PlummMeanGreen

I don't know where all this "poor" 2002 Cincy' team business began on this board because many of our best fans have posted the same thing. I do recall that Cincy' almost beat Ohio State the year we beat UC in the New Orleans Bowl, but I was as impressed that the Cincy' Bearcats beat a pretty darned good TCU Horned Frog team that same season, too. BTW, TCU was the other "co" of CUSA's football co-champions in 2002. Coach Dickey and his assistants just need to fill the cupboard back up with another bunch of recruits over the next 2 years such as the large number of Mean Green players (which included numerous out of the Texas state top 100 lists) and that group which allowed NORTH TEXAS to make its run of 4 bowl games in a row. We have (somewhat) been in a downward spiral since Booger Kennedy's class graduated. We just need to load the wagons back up. GMG!

LongJim, your posts on GMG.com and you being a Texas Ex have been most inspiring. You represent a microcosm of what we need to be doing in Denton County and that is going after Texas Exes, Former Students at TAMU, Big 10 alums and the like when you all are not at your respective schools supporing your schools we want all of you in Mean Green Country on Game Day on our campus. NOTE: In your post, I highlighted in gray a prime reason we need a new stadium that doesn't get much recognition as another reason we need the new stadium at UNT. You are right, the Super Pit is an amazing ageless facility that many outsiders might find it difficult to believe that it actually made its premier in the 1972/1973 basketball season. If one would tell some outsiders that it was built 10 years ago you would find many of that group who would believe that (albeit the fact that it has been over 30 years since it was built). NT officials have improved its interior in recent years to make a modern facility look even more modern. Fouts Field will be replaced in a time shorter than I think most will ever believe and I've expressed that gut feeling for almost a year now. The main problem I have with Fouts besides the track is that our crowd noise accoustics are dismal. We can have good crowds at games yelling their lungs out but the noise seems to go out the north end zone en route to Gainesville LongJim, we appreciate your support for Mean Green athletics (even though you are a Tea-Sip)! GMG! PS: Good luck today against the Sooners!

In 2002 we were not the best of the worst, we beat the CUSA football co-champion and that was an accomplishment no matter how some on this board want to pooh-pooh even that or what some on GMG.com thought of Cincy' (who I reiterate, still beat a pretty damn good TCU team that same year when we won a bowl game). Again, like Troy U, we take our program to the next level when we (like Troy U) have a new football stadium. Have you ever seen what Troy U's former football stadium looked like? Fouts looked like the Taj Mahal compared to TU's old football stadium. You want to be the NT head football coach in the present day "facility arms race" that is what NCAA D1-A is all about these days? I wouldn't. Granted, Hayden and Corky won with less facilities (although when both were at NT, we also claimed "Texas Stadium" as our "major collegiate" home and even took recruits to visit it over Fouts Field many times--we don't do that any longer), but that was another era before NCAA D1-A facilities became such a focal point for progressive recruiting in this new era when potential HS recruits look at the whole package of football-related facilities that a D1-A school better by-golly have. Ask MeanGreenPop how important facilities are. We are trying to recruit his other son who Rivals is now ranking quite nicely. And a son I believe we have a chance of recruiting "IF" some of our posters don't run him off with some negative, pointless and continuous "what our problems are" kind of posts (without offering any semblance of a positive solution or donations to help solve some of those problems). Move on? I've been faithfully following this football program since September of 1973, so I guess I'll just hang around a while longer. Move on? I am amused with the the very thought. And to be honest about it all, I'm more disappointed with some of the responses of some of our fans during a football season that is not even completed than with our Mean Green football team.

