Huff

To quote Lee Corso on ESPN College Football Gameday....."Not so fast, my friend" When it comes to the product on the field, the head coach has to assume responsibility when things don't work well. Saturday night was a great example. We stunk up the place. Darrell Dickey must assume the responsibility because it is his team. When things don't go well in parking, admission to the stadium, etc it is the athletic director who must shoulder the responsibility and as many have already commented lots of things did not go well on Saturday. It is great when our AD is willing to pitch in and get the lines moving. My question is "why were the lines like that in the first place?" We got to the game later than we usually do and found only one gate open on the press box side. That is rediculous. The scanners ARE slow, but they are the same scanners that were used last year. Did we not learn from those experiences? What was the deal with people not being allowed to bring in their own stadium seats? I head an announcement saying that those people who had their stadium seats confiscated could come pick them up. I have never heard so much grumbling from fans about this type thing in all the years I have attended North Texas football games. In short it sems that RV's "team" performed about as well as the football team on Saturday night. I do agree with the fellow who said that it would not be a problem next time. I am afraid that between the game and the mess to get into the game a lot of our casual fans won't be back again this year. That is a shame....

Patrick Cobbbs has been named Offensive Player of the Week and Maurice Holman has been named Defense Player of the Week by the Sun Belt Conference. What a great way to start the year.

I think Moot Point hit it right on the nose. There will not be a hotel room available anywhere close to Denton on November 5th. Folks who might want to come from any distance would have no chance of finding a room on Nov 5th. November 19th is a bit late, but it was a better choice than November 5th,

Please ignore my previous post. I got the Florida Atlantic and La-Monroe schedules confused. At my age, confused is about the only thing I do well.

It is always easy to find solutions to other people's problems so....... If La-Monroe does not want two consecutive open dates they could move their game with Florida Atlantic from September 24 to October 29 in order to let North Texas play at LSU. Florida Atlantic is open that week. It would give La-Monroe an open date between road trips to Minnesota and Louisville. The home game with Florida Atlantic is their only home game in September. That would push their first home game back to October 15 Vs Middle Tennessee. That would not be a good situation for them and I could understand why they would not want to do it, but I wonder if anyone has approached them about this.

At some point in time we have have to quit chasing our dreams and live with reality. I reached that point in my life. Many of you others did, too. I hope that Brandon will get back to Denton and finish the work for his degree. That will open some doors for his future that continuing to try to play in the NFL will not. Brandon has had many great moments at Fouts Field of UNT. I hope his next one is at the Super Pit wearing a cap and gown.

We now have two schools in Florida that play football. Perhaps a site in Florida should be considered. At least it might be warm there at night in December.

Go to the LSU board "Tiger Droppings". It is one of the best of their sites. Click on "The Tiger Rant" on the left side of the board. Read the thread that is titled "North Texas Goes Ahead With Pep Rally". There are some neat comments from LSU Tiger fans. They are worth reading. Someone who is a lot smarter than I am can probably post a link to that site.

My wife and I attended the President's Council function last night in Ft. Worth. Several of the higher level UNT staff members were in attendance. The concensus opinion from them was that Homecoming was going to be moved to allow us to play LSU on that date. There was not any concrete information available about when we would then play UL-M. I hope the deal works so we can play them wht week before Thanksgiving. Any games in December - except Bowl games - would not be good.

This was one of the lead stories on the Channel 8 News last night. It was some great positive attention for the University as a whole and especially for the Athletic Department. The Channel 8 news did interviews with some students at the Pep Rally inside of Fouts Field. It was pretty neat.

I heard a report from a Red Cross representative on TV that said the thing they need most is CASH. The items like bottled water, etc are great but good old USA currency is what they need the most.

IT WAS AFTER THE 12TH GAME WAS ALLOWED.

An article in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram last Spring listed TCU nonconference games for the next several years. North Texas was not on the list. At this time I don't think the Frogs will play us unless it is in Ft. Worth.

Rick, there are a lot of stadiums around that have tracks between the stands and the field. Texas and Texas A&M are two that had tracks but later removed the tracks. If you will look at the one in Austin you can see in one end zone that the first seats are WAY back there because a track was once there. Kansas has that situation if I remember right. I'm sure that others can give other examples. When those were build, that was the way it was done. When we get our new stadium I hope they will build a track facility somewhere else so that our first row of seats can be closer. I also hope that the first row of seats will be slightly elevated so that there are better views for anyone who wants to sit in the front row.

