PlummMeanGreen

The key components of this board who are on the Mean Green scene on a regular basis and report for us who subscribe to the The Mean Green Report have all said "quite buff" for Jamario and with not an ounce of body fat. And FWIW, he is still Super Jamario in many of ours eyes based on what he did in 2004 and what injuries have probably prevented him from duplicating this Fall. I think that all the extra muscle has not helped his hamstring problems, either; in fact, could that have added to the problem? GMG!

Who was it who recently said that an effective passing oriented team can many times match up with the Top 25 guys from time to time--sort of an equalizer at times? Even La Tech has had some degree of success with such an offense and it was a shame they lost their Texas HS produced RB to the NFL this year. And if you think about it, just think how many QB's La Tech has put in the NFL (starting with ex Steeler & Mean Joe Greene teammate Terry Bradshaw) compared to our one, ie, the late, great Steve Ramsey? I don't know that DD changes anything, but I think he needs to look at the talent NT is able to recruit as compared to Top 25 football programs and make some adjustments with his philosophy. I don't think any of us complained about the great years of our most recent parade of Mean Green RB's starting with J' Quay Wilburn all the way up to Jamario Thomas (who has been hurt 99% of this season bless his heart). BTW, who was responsible for putting Super Jamario on the weight program that seems to have him "muscle bound" and maybe a half step slower as a result IMHO? Yet with all this, NT had a pretty salty defense when we "held" the UT Longhorns to 27 points, but we didn't have a scoring offense that could get any points against Texas. Of course, there were many offenses who could not score against that UT defense, but then you have games where other Sun Belt offenses have stayed in games against the likes of LSU last year when Troy U almost beat them in Baton Rouge. Troy U also went to a bowl game last year. What many on this board have been saying for a long time is we have to recruit much higher than the rest of the Sun Belt, La Tech, Tulsa, SMU and the like for us to get where many of us feel this football program can get to. Again, this is a Mean Green football program that was ranked in the Top 20 a couple of times during the Fry era as I recall. Although, Fry's teams didn't go bowling since there were about 1/3'rd the bowl games back then than there are today, yet still those Top 20 rankings were NT football milestones that many seem to have forgotten and put on the back-burner of our school's football history. The MAC seems to have no problem getting their leading team in the Top 25 annually and the SBC just needs to start doing the same, preferably with that team being the University of North Texas Mean Green, of course. DD and staff have recruited some darn good talent that other decent schools also wanted and we are all excited about all those recruits in Mean Green Country, but we just need more of that good talent in terms of volume. GMG!

IMHO (and upon further review and looking at those letters in person and on TV this football season) they may not be the worst we've had at NT but they are sure up there toward the top. I know, one NT alum's branding junk is another NT alums' branding treasure. I really have tried to like those letters given to all of us by our branding committee, but I just cannot fully embrace them as a long term branding representation for our school. I'd bet some of you may feel the same. Of course, some of you won't. Looks like someone on our campus branding committee grabbed a 1972 clip art book and discovered those latest letter configurations in that book before someone else beat us to them? (insert sarcasm-----Green Grenade II, now just see what you have started with all these sarcastic posts)? I see an "N T" in our Mean Green helmet future and we know we can argue on how that should look till the cows come home, but an "N T" you can make larger (more visible to TV viewers) on the helmet than the 10-letter "North Texas" that we have now allows and to the well informed college football public..............how could "N" and "T" be anything except "North" and "Texas" ? ? ? ? NOTE: All those regional and national TV appearances the last few years by our Mean Green have made that a reality to many sports fans across the USA). I still like the connected and slanted "N T" such as the one that GMG.com poster "keith" has on his icon (or maybe even a slight variation of that). Not sure we neccesarily need to put the "N T" inside the state of Texas icon, though.

catman12, I think most of us appreciate anyone who is a Mean Green fan and that being during the good, the bad and the ugly times which most alums from any era have seen. This is an opinion board and some can handle opinions and some cannot, yet those who cannot still have equal access and equal rights to express their opinons IMHO. But...........we all sorta' bleed green you might say?

