stebo

I don't know if you were kidding - but running the ball into a wall 35-40 times a game will beat you up and possibly shorten a career, grrr.

J-Mo is working at my old bar and he works both the door and behind the bar. I don't know if this is his case - but it is not uncommon for athletes to take on part time jobs while they are still trying to train and catch on somewhere. He is a hard worker and well thought of according to the guy I passed the bar on to. When we escaped the rain game a couple of weeks ago - there he was, and just about every TV in there was on the NT game. I imagine that he is like most ex-football players - hoping to get a shot somewhere still and if not - what the heck am I gonna do with my life type of stuff (again, a guess - I didn't ask him). I had more than a few of those work for me between the two places over the years. He will be fine - he is a young guy and is having a little fun. I spent 8 year there and turned out just fine Go by and say hi after the game, I would bet he will be there.

BTW - it makes you register - but you can vote 20 times in a day after giving them your name and e-mail addy. No big deal - she has slipped to third now so she could use your votes.

Don't worry Love - we all know that you are one of the 4. Maybe you and saysojoe can go bowling together.

This is exactly what I was trying to say in my post yesterday. But you know what? There are like 3 or 4 loud mouths that are making it seem like a fan uproar. Message boards can make a message from a few people seem like an entire fan base complaining. I think that 98% of the Mean Green Nation is behind Dodge's plan for Bama and ready for the MUTS.

winning the Belt coming off a 1 win season or a vanilla effort against Bama? Bama paid us $900K for a win and no effort or coaching was going to change that. Those are bought players on that team and they are the best in the nation. If we had nothing to play for this season then I would be all for a gun a'blazing aproach to that game. But we should be 2-1 right now - our QB is hurt and we need to keep the rest of the team healthy going into Sun Belt play. If we want to win 5 or 6 games this year - we cannot afford to lose players in a game that is for nothing more than pride and a paycheck. Thank god there is only one of those this year. I don't expect to see this type of lay down during remaining games - they didn't lay down during the first two games and it kills me to see people turn on this team. Keep your head held high and please don't listen to the Vizza "I told you so" haters. Our QB is down and we need the rest of the team to stay healthy until he heals. Hopefully we can recruit more QB's as talented as Riley but he is the best we got for right now. In order to run this system - the QB has to be mobile and accurate. Vizza was mobile but not accurate. Tune is accurate but not mobile. Riley is both - hopefully he will be back for the rest of the season.

I like our chances of ending the season above the MAC again. At this point, the Belt should be cheering for our opponents that we have beat - Kansas State, Maryland, UAB, etc... The higher they go - the better we rank. When conference play rolls around the conference rankings pretty much lock in. Schools move up or down but the conference average is tough to change with the exception of late season OOC games. Anyway - here is to the Belt - wouldn't it be something if we passed up both the MAC and CUSA in one season? It is a possibility... 1 PAC-10 (A) = 79.41 78.44 ( 1) 10 2 ATLANTIC COAST (A) = 78.34 78.12 ( 2) 12 3 SOUTHEASTERN (A) = 76.18 76.46 ( 3) 12 4 BIG EAST (A) = 76.11 76.03 ( 4) 8 5 BIG 12 (A) = 75.18 74.76 ( 6) 12 6 BIG TEN (A) = 74.90 74.91 ( 5) 11 7 I-A INDEPENDENTS (A) = 70.45 69.45 ( 8) 3 8 MOUNTAIN WEST (A) = 70.05 69.62 ( 7) 9 9 WESTERN ATHLETIC (A) = 66.11 66.56 ( 9) 9 10 CONFERENCE USA (A) = 63.71 63.99 ( 10) 12 11 SUN BELT (A) = 62.39 62.44 ( 12) 9 12 MID-AMERICAN (A) = 62.37 62.64 ( 11) 13 13 BIG SKY (AA)= 58.39 58.79 ( 13) 9 14 COLONIAL (AA)= 58.34 58.08 ( 14) 12 15 GREAT WEST (AA)= 57.07 56.90 ( 15) 5 16 SOUTHERN (AA)= 56.12 55.24 ( 17) 9 17 MISSOURI VALLEY (AA)= 54.91 56.22 ( 16) 9 18 SOUTHLAND (AA)= 53.35 53.58 ( 18) 8 19 OHIO VALLEY (AA)= 48.98 50.83 ( 19) 9 20 IVY LEAGUE (AA)= 47.25 47.07 ( 20) 8 21 BIG SOUTH (AA)= 45.13 45.86 ( 21) 7 22 SOUTHWESTERN (AA)= 44.64 44.46 ( 22) 10 23 PATRIOT LEAGUE (AA)= 44.07 43.26 ( 24) 7 24 MID-EASTERN (AA)= 44.05 44.24 ( 23) 10 25 NORTHEAST (AA)= 38.84 39.33 ( 25) 8 26 I-AA INDEPENDENTS (AA)= 33.16 33.37 ( 26) 4 27 PIONEER (AA)= 32.72 32.71 ( 27) 10 28 ***UNRATED*** (**)= -90.00 -90.00 ( 28) 1

