PlummMeanGreen

Come on, ee, take the glasses off. But "8" years under .500 with DD and look where we are in his "8'th" year? Quite frankly, DD has been a public relations disaster on the radio for years with our fans/alums so this with many of us is more than just about a pathetic under .500 record with 8 years of Dickey Ball. Do we give him the same number of years UNT officials have given our Lady Eagles BB coach? 17 years and still under .500. Do those people up there know that some out here actually know what is really going on with their little Texas state-supported/Texas taxpayers supported fraternity up there? There is one out there who will take UNT to the next level and way above SBC/Bottom 10 football. We need not linger too long by keeping him off the UNT payroll, either. ee, with the MG team you saw this year and looking at our 2006 football schedule (with our toughest SBC games on the road) just how many legit wins do you see a DD-led football team getting next Fall? GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Uh Oh! Give it up, guys. We have a Board of Regents who Bobby Ray is complete charge of (little cigar smokin' feller wields much power at UNT which DD should count his lucky stars); anyway, a Board controlled by BRay that will refuse to see how 4 bowl games was basically all about UNT backing into those games because most of the SBC/Bottom 10 (SBC teams all under .500 those 4 bowl years and most of that group just recently out of a NCAA D1-AA classification). Remember back during most of that time how those under. 500 SBC teams just could not get one bounce of the football their way while NT got every ball to bounce its way, ie, Miracle in the Desert for starters? Even as bad as the SBC/Bottom 10 has been, look how many games UNT just barely won over all that group to even get to those 4 bowl games. FWIW, if 1-AA Troy U would have been in the SBC in 2001, they would have gone to the NO's Bowl because if you will recall, they beat UNT in 2001 (as a 1-AA school). In light of many close wins over SBC/Bottom 10 schools, no one at UNT was ever heard saying the word, uh..........D-Y-N-A-S-T-Y. The UNT Board of Regents are fartin' in the wind with their continuous rubber-stampin' of this whole football program that will (at best) if it improves, still be (as many of you have coined) the Best of the Worst, that is, only rising to the top of the SBC/Bottom 10 but at the same time still ranked in the 100's among the other 118 NCAA D1-A schools. What this boils down to, Mean Green troops, is that we are going to have to pay for the sins of a UNT Board that just keeps annually approving this mediocrity. Most of the other Board members I assume don't won't to challenge UNT's version of the Napoleon of the North (can't you just see a photo of Bobby Ray with hand inside shirt) so they will just approve another lost football year for our alma mater's football program and that being the 2006 season: Darrell Dickey's 9'th season at UNT and still not even close to reaching a .500 W/L record. I think UNT is setting some kind of NCAA record by hangin on to a coach that long with significant D1-A OOC wins you can count on one hand. 9 seasons of that and North Texans everywhere still continue to sleep and accept it all. Bobby Ray and his Board of Regents don't see that this football season was the culmination of 3-4 poor recruiting classes because they just don't won't to see that. At some juncture, they will have to admit that they screwed up by giving DDickey all those contract extensions. How far do we have to bottom out with Mean Green/Dickey style football till they get around to doing that, though? But wait till Bobby Ray and his Regents see this Winter's recruiting haul by Dickey and whoever his staff will be recruiting in the next few weeks. In fact, the Regents may need to consider hiring a Chuck Neinas-type consultant to come to our campus to give them an unbiased report on what we have really been getting at UNT with Darrell Dickey. We will never, never, never get such unbias with Bobby Ray since his family and the Dickeys supposedly even go on vacations together according to some of you for crissakes. Rule #1: Any employer should always keep a professional distance from any of its employees and Bobby Ray (cigar and all) just has not done this with DD. Some of you were wondering what Coach Daddy (DD's dad) who along with ex NT AD and fellow Kansas St. connection Craig Helwig single-handedly (together) helped push his journeyman assistant coach son's getting the NT job in the first place; anyway, some of you were curious as to what Coach Daddy and Rick V could have possibley been discussing for 2 quarters in the end zone at the ASU game? Might you assume that Coach Daddy was just trying to make sure that his son was not going to succumb to the wishes of many good college football fans in Denton who know their college football? And Coach Daddy during his discussion with Rick V getting an affirmation from our NT AD that his son was not going to get canned after this season? Canned? For his son to get fired for what he even probably recognizes (as an ex NCAA D1-A coach) was a blatantly poor example of leadership at a D1 level by a son after a series of poor recruiting years at UNT that has now suddenly shown up on the football field? And all this with losses to "ONLY" the worst teams in NCAA D1-A, ie, the SBC/Bottom 10? Now which one of you wants to really sugar coat all of that? That would be my guess among many of the things those 2 talked about in the endzone for 2 quarters during the ASU game. For the life of me, I still can't believe how Texans allowed that Kansas State connetion years ago to conduct such a bloodless hiring coup that only had an unprecedented "ONE" name on a list of candidates for the NT head football coaches job. Have we at UNT put new meaning into the word: Duh............? You pissed about this football season? Wait till next year, you haven't seen the bottoming out of Dickey Ball yet. Check the 2006 NT football schedule--just how many legit wins do you see on that 2006 NT football schedule? (Sorta' wish our Regents would look at that 2006 schedule, too, but how would they ever have time to since they are busy being experts at how to annually approve a successful "Bottom 10" college football program? The $64,000 question is just how much longer will the NT Board of Regents keep the one off the payroll who will take this Mean Green football program to the next level? Just how long will this NT Board of Regents continue to allow this bogus coaching job by one who should really still be an assistant coach at, lets say, SMU (since he only gave the Ponies one year of service before the KSU guys pulled their sleeves up and went to work in Denton); and all of that activity taking place while, uh............the University of North Texas community slept. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Great post, Legend500. In the opinion of many at this time, our main nemesis is no longer Darrell Dickey, but rather the UNT Board of Regents who seem to not have a clue as to who needs to be in charge at UNT as to get our school out of its (now) annual SBC contentment, also who can now get us out of the NCAA Bottom 10. This group has slipped. Maybe they are just more concerned with the what I think is one of our schools biggest blunders in our 115 year history and that by our taking on the UNT-Dallas project. I MUST CONTINUE WITH THAT SUBJECT: UNT is like the janitor who bought a new 2006 Jaguar. He got much praise, pats on the back, many looks from the chicks, lots of glad-handing also went on after his purchase of that very expensive luxury car, but then came the first few payments of that Jaguar! UNT never had the endowment to pull this UNT-Dallas thing off and should just admit to that and just quietly have that campus transferred to either the TAMU or Texas Tech Systems (both of whom do have the resources and endowment to grow that campus much quicker than we have obviously not been able to). So maybe UNT-Dallas is more on the minds of our regents than football on the main campus. Who knows? They are not as public about things in Denton anymore since we have a private-school trained Chancellor. OUCH! I'LL STOP NOW! BACK TO THE MEAN GREEN: This football season didn't just happen overnight. You have to have a few years of preparation to culminate to such a year as we have had in a league even like the SBC. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Many would be surprised how one high profile hire in Denton (a la UTEP/Price and a UTEP that UNT still has a nice all time football series W/L differential); anyway, how most of our younger alums would be most surpised how such a hiring would energize this football program from top to bottom. Such hirings create a scenario where programs can forget its most darkest moments in football almost overnight. Look at what Hayden Fry did at Iowa and the first time he was announced as their head football coach at a Hawkeye basketball game, all Fry had to say at the microphone was: WE WILL WIN! That Iowa field house absolutely went zonkers after Fry said those 3 words. Made them all quickly forget decades of losing because those Iowans all had a fresh new hope for their football program. I am one that thinks UNT for the first time in our history has the kind of facilities (now finished) and those on the way that will create interest from people like, say, a Rick Neuheisel? BTW, he was completely exxonerated by the NCAA from all the BS that was put on his plate by his former employer, U of Washington, for those who think he still has a black mark). Our program has such a low self esteem about itself right now that the very idea of any high profile hire probably seems even ludicrous and crazy talk; but that is just what those who will only compete at the SBC level or lower would want all our alums and fans to believe now. Some of that group would not be invited to stay at a UNT with a high profile hire in charge in Mean Green Country (and most of them are smart enough to know that cold fact). Anyway, UNT has once before hired the high profile coach (just a few decades too soon IMO) with the great Hayden Fry. For those who keep insisting Fry didn't go to bowl games at UNT, might that be because Fry didn't have his teams in a SBC type conference? Should we close the case now on that argument that occassionally springs up from time to time? Yet as far as the high profile hire, I bet we could have done this in the next few weeks, but it seems we will have to do all that after the 2006 season at the earliest. Sorry, but in light of all our opponents of 2006 who have improved, I don't see that our team will equal or exceed our opponent's improvements. Mean Green football will (in deed) be a tough sell next year. Truly wsh I could sugar-coat what I think will be another stark reality in Mean Green Country in 2006. I guess our campus decision-makers think we can afford to eat a coach's contract next year. What they need to get in their thought-processes is the fact that UNT is not in the Big 12 where extended contracts are made for recruiting purposes. In our case and at our level, I don't think they make one hill of beans worth of a diffference. Have any of you seen any differences in our recruiting since DD has had about 3 more years added to his contract? I thought so..... Now if we have only have 2 or 3 wins next year, there will be gnashing of teeth among the Indians if this group of campus decision-makers want to keep on hangin' in there with a mediocrity that even Jeff Sagarin's (ratings) seems to be authenticating concerning UNT football. The college football world has all but forgotten about our 4 bowl games as an SBC representative, but I assure you all that they know now is that we are a 2 & 9 football program. GOD BLESS TEXAS! PS: I do apologize for all this directness in what I have been posting (especially in recent days) but its just how I am interrpreting what I am seeing compared to what I've seen in past decades in Mean Green Country. This football program is under-achieving and has been longer than some out there will admit. Our UNT Board of Regents are having to cover their butts for having rubber-stamped way too many extensions to DD's contract and will create a spin where it makes it appear as if they really know what they are doing up there when it comes to trying to over-see an NCAA D1-A football program, even at the SBC level. Wonder if anyone would like to show this group our 1975 Mean Green football schedule so they can fully understand where some of us are actually coming from with our complete and total disappoiment with our present standing among the other Texas NCAA D1-A football programs?

