Side Show Joe

If Morris does transfer to UNT, what a great Christmas present, and wonderful start to the new year. I'm not concerned about the 3rd string status. Bama always gets their pick of the litter in recruiting. I trust their ability to evaluate and develop talent. If Littrell can surround him with enough talent and the line blocks for him, he should have a very productive season in the new offense. Remember, Morris won't be facing SEC level defenses in C-USA. And from a recruiting standpoint, the addition of an Alabama QB will only help us land better caliber WRs. +1 to our new coaching staff.

I'm not writing this to knock on our athletic department, just wondering how you feel about exploring new technologies in the area of fan/customer communication. The wife and I took her father to see Creighton play the Sooners in Norman today. He is a life long OU fan and had never been to a game. It was my first time at Lloyd Noble. For those wondering, yes, I proudly wore my Mean Green gear to this game, and yes I got many odd looks for it. I bought the tickets about two weeks ago, and have received at least 20 emails regarding games and events at OU. Sadly, I know more about what is happening within their athletic department then I do about ours. Don't get me wrong, Within the past two weeks I have received emails from the Mean Green, just not as many and not as informative. The topping on the cake was when I checked my email tonight, I had received a "Thank You for Attending Today's Game" email. I can't remember ever getting one of those from our athletic department, and like many of you, I'm and season ticket holding member of the Mean Green Club. The "Thank You" email from OU contained pricing information for the seats we had today, for upcoming games against Iowa State and others. The email was sent out within minutes of our tickets being scanned at the arena. I tip my hat to OU for doing an amazing job with communication and marketing. I'd love for us to have this software too. I don't believe we have something like that right now. Again, I'm not knocking our department, I just want us to have the best possible chance to increase attendance (aside for our on the field and court performance). I think more in depth emails and adding a similar "ticket scanned" automated email system would help for both football and basketball. Observations - Lloyd Noble is a nice venue, but it isn't substantially better then the Super Pitt. It has better lighting and a very nice double decker 12 screen jumbotron with digital ribbon, but both are similar in size. OU does a great job of making sure that wherever you look in the arena, you see the logo, name, and slogans of their teams. I'd like it if we did that in our facilities.

Are we giving these guys raises, or are they coming to North Texas for the opportunity to be coordinators? Last season at Washington State, Harrell was making $211,500. Our last offensive coordinator was making $190,000 Ekeler was making $275,000 at Georgia in 2015, while Cosh received $180,000. I think it is interesting that we are attracting coaches that appear to be higher up on the food chain. Thoughts?

Back to the topic... I'm from the Houston area and grew up watching Mattress Mac wave his money around in commercials on channel 39's weekly Sam Houston Colosseum wrestling program. He is a local celebrity in the Houston area. Wish we could get him back to supporting the Mean Green.

I hate that RIce and UTEP are looking to leave. For me, they are the two biggest draws in C-USA for North Texas. If they leave, I can't blame them. They are just trying to improve their standing in college football landscape. This season, C-USA couldn't fill their bowl slots, and some of that is on North Texas (and Mac). When we post a 1-11 record, including the ugliest loss ever to an FCS program, it has ramifications. Rice and UTEP could have been reaching out to the MWC for years, but what we and some of the other teams in C-USA have done recently, hasn't exactly given them a reason to change their minds. If they leave, I will be very disappointed, and find it hard to get excited about the possibility of a restructured C-USA that would look even more like the Sun Belt Conference we left. I know Smatresk still has connections at UNLV and the MWC. He must know something about this.

John Papuchis He is currently UNC's linebacker coach. He was at Nebraska from 2008-14, including severing as Nebraska's Defensive Coordinator from 2012-14, so he must have experience recruiting Texas. He also coached at LSU under Nick Saban from 2004-07. Papuchis and Littrell were both graduate assistants at Kansas back in the 2003 under Mangino, so they go back a long way. Could be our guy. Bio http://www.goheels.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3350&ATCLID=209873041

This seems tailor made for Littrel's new UNT program. Knight isn't a great Big12 QB (except for the Sugar Bowl against Bama), but would be an amazing talent in C-USA. Maybe we will hear something in the next few days.

My prayers are with his family. I am very sorry to hear this news.

