PlummMeanGreen

😁 These 23 from Tinsel Town seem to have sung more than karaoke. Wow. They are impressive. ❇️🦅❇️

And now...From the Far Side: untjim1995, you say— “screw them?”🤭 Watch out! Be careful! You’ll start losing votes as sweetheart of the MG rodeo with such talk, whoops, I rather meant—King of Tailgate Hill. 🤴🏽 I concur completely on the scheduling history part of the SMU-UNT series you so ably described. For the record, I really don’t hate a fully amateur version of SMU, in fact, come 2’nd Saturday in September after the Mustang Band plays “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain for the 100’th time, the mighty Mean Green will be in the process of kicking their - - - “& hows your family been doing of late?”😳 ❇️🦅❇️ GMG! Elsewhere😌 At any rate—for me, I didn’t realize hitting a certain age meant the dispensing of non-stop Dad jokes (nobody quite gets including myself at times); that is, doing terrible jokes until the day I freakin’ croak? Why wasn’t I warned this could happen when I was in my 30’s or 40’s so I could better prepare myself?🙄 Oh well... •••See y’all on “Exorcise the Demons On Band Day” on September 6, 6:30 pm, Apogee Stadium, when the NW St. Demons invade & try to possess our House. (I’m non-Catholic, but for this game maybe Wren & Company could invite all area Priests to bless us with their presence? (For a legit hook to get the Priests to Apogee, tell the brethren the ‘Brigade & “mass” bands will play a very unique version of Ave Maria to the tune of Amazing Grace. (Yes—very unique). 😇 🦅 GMG!

At times I guess I can be a plethora of totally useless information, data & thought, but maybe not so with this following subject? Why does a public university in northern Texas that is still projected to reach 50,000 enrollment—why do some affiliated with said Denton-based school keep genuflecting to another school that (now) is apparently ashamed of being affiliated with the United Methodist Church denomination—why does an SMU who has shown a propensity in the not so distant past to pay some to play & who would sell their souls to be able to (once again) be in a conference with the Big Boys—anyway, why do they keep occupying too much of our intellect & (basically) our time? (Like me right now).😊 🐎 When SMU gets jump-kicked again away from the P5 Moderate 8 Conference schools with some they thought to be their friends—will it be be possible that Shhmoo will have the best football team money & promises can buy that no one (still) cares to watch at their Gerald J. Ford Stadium? (Maybe it’s High🥬Time for another Russ Pitts/Brad Thomas Mustang Mania promo when they give away prior to each game 200,000 plus tickets for a 32,000 seat home stadium. (Remember when they once did that vs Baylor at Texas Stadium & 5 Bears fans each had the same seat)? 😆 Fill Apogee Stadium On September 6’th—It’s Band Day! And no, it’s not Northwestern of the Big 10 we’ll be playing-it’s Northwestern of the SLC. It’s those Demons! Yet should it matter which Northwestern? After all, it’s our team they’re playing—right? (BTW, bring a green crucifix to this game—you never know).🤢 The mindset at our favorite school that we should adopt would be like that of UT-Austin when their students & fans (in UNT’s earliest games with the Horns) showed up en mass at DKR Memorial against a school from Denton-Texas-America of which they absolutely had no history of playing. ••• Turnstiles success at Apogee against any school is one way you put SMU on the back-burner of your minds & scheduling past; a past when sometimes we were (unknowingly) playing a semi-pro college football team which the NCAA had to punish Big Time. (What UNT & other schools don’t know is when they were playing a pay for play outfit when they were not getting caught by the NCAA). 🚨Questions 67 & 68 &— 2021...What $MU will do with all this new NIL business one can only gue$$ & one should very creatively use his imagination when guessing. No doubt SMU will abuse NIL to the max & will cause the NCAA to eventually tighten the rules on it (or better yet—discontinue it). I’d venture to say NIL will cause some traditionally honest programs to become, uh, dishonest? 🍺🍸🍹...🥛Closing Time—Last Call For Alcohol......Sorry, but we just don’t need the elitist school from (whats really not Dallas) on our schedule & we never did. We really need bigger fish to fry than SMU & I bet AD Wren Baker will haul such fish in. ❇️🦅❇️