FWIW, Bill Lively is a Dallasite who is quite well known to be more connected with SMU than he has ever been with NT; albeit that he got a post grad degree at our main campus. Seems if they get a degree from both SMU and NT, that special demographic of Metroplex alums always seem to gravitate most of their interest (and money) toward the Hilltop. I would think there woud have been a dozen or more with an NT degree (or 2) who would have been a much better choice than Bill Lively and starting with Ken Murphy or Weatherford's Jerry Durant would not have been bad choices at all. I don't think I saw either of their names on that list. Probably a bit too melodramatic by saying this, but I curse the day NORTH TEXAS took on the south Dallas county campus project especially with our school's limited financial endowment and resources. UNT-Dallas will further prove to be one helluva' money-drainer from our main campus and I have hopes (above all hope) that it doesn't prevent NT from building the single most important venue at Eagle Point Campus that will benefit every person who has ever been connected with the University of North Texas. Just my two cents...

I think 4 bowl trips in a row really did much for the psyche of our previously beaten down fan base, those appearances many of us believe helped increase giving to athletics (with the Mean Green Club's ever-growing membership benefitting as well) and the fact that we are finally (115 years later) getting the attention of NORTH TEXAS alums of wealth and means as to where they are giving a damn about where they went to school (and they are also now giving millions) to NORTH TEXAS. One only has to look as far as the new Athletic Center and the Warranch Tennis Complex as to see how fast our weatlhiest alums can make things happen at NT. I know there are many things we need to do at NT to get our football program to where it can gain Top 25 status and many of those things have caused heated discussion on GMG.com. But ater all, the MEAN GREEN have been in the Top 20 a couple times during they Hayden Fry era as I recall so it won't be a new or novel experience when we get back to such a lofty position----BUT HOW DO WE GET BACK TO IT AND HOW SOON CAN WE EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN? 'Twasn't so long ago that Top 25 status was as much a stranger to TCU as it is us at this moment. The MAC (who many on this board have said in year's past the SBC was superior) seems to have no problem getting their top football team in the Top 25 and now that seems almost annually. The SBC is down, has been down and proof of that is we have no one this year even getting votes for Top 25. We had 4 bowl teams who received a few votes but that was about it. Any thoughts or recommendations that are within the realms of realism as things are today in Mean Green Country? GMG!

An almost funny (and the same time strange) irony of this Fall (yet sort of a backhand slap to the one who represents the SBC) is how the one year our Mean Green will apparently not go to the New Orleans Bowl it is not going to be held in, uh, New Orleans. Hopefully, both the city of New Orleans and the Mean Green will be back on the same page in 2006. GMG!

Just kinda' being one of those kind of years for our dear ol' alma mater, eh? We do need a big infusion of good news coming from our campus. Hopefully, that will be forthcoming even before football season is over. GMG!

Does NORTH TEXAS need to have the kind of offense that you voted for in this poll that gives us those better chances as a non-BSC school to beat the, uh...........BIG BOYS (and just more OOC games in general)? If you have time, please explain why you voted for your choice of offense in this poll and maybe what school comes to mind who has has some success with that kind of offense you chose. GMG!

AND......................... I'M BAAAAAACCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK! (But obviously a much smaller announcement with that). ps: am just now getting over the flu (sorta') which started mid Game Day afternoon. Still wanted to come up until the puking part began. Don't think any of you OR any NT assistant coaches would have walked anywhere near Section D or E if I had come up and started doing that in the stands. Yet I took the "bad feeling" time to give myself a vacation from GMG.com and for yall--A VACATION FROM ME! psII: thanks for the emails from a few of you fellow alums and MG fans. Now, with yalls permission and using this thread as a subtle hint I am coming up with some new thoughts on: The New Stadium Located on Prime Interstate Real Estate Between Those 2 Gol Darned Texas Interstates! psiii: Some very interesting "catch up" reading this afternoon on threads post ULL game! Very interesting.....Jeez! Bill "Silver Eagle" you're a freakin' media star! I hope "EVERYONE" has cooled their jets a bit. We must move forward with ALL OUR OUR FANS no matter how good or bad they feel post ULL loss AND..............and because we are going thru the (many times) frustrations of a rebuidling football season. GMG! LOVE YA' ALL LIKE BROS. AND SISTERS! NOW GO GET YOUR DARN FLU SHOTS, RIGHT? Name a 60's pop song that Eagle-96's graphics might remind some of you and who was the musical artist who made that song title famous?

Question: Is this televised Mean Green game available to those in other parts of Texas and beyond?