The non BCS FLA. schools continue to amaze me with how fast they can build a football program. For damn sure no 5 year plans with those schools. They get after it almost after they cut the ribbons to debut their new football programs. Will that loss by UL turn out to be UL Coach Bustle's Waterloo? Even USF went from no football program, to one that was accepted into CUSA and then soon after taht, the Big "freakin' East. We saw what a "senior-laden" (and that because of transfers who became immediately elgible from 1-AA to a transitional 1-A FAU school with I'm sure Coach Howie probably did some behind the scenes recruiting with some of that group); yet, with all those seniors, look what FAU did to us last year and at our house. The SBC is catching up with us and NT better not go into the old "North Texas 2 step" mode of lip-servicing our future, but rather proceed with solid Eagle Point Campus construction plans because if we lolly-gag around in Mean Green Country and keep doing what we've been doing, others will proceed to move ahead of us which will mean we will be living on the past history of 4 bowl games yet be going backwards AND that at even a Sun Belt Conference level. After Tulsa, everyone still ready to jump in bed with CUSA? If so, we all need to get our check books out for first time MG Club contributions and some of us will need to up our present MG Club committments. I still cannot believe a 2003 "down" UH Cougar football team beat the Golden Hurricane last week. Of course, in the non BCS that seems to happen from one year to the next because we thought we'd be able to handle the Tulsa (of last season) with our team (based on last season) except things have sorta' flip-flopped for both I think most would agree?

If 2 or more of Meager's (catchable) passes are caught the other night, we don't have this poll because a handful of our oscillating/vascillating fickle fan base would be extolling the virtues of Dan Meager; some who diss him now would be wondering how quickly we could get him in the NT Athletic Hall of Fame. I mean this is what we are getting these days from posters who I wonder if they themselves ever played the game. According to what I read of Phillips forty yard line speed in DAVE CAMPBELL'S TEXAS FOOTBALL, he would not have had the speed to score the rushing TD that Meager scored the other night. Like one of our best and older alums emailed me yesterday, Meager is going to be a good QB and be just fine, but that will probably be next year after he takes his knocks this year. I think right now, we have other concerns much bigger than QB and when those concerns are addressed, the QB at NT will be one of its biggest beneficiaries.

It's been posted numerous times on this forum that a new football stadium at NT must be complemented with a winning football program for all of this to work. That is the formula we must have in Denton. SMU has a nice beautiful football stadium but they opened it right in the middle of a 3 decade long losing streak--hardly the way to break in a new football stadium. Yet at NT we all but did the same thing that SMU did with their Gerald J. Ford Stadium when we opened the Super Pit back in the 1972/1973 basketball season. When we opened our new on-campus basketball facility, we had many who thought NT would make the next expected move of elevating its hiring and its recruiting, but post-Bill Blakely, we hired coaches who would have been better suited at an NCAA Division II school recruiting for a facility much like our old Men's Gym. YOU CAN'T DO ONE WITHOUT DOING THE OTHER: You can't half-ass it in NCAA Division 1 athletics I think we'd all agree. If you get a new faciility, the next usual (expected) step is to raise the level (and expectation) of your recruiting classes to accomodate your school's new venue. You also would expect your alums/fans to do their part and take their part to the next level by joining the MG Club in record numbers and buying season tickets like they're going out of style. Speaking of going half-assed? I think most of you are aware by now that Troy U's head football coach gets paid much more than another SBC coach who only took his team to 4 bowl games in a row. Also, that Troy U coach is already recruiting (obviously) talanted recruits toward that new football stadium I think we'd also agree, too? Did you see Troy U's new stadium on ESPN last year when the hosted and beat Missouri? New stadiums can't help you recruit players to do that, can they? One of Troy's alums has posted photos just today of TU's football stadium's luxury suites in another thread on GMG.com Funny how we have some at NT who still don't think we need a new football stadium. Wonder if Hayden Fry could have spoken with that hardy handful this week if they would change their minds about that subject and lay it to rest? I'd put money on it that after such a talk with Fry that they would. BACK TO THE SUPER PIT: At NT, when we opened the Super Pit, many just thought the rest would simply take care of itself while during that era we saw no significant improvement of our recruiting, no significant growth in the Mean Green Club as to raise monies to help our coach's have funds to recruit outside Texas or (in general) any noticeable elevation of the level of our basketball program. We had a great basketball facility in Denton, Texas, that was the best on campus BB facility in Texas for many years yet with average basketball teams most of the time because we hired average personel who recruited average basketball classes. After NT basketball coach Bill Blakely was fired, many still thought the Super Pit would be the magnet to advance our program, but we kept going the cheap route in Denton by hiring personel who might have had a problem getting a job at an NCAA D2 school (and after they left NT, some of that group were even lucky to get a Texas high school job; we also seemed to hire coaches at NT who apparently thought recruiting was some kind of necessary evil with the way they approached it with sub-par recruits that produced sub-par basketball seasons. We also went into the usual "North Texas two-step" of trying to have major college athletics with alums who would much rather offer their opinions of everything under the sun that is wrong rather than give their dollars no matter what amount. We seem to always want Big Time sports at NT w/o any personal $acrifice. .......................................................................... Changing the subject, it is also amazing how you never see a hardy handful of posters on GMG.com when things are rolling right along, but they come out of the woodwork when it looks like the old Mean Green ship is sinking. Also, many of that group rarely offer any positive solutions to problems but rather offer non-stop theories of "How To Burn The Whole Damn Barn Down To Kill The Mouse at UNT." It seems we have a few of our posters who would be very comfortable living in an environment such as you used to get in Salem, Massachusetts, too, because they sure as hell are trying to create such a similar environment in Denton, Texas, America.

