PlummMeanGreen

GreenEagle05, it will most likely have to be your generation who takes all this to the next level, because we still have some in that sewing bee circle you post about who are obviously content to constantly live in the past and hang on to Fouts Field as long as they possibly can. I think some of them may even get pissed the day we announce we have found a Big Donor to build our new football stadium. I have no doubt now and have for quite awhile as to why our school has floundered athletically most of my adult life and it really doesn't have that much to do with past or present athletic personnel. This thread was originally about NT alums in the face of last night's adversity and a terrible loss at home before a very nice crowd last night to add "what is right at NT" (instead of the constant "what is wrong", but now do you see what those of us who have tried to stay positive have to contend with? Those who are hot as a firecracker for this program one moment, then turn 180 degrees against it the next? I'd be lying thru my teeth if I told you I have not had my own Negative Ned moments with this athletic program for the 30 plus years I've followed it, but trying to not linger on those moments is what many of us try to overcome. Good post, GreenEagle05! Keep reminding us! GMG!

In response to #4, get the damn bucket out! And where were you sitting at Fouts Field last night? GMG!

Perennial loser SMU with new stadium gets CUSA membership? 4 bowl games in a row UNT with Fouts Field does not get into CUSA? To the many of us who have been around the Green scene awhile, many of us would admit that Fouts Field's existence as our on-campus stadium has cost us other opportunities we could have had in decades past, too. The CUSA failed bid is not the only time and as long as we have Fouts as our football venue, it will cost us in the future, too, when conference start their musical chairs game all over again. U of Louisville would have never gotten into the Big East with the stadium they had prior to their new Papa John Stadium. A new NT FB stadium equals more quality recruits. We have some now, but maybe it adds many more as to help us beat mid-major OOC schools like Tulsa U? Hey! No one is happy about last night, but no dirty bombs have been detonated in Mean Green Country, either. GMG!

The Mean Green Club has (and always will) get my money and they can do with it what they damn well please--even put in in the new stadium building fund if they choose. I'd consider joining NT Exes if some of its leadership would show that they can be a bit more positive about their school (and moreso after one football game loss). I'd also like to see NT Exes (and other campus groups) quit using Mean Green football games as one of their prime vehicles and as a way to prosyltye their members (and the raising of funds from those attending athletic events), too. At NT, there is just not that much money to spread around. Also, it just doesn't seem all that fair a thing to do to the annually much under-funded Mean Green Club to me. How do you think the executive leadership of the MG Club have to feel about working their asses off to get a crowd out to the game and then to see chicken hawks from all over campus swoop down on Mean Green fans for their own pet campus projects? Of course, MG Club officials have to say "it's OK", but is that what they would express privately? Yet does the Mean Green Club go to NT Exes events trying to prosylyte their "non interested in athletics" membership? IMHO, NORTH TEXAS doesn't really need to fight its fundraising wars on too many fronts or we'll find that no one group is going to win the war or ever be sufficiently funded, kinda' like the Mean Green Club is not at this moment in time? NO's Bowl? I don't fly, I am (by my own choice) a single income guy and usually have to work the middle of the week when the NO's Bowl game is played. I am content to give the MG Club $500 annually and buy 4 football season ticket. Do all our alums/fans who attend the NO's Bowl do some of that even as little as my contribution is? Whatever they do is to be admired but if they do it all they have my vote as special super alums of NT and only hope they are being recognized as such. Jim, you know I do not question your loyalty and you should know after all these years that I never will, but I do question why one loss has such an adverse affect on you and others on this board. It always turns into a "let's burn the barn down to kill the mouse" scenario too many times. How many people want to give to NT if they are reading this constant Chicken Little thing and what they may percieve is a sinking ship? Jim, you are one of the best of the best of NT alums, but come on man, its just one loss.

