PlummMeanGreen

La Tech may very well win this game and tie our football series at 5 wins for each school, but NORTH TEXAS will always have the upside when comparing the 2 schools and its programs. There are just some things that are no-brainers and that is one of them. La Tech has always been about smoke and mirrors and they are the masters of the "one hit wonder." They've had some big victories over a few Big Boys the last decade, but those have not translated to anything close to what our 4 bowl games have done for us and what I speak of is what we presently have going at our 200 acre Mean Green Athletic Village @ Eagle Point Campus. Last I heard, La Tech was still trying to raise monies to get some pre-owned astro-turf out of a warehouse so they could put it down at their football stadium. I don't think they've been successful in that venture. Yet one of the most amazing thing to me with all this is how we are getting such schools on our football schedule after our veteran Mean Green team have all graduated. Well, they say these things all balance out in the long run. GMG!

I think at NT we should fight and and try to win the little battles that we can win. Until more NT Exes or alums are buyers for major retail outlets and start suggesting to their employers that they should really be carrying Mean Green gear in these stores, I think UT and TAMU has all this wrapped up for many more years to come as they have all preceeding decades. (Like those 2 schools really need the extra help with the marketing push of all their sports gear for crissakes)? As I posted recently, I was at the Grand Opening (great social life out here in the boonies) at the new Hudson Oaks Wal Mart and they even had an OU display of sports gear right over near Buck the Singing & Talking Deer. No NT gear in sight. Many of us on GMG.com have fought the good fight on this subject and I encourage all to keep doing so, but I bet most of us get the same response from these little sales clerks who say: "NT doesn't sell (although we sold out anything they ever had) and then we hear a very condescending "where is NT even located" (when they know good and well who we are all about and where we are located. Has the UNT main campus-based marketing or information service ever emailed our mailed out professional 8 1/2 x 11 slicks answering all these major retail outlets the questions some of their local store employees who as "Who Is North Texas?" Such a promo slick could be most effective IMO. Yet wouldn't a little help from campus laying all this kind of "Facts About North Texas" groundwork help NT Exes/fans before we even go inside all these DFW Metroplex area retail outlets? What hurts NT and this is no revelation to most on this board is our continued low profile perception and that because we have made Fouts Field a pariah while many outsiders have jumped on that AND........we are in the Sun Belt Conference. I recently asked one of my friend's son who starts for the Aledo HS Bearcats what he thought about NT and he said "they really do need to get in a better conference." Well, if that is what he thinks even with his own father who attended North Texas, I guarantee that same thing is being said by other Texas HS football players. Well, that group will for now just keep on having to say that because we ain't changing leagues anytime soon. I do think CUSA will have some openings in due time because of 1 or 2 of their schools who will just say "we're out of here" (and NCAA D-1 athletics). Most of us know that getting out of the SBC is not an option for now, but I think it really does hurt us that a school 4 hours away from Hudson Oaks, Texas, and in another state that just happens to be in the Big 12 can get top billing at a north Texas Wal Mart and a school located in that same north Texas area cannot get its gear in these so-called "community friendly" store as Wal Mart says that it is. Wal Mart in one of their mission statements say they will work hand-in-hand with local schools. Has UNT Athletics held them to their word with the Denton and Lewisville Wal Marts? Now that is about all I have to say on this subject and I know we could start a subject line based thread titled "Why NT stinks because it can't get sports gear in area Wal Marts" but I have said all I'm going to say on this subject--no need to say more. GMG!

I define "giving up", Rick, as too many on this board who constantly want to burn this barn down to kill the mouse (and DD being that mouse much of the time). DD ain't going nowhere soon. Like President George "W" Bush, he has built up enough capital at NT that one bad season would not significantly affect. Could any of you be part of an NT board of regents that would fire a head football coach who has taken your school to 4 bowl games in a row PLUS............with his football team giving our school annual and numerous "3 hour info-mercials" each time our team has been on TV? No, DD doesn't run the kind of offense that excites this alum and that is the case with many of you on this board, but I still see most of you at all home games at Fouts Field. GMG!