Well, it's not homecoming (that's 11/19), but I'm expecting a decent crowd too, considering how the season has gone. I'll say 15,600. ←

Maybe if Hayden Fry came back to campus (again) to say the exact same thing will we have even more believers to what you just posted, H-towngreen. Still think if NT could employ Gene Stallings to do what he did on a consultant basis (and for some nice money) that NORTH TEXAS could hire Hayden Fry on a similar consultant basis to help us secure the Big Donor(s) for our new stadium. Hayden Fry knows Texas high rollers with the big bucks, folks, and most of you from the Fry era at NT and even when he was at SMU for 11 years know that to be a fact. What could we possibly we waiting for? Gabriel?

With SMU winning over TCU this year we now know that the SMU talent upgrade is significant. They will be tough for us when SMU visits the Mean Green at Fouts Field next year, but will they come to Denton with Phil Bennett as their head football coach might be the question of some the way their season has gone this year. We need a good recruiting year with maybe more JUCO's than DD has signed in recent years and hopefully many of them enrolling in January. I think we have some nice talent at UNT now, but we just don't have enough of it that is experienced at this time IMO. I know we all hope this Fall's Mean Green football team continues to develop significantly in the next few weeks no matter what the W/L record is; and for certain, going 4 and 0 the next 4 weeks would be a nice development for this NT football team and for darn sure for all of its fans. GMG!

What a strange turn of events this is for TCU, Colorado State and the Mountain West Conference. Certainly, that game deseves to be on TV since TCU can wrap up the MWC championship tomorrow at Amon Carter Stadium. Noticed in today's Fort Worth Star Telegram how the CSU coach was rather miffed about it, too (and understandably so). He wanted his non-traveling fans/alums (which would be the majority) to be able to see this game back in Fort Collins. I hesitated to post about our game being on TV, but it has already been mentioned in another thread. Harry/Cerebus, if yall deem that these "NT being on TV" threads or posts should be removed--go for it as most of us who will be attending our game will understand. GMG!

Going north/south from Dallas to Denton should not be a problem (other than the normal traffic) on a late Saturday afternoon, right? Now we all know State Hwy 114 (east to west) will be one giant used car lot tomorrow for the 300,000 NASCAR fans that the FW Star Telegram said will be in attendance at TMS this weekend (and TMS being only 18 minutes from Fouts Field). I have a most unique and novel idea: Lets ask as many from Denton and Denton County who can to drive the short distance to Fouts Field and show up for our ULaLa game tomorrown night. This also goes for our NT students who can walk to Fouts Field in less than 10 minutes from most any of the many dorms we have on our campus. The events of Texas Motor Speedway will not in any way affect any of the aforementioned constituencies for sure. GMG!

Saying tomorrow night's game is so pivotal to this season (and maybe even the next few seasons) is such an understatement. We can only hope that in many ways the results of tomorrow night reminds many of us who were at Fouts at the NT/MTSU game of 5 years ago, ie, a game when something very special began in Mean Green Country in just that one game. Maybe tomorrow night will be such a game? We can all hope, right?

I had a cousin attending TWU when they were putting I35-E thru Denton and she told me years ago about all that. The most amazing thing to me on this google map snap shot of our campous is how the old Texas Highway Department (now TxDOT) had little or no regard for NT by placing their interstate as close to Fouts Field as they did. Looking at that map from the satellite, it looks like an errant punt could hit a car on the interstate. If they had put I35-E about 100 more yards west of the Fouts service road what a difference that could have made. I guess the old TX Hwy Dept. didn't want to fool around with a university golf course that had produced 3 NCAA Division 1 golf national championships with featured such NT golfers as Don January and Billy Maxwell, eh?

It could probably be lowered but it cannot be moved 100 yards east of Interstate 35-E of which TxDot still says they need that Fouts frontage property for future expansion to 8 lanes. We have moved all football operations to Eagle Point Campus and I think the new stadium will finish that move. I don't think Fouts is even a consideration any longer and hasn't been since the land at the former NT Golf Course became our football future. NT athletic officials say they cannot make any more monies off Fouts Field that they would be able to quadruple by leasing (on an annual basis) 20 (+ or -) luxury suites at a new football stadium. Troy U (Jeez! ) said they leased all their luxury suites even before their stadium was finished. Hopefully, the UNT System will leave the past behind, go outside the norm and have much larger ambitions than Troy U seems to have shown us when it comes to building a new football venue. ALSO...........eulesseagle mentioned Texas Tech? How about the fact that SBC Communications (now called AT&T, Inc. because of their merger with AT&T) gave TxTech $20 million for usage toward the expansion and remodeling of Jones Stadium. Such things do happen, folks, and can even happen at our dear ol' alma mater which sometimes seems steeped with too much tradition of thinking small (and forever in the past) at times.

