UNTJarhead0802

I think it'll be close, but we're not ready to win in this kind of game. I hate being a realist, however, Tulsa is good. Very good. I think we'll play well, but a young team with inexperienced offensive line I just don't see how we can. It'll be a game until they pull away in the last of the fourth. 38-21 Tulsa. I really am hoping against my prediction, though.

I was actually pretty hacked when upon upping my donation to the Mean Green Club I still wouldn't be able to buy a game worn jersey, even if I yanked the name off the back of it. Not a happy dude. Hopefully, though, next year they'd be available. The ones at GoMeanGreen suck. I want the Nike schwag.

I like where your going with this, but, I will say this, and I hate saying it. The DFW area is fickle, at best. tu and A&M own the college football market, for both alums and people who went to Academy to buy the shirt. DFW doesn't care about SMU, because SMU is an afterthought- they've been that way since late 80's post death penalty. TCU has a very small market share, and it's centrally located around campus. It's far and away the most recently successful Texas college football team, and that's the only reason they have the fans and attention they do. Even when we were winning, we were still an afterthought. There are truly only three teams that the DFW area cares about- the Cowboys, the Longhorns and the Aggies. As sad as it is, its the honest truth. What hurts us more than anything else is the apathetic student population who are t-shirt fans of other schools, to include my sister. Until the new student body becomes the base of the alumni, and they obviously care more than any other group (thus far if only for the new stadium), we are fighting an uphill battle. We have to win local, and that needs to start with Denton. Once Denton is entirely green, then we will be in a position to move to the rest of the area. Crawl, walk then run. We're starting to crawl. Let's worry about the other stuff later.

North Texas State hasn't been capable of making plays in a number of years. Now, North Texas, on the other hand, can make plays.

Pretty awesome, would have loved to have thunderstruck in the background or something. Obviously, we're not ready to come into Sandman... YET

Anybody have a video of the us taking the field? That's the one part I missed watching the game on ESPN3. Would be greatly appreciated if a video were posted.

I never developed a hatred for SMU until I was reading some of the stuff they were writing about us on Ponyfans.com. Now, I really want the opportunity to play and beat the senseless. We're turning the corner, and I hope the students saw that yesterday. Just keep showing up. A win over a Big 10 team will dramatically increase student interest in the team. Oh, and on NTdaily.com, it's pretty funny to see some of the "fry st counterculture" complaining about the football game.

Never thought it'd be a freshman option only quarterback scoring the first touchdown. Are defenses really keying on Dunbar or is he just beaten up after the last two years?

I think the big problem tonight- 1) We threw everything we had at the first half and it showed. 2) We just didn't have the horses to keep up with a more talented and experienced Houston team. There's a reason they're probably going to end up well into the top 20 this year. I saw a lot of improvement today. I think there's a lot to look forward to throughout the season. I just hope that it wasn't the first game phenomenan and we have empty seats throughout the rest of the year. I saw some bad tackling, some stupid mistakes, blown coverage, but admittedly our defense leaves much to be desired. We can go ahead and take what we can from next week, but I feel pretty good going into the Indiana game. I think we're setting up nicely for conference play, and if we can maintain this kind of a home crowd, it'll be a pretty huge improvement from last year.

had tickets, couldn't fly in for the game drew watch for the night had to give them up. Please someone tell me about the atmosphere. I'm loving how we're playing, but how's the crowd? Are we loud?

Look, if we're going to rebuild, and we're trying to find a foundation, and this kid has the goods, get him the experience. I'm not saying thrown him to the wolves, but for sure lets get him out there. I like Thompson, but if we have an opportunity to build with this player, and from what I just read he's someone that we can, we need to figure out ways to play him. He can run, and if we get him confident with some playing time, lets do it. This kid and Chancelor could be something special if we start to build him up now.

Drinking my dinner at Cool Bean's... It's still there, right?

What Go Mean Green shirts? Information and pictures please.

That's a bummer, man. Was looking forward to him being able to contribute on a contender. Was and always will be a huge Cobbs fan.

South Florida has a track record of poorly attended games at anything not involving convicts in orange and green. Fickle attendance is truly the hallmark of all sporting events. Between UM and the beaches, nobody is interested in anything that draws their attention from hedonism (confirmed by a friend who went to FIU). Heck, they even couldn't get loud for a do or die game 6 against the Mavs. However, we in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. When we were the defending champs, we couldn't draw crowds bigger than 20k. We go to a school where the most popular merchandise seems to be any school not North Texas related. I think this is the plight of most Sun Belt schools. I think the needs are in place to get the new stadium rocking, we have the electric and quotable head coach, we have the student population, and we have the fertile recruiting grounds to do it with. I just hope that the apathy lifts, because honestly, what 4 star recruit wants to play in front of a rowdy home crowd of 14,000?

Apologies for improper grammar, I just caught that.