Exactly, drex... This is probably just a "conscious clearing" act so they can say: "We polled a big cross-section of our alums." They will (undoubtedly) make this poll work in a way that will serve all their personal agendas. BUT...........I took the survey anyway. They got my usual manifesto and (basically) I told them that few us us would have kept an on-campus relationship with NT if not for Mean Green football, basketball, track & field, etc, etc, etc, I told them that a new president needs to keep that in consideration, especially since the largest gatherings of NT Exes is always at a Mean Green football game. Told them a first class football stadium would probably be a win-win for all concerned. I also wrote in this poll that in this very mobile society we live that they probably would not have this alum's mail address if not for NT Athletics getting it because most years I've been a donor to the MG Club they had to have my mail address to send me the monthly statements and Mean Green updates. With all that, I told them we needed a president who understands the place of a progressive college football program at the 4'th largest university in the state of Texas. I also suggested that today's NT Exes would except nothing less than a first class athletic program coupled with first class venues that all our students and alums could be proud. I suggested that a new NT president needs to be aware of all that and more. Seem funny to any of you that over at the main campus at NT they have all yours and my email addresses? If you are like me, the only way they could have gotten that is gotten it from GoMeanGreen.com because that is the only place I've ever posted my email address; yet somehow the main campus folks now have my email address (which is fine with me) but they wouldn't even have my physical addresss if not for the tie I maintaned with our alma mater's campus thru NORTH TEXAS Athletics. GMG!

AND.......... can't we all hope and dream? If we can't do those 2 things in any area of life, just dig a hole and throw dirt on us all because its those hopes and dreams that give us that inner-fire that keeps some people from taking a walk into that deep, dark forest some call the blues and others call it depression. Ever try the latter? It's no Sunday School picnic I'll assure you. Yet can't we all act like our 2005 NT freshmen who are just now getting into all this Mean Green business and just enjoy all this without all the constant di-secting of all the reasons that are right or all the reasons that are wrong? It's just a game and something that really shouldn't get any of our blood pressures up. Hellsbells, some out there are falling out with their friends over freakin' MEAN GREEN ATHLETICS! It's just not worth any of that, folks. GMG! BEAT THE HELL OUTTA' THE LA TECH 'DAWGS!

We are due a game where both the offense and the defense put it together. Maybe this begins for both in Ruston. If Jamario Thomas can get over his season-long hammy', he is due for a break-out game and we all know what a healthy Jamario can do; hellsbells, the whole nation knows what a healthy Jamario Thomas can do. Somehow, Sir Patrick Cobbs will get his 100+ yards against La Tech. Our offense needs to do some some quick hit passes to our tight ends and some slant passes; some might call some of this quick hit stuff from the west coast playbook. GMG!

ASTROS WIN! TEXAS FINALLY GETS TO HOST A WORLD SERIES!

JUCO'S HERE WE COME (AGAIN)?

Of course, Dallas has to join Fort Worth at the hip to help such media numbers.

I'll never forget the very first game I saw with the (then) Colt .45s (who became the Astros in 1965 when the Astrodome opened). Anyway, it was a warm, muggy, mosquito-infested typical Houston night at Colt Stadium in May of 1962 when the Astros hosted Willie Mays, Willie "Stretch" McCovey, Juan Marichal, Orlando "Baby Bull" Cepeda and other San Francisco Giants (who were my team in the National League back then--the Yankees and the "M&M" boys were my team in the American League. Anyway as I recall, it was a home run derby sorta' night with Mays, McCovey and Cepeda popping em' out for homers non-stop that night. Colt Stadium looked a whole lot like the old Arlington Stadium. It had a collage of rainbow-colored seating sections that looked pretty cool for a 11 year old kid from Danbury, Texas. Hey, this was the majors and Texas had its first major league baseball team although they have had their ups and downs (and no pennants). Here's hoping that changes tonight. GO 'STROS!

Now you mean a school should be able to recruit and beat most OOC teams even if those OOC teams have most or all those key amenities and NORTH TEXAS does not? GMG!

FFR, say what?

A slant pass would be a welcome sight in this offense. So would a quick pass to the tight end who may be open in the area between the linebackers and the secondary. With what defenses we have faced that the Southern Miss Golden Eagles have inspired every opponent we've had this Fall, some quick hitting (dare I say this?) I'll post it in a yellow almost invisible letter code: west coast offense with more quick release passing might be a good recipe for our offensive play repertoire so our offensive line doesn't have to pass block for as long a period of time thus keeping more defenses in pass coverage areas and with some of those "west coast-style" quick hitting passes maybe we're able to pick up a few more 1'st downs than draw plays seem to have done of late? Just my .02. GMG!