Well, should we shut down football once Norval is gone? I have never see any one man as NT's saviour and I never will. No man can be that big (or will be allowed to be that big) and the NT BOR's will see to that. Even Lee Jackson will be kept in check as long as Bobby Ray is on the Board of Regents and it seems others are pretty well on board with NT Athletics with or without Bobby Ray. What if we actually find a president who takes care of both athletics and VP's who from all appearances have plagiarized? I admire those who stand up for what they believe is right (yet who may be wrong), but not at the expense of my career. Jeez! Do you all prefer being positive or non-stop negative? Scottie has the doom and gloom board where that is a constant daily theme. BUILD IT! ADDENDUM: SMU found 4 fools who were foolish enough to give enough money to build a new stadium in a location that is nowhere as strategic a location as NT's new football stadium will be located, ie, 50,000 who will drive by it daily? Hank D said 90,000 at the DD Show, so maybe its gone even higher than originality posted. People that have the big money sometimes find all kinds of fooish ways to spend it. Casepoint: One of Fort Worth's Bass Bros. building of the freakin' Bio-Sphere! What about the Texas oilman, the late Jack Grimm who spent way more money that would fund 2 new FB stadiums at NT trying to find a way to raise the Titanic from the ocean's floor? NT has already identified an impressive handful of potential philathropists who could build our football stadium and all we need is only "1" of them to say yes. Man, all this over just one loss?!?!?!? It's almost amusing.

Rick, I can't see where I said last night was a positive....I said lets get it out of our system then regroup. I haven't heard the injury report on TJ, he walked off the field, though. I think I said we had no serious injuries. I stand to be corrected on that and if we did have a serious injury, I haven't read about it yet. I also didn't say that all the fans would be back, but I did suggest it would be a positive character trait if they didn't get into this freakin' The Sky Is Falling' mode that some seem to get in after any damn loss! I would not want to be in a foxhole with some of our alums--they'd run after the enemy fired the first shot. New stadium? If we think one loss will cost us a new stadium, then we may have some of the most shallow-thinking fans in the history of the NCAA. Sometimes, I think I understand why NT is about 25 years behind where we really should be and it don't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. NT alums/fans specialize in pointing fingers, but they also most always seem to forget where that thumb is pointing back to. The last question I proposed for hopeful "positive" responses was: What is right in Mean Green Country and what some fans might add to that list?

** We all have homes and beds to go home and sleep (unlike thousands of our fellow Americans who we are all trying to give money and support to help regain theirs) ** No major injuries on our (most obviously) young FB team ** We did beat a CUSA football champion (who beat TCU) in a bowl game--have we forgotten that already? We can still build on that fact! CUSA is not unbeatable by NORTH TEXAS; hellsbells, we beat their football champion! ** The Mean Green have been to 4 bowl games in a row (and those 4 bowl games we hosted have produced much "un-stoppable" momentum in our athletics venue building program). You think one loss by the 3'rd youngest team in the NCAA is going to stop "THAT?" IF SO, GET REAL, BECAUSE IT AINT'! ** Upwards to 24,000 in att. last night at Fouts vs a non-Texas college FB team ** Almost $700,000 worth of new turf on our playing surface which some schools would kill to have ** A Datronics that some TU Golden Hurricane fans are already complaining on their board as to why NT has one and they don't. ** Many new faces/new fans attended our game last night--if they come back is a matter of their own personal choice (and their propensity as to having a most admired trait of being loyal to their home team or their alma mater's team no matter how the team is playing OR---who we play). We have no control of what last night's 1'st Timer fans do in this regard BUT.....in Mean Green Country we do have a huge reservoir (that many other schools don't) in which to replace "deadhead Fred" type fans once we settle in with an NT athletic marketing program that will continue to reach out to all the newcomers in Denton County. THIS IS JUST A FEW OF THE GOOD THINGS HAPPENING IN MEAN GREEN COUNTRY AND I HAVE LEFT SOME THINGS OFF THIS LIST--WHAT WOULD YOU ADD?

This Mean Green football team (according to the MGRN guys) is the 3'rd youngest team in NCAA D1-A. Something tells me this is going to be a pure "get the kids experience" rebuilding year. Still amazes me that we beat the MUTS, although we will still take that "W." Lest we all forget, the last CUSA football team we beat was its CUSA football champion and that was in a bowl game in 2002. All is not lost, folks. We are mostly pissed because our team got beat in front of a good crowd last night but.............we will all get over it, some of us already have. GMG!

