wardly

i am afraid that in you think r.d. is best q.b. ever to come our way you need a history lesson. vital carlin and steve ramsey both had n.f.l. careers.in addition, i would put rick shaw, ken washington, jordan case,scott davis, mitch mayher, scott hall, andrew smith, and g. vizza head and shoulders above rilley.

call mandy mckinley at athletic department and ask her to send you ward white's tickets and parking paaa. i gave them to her saturday, so she probably still has them. any problems, e/mail me at wardly@tx.rr.com and i will call her. enjoy, ward

good news is that our offense has averaged 40 points per game in conference play. bad news is that our defense has allowed 44 points per game; hense we are 1&4 in league play. the defense has not shown an ability to stop anyone, and i have no reason to beleive they will. incidentialy, 3 of t.d.'s 5 wins in 3 years have come against w.k., another was ball state. for a parking pass and two 50yard line tickets to saturdays game[i will be out of town] , name the 5 th team he beat, year and score.

since rule change a few years ago moving kickoff back 10 yards from 40 yard line to 30, its unusual for any college kicker to put it in the end zone without a strong wind at his back.

how did r.v. blow a chance for new stadium 7 years ago?

since my freshman year, 1961, only 2 coaches have moved up and out, hayden fry to iowa, and jerry moore to tech.since 1980 we have hired and fired 5 coaches, [average tenure is 6 years], and record wise are no better off overall. while disapointed in our record, i think we are now competative with half of the belt. rember that when t.d. took over, the program was in disarray; scholarships lost to ncaa because of grades[we still don't have all back] , disciplinary prolems, friction within the department, etc. in addition, our promised new recruting tool[ stadium] did'nt break ground when we thought it would. mistakes were made, biggest letting t.d. bring his high school staff. however, in the scheme of things, what's another year?

we only have a handfull of seniors on this team, plus with exception of troy and alabama we have been conpetative. we had a total of 11 turnovers in middle, ulala, and fau games. i don't recall ohio, but giving game to middle we could/should be 3&4.i think dodge gets next year and then let chips fall where they may. thank GOD for w.k. of course, if we loose to them all bets are off. [alabama's state motto is " thank GOD for mississippi, otherwise we would be last in everything] i must admitt that being a north texas football fan the past 5 years is like being a resident of starksville, mississippi, where the town is so ugly motels charge extra for rooms with no windows.

we won sunbelt championships and went to new orleans bowl 2001,02,03,04. average home attendance for those years was 14,769;15,260; 18,694[baylor game drew 29,437], and 15,184. we have won 8 games 05 thru 08, and attendance has increased about 1,000 per game up to 16,000+. it might be who we play as much as how we play. go figure.

the number of honegames we play has nothing to do with average. neither does when we play them. other schools play friday after thanksgiving, and have more butts in the seats than empty benches. point is from 1997 thru 2007 our average home attendance was 15,000+, which is pisspoor.

la tech will never join same conference as la/monroe. in addition, monroe athletic budget is only about $6 million, and they have no t.v.market. conference realignment is based on more than won/loss records. look at s.m.u., with no baseball program and historic poor football/basketball programs. and yes, mac has 13 teams, not 11. my bad.

don't have 08#'s, but 07 was 17,734; 06 was 15,685; 05 was 16,446. most game attendance is not even close to 20,000, including saturdays homecoming game announced at 23,000. there were aprox, 16,000 in stands, rest never made it out of tailgateing parties.

point is that cusa is most likely to split when/if big east adds football only school, such as central florida. their conference has worse travel issues than the belt. at present the mac has 11 schools since marshall pulled out in favor of cusa. since w.k and middle are locked at the hip, the mac makes sense for them. i would hope that before i die that cuas splits and adds us, la-tech, and either a-state or ulala. i think the size of your athletic budget and market will be determing factors, as well as a conference sponsor and baseball program, which we don't have. i also think the alabama and florida schools would fit well into cusa east, and la-monroe go back to southland where they belong.for automatic ncaa invitation purposes, the east may fly the sunbelt flag and the west cusa. i don't see continuing to add 1aa programs moving to 1a gets us or the belt to where it wants to be.

rain or shine, our average home attendance since 1997 is 15,000, who are our core fans. pitifull support .

vegas has the over/under at 4 for qb turnovers.

this is a team sport. regardless of his individual stats, we have only won 1 game, and he gave ulala 10 points on picks pulse fumbled on about their 25. i bet he also leads conference in interception to touchdown ratio, and probably ranks high nationally as well. in colorado/texas game coach hawkins benched his qb[also his son] after two 1st half interceptions. i have a hard time beleaving that if our qb was not the coaches son he would not have replaced by nathan tune at halftime.

our starting qb has had 8 turnovers the past 2 games. am i the only one who thinks its time for a change?

when idaho is ranked ahead of all belt members, you know your conference sucks in football.

shows what a weak conference the BELT is, with 3 teams in the bottom 10. however, we have nowhere to go. with football attendance about 16,000+ as annual average,basketball 4,000,no baseball program, and athletic budget only in the $15 million range, we don't bring much to the table to attract interest from CUSAor anyone else. hope this changes if/when we get new stadium, but it will reguire far more financial support from alumni than they have given in the past.

in 2000 we were 5&6, conference co-champs because we beat middle tenn, who i think was 9&2, and went to new orleans bowl where we were pounded by colorado state. the game was poorly attended, low t.v. ratings, and embarresed the conference because of our record. this proviso would give the sun belt an out.

when is the last time north texas beat a mac team in any sport? in fact, what is the belts record in maior sports the last 5 years against the mac?

if you use the bubbas award as a guage, then wk and middle rank at the top of the sunbelt. since they are joined at the hip, i look for them to move to the mac if given a chance.[ strong bb and base ball programs.]i consider both the mac and wac a cut above the belt, and as regards nt football program, would also include the southland.

take existing cusa west, add asu, la tech, and unt for new swc. then take existing cusa east, add middle, wk, and usa for another conference[ or troy]. back to 1aa is ulala, ulm, fiu, and fau. 9 teams work well. however, putting the belt in a bag with cusa and realine based upon location and market to reduce travel costs and foster regional rivals is too logical to ever happen.

it will be r.v.'s next major project once the football stadium is completed. besides the sunbelts success in baseball, note cusa, which requires all members to field a baseball team[smu was grandfathered in]. i have to believe that at some point the 2 conferences will work together to create geographical balance for both.

two things jump out at me regarding the td hire. 1st, everyone i talked to thought it was great. 2nd, no one knew how deep the ditch was or the length of td's learning curve. he inherited an academic mess, which we are not out of yet.in addition, the new stadium promised him still hasn't broken ground. i feel 3 to 5 wins is realistic, and that he will be given 4 years to either have a winning record in the belt, or 5 to 7 wins overall. after than, all bets are off.