Joe: Kind words from a kind person. Thank you. I've enjoyed all the foolishness we have helped dished out in Lower Section E in recent years. Still sorta' bothers me that you can't remember me when I bought that 10 speed Raleigh bicycle from you while I was still living in Denton, though. Joe, I just thought in my 32'nd year of following Mean Green football that we would just be way ahead of where we have fallen to. I know you and many others are as disappointed, too. I am only one butt in the seat and have never thought myself any more special than the next Mean Green football fan (and I say that on my sainted mother's last resting place God rest her soul). I do realize that I may just be a bit more opinionated than your average bear, though. I just need to cool the jets for awhile and sit back, but that part has never been easy for me to do when I feel as strongly on a matter as I do with our present situation. Your kind words are duly noted, though. JGP, II PMG GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Truer words have not been spoken (or posted). Good post, greendog.

Key words you might say, MS, are "paid employee?" Most of us who've seen many come and go in Denton know that 5 minutes they're off the UNT payroll that most of them as ex UNT employees (and who didn't attend UNT) will not give UNT 30 seconds worth of thought. I think many of us just really got tired of the (almost every game) sarcastic phrase : "Did Yall Like That" comments after a "Dickey Moment" on the football field. Those were aimed at UNT fans and alums who had the audacity to question DD's coaching style the past 8 (now going on 9) years at UNT if you don't know the history of all that with those comments (which I'm sure you would). But FWIW & IMO, Hank D is not the problem at UNT. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