Probably closer to 24,000 if you get everyone's butt inside Fouts. I think it was probably closely and accurately announced at 23,000 plus fans. QUESTION: Would last night have been our largest student support in NT football history? They were sitting in the end zones, too. Also, didn't that brighter shade of green look good on many of those NT students? Guess what? That will also show up quite well when we get national TV covergage against Troy. Also, the Green Brigade unis' looked black from our vantage point on the press box side, although I reallyn still liked their new unis'. AND, gee-willakers, did we have over 400 in the 2005 version of the NT marching band, ie, the Green Brigade last night? One from Weatherford who sat in one of my seats arrived in the 2'nd quarter due to traffice and parking, said as he came toward Fouts that there were very, very many still outside the stadium and even said he almost turned around after he had to walk about 1/4 a mile in the almost 100 degree heat. He said it looked like some were choosing to do just that. Amazingly, the almost 100 degree (on freakin' September 17'th for crissakes? weather near kick-off was also not our ally, either. Many elderly types cannot sit in that kind of heat. But its like Rosanna Danna used to say: "It's always something..." I guess most of us were just as sick (disappointed) for all the 1'st Timers of which some may very well become "last timers" after last night's performance. We know its still the Metroplex where the most fickle college football fans in the USA reside. FWIW, TCU only had 2 more thousand fans than we did and we outdrew SMU in their home season opener against their local rival--TCU. Yet, we've had a pretty decent Mean Green product the last few years that would have fared quite well against such teams like Tulsa. Sorry, but I don't think that Tulsa team beats the Scott Hall, Brandon Kennedy, Cody Spencer, Brad Kassell era Mean Green football team, although with what they did with OU, you still have to give them their due. Wasn't last night in MG Country just one of the all time downers for us all? I know our MG football team are as sick about this as anyone; but we seem to have had an uncanny propensity to get a pretty decent home season opening crowd in recent years and then give those many, many new fans/new faces every reason in the world to consider not coming back for the next game. Yes, they are fair weather fans, but oh well, at least we know we'll be there when we tee it up against the Troy U Trojans. GMG!

Then I offer my best "Sylvestor the Cat" shit-eating "I screwed up" grin for that! Still, bring out the hard tacos!

Throw hard tacos filled with dog pooh at the, uh, wingettes! Geez! For college students they sure look fat and out of shape. Probably was a blessing for them that they only had to do 2 push-ups tonight.

Jose Cuervo, you are a friend of mine. Anyone want to share a shot of some good top shelf tequila? Tonight, about 3 rows in front of our group and before the game, a poor little 6 or 7 year old girl puked up her guts. It was quite a mess and I felt sorrow for her. ............then later on, there were some adults who (almost) started doing the same. What a puked up sort of night, eht? We are young, running on empty and many thought we have the Mean Green team of old but.................we don't. Time to rebuild, folks. I just hope we aren't one of those programs who has a "young team" for the next 5 years running. Anyone want a carafe of, uh, patience?

Signature stuff? It's like I've got a new toy! It only took me 5 years to figure out how to do it! Sorry you can't be at the game, radiogreen. GMG!

This is fantastic news coming from one who would be a reliable source. Lets see what walk-up sales generate now. GMG!

Attendance: 24-26,000 (They're finally getting it in Mean Green Country and coming out of the wood work; hey! so its just taking some more time than others to get it). NT--28 TU--14 BRING OUT THE MEAN GREEN!

Funny, Rudy... Same ol' familiar seats: Lower Section E, Row 15, Seats 15, 16, 17, & 18 Drop by & say hello if you have a half minute, I promise--no long-winded GMG.com type opinions from this nestor, unless you ask me for one or two or three, that is)! And if that's the case, then bring your No Doz! WE SHOULD ALL BE WEARING SMILES TONIGHT FOR MANY REASONS...