Had no idea P5 assistant coaches made that kind of money. Probably much higher salaries In the SEC & Big 10? 🦅

As recent diatribes (manifestos) I’ve posted (& I will freely admit) to the point of ad nauseum🤮, I still sit here & ask myself: Is this where half a century (for many of us on GMG) & of being UNT enthusiasts has gotten us? Yet it’s not over til’ it’s over (or when dirt is thrown on top of all of us); but it’s still the administration of UNT President Neal Smatresk, AD Wren Baker, the present UNT BOR’s, the Lovelaces, the McNatts, & similar plus an entire host of Denton’ites who did support the MG thru thick & thin—but it’s all the aforementioned & beyond who still give so many of us hope for all our tomorrows. Admittedly—I’m Biased: Leaving North Texas off that list of schools comes from those who are probably like the one who whistles while reluctantly walking (at midnight) thru a haunted cemetery😳—even they know UNT will turn into that uncontrollable monster Littrell talks about because they’ve toured our campus (albeit virtual); they know of our staggering growth with much more projected to come & they’ve toured (virtually) the Mean Green Village & know (maybe) only 1 or 2 in CUSA can even come close. So it’s like FFR said: “It’s All Good—It’s All Green!” 🦅

I believe SMU AD Dick Davis was the one who pulled the trigger in not wanting to play us, but you’re right as Sonny was merely his chief messenger. Dick Davis was on Al Whisk Sports Central Show on KRLD one evening & UNT fans were calling in giving the poor guy holy hell! I thought he was going to have a nervous breakdown.🤪😊 My first UNT basketball game was the night the Super Pit made its grandiose debut. Gene Robbins was the Coach then. I have no idea why he was released from his contract. That first game I was impressed with a MG forward named Ken Bailey? 😊 We seem to have this weird modus operandi up there of past UNT coaches who recruit some good talent, but don’t get to stick around long enough to coach it. It’s happened like that for MG football with 2 or 3 coaches of our past. I guess that is a tradition some of us would like SL to bust wide open because if he were not to be around next year his successor would for certain inherit some damn good talent; that is, if we can believe recruiting services like 247. 🦅

So you worked for Hayden? Typical is how some on GMG with 1 giant swath of a brush (or keystroke) would say “Being Independent killed UNT basketball!” Uh.... huh?🙃 You do remember Coach Bill Blakely & then assistants Billy Tubbs & Jimmy Gales Major Independent Mean Green basketball program, right? A program that would have better W/L records than I think was ever recorded as a member of the Mo’ Valley Conference? In fact, did we ever win a Mo’ Valley BB championship? Yet you say Independent status killed UNT basketball?😳 Lets see now—-Roll call time: We had Bill Blakely, Fred Mitchell, Melvin Davis, Kenny Williams, Weasel Johnson, etc, etc. etc. who were all major players in our first few years as an Independent? It was a good Indy’ start until OldDenton took over again. We just couldn’t ever get it right up there. Then UNT would soon become a comedy of constant hiring errors. ✅ A DMN boxscore I can visualize even now had “10,700” as the official attendance of an Independent UNT basketball game vs SMU. By the way, a SRO Super Pit hasn’t happened since. (The main shame back then was how the OldNCAA kept automatic bids to their post season tournament to a very finite group of schools). I wasn’t around UNT in the 60’s, but it sounds to me like it may have been more about our years as mostly a “toward the bottom” feeder in the Missouri Valley Conference that kept college basketball rather small time in Denton. Independent status actually seemed to give UNT’s men’s varsity basketball program a new light & a new hope, but it would all be for naught since a (post Fry) UNT AD took the bull by the horns & marched us all the way down to a lower classification the NCAA called 1-AA. Now “THAT” was a killer (speaking of things that kill). So it’s 3 steps forward—5 steps backwards time once again as OldDenton is back in the saddle so...🎶Unhappy Times Are Here Again. The backwards & regressive mode of thinking & acting did so much harm to UNT & caused thousands of alums to not want to really get involved. We went from playing Tennessee to, uh, freakin’ Middle Tennessee? That was predictable & more similar would be on the way. One constant upside no matter if the NewDenton progressives or OldDenton regressives were in charge of our favorite school’s athletic program is how local business all did very well with the thousands of UNT students who had Mamas & Daddy’s charge cards in hand. ••• Truth reveals all & at times it pisses some off. Yes, we all have our respective versions of Truth, but which version tends to create winning athletic programs is maybe the one we should focus on at UNT &...Denton? ❇️🦅❇️ Still...Mean Green & Proud of it!