As I look back to times in recent years when NT needed to ignite a stalling running game, the forward pass played a very big part in doing just that. "IF" we have some catchable passes caught against Troy U, I really feel we have a different outcome to this game, but that's all hindsight, of course. A "catchable pass" has been defined as any pass close enough for a receiver to touch no matter how nicely (or badly) a pass has been thrown in that receiver's direction. Even former NT Coach Hayden Fry in the ESPN2 booth with Dave Barnett and Craig James made the comment on the pass from Meager to Stickler and even though it was not caught, Fry said you have to have those kind of plays. INTERPRETATION OF THAT: Anyone who was around here during the Fry era knows exactly what Hayden Fry was saying between the lines on that. See next paragraph... UNT did have many pass attempts the other night with a handful more that should have been caught, but I think what Fry was also inferring in a round about way is that you really have to set up the passing game earlier with NT's style of offense to get the running game going as to score more points earlier in the game. GMG!

IMHO, that is a Top 10 post if there ever was one.

Well then shame on the officials from that Iowa site for not doing some proper research. Coach Fry would tell anyone that Royal came up with that and that he probably just borrowed that phrase, but........oh well. Coach Royal made that quote as long ago as the 1960's and at that time, the Hawkeyes were just beginning to start a very, very long streak of losing football seasons until they hired Hayden Fry away from us in December of 1978. I will never forget laying in bed at a Walnut Hill Lane condo in Irving on that cold 1978 December Saturday morning when KRLD sports announced that Coach Fry would be leaving NT for Iowa. An extreme feeling of dread for NT's football future came upon me that minute and oh if I had only known what the next (almost) 3 decades would bring our way after Fry left Denton GMG!

Hayden Fry had some very nice quotes about NT's new facilties. I liked hearing those quotes almost as any of the others he said listed above. MeanGreenPop was mentioning the great facilities at NT and the fact that his sons were duly impressed with them just like Hayden Fry (& Craig James of ESPN2) were mentioning the great facilities we have completed and those that are on the way in Mean Green Country. I do believe that's where MGP was coming from on that, ipEAGLE. GMG!