SORRY MG61, SOME THINGS WILL JUST NEVER CHANGE--LIKE SAY......THESE EPISTLES! DON'T READ THIS ONE, EITHER, IF YOU'RE A SENSITIVE TYPE... DD will be back for 2006 because our leadership forgot we weren't in the Big 12 and just kept rubber-stamping DD's "shooting fish in a barrell' league wins in the SBC/Bottom 10. This will come back to haunt them in time (probably already has) and any who would like to say they are Mean Green fans and support a program that can beat the FAU's, the Tulsa's, the La Tech's and (now) the majority of the SBC/Bottom 10; BTW, all those things we did not accomplish in this 2005 season and earlier years on some listed. Think about an NT DL that played most of this Fall getting pushed back 1 or more yards after most of our offensive foes hiked the ball? Unless DD signs about 5 JUCO All Americans DL's who are going to suddenly become the next Joe Greene or Cedric Hardman, can we really expect to see much differerent in 2006? Most JUCO's NT signs seem to have to wait till Fall to come to UNT and (then) they might start contributing by their 5'th or 6'th game. Next season, our season could once again be over by the 5'th or 6'th game. Now take the green-tinted glasses off, think in light of how DD's team this year played all of the above teams in 2005 and then come up with (at best) 2, 3 or 4 wins for DD's 9'th Mean Green football team and even 4 wins would put his all time W/L at NT at.............. 43 & 63. AGAIN, I REPEAT THIS FROM ANOTHER THREAD: What NCAA D1-A football program have you ever heard of whatever amount of time you've followed NCAA D1-A football that had a coach who was allowed to stick around 9 years on any university's payroll with what will probably be (for DD at the end of next football season) a total career W/L record of 43 & 63 (give or take)? Is this some kind of NCAA D1-A phenomena we have working in Denton these days? This is not the UNT football program that most of us most optimistically started following and supporting in any of our beginnings with all this with all the big dreams we all had of improvement and progress as to where we could at least (at worst) become a Top 60 NCAA D1-A football program. 3-4 years of poor preparation by our football leaders has culminated into what we all saw happen in our 2005 Mean Green football season. And you can forgot those 4 bowl games now because I guarantee you that this year's Texas HS seniors have and they also know just who we had to beat to go to those bowl games and what wussie footaball league we played in which made Darrell Dickey look like the 2'nd Coming of Darrell K. Royal. A sad part of all this is that too many of those who are running our school have been just as suckered into all this disguised Dickey success as some of you on this board who think all is just hunky-dory on the northern Texas front and we just merely need to keep an M.O. of business as usual in Denton. ANOTHER GUARANTEE: Texas and Southwest radio, TV, sportswriters and media types have not been suckered into all this disguised success at UNT and we will continue to see their continued non-respect for the UNT football program until someone takes it over who has the ability to raise all this out of the dungeons of the SBC/Botttom 10. You know, as in someone who has the proven talents and abilities to recruit and then coach those recruits to the next level, but most of all, to immediately get us out SBC/Bottom 10 contentment and to win some "winnable" OOC games. DD has shown a great propensity for not winning against the winnables hasn't he? Remember all those times in recent years you said, "damn, why'd we ever let "THAT" team beat us? We thought we were ahead of them in recruiting all this time, too." The person who will take UNT out of the NCAA dungeon is IMHO presently not on the UNT payroll or campus, and FWIW, I have no idea how long our NT Board of Regents will work to keep that person off that UNT payroll. Yet how long before our decison-makers start focussing on we beat to get into those 4 bowl games slipping by many SBC teams just out of NCAA D1-AA; and during those particular 4 years getting almost every bounce of the ball our way. How long until those facts are realized at UNT by those who keep insisting that all (is still quiet) on the Northern front? But what NT's decision-makers, ie, our Board of Regents are going to have to consider in all this since they find themselves having to keep a college football coaching product, ie, one Darrell Dickey, that is, a coach no other NCAA D1-A college football program (above UNT) has yet to put on their serious list of candidates when they are looking to fill their own head football coaching vacancies. So to our NT Board of Regents this question: What further proof do you possibly need to show that others aren't nearly as impressed with those 4 bowl games as you, our NT decision-makers, seem to be)? SO LETS' JUST ROLL THE DICE? As the NT BOR's continue to rubber-stamp mediocrity, they should all hope that all of UNT's fan base don't catch on to all this at one time as one collective group and just start saying: "To hell with all this SBC/Bottom 10 disguised success and blatant mediocrity which is now obviously being sponsored and approved by our very own leaders who have told us in the past that UNT is all about excellence at every level, even NCAA Division One football. How many believe we are getting such excellence in our football program? So is it really worth it to them and their own reputations as UNT campus decision-makers to keep on with their non-stop support of one UNT athletic department employee who at this time next year will have been in Denton 9 years and still have (at best) a sub .500 head football coach's career W/L record that will probably be around 43 W's & 63 L's after next season? Will that length of time for any NCAA D1-A head football coach of any era being under .500 be some kind of NCAA record-setter at UNT? Are what most unbiased outsiders would call a mediocre (at best) football coaching career at UNT really worth it all to our University of North Texas Board of Regents that they would just keep on annually rubber-stamping all this SBC/Bottom 10 football mediocrity and seemedly ignore the opinions from most of the troops, you know, the ones they need to keep UNT above those annual 15K per home game attendance numbers? I think many of our fans have offered a fair synopsis of how they see the Mean Green World according to those who are just not going to be blind-sided by the disguised success of Darrell Dickey. GOD BLESS TEXAS! PS On another front, few of us native Texans who graduated from the University of North Texas also really don't need non-Texans and (basically) outsiders telling us on football radio broadcasts and beyond how we are supposed to feel about our own alma mater. Smoke on that one for awhile.

When you consider this is a UNT Board of Regents that don't even question the 17 year under. 500 record of a UNT Lady's Eagle basketball coach, does anyone really expect this Texas public university decision-making group to move so quickly on DD's contract that they kept on rubber-stamping extensions to even in light of our beating up on "wussy" SBC/Bottom 10 schools to get to 4 bowl games in a row (3 of which we lost)? I haven't from the beginning felt this NT Board of Regents would do anything after Saturday, but you have hope above all hope that somebody on that Board would suddenly have their light switch come on, too, and say: "Lets take yet another look at all this with DD, collegues. First question we should ask distinguished collegues is: "How in the hell do we package and market Dickey Ball in the SBC/Bottom 10 in 2006" (Yes, regents will start calling it Dickey Ball). Most all of us who see no signficant improvement from DD in light of key losses to schools we once thought we reigned over only have to read the NT football media guide to see how be became so successful. Some would suggest our NT Board of Regents grap a copy of a media guide to do some research of their own. Actually many will be much more interested to see what this NT Board of Regents group will do after the 2006 football season when you can expect most of the following to happen: (1) No fan bashing at all on the radio from DD because most of of the NT Board of Regents will be aware (more than ever) of this having happened. Who knows one of our Regents might even suggest DD go take Broadcast Public Relations 101 over at TWU. (2) A UNT team who would have had its worst recruiting in DD's tenure this February because even some of our Texas HS phenoms who saw Dickey Ball on TV a couple times this season don't see much in the area of progress with Mean Green football and (as always) their personal witnessing of much offensive confusion and havoc because of DD's indecisive play calling. How many real bonafide Texas HS QB recruits do you know who would want to come run a Dickey Ball style of offense as it is? How many NCAA D1-A schools are you aware of that run a similar offense to what we have run most of the last 8 years? (3) A big SMU loss at Fouts Field in 2006 (maybe even worse than our worst home loss in UNT football history which was a Dickey-led football team vs Tulsa U several weeks ago back in September); anyway, it will be that loss that will cause a flood of NT fans to wonder why in the hell post-ASU loss (yesterday) they wanted to push and campaign for all of this with Darrell Dickey yet another year. Such performances in 2006 will have some NT Board of Regents running to hide in the Chancellor or Presidents suites at Fouts Field next Fall and many of them probaby even denying to numerous concerned longtime fans (who are still hanging around all this) why they wanted to keep persevering all this SBC/Bottom 10 mediocrity from their boy, Darrell Dickey. Anyone in the NT Community or the NT BOR's can talk 4 bowl games till the cows come home, but the local, regional and national sports media (and Texas HS football recuits) will no more be buy into any of that from them as they will Darrell Dickey (and I'm sure) a completely revised staff of assistants in the next coming weeks as they try to get one DMN Area Top 100 kid to list us over La Tech or Tulsa. AN NCAA RECORD ON THE NEAR HORIZON AT UNT: (5) Darrell Dickey and UNT will set an NCAA record of a head football coach's length of employment at one school with (still) a sub .500 W/L record. Any of you know who we would supplant to get their record? No, you can't count Lady Eagle's BB Coach Tina Slinker's 17 year career at UNT with still an under .500 W/L record with this trivia question. (4) Oh hellsbells, there a many more that I could add to this list, but my keyboard has started smoking--so I guess I better stop for now.

Actually, a (what I will forecast to be) a growing army will be those who will show our NT Board of Regents just what they think of Dickey Ball in the Fall of 2006 when some of that Board starts looking out at Fouts empty seats asking the question: "Where the hell did some old familiar faces go?" That day will come sooner than most of you will want. I have 4 season tickets in Lower Section E that will not be renewed, so all you who want first dibbs call Gabe at the NT Ticket Office. They will especially be prime seats for you who still show up to continue to see where Darrell Dickey has taken NT football AND.... when Southern Methodist University shows up in Denton next Fall and kicks our butts into the next decade, you will have even more proof. (Do you think after the SMU loss our NT BOR's will want to extend to their Darrell Boy yet another year on his contract)? This thing has not yet bottomed out to all of you who think some kind of miracle is going to turn an NT defensive line into the Steel Curtain next Fall.