The Belt keeps on getting better... Hopefully we get Riley back by next week so that we can beat the MUTS. They will be coming in on a high after beating Memphis and Maryland back to back.

Funny that the picture above was from New Mexico State - hardly a "regional" team... Find me a sellout when TCU and Houston came to town... You won't - because we sucked at the time. We have to have a winning team (or a team with a chance) and the crowds will come - whether it be Tulsa, Rice, Houston, SMU, TCU, or FAU - most fans could care less about going to see Houston or Tulsa or SMU... they want to see the Mean Green win.

She traveled from Florida to California to take on Harvey Milk in the 70's. Rent the movie "Milk" and they have a fairly good portayal of the history. I don't want to get political in the football forum - but it shocks me that Bama has a part of their stadium named after her (or anything for that matter). She is a controversial woman - well, she was.

She was also a major opponent of Gay Rights. She led campaigns all over the country to take away as many of their rights as possible. Bitch.

Ok- so let's say that the Big East somehow expands by 4 teams to get a championship football game - in the process they lose their 8 strong basketball members. The amount that the game brings in will not be worth the dilution of the BCS share. Plus - they have now lost their basketball units and most of the strong basketball teams that bring in those units. They lose in every way, you know? There is a reason why the Big East kept put at 8 football teams and dumped Temple - they don't want crap. Memphis is proposing that a BCS conference take them on because they want to "will" it... Well, that is just not logical. And not for $120K a year for a consultant. Remember when Stallings "consulted" for NT? He came in and told us what we needed to do in order to be a viable Div I program. Tranghese will do the same thing - he wll tell them that they need to spend more, get more donations, win more games, and have higher attendance. For the small price of $10K, I would be willing to tell them the same thing. That is essentially what Stallings told NT and we have been working on it ever since. In fact - Stallings told us to not even consider replacing Fouts until we started filling it consistently - well, we are now somewhat filling it consistently - he was 100% right. Also - if you are a Memphis fan - right about now you are calling for your AD's head. They just lost to MTSU and got beat by former CUSA member (#6 out of 8 in the Big East) USF in their bowl game last year - a team that they used to handle easily. Well, this is a nice distraction for him. He can make it look like he is trying to meet their wishes. And then someone ELSE can tell the fans what he has probably wanted to SCREAM at them for the last couple of years - "You are not good enough for a BCS conference yet - you need to do x, y, and z to get there!" Just my opinion And what spot would be open in the Big 12 North? I am very open to that - but have never heard it as a realistic expectation. I believe that if the Big 12 were to expand, TCU would be the likely target - despite being a private.

If he had the power to get it done - he would have got it done in 2004 when they added THREE schools. These guys are lifelong friends but he couldn't get Memphis in during a THREE school sddition? Sure - they wanted a Florida Market - but why would they take Cinci over Memphis? If this guy had any pull, he would have done this already. And if they really thought he could pull it off, they would be paying him a LOT more than $100 grand a year. It's worth MILLIONS a year to be in one of those conferences. IDK about the all conferences going to 12. There are some conferences that have 12 that are regretting that Championship Game because an upset can happen and someone can get left out of the big game. The money is good but the BCS money is better. Memphis is a good school but they are not a BCS school. BYU, Utah, Boise - maybe. Memphis - well, they have not even been able to get into a BCS game as a bubble buster. They got spanked by the MUTS last week. All the elements are in place for Memphis to go to a BCS bowl right now - all they have to do is finish ranked #12 or more. But they haven't finished anywhere close to that... Have they even been a top 25 team this decade? Yes, their basketball is very very good - but BCS is about football, not basketball.