First of all, very nice with the "rights reseved" logo on Kool-Aid. OK, if this is not a rebuilding year, then just what is it? The only other possibility is that this may be the year that some of the other Sun Belts schools have caught up (or passed) our program. I saw a "D" the other night that reminded me of the Southern Miss "D" in last year's NO's Bowl and don't we still basically have the same offense personnel we've had the last 2 years in Mean Green Country save the center position? If having 8 out of 11 new faces on the Mean Green defense doesn't sound like a rebuilding year, then what else we going to call it? All the anti-DD'ers who show up in full force on this board after each loss (and that is every American's right of freedom of thought and speech); yet a constant barrage of "the sky is falling" after "any" loss of every year Dickey has been in Denton is (IMHO) a waste of time and energy and here are a few reasons why: (1) How about the fact that no non-BCS school in America would want to take the negative public relations hit from outsiders (ie, the local, regional and national media?) for firing a coach that has taken their school to 4 bowl games in a row (winning one against another conference's co-champion no matter what you think about that CUSA football co-champion who did beat TCU that same year BTW); (2) DD has a contract that was arranged by present UNT officials beginning with Norval Pohl with approval from our BOR's and that contract will be honored by those UNT officials; (3) But more important for DD, he has played his politics well on campus (which we all attempt to do in all our careers FWIW) starting (and ending) with the NT chairman of the BOR's. At NT, that's about all anyone would need. (Any further questions on that part of the subject)? IMHO, Darrell Dickey will have a career similar to that of Bill Snyder at Kansas State University and that not so bad a deal for either school I feel most would agree. Like Snyder at KSU, DD will grow with his job as our football facilities continue to grow in numbers over at the Mean Green Athletic Village. DD will (like Snyder did at KSU) have to tweak his assistant coach's staff from time to time because it won't be DD who gets fired just because some don't like the offensive coordinator' play-calling) and DD will be at NORTH TEXAS when we have many more new faces (coming from record enrollments each year) who will take the place of the "one" face who lets all this DD business get their goat as to cause them to even quit supporting their very own alma mater. No one NT employee is worth going to that extreme, right? As I've expressed numerous times to some of you, Coach Dickey does not run the kind of college football offense that I prefer to watch and I really wish we had Stoops, Saban, Bowden or Mack Brown as our coach, but we all know that is also a waste of time, energy and keyboarding strokes from anyone connected with NORTH TEXAS, now don't we? YET IT'S A 2 SIDED COIN: Anyone ever think DD wishes he had many more thousands of Mean Green fans who would put their money where there opinions were and those many extra fans who would spend more time praising the program when it has had success than what seems like triple time of criticizing it when we don't have that success? Anyone think DD wishes more would join the MG Club thus providing more funding for the athletic coffers so we don't have to open almost each football season with a Top 5 school or body bag game so we can pay some bills? But Troy U has had success with some of the Big Boys? True...but Troy U also has a nice new football stadium to recruit toward, folks. Any of you remember how Dallas Cowboy fans back in the mid 1960's wanted to run Tom Landry off after his first 6 years of dismal records with the Cowboys? Well, you younger nestors may not remember, but what (then) Dallas Cowboy owner Clint Murchison (Lupe's brother-in-law) answer to all of Landry's critics was rewarding Landry with an unprecedented 10 year contract for the Cowboy's coach. So all the disgruntled Landry fans just cooled it, settled down, faced reality from the powers that be (Murchison) and just went along with their support for their Dallas Cowboys. None of Landry's prior critics were heard to complain later when their little ol' local Dallas pro football team would become known as America's Team, either. Solution? Consider jumping on the DD Bandwagon whether you like him, his offense, his defense, the style clothing he wears, the cologne he wears at his coach's show, the soft drink he drinks during the course of a football game or whatever the situation BECAUSE..........the DD bandwagon is going to be rolling in Denton for many more seasons to come, just like the Tom Landry bandwagon continued in Dallas, Texas, for almost a quarter of a century after his first very dismal 6 years with the Cowboys when everyone and his dog in Dallas wanted him tarred, feathered and run all the way back to Mission, Texas, Landry's hometown.

Are you serious? So you are that easily embarrassed and, uh, what's with this go Horns business? Were you also a NY Yankee fan when they had those string of winning years? Real difficult to be a Yankee fan, eh? Are you also a SoCal Trojan fan right now? Is it just those who win that you follow? What a bore. We call your type of sports fan a "front runnner" who jumps ship after that ship hits the first ice cube. Colleges don't build their attendance base with such fans. Enjoy your Horns--we will probably make-do without you.