New Idea: Lets let our NT Board of Regents who got us into this longterm contract mess with DD by extending those out an extra year after winning a conference of what most the sports media in the USA joke about as the worst NCAA D1-A conference in the history of college football. Anway, if the NT Board of Regents are going to allow this SBC/Bottom 10" mediocrity to continue under DD, lets let them go ahead and market the 2006 UNT football season. I don't think they would like what they would see. No smack board empty promise here and I'll say this only once, but our present NT Board of Regents should know that this Ulys Knight Spirit Award recipient (1996) has never been so embarrassed with the handling of this football program. They should also know this NT Ex will play no part of their obvious acceptance Darrell Dickey's mediocrity that has happened under the veil and disguise of Sun Belt Conference/Bottom 10 wins. I will fulfill my present MG Club obligation, but once paid, I will ask that group to remove my name from that mail list until UNT decides it wants to (once again) be a football program that wants to play (and be competitive) with the Big Boys again. My annual purchase of 4 football season tickets will become a thing of the past as well. Granted, just one person here, but I know others who will be doing the same thing in an attempt to try to get this NT Board of Regent's undivided attention and to try to get them to research all this veiled success of Darrell Dickey out a bit more than they seem to have done. A Question To Our UNT Board of Regents: Do each of you know which "low profile" schools beat DD's football teams even during those 4 bowl years (and I'm not talking about the UT's or OU's, either)? Maybe some of our BOR's should get an NT football media guide so they can also discover for themselves all this charade that even Metroplex (and beyond) sports writer joke about when we have gone to the NO's Bowl; that is, their pointing out as to who we had to beat to get to the Big Easy. If this campus group (appointed by the Governor of Texas) have no more understanding of how a NCAA D1-A college football program actually advance to the next level and the kind of coach who can take a school to that next level, then maybe they should just fess' up and say they don't and then hire a totally unbiased consultant (not from Kansas State, please) who would probably shock them into the full reality with what he would tell them of what UNT has really been getting the last few years (including the 4 bowl years) under the false successes accomplished by beating SBC/Bottom 10 schools in NCAA D1-A. If our NT Board of Regents are trying to kill Mean Green football and take it further downward to the dark ages by backing (most obvious to the kind of fans they need to fill Fouts Field) one Darrell Dickey; anyway, by backing his total ineptness to the bitter end, then those campus leaders who we all depend on to make smart business decisions have certainly made a very good start in (at least) accomplishing that goal. If there have been darker moments in my 30 plus years of following NT football because of extremely poor hiring practices in Denton and in light of the conference surroundings we presently reside, I wish someone would point out to me what those darker moments would have been. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

I know, a shamless bump, but I think some outside GMG.com need to know that not all of us have our heads buried in the sand concerning Darrell Dickey and his leadership with Mean Green football. NOTE: Sorry about some poor proof-reading on my part with some of the words that I incorrectly spelled. GOD BLESS NORTH TEXANS WHO HAVE SEEN THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY OF NT FOOTBALL! WHAT DO YOU ALL SAY WE OF UNT GIVE OURSELVES THE CHANCE TO GET BACK TO THE GOOD BUT ON A HIGHER LEVEL NEXT TIME AROUND? BUT......NT BOARD OF REGENTS, WE NEED YOUR HELP IN ALL THIS--THE BALL IS NOW IN YOUR CORNER.

ADDENDUM: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2005 TURN ON THE LIGHTS, THIS PARTIES JUST BEGINNING! NOTE: The UNT Board of Regents meet in a few days on campus, if you are in agreement with either this or similar opinions from other NT Exes/Mean Green fans, cut/paste and email some of these posts to each NT Board of Regent and Chancellor Lee Jackson. Well, most businesses most of us in the non-academic and (thus) more realistic world are involved don't reward their employees based on what they did much beyond the previous 12 months (if that long). You know, out in the real world its more of a, "what have you done for us lately" modus operendi (and just as it should be most likely). If you are going to use 4 years in the SBC/Bottom 10 environment Darrell Dickey's been a part of, then you also need to look at some schools we lost to (other than UT and OU) in some of those 4 years that we (in deed) went to some bowl games; and this for those who can (and will) face the reality of our football program situation at UNT. Or do you prefer to buy into the kind of fluff you heard almost every week each of the last few Falls on the Mean Green Radio Network's weekly DD Pro-Propaganda Show; you know, the ones that much of the last 4 years Dickey took weekly radio broadcasted opportunities to slip in some sarcasm aimed at us? Remember how he took way too many post game radio shows and weekly coachs' shows to make his true feelings known about life at UNT and Denton AND..........to verbally kick UNT fans and alums at every turn? Who knows, some of you may like that kind of BS, but I know many who are now looking back at all those post game shows/coach's shows who suddenly don't appreciate all that now in light of what has all been tumbling down the last 3 or 4 years topped off with this football season. During many of those UNT sponsored (and thus skewed in favor of DD) Mean Green Radio Network broadcasts the last 4 years; anyway, how many of you picked up on many occassions those broadcasted comments aimed at NT Exes and MG fans with a most sarcastic: "Did You All Like That" comments aimed at UNT alums and fans during a (I suppose) "DD moment" on the gridrion? Those sarcastic comments the last few year were periocially pointed out to me by several NT Exes who really didn't appreciate the attempted subtlety by (other paid UNT empoyees) in the broadcast booth. All this MGRN praise for their boy who had to depend on the SBC being at the bottom of the NCAA D1-A heap for his success. BTW.......Did Yall Like All of That, Boys? For all of you who are now choosing to be non-Stepford Eagle "accepting of anything dished down to you" fans/alums of UNT; BTW, a growing group that will now continue to expand and make their feelings even more public until UNT powers-that-be step up to the plate to take care of all this Darrell Dickey business); anyway, all of you who want to see this NT football program rise above the mediocrity of a where its been spiralling down the last 3-4 years and want to see us be able to beat such schools as Louisiana Tech University, Tulsa University, U of South Florida ( a school we lost to twice when they were a 5-6 year old football program) and then the icing on the cake for all concerned...........UNT's 2 losses the last 2 years to Florida Atlantic University (yet another one of those Sunshine State football programs less than 5 years old). Anyway, those of you who (like me) finally saw the light of that is happening and are now speaking out on all this publicly, your alma mater will be the eventual short-term and long-term beneficiary of all this once the right NT athletic department changes are made; nevertheless, each and everyone of you are to be applauded. YET................isn't all this with Dickey more than just about wins and losses which are now even further under .500? Some on this board in years past have suggested boring Dickey Ball, a condescending attitude from DD that he might just be a bit too good for Denton and UNT, annual penalties galore (lack of discipline) and NT fans/alums radio bashing by DD. So does all this must merely boild down to wins and losses? I think not since "positive" public relations is as much a part of a NCAA D1-A head coach's job as coaching the football team itself. I suppose the ESPN national radio interview with DDickey was the one that might have bothered a whole bunch of the Mean Green Nation the most because he actually chose (on the national airwaves to boot) go go with his usual "woe is us at UNT & our backs are against the wall here in Denton" speech over what could have been an annoucement to potential NT Mean Green recruits across the USA with something like this in his own words, of course: " Hey, we excited about whats going on here in Denton, Texas. Even as this interview is taking place, we are even spending almost $40 million on 200 acres which we call the Mean Green Athletic Village which includes a state of the art Athletic Center which one NFL Pro Bowler said was actually better than some facilities in the NFL and a brand new luxurious dorm near the A/C we call--Victory Hall." A LITTLE NT FOOTBALL HISTORY: First of all, UNT has mostly been a NCAA Division 1 school since 1950 except for about 12 years in the early 80's up till 1994 when we were NCAA D1-AA and that before we (very admirably because of most of you reading this post) met NCAA D1-A attendance criteria in 1994 in a season some thing was as exciting as any recent bowl year and that 1994 year that we met the criteria to be reclassified as a NCAA D-A school that became official in 1995. DID YOU EVER PONDER THIS? Many of the schools who are now members of the SBC/Bottom 10 were only (in recent years) just out of a NCAA 1-AA classification. For instance, in our first bowl year (2001), NCAA 1-AA transitional school & future SBC member Troy U beat us at their place. Had the Troy U Trojans been an official members of the SBC in 2001, they would have gone to the New Orleans Bowl instead of UNT. WHATS WITH THESE GOL' DARNED "LESS THAN 5 YEAR OLD" FLORIDA UNIVERSITIES THAT KEEP POPPING UP ON UNT'S FOOTBALL SCHEDULE? Not talking about new SBC members FAU and FIU this time around, but rather the U of South Florida who also beat us in that same bowl year of 2001, 28-10. So its hardly a case that we only just lose OOC games to the Texas' or Oklahoma's as some have said on this board in their defense of UNT football mediocrity and who hath wrought all of that. But with DD, its moreso a combination of events that reared their ugly heads during this football season that became a revelation to many that maybe we had been wearing those green-tinted glasses a bit too long when we all gave ourselves good recruiting class grades the last 3 year that just did not translate onto the football field this Fall. And all that materialized with strategic losse to Tulsa U and La Tech, 2 schools we compete with heavily in recruiting every year. Those 2 schools many were using as a barometer of where our football program really stood and we fell way below expectations against the Tulsa U Golden Hurricane and the Bulldogs from Ruston. A loss to another Sunshine State school less than 5 years old (I believe) was a big bucket of cold water thrown in the faces of many of our NT alums and fans with a 2005 football season loss to Florida Atlantic U, which was (in fact) the 2'nd year in a row we lost to a new SBC member who were not even yet fully classified in NCAA D1-A. The first loss to a (then) NCAA D1-AA FAU was in a bowl year for UNT, too, and that being in 2004 when we hosted Schnellenberger's team at Fouts Field. Then, our way "too close" for comfort win over another Sunshine State school less than 5 years old and that over Florida International U (and even a close game with their 8 turnovers). More red flags concerning 2 Florida SBC football programs who were 5 years old. How long has UNT been playing football? How about since 1913? Maybe the most "tell-tell' sign that a Dickey-led UNT football program was not progressing (as previously thought) were our last 2 bowl gamel losses to CUSA' 4'th place teams, ie, Memphis and Southern Miss. Folks, if you lose in a bowl game to CUSA's 4'th place team that (somewhat) speaks volumes about Mean Green football and where it stands compared to 118 other NCAA D1-A schools. For those who love SBC/Bottom 10 football, Darrell Dickey is the man. He will more than fit the bill, but I know a helluva' bunch of NT old timers and young gun alums from the 80's, 90's and beyond who will not for long continue buying into that level of disguised success. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Probably more than you'd think, GoMeanGreen1999...A movement has already begun by one of our most involved NT Exes and that is all that will be said on that for now. I've never seen or heard of any another coaching situation that has evolved in Denton ever happening at any other NCAA D1-A school that I can think of the last few decades. I wish someone would tell me UNT is not pioneering this kind of athletic personnel decision-making. 8 years to come to this point at the level we compete would be a dog that would not run anywhere else. Some of us are still trying to understand why this is being allowed to happen at a school that says it wants athletic excellence. Football is not the only UNT varsity sport for there to be concern, either. Being above or below .500 in W's/L's is what I understand most NCAA D1-A schools use as their barometer of any coach's performance. Really an important time for UNT leadership at the top to make some bold decisions many on this forum would say. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