✅ Below video is for newbies of GMG who may have never seen it. This game was between 2 Major NCAA Independents that featured Bobby Bowden (in his 1’st year as Fla. State Coach) along with his Seminoles team vs the North Texas Mean Green. It was a cold but a fun day at old Fouts Field for Mean Green fans. The Seminoles narrowly won the game & then they had a snowball fight amongst themselves post-game. I believe 1 or 2 members of GMG even joined them. 😆 RIP...Coach Bowden. *WFAA TV—video is property of the G. William Jones Collection at SMU 🐎 ❇️🦅❇️

I am realistic enough to know UNT will most likely not soon attempt to go Independent, but then I look at 2 particular UNT AD’s--1 who actually did it & another I believe could successfully pull it off. UNT AD#1: This AD had the cojones In the early 1970’s to buck the norm at the Top of the Golden Triangle & would pull the trigger to make it happen. After declaring North Texas as a Major Independent, AD Fry would quickly schedule Oklahoma State, Miss. St., Fla. State, Miami (who we’d play after he left for Iowa), U of Texas-Austin (for 4 games initially) & of course, he added University of Tennessee (Knoxville) in 1975 for a most memorable matchup for the Mean Green. It was memorable for UT Vols Coach Bill Battle, too. That loss to the Mean Green would cost him his job! Shortly thereafter Battle would get a small loan from his Bama college coach Bear Bryant & then he’d start his College Licensing company—the rest is history. (Talk about somebody turning their 🍋 lemons into lemonade).😊 UNT AD #2: In Wren We Trust, we have an AD who (like) Fry would be un-afraid to take a road less traveled. I see in his accomplishments thus far & his persona one who would totally be fearless in putting such a major endeavor successfully together. Could you see Wren not making it happen? Would you ever hear him saying: “I could never put an Indy schedule together?” I don’t think so. To me it would be a piece of cake for him & MG fans all over Texas & beyond would be the beneficiaries. ••• In 1973 the Texas Almanac described Denton County as “a rural county of 99,000 population.” Now it’s closing in on 1,000,000. We all deserve more than trying to get excited about scheduling former FCS & D1-AA schools for future games. •••See AD #1 paragraph again. ✳️🦅✳️

Well, I did say it would be a roll of the dice & a gutsy move to try it? Wonder how USC would do it? Wonder how UNT would do it on a smaller scale? 😊Don’t worry, Joe, I’m sure Denton’s future Great Grandchildren will all remember from old stories told when North Texas got to actually play in a conference that included Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Tulsa, Houston & on the near horizon it could easily be UT-San Antonio, UAB & God only knows who else could pass us by if we live in the past & keep the old “Denton Teachers College small” mode of thinking. It’s just the way it is. No one is the lesser for it. I’ve had almost 50 years to see it be that way with a rare sustenance of success or a serious string of winning seasons. ••••• If we had had a 10 football season winning streak going on now its easy to see how our favorite school’s name would be mentioned in some recent re-alignment discussions. Yet for that many schools (as listed above) to pass us by has to eventually get people who are pointing at somebody else to take a look where the thumb is pointing back to. ❌ Sure we all can share some of the guilt on some of this, but today it is a brand new era & our constituency numbers are just looking doggone good. ✳️ After all, it takes a Mean Green Village. 🙄 🦅 GMG!

(Interesting article from Trojan Country). OldDenton, this is not for you—it would only raise your BP to read it or to contemplate it happening in “Little D” (still such a superb place to live with all that 🎶🕺🏼💃🎓🚴🏽‍♂️bohemian atmosphere). Said it before, but if North Texas ever wanted to remove itself (a la how TCU did it) from the quagmire of “Texas-based 30,000 seat stadium schools & CUSA”—there would still be only one way to do it. As in (fanfare) 🎺🎺🎺——Independent status! Yes, it would be a roll of the dice & and a very gutsy move, but can you imagine the Apogee home schedule we’d have annually? Apogee Stadium would have to have 42,000 seats minimum; only 11K more than we have now. An 8K double deck on Student Side & A 2K to 3K seat End Zone Facility all horse shoe’d in. Yes in deed, Apogee would have finally gotten past her puberty stage alright!🤭😳🤢 Happy reading! https://www.deseret.com/sports/2021/7/3/22562379/would-usc-football-usc-trojans-consider-leaving-pac-12-going-independent ❇️🦅❇️

Wouldn’t have happened on our part if the present UNT staff had been in place.