I stand to be corrected but I think the 3'rd school was Texas A&M University. Arkansas would have been in Fry's back pocket to support NT because as a young man he was an assistant coach with Frank Broyles in Fayetteville. Frank Broyles also had quite an array of assistants who later landed head football coaching jobs (just like Fry did). 2 of those who started as assistants with Fry at UNT later going to Iowa were Bill Snyder and Bill Patterson. All things considered, for all those who pooh-poohed our getting in the SWC ended up not being in it themselves (or the Big 12) either for the most part. NT just needs to take care of business at those 200 acres at our Eagle Point Campus and our fans need to remain steadfast with our Mean Green thru thick and thin and FWIW, I think the largest majority on this highly read message board we call GoMeanGreen.com will do just that. GMG! Last night we saw progress in the making inasmuch as after we had upwards of 24,000 at our home season opener in our one-sided loss to Tulsa U, we still had over 17,000 plus who came out last night when some on this board predicted dramatically fewer fans. I think we are finally beginning to tie all these NT record -breaking freshmen classes together at the Fouts Field turnstiles & this is what we have all hoped for and wanted to see happen. 4 bowl games in a row has helped all this no matter what we do this Fall. But IMO, all this will only increase with all these new faces at Fouts Field with more growth expected to happen in our freshmen and sophmore classes. So I guess one could say that there are (in deed) some percs to having a large enrollment school?.

Many across America learned about NORTH TEXAS last night even in our loss. I think the main thing they learned last night on ESPN2 from Hayden Fry, Craig James and Dave Barnett is that we are not going to stand still or go backwards with short-term setbacks such as a football game loss.

How long Troy U had that new football stadium, too? Sorta' all went hand in hand for their football program's overall plans, now didn't it? Troy U has had a long-term plan for their football program and they have worked their plan to a tee. Look for them to be strong in the SBC the next few years because of it, too. (Jeez! Did their defense look almost as quick as Southern Miss's did at our bowl game last year)? What I noticed when Troy hosted Missouri on their ESPN2 nationally televised game is how they (wisely) filled their scoreboard end zone seats with numerous HS bands. Looked damn good when the ESPN cameras scanned that area all night long, too. I don't guess the 2'nd largest intercollegiate music school in America could ever get with NT Athletics and have a conversation similar to this? "Hey! Lets bring some of our NT HS band director alums back to campus at a Mean Green football game that is televised to showcase our NT College of Music alums AND (of course)..............their Texas HS bands?" You get a corporate sponsor to cover their tickets. What do we have to lose? What do we have to gain? How about future new NT students who had never been our campus till that night in Denton they sat in the Daktroinic's end zone in a televised game to boot? I suppose little ol' Troy U pulled a similar promotion off against Missouri w/o a hitch but at NT we too many times major in talking about what we "can't do" because we never did it before and choose to leave end zone seats unfilled (for all of Amerca to see)? OK, got that off my chest! GMG!

As posted by some of you last night, at the beginning of the 3'rd quarter the ESPN2 broadcast team of (NT grad) Dave Barnett and color commentator, ie, former SMU great/Celina resident Craig James hosted Coach Hayden Fry in the broadcast booth for about 10 very important minutes and you at the game who didn't see the broadcast should just hear all 3 of them carry on about what's going on in Mean Green Country. Heck! Did Mandy McKinley sign up SMU Ex Craig James in the Mean Green Club yesterday or what? He was quite positive and enthusiastic about NT's building program and future. Some of us have criticized Craig James on GMG.com (probably because he went to SMU) but overall, he was very gratuitous toward NORTH TEXAS in last evening's nationally televised broadcast. Of course, he is still quite opinionated on specific things which is why I guess ESPN has him on the payroll? (Not that some of us are as opinionated, right)? The film clip of NT Coach Hayden Fry before the 1974 SMU/NT game of which many of us attended is priceless and ESPN's Dave Barnett/Craig James got a huge kick out of watching that old film footage of Fry. Craig James said he and Dave Barnett watched the Fry film in its entirety earlier and said it was some classic stuff; but those of us who who were around during the Fry era already knew that, now didn't we? Even in a loss last night, it was a positive nationally televised production for us in Mean Green Country that will (IMHO) pay off for us in recruiting the next few months. We have some Texas/Oklahoma HS potential recruits who now know they can come play at NT much quicker than they can at most other NCAA D1-A outposts. They also know that nationally televised broadcasts of Mean Green football the last few years are hardly a stranger in Mean Green Country any longer, also. ALSO FOR FUTURE NT RECRUITS..........doesn't hurt that they will have (as ESPN color commentator Craig James described) a super "athletic dorm" over at the new Mean Green Athletic Village to be their home-away-from home while at NT. (Of course, we know that its not an athletic dorm since the NCAA outlawed such exclusitivity years ago, but we also know many of NT's athletes (especially our football players) do live in Victory Hall, right? I've sorta' changed my mind about former Pony Express'er Craig James after last night and watching the replay of the game. BTW, toward the end of the NT/Tu game replay, they did show part of the virtual video tour of the new NT football stadium that really got Craig James excited about whats happening in Denton. Anyone notice last night if Brock Stickler catches that pass from Meager (that ESPN'er Dave Barnett said had touchdown written all over it)............ AND if not for "one" TU player tripping up Jamario Thomas for what the ESPN guys said would have been a TD how much happier we'd all most likely be today?