NT80, I think some of our NT leadership are just as fooled with much of this SBC/Bottom 10 (disguised) success as some of our fans seem to be. I think we are going to have to eat next year (so to speak). Yet I wish our money people would show more pro-activity by pulling our NT leaders aside and then "point blank" just tell them that this spiralling of our football program just didn't happen overnight; that is, that our lack of recruiting and preparaton of the last 3 or so years was what created the scenarios for this 2005 football season and one where we would lose to FAU (2x's in a row), Tulsa U, La Tech and a near loss over an FIU team who had 8 turnovers in our game with them. If you also add to the aforementioned our 2 most recent bowl losses to 4'th place CUSA teams, it seems some kind of bright light would begin to turn on to those who kept giving DD (unnecessarily) extra years on this contract. Is there something we laymen are missing with DD's 8 year record of 39 W's & 55 L's that has become koshur for schools like UNT? Is this the mode of operation of other NCAA D1-A schools now? Well, it's not of any NCAA D1-A schools that I've followed or read about the last 30 plus years. There have been only 2 other years I have ever felt as strongly that an NT head football coaching change needed to be made and that was 1990 with Corky Nelson and 1993 with Dennis Parker. One poster on this board I've know for a long time would confirm that on those 2 strategic years in our program, too. What are our expectations next year if DD is around and if he doesn't reach them in 2006, either, do we extend to him yet another football season, ie, his 10'th at UNT (and one that he will undoubtedly still be under. 500 in wins/losses)? I hope a handful of people on our campus who are hanging in with all this with Darrell Dickey and SBC/Bottom 10 football understand that their decisions affects thousands in the NT community who will either buy into what they give us or will totally ignore it by their lack of funding their agendas and by not showing up at the stadium. Surely they know that's sort of how it works at most other NCAA D1-A football programs, right? GOD BLESS TEXAS!

One can only wish... GOD HELP US!

Funny one, meanjoe... GOD HELP US!

And when Fry was around, UNT wasn't in a wussy conference that created its own bowl game for the (approximate) 110'th on down ranked team in NCAA D1-A, ie, its football champion, to host, either. What is more shocking than this schools apparent lack of knowledge with hiring is the fact that so many seem just content with this Bottom 10 existence without even putting up a fight, or rather, sending out some letters and emails to key UNT people responsible for this ongoing charade. Another thing, probably not a good idea to bring Hayden Fry's name up in comparing anything thats now going on at UNT now because you that might accidently start an unfair comparison between Hayden Fry and Darrell Dickey and most anyone would know among those 2 who would outcoach the other 100 times out of 100 games. The difference with Fry, though, is that he knew who he would need to schedule (and occassionally) beat for our program to make some noticable gains at UNT (and it wasn't schools at the level of the present SBC/Bottom 10, either). Hayden Fry was a public relations-oriented guy, too, just too bad UNT enrollment was about 2/3'rds smaller back then and Denton Country had about 99,000 pop. instead of today's 560,000. Fry would also be smart enough not to spend about 4 years of his radio post games shows as an opportunity to take pot shots at NT alums, fans or the very ones who write his paychecks, either.