The article is now available through their on line edition. I loved the quote by Coach Dickey speaking of Jamario " There were some times last year when the play would start early on , and one of the coaches would say 'Where in the hell is he going', Dickey said. Then we'd look up and say apparently he's headed for the end zone". That is funny.

I would bring back Scott Hall. While others may be better players our biggest need for 2005 is an experienced quarterback who can pass well enough to keep defenses honest. Scott could do that. He didn't have gaudy numbers, he just got the job done.

Jim if you don't like the Kelly green we could always go to John Deere green. It is about the same shade. What do you think?????

I would agree with Adler and others who say "School Pride". I was going to say the attituden at the University and the perception of the University to those outside the UNT community but SCHOOL PRIDE says it all.....

North Texas is having one of these things this year. My wife got an invitation to attend. I believe the date is August 1st. Mrs. Dickey and another lady are the hostesses for the event. I am not sure how many ladies will attend this event but I think it is a good idea.

Today's print edition of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram had a story on Dr. Pohl leaving North Texas at the end of the 2005-06 academic year. A statement and quote from Chancellor Lee Jackson caused my jaws to clench. In the article it said ....."UNT chancellor Lee Jackson praised Pohl and wished him well but declined to say whether he would have offered Pohl an extension next month when his contract was up for renewal. "I'm not engaging in any hypotheticals" Jackson said. "It is not appropriate to be speculating about things". I know some of you guys got really upset with Chancellor Jackson over the branding deal. That one was just one more in a long series of changes to school colors, logos, and names at North Texas over the last 35 years so it didn't bother me as much as it did some others. Hayden Fry changed from Kelly green to apple green. He changed the name of the teams from Eagles to Mean Green. He brought in a new logo - the flying worm. A few years later Fred McCain became athletic director and the Kelly green came back. We became the Eagles again. A few years later during the Hurley/Helwig years a lot of money was spent to develop new logos for the school (The term "branding" had not been invented in those days".) That is when we came up with the Forest green color, the full Eagle with extended claws, the Eagle head that was on the football field, and the star with UNT going accross and up. A few years later Rick V came in. We changed from Mean Green Eagles to simply Mean Green. We were no longer UNT we were just North Texas. The logo on the helmets changed. To the best of my knowledge none of these people surveyed fans or conducted any polls before making these changes. So, when Chancellor Jackson led the charge to change the color and logo of the school it was just one more in the continuing list of changes at the school. In my opinion Dr. Pohl is the best thing that has happened to North Texas in a very long time. He did lots of things to involve more people in the decision making process at the school Several new buildings were constructed and some great progress was made in several academic areas. He is one of only two presidents at North Texas during my years of involvement with the school that has recognized the value of a quality athletic program to a University (Jitter Nolan was the other one). He is the only President of the school that I have seen at a football practice. When the Chancellor of The University of North Texas says that he is not willing to comment on the wisdom of offering this man a new contract it was the straw that broke this old camel's back. Lee Jackson is an idiot.

Boy, this hurts. Dr. Pohl has done so much for the university in general and athletics in particular that words really can't express it. He will be a tough act to follow. My hope is that Bobby Ray and the other members of the Board of Regents will get someone of a like mind to fill this slot. We really do not need to take a step backwards at this time.

I joined the Mean Green Club again this year and gave a little money over a three year period to the stadium fund. I realize that contributions by folks like me cannot build a new stadium but maybe it can help finance an extra thing or two for it.

There was a very nice column by Ray Buck in today's Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. It talked about how Jamario Thomas was getting nice publicity in the video game NCAA Football 06. It went on to talk about how quiet and courteous Jamario was. It also quoted Patrick Cobbs. It was a very positive column and one that all North Texas fans need to read. It is available from their on-line edition and their print edition. I sent a Thank You note to Mr. Buck and would encourage others to do the same.

I would take that in a New York second. This year is a little scary for me. People in the Belt better take their shot at us this year due to the number of new people we have to work into starting positions on both sides of the ball. We have a chance to be awfully tough in 2006 and 2007.

I'm not as interested in what he will say that day as I am in November when we play them. Florida Atlantic plays Middle Tennessee on the day you mentioned. You are right, though. They might get beat by 20 points that day.