Obviously, one of the best parts of college football is a heated rivalry. However, given the fact that we have not been successful in recent years and a complete lack of regional in-state, conference opponents, it appears that we do not possess one. I know for a fact that we hate SMU, but they seem to pay no attention to us. Granted, Matt Simon tried to create a rivalry between us and SMU (the Safeway Bowl, as it's been titled based on his comment "if they want to play in a Safeway parking lot, name the time and date and we'll be there), but it never came to fruition. MTSU and Arkansas State was there for a while, as well as the NMSU game (our half-assed attempt to bring down the goal posts was the last undergrad game I went to) were fun. But, has it all gone wry simply because of our feeble teams lately? What is it going to take to get a team that we hate to hate us and vice versa? I feel like we're getting the shaft in this all important aspect. In the mid 2000's, it seemed like decent competition between us and TCU were developing, but obviously that has gone since TCU has become not just a regional power in a mid-major to a BCS bowl champion. I think that there's a lot of interesting sub-plots with the SMU game. The rich kid school that trust funds built vs what is predominantly a working class school, two teams with marked previous success now suffering from inferiority complexes in a football crazed state and area, and a number of other factors. However, the last thing I want is what I dub "Maryland syndrome", where we develop a rabid, deep seeded hatred for a team that in the grand scheme of things that couldn't care less about our program (Duke repeated chants "You're not our rival" during Duke/Maryland games). SMU and TCU are obviously the preeminent game in the region and SMU also has the Rice game (the Mayor's cup). Just thoughts that popped into my head while I'm doing artillery homework on a four day weekend. Thoughts?

I can agree with the Scott Hall comment, I can agree with stealth recruits, however, we did win because of the fact that the big game hunters in Austin, Norman and College Station weren't interested in anything but blue chip recruits. At that point, we were a viable option to get exposure for their talents before TCU returned to prominence, SMU became serviceable and Houston was throwing the ball all over the place . Once they returned to respectability, we were no longer relevant because we were driven down lower and lower on the food chain based on history, tradition and outright name recognition, while FIU, Troy and FAU can feast on left overs from Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State and Miami. But, we can win. I use SDSU as a reference one, because my fiancee went to San Diego State, and two, they have three big name programs in the state (UC, UCLA, USC), a pretty decent alternative that puts a pretty good team together year in and year out (Fresno State) and a school to the north that has become a full blown powerhouse in the other major conference (Oregon). However, they had a miraculous turnaround. Winning is a culture, and it starts with small steps. It will work, just not over an off-season.

Based on what I listened to and what I saw before my internet crashed out, it was going to be hard for Thompson to get any throws off with the kind of protection he was getting. Plus, it didn't seem like the receivers were interested in helping him very much. I would say until he personally costs us a game, which I assure you he did not tonight, see how he plays and develops. Scott Hall went through similar problems, and lets be honest Andrew Smith (rest in peace) only had to hand the ball to Patrick Cobbs and Kevin Galbreath. I think he'll be fine. First start, regardless of whether it's Miami or FIU or UGA or whomever, is always the toughest. Let's see how mentally tough he is before making a decision

The pieces we need will have to be found through trial and error. Once we find our guys, we'll be fine. But we have to find a way to more importantly protect Thompson or whoever is playing QB. The dudes took some shots. I have faith in the Thompson kid, but they need to bring the ball thrower out to practice and make the receives use those things until their hands fall off. As far as the missed tackles, it was far worse in the Dodge era, primarily because they never practiced in pads. Someone on defense needs to put their foot into everyone else's arse IOT light a fire into them. That receiver assaulted us singlehandedly.

I just think that everybody was going into this season with inflated expectations. We have a good head coach who has a track record. He knew what he was getting into. We have to face the fact that we are going to be moving from a gimmicky high school style of coaching which I don't care what anybody says set us back a long, long time, to from what I've been understanding to be a strict, stern disciplinarian style of football. Even the sports writers were saying that in order to win this year more than 3 or 4 games, it would take smoke and mirrors.

Dunbar is better than this, but when they're stacking the line against you, and from what I was hearing that is exactly what they were doing, its hard to get a head of steam going. The field goals are inexcusable.

This is a cyclic sport. For the longest time we were the bullies, and Troy caught up with the same recipe for success- be the little brother eating off the scraps of your major conference big brothers (in their case, it was Alabama and Auburn.) Florida International has done the exact same thing in a talent rich environment. It worked for us in the middle of the decade. No one could touch our talent level because we were getting the 3 star left overs from the Big 12 guys. We had success, enjoyed it, and others took our mold and ran with it. Now, we have to catch up. Its going to be painful, but it will happen. Not this year, this year needs to be about learning how to win, how not to make stupid penalties, how to chew your offensive coordinator's a@# for making stupid calls, question the heart of your offensive line and get them fired up and change the culture. Stupid penalties went away. Do that, continue to sell the program to the students, get them in the seats, generate some schools spirit so people don't wear USC or Texas gear to class. Continue to do that, make progress, win 5, maybe even 6 games this year, and we're set up nicely to have a very similar turn around that SDSU had out in the MWC- primarily because I see alot of similarities between Brady Hoke and Mac. I'm done ranting.

Would you prefer run Riley left, run Riley right, run Riley middle, stretcher run to Riley?

Conference realignment is the least of our issues. We just need to get some semblance of respect back. To think that this season making or breaking us in the bid to move to the Mountain West or the WAC or C-USA is a bit beyond logic. If we win six games, with the patchwork roster we have, beyond the limited talent compared to what Troy and FIU have, I will consider this to be wildly successful. The Coach will continue to help the team evolve, and we will see results. I just think we need to put visions of grandeur away for a while.