I saw that in yesterday's FWST, too, Rick. The part I thought was funny was the one calling us, uh, "Big Green?" Well, that was close enought I suppose. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Yes, Got5onit, Darrell Dickey's 2006 spin of even more mediocrity has truly already begun. He is the master of such "we po' but after all, we're at UNT and Denton." He has some who actually (and sadly) buy into all that, too. Look for DD to load up with JUCO signings this Spring because he will need them to even be competitive in the Sun Belt Conference. In 30 plus years of following Mean Green football, I've never had to say this or have even ever thought of saying this, but at this moment in time, I will not $upport any of this spiraling status quo football happening at our alma mater until that man is off the UNT payroll and I will quietly and methodically encourage others to do the same until we have enough of an army to get someone's attention on that campus; that is, encourage those to look at the record considering what level of NCAA D1-A we play and then count the longterm cost of DD being on the NT payroll. Some of you might be quite surprised at some high profile NT'ers that are already part of this "need for change" movement. DD would probably (himself) even be surprised. Yet I don't think there will be a change (as it should) after this Fall. He does have a multi-year contract. Yet whether DD's in Denton 1, 2, 3 or more years, he will still not reach .500 with present trends all of us have been witnessing for the last few years now. We are at the bottom of NCAA D1-A, folks, what else do you need to happen at UNT until you start saying something? And please, don't let a win over ASU today cause any of you to think this is the beginning of something "BIG", either. It is just too obvious for those on the outside looking in what we've really got with his leadership. He's griped about his UNT/Denton plight moreso since he should have gotten fired post-ULM loss 5 years ago. (Actually, word has it he was actually fired after that loss until NT's "kiss up" BOR chairman came running to his rescue). How pathetic that a Texas major university would run its athletic affairs in such a manner. Who's on first? What's on third? FWIW, Rick Villarreal is more than adequate as the UNT Athletic Director--we don't need 2 AD's. All those who have cried "Dickey Ball" for years have suddenly and apparently forgotten their own dislike with what he dishes out every time a DD team tees up the football for even the casual fan to watch (and most of them swearing they won't come back to watch that kind of boring football). Too many on this very forum keep hanging onto DD's small time goals and small time dreams of which he can (for certain) win "Coach of the Year" awards with small time thinkers/dreamers at the small time (SBC/Bottom 10) level. NOTE: Look for DD to have his QB's throw the ball 30 plus X's today to show his following that he can play something other than Dickey Ball. As many of you have said a long time, he is most predictable with things he will do (or not do). Actually, in a perfect Mean Green World, DD would still be back at SMU (where he spent one year) as its offensive coordinator before his KSU connection came thru, ie, his ex KSU coach dad and KSU grad Craig Helwig. 2 Kansans who pulled off a bonafide hiring coup in Texas at our expense and by even going around the entire UNT community to push "their" boy to the top of a short list that had only one name on it--namely Darrell Dickey's. Were our school's leaders back then that damn naive' with matters concering athletics? BUT BACK TO SMU: Who knows, if DD were still at SMU as, uh, "O/C" (gimmee a break on that, too) we might then have a chance of beating SMU next Fall, but with DD as UNT's HC & O/C..........you can all forget that pipe dream. Will an SMU loss (in light of their recent decades of a losing football history) have any affect on some you at all even then..........or will some of you further entrench yourselves as Stepford Eagle alums/fans even when that time comes around next Fall? Just what will be the straw that breaks your camel's back with all this happening in Mean Green Country? Why is it necessary that we elongate all this mediocrity, too? Yet, if DD's given the same (most abnormal) amount of time our Lady Mean Green BB coach has been given (with her State of Texas on-going retirement on our campus) DD will still have 9 more seasons to eventually get all this figured out to get us back to the top of the, uh, SBC/Bottom 10. (I can't say "SBC" by itself, anymore). Our school leadership operates its athletics in strange and not so mighty ways compared to the other 118 NCAA D1-A schools. More surprising to me as I am in my 4'th decade of putting up with way too much of this as an NT Ex (and I ain't going to completely give up on all this untill they dig a 6 foot hole for me, either, sorry.....); anyway, just so surprising that more of our alums can't see thru the SBC/Bottom 10 fog, the charade, the veiled successes and just don't start raising more hell about it, too. Hellsbells, most of us who are real Texans, aren't we a bit known for raising hell when we've just had too much of any one thing? Come on people, if you don't start objecting to all this (pronto) that has been spiralling to the bottom of the (already low) SBC heap for the last 3-4 years (using as prime example of that in those last few years bowl losses to CUSA's 4'th place football teams, FAU 2X's/almost FIU, Tulsa U and even (good gosh!) La Tech; yet if you don't voice your objections to mediocrity, then your are merely partners with the present NT leadership and to every single thing most of you have been objecting to on this forum the last few years. I've read most all of your posts in recent years, so I know what used to get your goats! A non-BCS school like UNT in the league surroundings we are in just cannot affort to accept status quo or not having a sense of urgency to make changes to those who have shown us for awhile now that they (personally) are just not going to change enough to be successful in the present SBC/Bottom 10 situation we've got ourselves right in the middle in. Just like NM Green posted yesterday when (and I liberally paraphrase) he said "it will be a long drought for NT football and this program (in present form) will not see another bowl game (even in the SBC/Bottom 10 for crissakes') the rest of this decade." "Did yall like that, M.G.R.N. guys?" GOD BLESS TEXAS! (and on-campus Texan wannabe's who might want to consider just takin' all that talent that is hardly taking UNT to the top back home)

NM Green, many of us have considerred you one of this board's most positive posters even in past down times, so this post coming from you is a surprise, although you are just one more in a growing number who are beginning to feel the same way.

Calvin, I will be the first to admit that I have (in deed) over-reacted almost to the point of embarrassing myself, although I am not that easily embarrassed. In fact, like one other posted, it wasn't that long ago that I was buying into all this DD business myself (or was doing my best to act like it). It just took some key losses (mostly during the 2'nd half of this football season) that woke me up about where I feel our recruiting has really been (or not been) the last 3-4 years. Yet there were 4 games this season (and their results) that was like my sitting down in a bath tub full of ice water that woke me up to things that many had been trying to tell me all the time in the last few years on what many of them felt (back then) were veiled successes. One fellow NT Ex and GMG.com (occassional poster) will tell you that the last 2 X's I became this concerned with our NORTH TEXAS head football coaching situation was in 1990 and 1993. Of course, there were many others concerned those 2 years as well when coaching changes were made at the end of the football seasons of those 2 aforementioned years, too. It was just time for both Nelson and Parker to move on in the opinion of many alums/fans back in those 2 years, probably moreso for Parker since the next year we were going to shoot for the moon and try to reach NCAA D1-A numbers to get the reclassification and many of us felt a Dennis Parker-led UNT football team would not sell many football tickets as to meet the minimum 17,500 per home game average. With a new football coach and face, we averaged almost 20,000 per home game the season after Dennis Parker was fired. I am not worried about attendance as much as I am with future recruiting with Dickey back in charge. IMHO, that will be his eventual Waterloo in light of the fact that all the regional SBC schools who beat us this year (including non SBC'ers Tulsa U and La Tech) are the very ones we have to recruit against every year. They have much ammo to use against us now (with our SBC membership with many of our membership most always in or near the Bottom 10); anyway, our recruiting opponents will lean heavy on UNT's "low profile" SBC membership during the recruiting wars we are even now in the midst of. I fear the attendance thing will (soon enough) happen with DD in charge because we all know just how fast the bottom can fall out of all this at the turnstiles in MG Country (and that takes into effect that we over 15,000 per game average now). We have all seen our fans not show up en mass (suddenly) when things get out of kelter with this football program. I do think we have made some attendance strides (finally) because of the Denton areas tremendous surge of growth AND our last 5-6 NT freshmen classes have been record-setting classes each of those years. This (IMO) is showing up in a positive way at the Fouts Field turnstiles even now and even with what they are seeing. Lest we forget, many long time losing NCAA D1-A football programs still have sellouts of 50,000 or more so lets not get too "slap happy" content with this 15,000 number, either. I just feel NT football is at a crossroads inasmuch as do we want SBC/Bottom 10 domination OR do we want to go to the next level (that some of us have actually seen in our football history)? I think we ALL want the next level, its just that for now there are disagreements with just how we are going to get there?