And they think that they can buy their way in with $120K a year salary? That is comical. This is one buddy helping out another that is not "quite" ready for full retirement and isn't a candidate to do tv work. Nothing more, nothing less.

Geez, that place is STEEP. $65 bucks for a 65% cotton/35% poly polo shirt???

I believe that we can beat any team that we play. I think that teams that have that attitude - well, they win. This was a heartbreaking loss - can't believe that 17K showed up in the terrible weather to tailgate and watch the game. I think that we can beat Alabma - is that crazy? ULM beat them. FIU gave them a hell of a game for the first half last night. Why can't we beat them?

I think that we could beat Bama with Riley. Hope he is back and I hope we go in there with every intention of WINNING the game.

This SEC game of the week on Ch 21 is turning into the Sun Belt game of the week. Last week it was Tenn vs WKY. This week - Troy vs Florida. Next week - NT vs Bama. Very very cool. The game is on right now if you are interested in watching.

Dude, what the hell is that? Wrapped in bacon?

Is the new stadium capacity 22K? I saw that you had 14K fans for the opener. Does that concern you? TSU is in their 3rd of 4th year of this push and averaged 11K in the stands last year.... is that progress? Honest questions - just looking for how they would help the conference. Basketball draws around 700 fans? Or was that just a post about a certain game? The Belt has a problem here - you have demonstrated that if the moratorium is lifted - your school is committed to move up. Problem is - could you meet the requirements? What would a game against FIU or FAU draw? South Alabama - a start up program who is already in the Belt had 27K fans at their first game against a High School/Junior College... What is missing? Why would the Belt want to split our small amount of BCS money 11 ways when we will just be adjusting to splitting it 10 ways with USA coming on board? Also, the Belt has been known as the conference that will take in teams moving up and we are trying to shake that image. We don't have a choice with USA but that might be a good thing given their first game's support. If they offer football at FBS level - we have to let them play in the Belt - its in the Bylaws of the conference (actually - they have to play in the Belt, too - it goes both ways)... The La Tech rule, i guess. I am sure you will have great answers - you always do. And I hope that we could start small with Texas State-San Marcos coming to Denton for an OOC game to see the level of interest. It's been a long time since we played and that was IAA ball. People tend to be nostalgic about those times but the fan support was absolutely terrible at NT. Also - I would imagine that any negotiation with the Belt would ask that you be called by your full name, the abbreviated name hurts NT in many people's opinions. Just being real - I hope you all make it - but Texas has 10 FBS schools. 11 might be too many.

Well, at least you have a reliable source.

Ah man, that was funny. Bob, did you know that 47% of all health care receipts already go through the government's systems? Hope to meet you at the game - we can all concentrate on Mean Green and stop worrying about those damn cripled people. Did you see the town hall where the lady in the wheelchair was being yelled at by the anti-health care reform guy? He is my hero.

Rick - I don't want to pick a fight. I am sincere when I ask this question. What are your feelings/thoughts about the Patriot Act and the Constitution? Again - I have to be very careful in how I ask this - I am not trying to trap you into an answer or anything - just curious as to how you feel the Patriot Act works with the U.S. Constitution? I consider you a friend and do not want to get into a political fight. I know that you have strong opinions and am leary of even posting this question - just looking for your insight/opinion. Steve

Granted, the Colonial Conference had a heck of a week knocking off some auto bid BCS schools - so they are just a hair above us (the Belt)... but we are just a point behinnd them and the MAC. I think we will pass up the MAC again this year after falling behind them last year (we beat them in 2007). That means another unit of BCS TV money. Heck, FIU hasn't played yet and ASU as well as UL were penalized for playing FCS teams (their rankings went down). Sags don't mean anything until the 5th or 6th week but NT went from 167 to 121. big jump for us! http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbc...nterstitialskip

I just saw kids running down the streets with swastikas tatood on their heads, screaming "Heil Obama!" - do you think it has anything to do with the "Be Cool, Stay in School" speech today? Watching these parents on Fox News is like a comedy show - the ones that wouldn't sign the permission slips - I think I counted one full set of teeth (between 6 people combined).