You say, beat a dead horse, uh, beat a dead horse? I know, I know, I often get redundant (again), that is, I often get redundant again, but I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what: young does not, I repeat, young does not translate to stink in the NCAA; I repeat a 3'rd time, young does not translate to stink and that is not a fair word for a team with numerous 1'st time starters: We just have to give our new starters some time to grow up, fellas; you know, kinda' like most of ours first weeks in a new job when most of us didn't know what the hell was going on around us, but we began to, uh, slowly learn? GMG!

Now Bill, you know that would be tantamount to capital punishment for me. GMG!

Personally, Zeke, I'm working on trying to become an offensive or defensive lineman. So that means I have many, many more bold, various colors "fonted" posts to make on GMG.com. Sorrry 'bout that, GG "Rick" II! GMG!

Getting writer's block, Rick? Learn how to do the fonts, you'll be glad you did! GMG!

Although we have still only played 2 home games, we probably have one of our top 3 or 4 attendance averages of all time for this time of the football season. We have all analyzed this till we're green in the gills, but for some reason I think all our new NT freshmen/transfers of this Fall's record-breaking enrollment want is to just come to the games and have fun. They might read some of this thread and look at each other "goo-goo" eyed. Tailgating for many of our NT students with the circus-type atmosphere at the old practice fields are something the majority of us older and some of you younger alums never had the advantage of having in order to connect with the school, its leaders and our fellow students (who would become our fellow alums). Back in the old days for most of our students, it was show up half way thru the 1'st quarter, watch the game, then boogy. I think we need to do something extraordinary in our 3 home games in November to keep a good attendance average, but hopefully an improved product will be a big part of our doing our part. GMG!

I think we all have the same concerns about our Mean Green football program, but its just the way this MG bandwagon seems to have such an ebb and flow to it and be full when things are going great guns, yet when things are not going as good, this bandwagon seems to empty very quickly AND then comes all the non-stop criticism. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with constructive criticism, but when it evolves into "destructive" criticism should be what we all try to avoid best we can. We've all done this at some point since the inception of GMG.com so there is not one who is totally innocent. FWIW, I don't think any of our (obviously) best fans on this board conduct their personal or business lives in the same manner as they seem to treat the business of NT Athletics, specifically Mean Green football. My prime concern as an alum is that NORTH TEXAS is finally trying to go outside the norm and build a solid fan base who is with the program and this program's football team win or lose, good or bad, bitter or sweet and so forth. Tail-gating emphasis has helped tremendously as some of you posted on another thread a few weeks ago. Tail-gating in MG Country has never been as good as it is now. Many of you on GMG.com are responsible for that success. What I've been most impressed with the last 5 years running are NT's record-breaking freshmen classes who I think are slowly but significantly helping our fan base grow and this will continue to show when we win more games at home and against schools we all know, such as Baylor in 2003. I think we are getting more of this group back to campus in record numbers because (after all) as NT students they witnessed bowl games and more Mean Green televised football games than in the history of our school. I only wish my group from the 70's had hung in with this program because had that been the case, we would already need our future 35-40,000 seat football stadium. OUR NT FRESHMEN CLASSES ARE SUPER! I have high hopes that this group of future NT Exes don't take on the same kind of "sports" personna or personality traits as some seem to when the going gets tough (and this even coming from some of our best fans/$upporters who I've admired forever and, quite frankly, still do). My hope is that Darrell Dickey and staff duplicate the recruiting success they had (even before there was an Eagle Point Campus) when they had more gol' darned Texas state top 100/Oklahoma Fab 55 recruits than you could shake a stick at. With that same group of recruits who took us to 4 bowl games and even winnning one against CUSA's co-champion. I still like where we are now (overall) even with this temporary detour we're on compared to where we were before Dickey and staff recruited those high numbers of blue chip recruits. WHO YOU TALKIN' ABOUT?!?!?! Another hope is that our most critical fans will start seriously looking what we really are up against on the recruiting trail when most of those schools we recruit against really do have better overall football facilities than NT and still have much larger athletic budgets. Anyone who doesn't think those 2 things don't make a difference (even) during recruiting season could be living in Wonderland. We win or lose our Fall football season OOC games in February, folks, during national signing day. A question I always have in my own mind is did we as alums give enough to the Mean Green Club as to free up monies that will provide our NT football coaches to travel to that one additional Texas town or state to visit that one additional blue chip athlete who could be the difference in our winning OOC football games. This is not merely about Darrell Dickey and his coaching staff, fellow Mean Greeners and most of you know on GMG.com know this in your heart of hearts. We all really do have a part in helping to finance our school's athletic program so we can ultimately beat the teams who for darn sure finanace theirs and those very teams being the ones we all want to beat anytime we tee it up. GMG!