Bill, you know good and well that has been happening longer than some of them would admit. I heard from another alum that the M.G.R.N during a recent football game broadcast is even taking some indirect pot shots at GMG.com by taking air time to suggest that the UNT Athletic Dept. official board is "the only UNT athletic board anyone ever really needs to read." Well, I don't think from what I hear are the monthly bytes (hits) on www.GoMeanGreen.com that our broadcast fellas' are going to get their wish. If the ones your are talking about, Bill, hang around GMG.com long enough, they might learn someting about the history of the NT Athletic Department from a few NT Exes standpoints and that going back to before some of them were even gleams in their father's eyes. I recall back in November of 1990 when the sports editor of the North Texas Daily called me at my office for some HSO's about the time many thought Corky Nelson had run his course at UNT. He was not back in 1991, but UNT did its usual and started doing the "Reverse Texas 2-Step" again with its next hiring. It has been an amazing adventure following all this thru the decades, eh, Bill? Here's hoping some NT powers that be might be taking a few sneak peaks at this forum as to what has been posted (both pro & con) the past few weeks. They might want to take their blood pressure medicine before loggging on, though. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

YOU WANT THE TRUTH? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! (I know, a bit over-used) (Honestly, not much more can be said of the DD years at UNT) Too long to read once again? Then just skip to the bottom to the Epilogue. 39-54 in "8" years and no real signs of this thing turning 180% in light of what we saw this Fall and what will be next Fall's improved SBC teams and OOC foes back on the schedule that we weren't even close to on the scoreboard. Wait for SMU to come to town. It will not be pretty in light of how they have improved (and we are bogged down in the Bottom 10-oriented SBC). So after 2 or 3 wins in 2006, do we continue to further reward Darrell Dickey with a 2007 season to further create more differential with his career W/L record at UNT? This is not the UNT I got on board with as a student during Fry's 1'st year in Denton, it's just not even close anymore. Dickey has done a superiour job in creating "bottom of the lower rung" apathy that even his W/L in 8 years of playing Bottom 10 schools is now acceptable to some of you; and you who I have to wonder what your own expectations of this school's football program has now become. Has DD taken you down to his level, too? DD's kind of record at any other NCAA D1-A school after 8 years would not be allowed to happen, but of course, NT has (among many) long had the the reputation of being an EZ retirement spot for average athletic employees inasmuch as we have a women's basketball coach in her 17'th year at UNT who is nowhere near .500 in W/L's. Which one of you Stepford Eagles wants to explain that total abomination and shameful record for a school that allegedly aspires higher expectations? They can't say one thing and do another (and that is exactly what they are doing @ UNT now). In fact, who will volunteer to answer this: Why is that in my 30 plus years of being a pretty decent UNT fan, the largest majority of those I've seen come and go thru the UNT athletic department have rarely gone to higher places other than UNT; although I believe a handful of present NT support staff will probably upgrade one day. No one seems to ever have a viable answer to the prior question, though, a question I've been asking for a long time now. IMHO, I think many times it has to do with very poor hiring practices at UNT. How many coaches in all UNT varsity sports right now are above .500? Case closed. Once more of this kind of info becomes even more ingrained and public knowledge with the NT community, some will actually stop investing time and money into this kind of bullshit mode of operation the UNT BOR's chairman seems to have rubber-stamped. Yet at UNT, we get even extra free help, our elect has allowed its BOR chairman an unusual & enormous amount of control (compared to most NCAA D1-A schools who sorta' let their Athletic Directors run the show)? But I suppose Bobby Ray feels our UNT AD needs the extra help. Many of us don't think Rick V needs the extra help at all. Strange as it may be, I can never, ever remember ever seeing or hearing about our present NT BOR chairman at any UNT football game in the 30 plus years I've followed this, that is, until he became an NT Board of Regent. Who knows, maybe he was out of state or across the Big Pond making his millions during that time; but now, he's in Denton, Texas, Amercia, running UNT athletics, and with the supposed closeness with the NT head football coach, we will never get an objective job evaluation from him. Who will decide when enough is enough? Wonder if Mr. Ray has looked off campus, outside Denton, outside the Metroplex, outside the Lone Star State and (then) outside the Bottom 10/SBC to see just where this product is now standing after 8 years of Darrell Dickey? Some supporters will eventually see thru much of this carnival we have with NT football and will cease payments to UNT in attempts to try to make indelible impressions with those on campus who seem to cannot see the forest for the trees. The numerous successful business people on the UNT Board of Regents who run our school wouldn't (I'm sure) ever begin to think of allowing some we've had in charge of various varsity sports teams at UNT ever run their own business, unless they want a lot of red ink. Now those who support a coach who this year has proven to many is in a job way over his head I am curious as to what their own goals are for UNT football? Dickey is I'm sure a nice feller and this has never had to do anything with the person, but just look at the guy's college football resume' before he (very easily without much effort at all) left one year as SMU's O/C to get the UNT job because of (basically) 2 people with Kansas State U connections? After that KSU hiring coup at UNT, our "then" BOR's just apparently rubber-stamped the whole thing w/o obviously doing any reserach of their own; they just merely took (then) UNT AD Craig Helwig's word on it and in light of all the facade that has now been lifted because of the poor league, ie, the SBC/Bottom 10. whats the difference? Now with all disguises lifted, what many feared to be veiled success is beginning to prove just that as all has reared its ugly head in this football season of 2005. . Yet all this didn't just fall apart overnight as this football program has been spiralling downward for 3-4 years now as we compare our recruiting to schools like La Tech and Tulsa U. So for 4 years UNT (for all practical purposes) backed into bowl games because SBC/Bottom 10 schools of which many of that group of new SBC schools were just out of NCAA 1-AA classificaton, but that new group of newly classified NCAA D1-A schools just didn't get every ball to bounce their way as they did our direction during our 4 bowl years. That would have been quite a story had UNT been in the Big 12 or even CUSA or the WAC, but we were not; we were in the "low profile" Sun Belt during those 4 bowl years of which most of its members (including our own alma mater now) hovers in or around the NCAA D1-A Bottom 10 annually and has done that for each year SBC football has existed. SHOOTING FISH IN A BARRELL? Hellsbells, so why don't we just put our men's varsity basketball team in with the Lone Star Conference and see if they, too, can start getting some post season play as well? Thats' what we've basically been doing with football. More proof? Again, look at how many SBC schools were 1-AA within the last 6 years? Look at 2 of them that didn't have football 6 years ago? Look how many of that group have beaten DD's football teams, too, starting with FAU (2 losses in a row with what will be a third this time next year). Schnellenberger could have a bad team, but he would still (as before) out-coach Darrell Dickey which would give his team an unprecedented 3'rd win over football program that has been in business about 90 plus years longer than FAU's. What part of any of this (thus far) is incorrect to any of you who support Dickey Ball and Dickey/SBC success? Anyone who wants more of Dicky Ball, DD radio broadcasted fan bashing and DD mediocrity will eventually have sections of Fouts Field to themselves. And last week's Homecoming crowd whatever the true "butts in seats" count really was? Come on now, the region has dramatically grown, the freshmen classes have grown each of the last 6 years and 90 year old alums even show for NT Homecoming games. Lets not be deceived on that, too. We are already in the middle of one of the NCAA's biggest deceptions and lies (of disguised success) in the 40 years I've followed college football--and that's no lie. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> EPILOGUE: The part of this concerning DD's leadership that still concerns me the most is that when I hear many of our elect wanting to see DD turn all this around, they still (mostly) only talk in terms of just getting back to the top of the SBC/Bottom 10; with rarely any mention of going to the next level and being competitive to the point of actually winning with the very group DD has yet to be successful with in his 8 years at UNT, ie, our OOC foes. Of course, one could ask this question: Is DD's annual recruiting we've seen thus far designed to take UNT beyond the Sun Belt and to the next level? I think the answer to that question should (after 8 years) be obvious to all, even NT leadership who a growing army of supporters are beginning to feel are being quite relunctant to see all this themselves, least of all admit to any of the realities of the situation. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