With your permission, ee, I highlighted part of your post. The new stadium that NT has publicly annnounced that it will build is now more than just about a school's athletics and football program. Hasn't it really become a symbol of what kind a statement we want to make at NT and what our main campus' future will be in so many ways? And in so many ways, how it will have a direct and indirect affect on every aspect of the NT community both on and off campus? Hasn't our proposed new football stadium on the NT campus master plan become the single most symbol of what NT says it wants to show the citizens of the state of Texas & the Southwest that we are (in deed) going to put our monies where our mouths are AND won't is also become the single most campus structure that proves how NT really wants others to perceive us all in the UNT System? Football stadiums happen or don't happen because of leadership. I defer to Dallas Mayor Laura Miller and her City Council who (quite frankly) blew it as far as a new stadium at Fair Park was concerned. Now look what they may lose because of that? So in that regard, I know we all have hope above all hope that on our present NT staff we have pro-stadium supporters with some most pro-active and effective fundraiser extraordinaires because that new football stadium at our Eagle Point Campus will become the single most & largest visible edifice to what the Texas Department of Transportation says are 50,000+ daily commuters; and for the time being, that is 50K+ Texans & non Texans who are presently driving by, uh, venerable (over half century old) Fouts Field on a daily basis. GMG!

Seriously, what is happening in the city limits and at the City Hall of Dallas is very sad and leadership is the reason why. Hope NT doesn't use Dallas as a model when it comes to football (a la shutting out the Cowboys interest with building a new football stadium at Fair Park which was about as much a "win-win" scenario as Laura Miller could have ever expected). In fact, is Laura Miller originally from New Jersey because she has all the traits? Thank God for New York or all we would have up there would probably be, uh, " 'Joisey. " (and their most unique vociferous attitudes). FWIW, Tom Benson should probably take refuge in Texas for now, but he should still keep his team in New Orleans. There are just some things in life you do that has whatsoever nothing to do with money. Wish more could realize that. Just my, uh, one cent. GMG!

Very much agree, NT80, but what are NT's options conference-wise that would work with our budget? We now know winning and turnstile numbers at the gate doesn't always mean a hill of beans in this and I defer to SMU and Rice and their admission into CUSA (albeit was a coat-tail entrance by them with their WAC consortium of schools). SMU when they had to do it alone (even with TCU's "supposed" support) didn't get CUSA acceptance the first time they tried to gain admission. All this does bother many that our best teams could not make the Top 25 whereas the MAC (with probably a little help from Eastern sports-writers?) seems to have not had any problems breaking into that elite group from time to time and the MAC will never be a league to be confused with the Big 10. So just what is it that NORTH TEXAS could do that could possibly elevate us (and I ask that w/o anyone suggesting for now that we fill a position on our staff that is not vacant)? Again......what can North Texas do now? GMG!

But for damn sure, eulesseagle, don't bring up the subject of a new stadium for NT because (apparently) only the troy u's of the SBC world are deserving of that. And pleeeezzzzzzz........... let's not add anyone to this present athletic consortium, either, until we all bloom a bit more where we all seem to be planted. Hellsbells, if NT hangs around the 'Belt long enough we will probably get to play in the 'HowieDome" at FAU because that guy will find a donor or 2 to build theirs.

Looks like it will be from Weatherford to Decatur to Denton for this Mean Green fan. I've never travelled that route so I will get to see a part of Texas I have yet to see. Some in Fort Worth might want to consider FM 156 that you pick up out in Saginaw off Loop 820. Its a nice country drive that takes you thru Justin (where you can pick up the best priced Wranglers in Texas at the Justin Boot Outlet). BUT..........FM 156 will probably still be busy since it parallels I35-W with not that much distance between the 2. Happy traveling to us all from the West O' Plex part of DFW. I guess we will now get a small taste of what our fellow alums/fans from Dallas County experience most any trip they make to Denton, eh? Now if we could just get TxDOT to hurry up & construct those "8 lanes" that will run right up to the Fouts Field press box side to help alleviate that Denton traffic? GMG!