What was even funnier was when a Mean Green football team that (basically) all the same fans who are giving up now also gave up on in 2001 after 5 losses turned that season around and went to a bowl game. Pretty damn funny back then and what was funnier was some of the faces of all the Doubting Thomases which this board seems to exposes quite often when our team gets down. Now that is the sad part of all this and is hardly funny at all.

Fast La Technical Institue of Lower Learning Facts: La Tech will not win the WAC. Their Nevada loss last week sealed the deal on that. La Tech will not go bowling even if they have 6 wins. No publications or sports websites projected bowl line-ups even list them as a remote possibility. La Tech is way behind in D1-A football related facilties, ie, an athletic center, no field turf, exagerrated attendance numbers and with no apparent blueprints on the table to change any of this. The Tulane/UTEP game in Ruston did not impress either ESPN or CUSA officials inasmuch as Greater Ruston should have supported that game with any semblance of fan support. La Tech's game this Saturday against the Mean Green is a much bigger deal for them than it is to us. We are still (basically) a young team that is rebuilding and a Mean Green win would be a bonus that would help us toward finishing our SBC season on a positive note and start building a foundation for the future. GMG! All the above thoughts IMHO, of course...

This Mean Green offense will have an official coming out party soon and I hope it is this Saturday afternoon. Yet when they do have this coming out, Katy bar the door on the poor unfortunate team who will not know what hit them. As we all know, we have some very good skill people on this football team who are all due to have a good game and all of that group at the same time in the same game. I think it would become quite interesting if all this happens against La Technical Institute of Lower Learning NT 24 LT 17

They came into the NL and started as the Houston Colt .45's in 1962. This game is giving this former ex Houston area citizen some goose bumps! Many of us remember some of the earliest pioneers of this baseball club like play-play guy Gene Elston, color commentators Loel Passe and Harry "that balls in Astros orbit" Kalas, Turk Farrell, Jimmy "The Toy Cannon" Wynn, John Bateman, Rusty Staub, Bobby Lillis, Don Nottebart, Ken "lost a no-hitter" Johson, Nellie Fox, Jose Cruz, Nolan Ryan, Bob Aspromonte, Walt Bond, Roman Mejias and who have I missed some of you old Colt .45/Astro fans?

GGII hit on this theme with a thread on the weekend, but I was looking at the composite SBC football schedule and "gee-willakers" folks, we can win this damn thing and even in a rebuilding year with a young football team! (Did I cover all bases with that)? LOL! Come on, guys in Green, you are not Greenhorns anymore since you are playing in Game 6! Do it guys! You will become heros to most of all of us for the adversity you would have overcome. Whoops! Sorry, I'm supposed to be negative as hell on this board now, I forgot and just got carried away!

It's a definite under-statement that DD and assistants are going to have to go after some JUCO offensive and defensive linemen during the JUCO recruiting push assuming they are available and are not wanting to go to USC. We need many of these JUCO's in our January classes so they can play Spring, uh, I mean Winter football. It's been on both side of the trenches where we've been dominated much of this season. We have been man-handled in ways we haven't seen our football team treated for several years and none of us are quite used to this kind of treatment just yet. You can't start every play on defense with your DL getting slobber-knocked back into the linebacking corp many times during a game and expect to stop most offenses, specifically those on our OOC schedule and now even those in the SBC. We have to hope this team can improve dramatically because like the kind of offense we have that you can't afford to get too far behind in in any game and expect to rally for a win, our football program can ill afford to get behind other SBC football programs who appear on the rise. We just cannot afford to do that in Mean Green Country and you who have been around the Mean Green scene awhile know all the reasons why . GMG!