(funny one, Emmitt) OH, GOOD LORDY......... Emmitt, at least I haven't asked GMG.com posters to put their hands on their computers to pray for (or expect) a miracle in all this concerning DD OR have I asked anyone to send money to: Wake Up, Stand Tall All Eagle's Ministries, Inc., with special mission emphasis aimed at wayward Stepford Eagles who have lost their way due to a false prophet claiming to be a NCAA D1-A head football coach. Yet we know our lost sheep will soon see the the (green) Light once again and return back to their (long time ago) former ways of having much higher expectation than just focussing on and beating the best of the Bottom Ten. SHAMELESS BOOK PLUG: Emmitt (and others) we now have a book out ($29.95 at your local book stores & just in time for Christmas, a great stocking stuffer ); in fact, our new book has already made some best sellers lists. AND NOW, A BOOK REVIEW (on that book): Our "Wake Up, Stand Tall All Eagles" 300 page book is basically a "self help' AND "how to" guide as to help our most brain-washed Stepford Eagles alums/fans on how to actually de-program themselves to all that they had previously been told were the True Ways To An NCAA Utopian Existence in Denton, Texas. Yes (in deedy) it was a very large number of our elect who just simply got caught up with the wrong stinkin' thinkin' crowd which allowed they themselves to be (duly) brainwashed into thinking that being the Best of the Bottom Ten was all that was really needed in the Promised Mean Green Land and all that in order to gain acceptance into NCAA Utopia. So yes, our book was truly an inspired revelation that would be the true salvation or cure-all (if you will) and ultimately be "The Way" to UNT's Stepford Eagles everywhere. Bless em! It seems some of our Stepford Eagles in their indoctrinations thought by being the Best of the Worst (as had been ingrained in them for what will soon be going on, uh, "NINE" years) would gain them as a group new respect and favor from the other 10 NCAA D1-A BCS/non BCS conferences. Those very same soon-to-be "ex" Stepford Eagles after their self de-programming as found in our book (actually we'll throw in a 10% discount if you merely get thru this post); so 10% it is with an accompanying "Talking Book" cassette tape thrown in just for the heck of it ); anyway, among the many deceptions would be their getting nation-wide respect among college football fandom which (once sobered up to reality) they would find would hardly be the case. These would be most tough times that would build character and strengthen eagle wings and whole chapter was dedicated to that theme. (insert subliminal 10% off) While on the above subject, our ex Stepford Eagles were even a tad embarrassed by the low opinions they discovered most in the NCAA had toward them once all facades and veils had been lifted); in fact to be even more specific, they would soon learn that each and every one of the other 10 NCAA D1-A conferences (including CUSA, the WAC and the MAC)were each and everyone all but at the giggle-stage when it came to their opinions of our most deceived Stepford Eagles and their beloved UNT (and because of all their low profile association with other schools called the Sun Belt). De-programming the brainwashed can be a downright bummer. ANOTHER INSPIRED BOOK: So for that aforementioned group of our toughest and most stubborn Stepford Eagles, we are now working on yet another book (due out this next Easter at your favorite book store) that we've decided to call: How To Cast Out NCAA D1-A Bottom 10 Demons & Detect False Radio Prophets of Doom. One strict rule that we have at the top our our new de-programees and converts list is that they have to hide from their household all radios, especially not to be turned on during Game Day post game interviews. BTW, I've been looking for the Church "Ain't That Special" Lady of SNL fame because we still have some demon casting needing to be done in Denton. Anyone seen her?!?!? AIN'T SHE SPECIAL?!?!? TO SUBMERGE OR SPRINKLE, THAT IS THE QUESTION: Some of the first Stepford Eagle fans/alum converts our ministry successfully de-programmed were last seen trotting full speed toward the Denia Duck Pond "ON UNT PROPERTY THANK YOU VERY MUCH" out at Eagle Point Campus. Anyway, this first group of our "ex" Stepford Eagles converts were last seen dunking each other under duck pond waters while others just sprinkled each other (like you see someone tossing water out of an old timey glass pill bottle at vampires in those movies?); anyway, all that happening in the Denia Duck Pond waters would symbolize their newfound joy of seeing their alma mater in an entirely different greenish fog lifted light. HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH THAT TENSE NOISE AGAIN: Our most touched, were all overheard babbling and gurgling in that funny almost non-interrpretive sound with what sounded like: "OOC wins! OOC wins! OOC wins! OOC wins! It was sorta' all embarrassing to be around that but what the heck, our book was working with Stepford Eagles in the uttermost parts of Mean Green Country. So yes, some of our newest and most enthusiastic converts were (in deed) overheard babbling & gurgling in that tongue unknown to most of our Stepford Eagles, at least, those who had been the most deceived over the last 8 years. Some of our newest "we've finally seen that Green Light" converts even had trance-like visions of a UNT football team playing a Top 40 OOC BCS school and actually winning that gol' darned (whoops, sorry about the near swearing there) and bless'ed event. Our ministry leaders then told our new green cloaked de-programees that some ancient UNT dead duck pond scrolls recently found actually had records of all that (Big Time Wins) having already happened before at UNT, but that was a long, long time ago, almost a long forgotten era, in fact; and that a time before the present Deceiver with that dreaded "Armageddon'ish" number on his person; you know, the one with dots under the hair of his head (but O' Hark, wait a minute--he has no hair and if one were to get a red Marks-A-Lot connecting all those dots they would show these most prophetic (or "tell-tell" tells it like it really is) series of numbers: 39-54 (in 8 years and soon going on 9 if educated folks don't soon start making educated-like decisions) OH, GOOD LORDY! GOD BLESS TEXAS!