but strategic well places letters, conversation among alums who see thur this charade of medicrity and then letters to the Governor of Texas can cut thru bone marrow with even the kind of folks on the NT Board of Regents of whom some have not a clue about any of this we have been posting on about DD at all. THE REAL CULPRIT OF ALL THIS BEHEND THE SCENES--THINK ABOUT IT. The part I fear the most in all this is that all this with Dickey mediOcrity is falling right into our SMU-graduated Chancellor's plans to see football de-emphasied at UNT. Why do I say that? How the hell else is he going to get more focus on the UNT System's pink elephanT UNT-Dallas project if too many have their minds (and money) on Mean Green athletics (football specifically) AND.........a new football stadium out at Eagle Point Campus? Keep your eyes on this Lee Jackson character because I gurarante you he has an agenda that is hardly going to be in the best interest of our main campus in Denton. Do you think that SMU graduated geek-lookin' fella wants there to be a new football stadium in Denton, Texas, America, while Bobby Ray has given him the charge of building a freakin' (un-needed) campus in south Dallas County? Folks, most of the ones who woud attend a UNT-Dallas campus could have more than afforded the 15-20 mile drive over to UT-Arlington. UNT does not have the endowment to have ever taken on that UNT-Dallas campus on as a project and the quicker they admit that to the Texas Higher Educatioin Coordinating Board the better. UNT should just quietly let that project be shifted over to 2 systems who do have the resources to be successful with the south Dallas university and that is the TAMU or Texas Tech Systems. Long story short: Maybe UNT wants to keep Darrell Dickey as to keep UNT football in the present SBC/Bottom 10 mode its in. Funny how Norval Pohl had Big Time aspirations for our football program and I really think beyond what Dickey could ever eventually give us, but then enter "non Phd" Lee Jackson as our new UNT Chancellor and then Norval in due time resigns? I know there were things that went on on campus, but most college presidents would have stuck it out and worked such problems out. I mean that is what educated people do, isnt' it? Pohl has never said to this day what he's going to do after he leaves UNT, right? Keep your eyes open, fellow alums, we may be in for a bumpy ride with this group we have on campus as of now. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

I think this time next year many will be wondering why we gave him yet another football season (his 9'th) and to prove what? To prove that UNT can have a 9 year career coach who will probably still be around 15-25 games under .500 in almost a decade as head coach in Denton? Being a 40 plus year college football fan who started as a UH Cougar fan, I have (as many of you have I'm sure) observed many D1 football programs, those programs movers and shakers, their marketing programs and just what kind of head football coach makes them successful. Yet in 40 plus years as I look at archives and histories of NCAA D1 teams and their head football coaches during those years, I still have yet to see a school that has been so benevolent with its head football coach as UNT has with his 8 year W/L record (and now with a 9'th year on the docket for DD). I think we now have definite trends from the NT head football that has even more than to do with just coaching that indicates that many will be right about this with DD, too. If we were even to be wrong, what do we still have at the University of North Texas with him in charge of its football program? A school that is top of the heap of the SBC/Bottom 10 and a football program that still keeps on losing those OOC games, even the ones that most of our fans would perceive to be winnable OOC games? Do any of you really call that progress? One more year of DD? It would be a waste of precious time for most non-BCS football schools trying to better themselves, also financially trying to keep their heads above water while also trying to hang on to some semblance of a fan base at the same time. DD is not a fan's coach whatsoever so he will do little to help sell tickets next year. Hell, he hasn't for 8 years so why would he start trying in an unprecedented 9'th year?. Many are really protesting all this with DD in spite of some of his huggers who say they aren't. Most of the ones I know who are no way in support of all this rarely (or never) post on GoMeanGreen.com as it is. But as far as how all this plays out, I guess we will all find out together next Fall. I think recruiting in the next few weeks will also be a "tell-tell" sign that all is not hunky-dory at UNT and that even with our new facilities. In fact, I would that the NT Board of Regents be in charge of the marketing of their guy next summer so they can see firsthand (away from the comfy' confines of their conference room and friendly academic setting) just what they will have sponsored for yet a 9'th year in Denton. "If you set low goals, you will most likley reach them." (Dr. Norman V. Peale) GOD BLESS TEXAS!

...because there is no way any good coach like Neuheisel would give us the time of day so what's the point of even TRYING? You just don't know that, GreenEddieNT. Did anyone ever think Price would go to UTEP? (BTW, UNT holds a significant all time football series W/L over the Miners). Just what if Rick Neuheisel were to make a phone call to Hayden Fry (or visa-versa) and Fry told him everything about UNT (potential & new facilities) that he and Craig James told the entire USA on ESPN II with our national TV game vs. Troy U? There are others out there, too, that a talk with Fry would be most eye-opening. UNT can do what UNT wants to do with all this; after all, UTEP did. Just see how 8 years of DD Ball and DD philosophy has some of you thinking now? Some at UNT would shoot such thinking down because they know there would not be a job for them at such a higher profile. We've seen all this happen before, folks. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

UNT brought in one of its most highly regarded recruiting classes in several years in 2004, but didn't plug enough holes in its lineup with its 2005 class. ....................................................................... We did? Compared to who, Mr. Vito? Jeez! It must be in the drinking water up there. GOD BLESS TEXAS!