An action pose is nice from a distance, but football players wear helmets. That is a problem with action poses. It just looks funny when a player is caught in an action pose without a helmet. A pose of Greene standing after making a great play, with his helmet being held at his side by the face mask, would look nice, if his other arm was extended skyward in an eagle claw. Just my thoughts, but I'm open to others. I'll email the foundry and get current numbers. I can say this, if this were to get an official "okay", I'd start by placing an order for a large amount of J Mac clay. I'd have to build a suitable armature on which to construct the sculpture. I am an art teacher, so I would sculpt the statue in the afternoons, evenings, weekends, and summer. It could be ready for the foundry within 8 to 12 months. I can't say exactly how long the foundry would take. It depends on how many sculptures they have to pour. Usually, the foundry can cast a sculpture in 6 to 10 weeks. I know all of this sounds like a long time, but I'd rather make a quality statue then rush it. If you look at OU's Heisman statues at their stadium, they don't look very nice. Baylor's Robert Griffin statue has issues too. If we did this, I'd like for ours to look better. Mr. Greene would probably prefer it look better too.

I would need to talk to the foundry to get a more accurate estimate because the price of bronze changes, but somewhere in the neighborhood of around $65K to $85K. That would include the pedestal and installation.

I am very serious. I have thought the same thing, and would sculpt love to sculpt that trophy too. Here is a life size bust I created for TCU's College of Education about a year ago. It's installed in front of the Dean's office at the Palko Building.

You raise the money and I will make one.

Of course I'd love for Littrell to come in and sign a top notch Texas QB, but the realist in me believes we are probably going to have to establish an exciting and winning program in order to start drawing the better talent. So, I think Littrell might try to talk a solid QB recruit from around North Carolina into following him to North Texas. He may be able to land a kid that wanted to play in his offense at North Carolina, but didn't get an offer. Maybe a kid that was planning on signing with Wake or ECU, but would be sitting behind other QBs at those programs. The opportunity to contend for the starting job in Littrell's offense at UNT might be enough of a draw. Littrell could sell him on being the next Brandon Doughty to emerge from the G5, and helping develop North Texas into a BCS bowl team. This kid is planning on signing with Wake, but was interested in UNC. Jamie Newman

Don't forget Markie too!

I don't know anyone named Doug on this board. Are you implying this is an old poster hiding behind a new name?

I see no reason why a new poster like Matt deserves 10 negatives for expressing his concern. It isn't like he started bashing anyone. I don't share this concern about Littrell, but I also don't see any reason to slap him with a negative either. Welcome to the board Matt.

I agree. I like Littrell, but worry that he has never faced the challenges of developing a successful program within the parameters in which we have to work. We don't have the resources of any of the P5 programs he has been at. To me, he seems to be somewhat of a gamble.

We can't afford to drag our feet and look incompetent either, but as the days pass by...

I like Littrell, but I think I'd still prefer Meacham. Littrell probably is a better national recruiter, but we all know UNT isn't known for racking up airline miles to recruit players from across the country. Meacham would be better connected to the coaches and schools in DFW where we focus most of our recruiting efforts. Both have produced great offenses, but I like that Meacham has also done it at the lower levels in college football, where Power 5 talent is scarce. Just my opinion on the hire.

Can you elaborate on this quote? I don't recall hearing about this.

I'm not white, I'm not 45, and I'm not a pencil pusher. This issue has nothing to do with race, so I don;t know why you even brought that into it. For me, the issue is about what it means to be a "North Texas Gentleman". Our coaches have failed on the field. We all know that. But when I see Harris celebrating being kicked out of his final game at UNT, and other players on our sideline giving him high fives for it, we have failed as a university. I hope our president let those antics sink in and holds our athletics to a higher standard. That type of behavior doesn't reflect what our university is about. Harris will have a hard time in this world as long as he continues down the road he is on. And if you agree with his behavior, you will too.

Really? Who is it? Please say Meacham.

I've seen two targeting "no calls" in Bedlam already. Both by OSU. The refs better get it under control before someone gets carted off the field.

I had to watch this again after the game. Time to look forward to the future. No sense in dwelling on this season any longer. It is over and if we land the right head coach, better day are ahead.

You are correct. Apparently he signed to play with Oregon after graduating early with a year of eligibility. Wonder if Humphries can graduate by Spring?