Well, its like a sign I read in someone's office one day that said something to the effect of (and I paraphrase): Keep doing the same things the way you've always done them, and you can expect to keep getting the same results. FISHY BUSINESS: I think NT officials needs to stretch its horizons and go fishing at some new ponds because I think the same old ponds they keep yearly visiting are void of new fish or better yet, the ponds they keep frequentin have fish in them that just aren't interested in NT's same old lure we annually keep using in our NT athletic department's earnest and sincere attempts to keep trying (in vain) to catch the same old fish. Please don't ask me to repeat what I just tried to express. GET THIS>>When I was a student at NT, Denton County had 99,000 citizens in the entire county and according to a Texas Almanac back in that day it was even called a rural county. According to a recent Dallas Morning News article, Denton County now has close to 560,000 citizens. Folks, we be doing something wrong here. IMHO, our marketing people at NT really do need to move over to some new ponds to do our fishing and I think all would agree that the Denton County of 2005 has more than enough ponds to keep everyone busy with some new (fresh) opportunities. I think the other fish in those old familiar ponds we annually fish have just plain o' gotten on the stale side and some of em' are even at the stinkin' stage! At NT more than just about anywhere, we need to dust our feet of the negative part of our past and move on to whats going to eventually make us successful. Yet for tomorrow night at Fouts Field for our home season opener, I think we are all going to be more than pleased with the turnstile count. GMG!

Agree... With good weather, I still think a 1 & 0 Mean Green football team will be pleased with this home season opening crowd. We have many things working for that to happen and another huge 2005 NT freshmen class is toward the top of that list. Lest we forget: Lets all try to be in Fouts Field 30 minutes before kick-off. Our Green Brigade and Mean Green football team really do deserve that and that is the #1 reason NT officials have requested that from all of us. GMG!

Agree, ADLER, and when do we as Texans start pulling for a school all the way from freakin' Utah to beat one of our own?

I think we all know the problems, but who (in Denton where our school is located ) is going to come up with the solutions. That is and has been a major concern of many of us for years. We do not attack this problem when it is at the top of the list of our problems. We almost act like it doesn't exist. Is it always lack of budget or is that the most convenient excuse we use? I think NT attendance will grow in spite of us and in spite of our lack of marketing to solve the problem because FWIW, folks, the population of Denton County is larger than what the mayor of New Orleans says was his city's population (within its city limits). NT has for decades just done a poor job of marketing for whatever the reason and I'm sure money (or lack thereof) is at the top of the list, too, but maybe we need to do the things that would take care of that? Even check out Tulsa's attendance for most of the last few years. Of course, they have a larger stadium seating about 40,000 and they (as of late) have been getting some of their fellow Oklahoma schools into Skelley Stadium for SRO crowds at Skelley in recent years. Yet the City of Tulsa's citizenry must be the key in all this because Tulsa U only has a tad over 4,000 students as I recall. (No, this is not a subtle "lets bash Denton" post, either). We all have to take our share of the blame with this. Again, every group that could support NT has to take their share of the attendance short-falls we've had, but lets start finding some solutions as to get some of Denton County's thousands of newcomers, ie, transplants to Fouts Field. This is the demographic UNT should have (for decades) always had its focus because that group will be the difference-makers at our on-campus stadium's turnstiles. UNT is like the miner who inherited a mountain of solid gold, he knows it all there but he takes it for granted and just doesn't know where to first stick his pic as to get started in mining the very thing that will make THE BIG DIFFERENCE with his lifestyle. YET..........he is more concerned with all the mundane and ancillery things surrounding his profession as a miner rather than going for the gold. NT has its own gold mine with its Denton County population of which 400,000 more have arrived in the county since I was an NT student back in he 70's); NT has a gold mine with its 2005 Fall record-setting main campus enrollment; and NT has a gold mine with its enormous DFW NT Exes numbers, so the question still remains: Just when and where does NT stick the pic? Moreso, when do we start doing so in a major way as to solve our biggest deficiency and possible "future new conference" albatross, ie, our attendance at Fouts Field? GMG!

GMG.com has several from the Green Brigade and maybe some of them can enlighten us with some answers to the aformentioned.

Now that is what helps us grow our attendance to the level we all know it should be (and will be soon enough). Very impressive, pollock. WHAT TIME IS IT? GMG!