Not necessarily us, but what about the teams who had a miserable year last year, but the media says: “the good news is all 11 starters are coming back!😳

Of course, some of us drink maybe a bit too much green kool-ade (which has been known to turn into margaritas) but...barring another world pandemic, I look for the Phil Bennett “D” at North Texas to be the talk of next winter’s NCAA Convention. 🦅

As much as I liked Bean with his jack rabbit run around end against the Rice Owls for a long TD (an all time favorite MG play of mine); anyway, he didn’t seem to be embracing the all important “management of the offense” concept. Now all that may not have been all his fault, but I did see that Aune seemed a step ahead of #5 in getting the management aspects down. ••• I do hope, though, that Jason Bean tears it up as the Kansas Jayhawk’s QB. 🤠Do You Remember? Gosh! Many of us can remember when we’d have only 1 “almost” acceptable quality QB starter up there & we’d just hold our collective breaths if his backup ever had to come in & take over. 🦅

Lot of arms race copycatting going on. Check out numerous new locker room videos among even P5 schools as the giant logo in the ceiling is popular with most all of them. 🦅

After listening to Defensive Coordinator Phil Bennett on UNT podcasts along with his Baylor radio pals in Waco who have a podcasts, Coach B’s main yet simple theme is “getting those stops on 3’rd downs.” Sometimes such simplicity with fanatical effort on each play (a la the Urban Meyer theory) can produce very visible results. I think we have enough talent now to get some of those results. I’m pretty sure they’ll have the guidance & I think some of you feel the same now. 🦅

To me QB is down the list of concerns. Our Defense has to show up early this Fall albeit mid season is realistically when this team meshes. Makes for an interesting & most watchable season no matter what. 🦅

At some point if the PAC12 wants to continue talks beyond next Tuesday with the B12, sounds like ESPN and/or Fox would want to meet with both leagues to show them what kind of TV revenue package they would offer them as a combined league.

👍👍 🦅❇️🦅 🎂 (and many more). Glad you’re at UNT, Wren, taking us forward in difficult times. 🦅

Very well stated, Arkstfan. It would have taken me 4 single-spaced pages to say the same thing. You are many of ours favorite visiting poster on GMG.com. for a reason. Go Red Wolves! 🦅

The numbers tell it all. I think some chose the portal too quickly having no idea what was even behind Door #1, #2 or #3. (inspired by Monte Hall) 🦅

One media school of thought says the B12 remains at 8 until something else materializes. I think they could all split up & go their separate ways in due time. It is a self-serving world we live. 🦅

Oh, “the Ticket” is back to reporting sports instead of bathroom humor for 12 year old boys? “A well’a bless’a my soul.” (Elvis) ____________ At any rate & on a totally different front, here’s a cool link about sayings concerning sarcasm. https://www.quoteambition.com/sarcastic-quotes/ 🦅

I’d rather play ASU & U of Louisiana home & homes than former Lone Star Conference or SLC Texas schools (albeit we were once in the SLC ourselves). IMO, none of us at our level can really afford to topload our schedules with each other because we start choking out Top 25 vote opportunities for our respective schools. ••• In other words look who our group has to play (& beat) to get Top 25 votes as it is? 2 Ranked Teams: (1)? If Liberty U comes to Apogee this October & is still ranked that will be the 2’nd ranked FBS school my age group would have seen in Denton. (2) A 1974 UNT Mean Greem beat a 19’th ranked San Diego State Aztecs at the late, great Fouts Field. (The flying worm creator one late Rick Spears told me the Aztecs head football coach kicked & knocked the water cooler off the wall at their dressing room after their upset loss to the Mean Green. “AD” Hayden Fry sent him a bill for damages. Never heard if SDSU ever paid it. Thats it... ❇️🦅❇️