There are few things we have control of at NT from its business, academic and athletic operations and is one reason I now refuse to stay down after a loss. Didn't always used to be that way for me as a few of you would know. If any of us each gave NT $1 million, they might listen to us for a few minutes and pat us on the back for the gift$, but the powers that be are still going to do what they are going to do at a large public university such as NORTH TEXAS. We can all fret about the past or we can get back to our future which is where all the good times and the fun in Mean Green Country will once again be. I know, ol' Pollyanna talkin' here once again, but my hypertension will not allow me to get all worked up about something a loss or a negative post by me would ever change. We are all concerned about our school when things are not going as we know they have been (and will again). We're rebuilding this Mean Green football team, folks, and nothing we post on GoMeanGreen.com is going to change that fact and reality. Lets do our part as fans at most NCAA D1-A school's do and still support our alma mater's football team and the program (in general) because the alternative of not doing that is something none of us would reallly ever want or have a part. GMG!

I was impressed with the NT student turnout and for the Tulsa game it was the largest I'd ever seen in 32 years of all this, but visible and high profile groups (such as frats and sororities) on our campus merely need to set an example for other student groups to follow, that's all. NT fraternities used to sit around their frat flags various areas of the student section and in another era, they had their logos painted in the areas of the student section concrete seating areas where they would all sit together as a group. Just seems like a fraternity would want their group to be seen together at an NT football game in a show of solidarity. Guess this is a touchy subject with you for some reason?

Haven't gotten to that part of the replay. I think I'll stick with Craig James praising our present and future facilities at the new Mean Green Athletic Village. Good recruiting fodder with that, eh, and on, uh, videotape? Sorry, folks, but its going to be a rebuilding year with a whole bunch of new Mean Green players gettting some playing experience.

Not near enough positives tonight, but the crowd size at Fouts pleasantly surprised many of us for a weeknight game in the Metroplex. We had so many of our out-of-town NT fans/alums who were not able to even be at this game due to distance and the time of the week. Hate to use the "R" word, folks, but in 2005 we are going to be in "R"ebuilding mode for this team that has run out of its experienced line of talent that took us to 4 bowl games. FWIW, I've heard this has actually happened at other NCAA D1-A schools from time to time. Cannot completely substantiate that, but I will do some further checking on that theory. If "IF's and "BUT's" Were Candy & Nuts We'd all Have a Merry Christamas? As I watch the replay now, ESPN's Dave Barnett said in one play that Jamario had the ball that he believed JaMo' is still having hammy' problems when he described one play tonight as one that would have gone ALL THE WAY last year. I concur with NT grad and ESPN play by play guy Dave Barnett on that statement. ESPN color commentator Craig James seems to be sniffing out some Mean Green offensive line problems, too, as I watch the replay. Ex SMU great Craig James and his family live in Mean Green Country,ie, Celina, Texas. Craig James also said the Troy U "D" was cat quick (which seems to be the kind of defenses that keep our running game in check, ie, USM in the bowl game last December). ** One of those BIG "Ifs" starts with T.J. "Big Cat" Raymond who was to be our main stopper in the DL this year; well he wasn't playing tonight as we all very well know, his grades last summer became his stopper. Hope he is getting those in check this semester. Big Cat was to be our new Booger Kennedy. What kind of defense would we have had w/o Booger Kennedy during those years? ** We lost who was projected to be our starting QB to grades last summer, too, although watching the replay of our game as I post, Meager still showed promise and bright spots tonight, especially toward the end of the game where he raised it to a completely different level than what we've seen before. SMU Ex/ESPN Color Commentator Craig James on our nationally televised game threw some very nice bouquets of roses toward UNT for our new Mean Green Athletic Village at Eagle Point Campus. Apparently, C. James and Dave Barnett had a tour of our 200 acres of construction today. Craig James, the ex SMU Mustang called NT's present/future facilities (including our future new stadium), uh, "top shelf!" Coach Fry added that they are and would be as good as anyone in the country. FOLKS, WHAT WE ARE MISSING THIS YEAR ARE THOSE LONG RUNS FROM SCRIMMAGE FOR TD's FROM COBBS OR THOMAS. I am too much of a novice to understand why we have lost that part of our offense, but that was most of our offense last year, so we can't start completely playing the blame game until we get that part of our offense back. In fact, if we had it back, don't we probably win this game tonight? The NT offensive line? I am at a complete loss of words to understand what has happened there, but our QB's and RB's are sure having to improvise a bit more than they should because opponent's defenses are on top of them way too much before they get a chance to do their thing. Whatever the case, we ALL must try to find things for this (basically in so many areas) young team to build on. Granted, we are all a most impatient group and the last 4 year's successes has raised all of our expections.