Somewhere out in the middle of the country in eastern Parker County just 15 miles west of Fort Worth. Can't wait till Saturday. Among my small group will be a lady with 2 degrees from NT who has "never" been to any Mean Green football game. She's a FIRST TIMER! Bless all our FIRST TIMERS we will be seeing this Saturday! This Mean Green business is really all our passion, now isn't it? GO MEAN GREEN!

REVISED RESPONSE: So you know for a fact that people are just not getting as excited about NT football anymore? Well, then you may need to make a short trip out to Parker County before you paint another giant swath of your brush on the canvass saying something like "no one is getting excited about NT football anymore" and I say that BECAUSE.... ...in my party this Saturday night at Fouts will be a lady with 2 degrees from NORTH TEXAS who has never been to a Mean Green football game. She is from Weatherford (1+ hour away from Fouts Field to all you Dentonites who just have to make a 5 minute drive to the stadium). She just wants to come up (with another NT Ex in my same party) and see what all this Mean Green commotion is all about. She is most aware now of what is going on in Mean Green Country. Add her to our 20,000 plus fans that will be at Fouts this Saturday night. FWIW, I've read on this board that many others are bringing some FIRST TIMERS to this game, so thank God, we all don't have to keep looking at those same old familiar faces PLUS............add a helluva' bunch of NT freshmen from a Fall all- time record enrollment at NORTH TEXAS who will also be making their 1'st ever Mean Green football game. I'd wager that several thousand other NT students will be joining those FIRST TIMERS as well. BLESS ALL OUR FIRST TIMERS BECAUSE THEY ARE THE MISSING PIECE TO THE PUZZLE AT FOUTS FIELD. UNTSIG, I will agree with you that soon enough we do need to start winning more OOC games against the likes of who we are playing this Saturday and also the Kansas State's of the college football world, too. BUT it cost money to go up to the next level that we all want to occur iat NT and Denton. Isn't that a bummer, it's always about money. But thi$ is something we do have some semblance of control and with our enormous constiuency, we shouldn't be fooling around with nickels and dimes to our annual Mean Green Club donations. That group should have to hire their own secretary because it is so busy--but the Mean Green Club does not have its own secretary best to my knowledge. Anyone else notice a quote from Coach Dickey this week saying there was a reason Tulsa U is in CUSA and NORTH TEXAS is not? He didn't elaborate or go into details but we all know what those details are without the need of even a subtle hint from our coach, our AD or even Norval Pohl and as always its about>>>>>>$$$$$$$$$$. Check out the athletic budgets of most al those OOC and ranked schools who have beaten us lately because it might make most NT alums appreciate what our guys have done on a shoestring budget. What many of us have noticed about too many NT fans the last umpteen years is how too many of them all kinda' want all this Big Time football for (I presume) free without making any kind of personal financial committments to NT Athletics (and that doesn't mean said NT Ex has to endow an entire academic chair with their cash donation, either, because said alum should just start with what he/she can afford--but at least start). Rick V would love for our fans/alums to start at any giving level. Hellsbells, they even let us all pay out monthly whatever we pledge to the Mean Green payiing it out over the year. When NORTH TEXANS finally start giving at whatever level in record numbers, then we can position our favorite college football team that just happens to wear green and white to a point as to where they can ultimately be on a level playing field with all those OOC and ranked teams we'd all truly like to beat. GMG!

It appears that Tulsa U is looking at their entire schedule to see which games they feel they can put in the "W" column and they seem to have penciled in NORTH TEXAS as one of those wins. This has become more than just your usual OOC game for the Golden Hurricane. IMO, they will come into Fouts with a "lights out--pull out all the stops" approach to this football game. Tulsa U has a couple of game-breakers that could cause as many problems for us as Cobbs/Thomas will most likely give the 'Canes. Personally, I felt good about this game all summer but that stopped when I saw TU play at OU in their televised game last Saturday afternoon. The Tulsa U Golden Hurrcane feel it is their CUSA duty to beat any Sun Belt team and last time I checked, we are a 'Belt team. I think this is a close football game. GMG!