Is NORTH TEXAS football just not cool enough for our fraternities to come out to, be seen and even be seen in public sitting together on national "freakin" ESPN 2 TV? Greek signs in the end zone at each game are fine, but where are the members of the fraternities of whom those signs represent? And FWIW, what the hell else are NT fraternties doing on a Tuesday night (or should I even ask)? Not too impressed with the greeks at UNT who should be showing as much school spirit as the NT cheerleaders. Oh well.....

What a great promotion for our NT students. Hopefully most of them know about all that's going on Tuesday pre-game, during the game and the post-game celebration! I still cannot (in 30+ years) ever remember a larger NT student turnout than the one I saw at the NT/Tulsa game. Any of you older nestors concur? Let's see how many of our students really, "LUV" the Mean Green" especially since the going has gotten tough the last 2 weeks for our team. Honestly, I think this group of NT students will show some true grit and unconditional support for our team no matter our record or what'ere the score. GMG!

Looking forward for the emergence of our entire offense AND........Super Jamario Thomas who will now significantly make his 2005 presence known Tuesday night at Fouts Field. I hope our Greater Denton area casual and borderline fans understand that this is not merely a local or regional telecast but an ESPN II national telecasts; first ever from Fouts Field in Denton, Texas, America! Tuesday night is about so many things with our athletic program and toward the top of the list is what Texas HS potential recruits see as the national TV cameras of ESPN II scan the fans at Fouts Field. WANT TO GIVE ESPN's CRAIG JAMES SOME FUEL FOR HIS ANTI NON-BCS SCHOOL'S FIRE (especially he coming from the school that blackballs us at every corner when we want a new conference neighborhood)? THEN DON'T SHOW UP AT FOUTS FIELD AND THAT WILL GIVE CRAIG JAMES ALL HE NEEDS CONCERNING UNT........... We need to be there in full force for this one and to all you out-of-towners who can pull it off with your jobs, let Island Eagle be your inspiration to come as he will make the 5 1/2 hour drive from Galveston to be at Fouts Field when he could have just as easily stayed home to watch the game in the comfort of his den or living room. GMG!

ALSO...............Posted a few days ago is how many of Denton's larger corporations and businesses have (most impressively) purchased blocks and blocks of tickets for this "national stage" that the ESPN2 televised football game will give the City of Denton & Denton County. It's a numbers game, so lets see now: Denton County: 560,000 pop. (larger than New Orleans inside-city limits pop.) City of Denton: 100,000 pop. UNT Fall Record Enrollment: 32,000 plus UNT Fall Record Freshmen Class: ?,000 plus DFW NT Exes: 100,000+ <>*<> Why should NT ever be so concerned with its attendance with all the new faces?