meangreendork

1. Haven't seen NT's defense hit that hard since the championship days :: It's beautiful to see it, too. Monstrous hits were laid on IU. 2. Big coaching error not to anticipate the first IU on-side kickoff :: Agreed. Their 2nd attempt was a cheapshot, too. 3. Great kick off coverage :: Generally speaking, yes. 4. Who cares if fans "rush" the field :: Looks like the posts are deep-rooted, but post-tearing seems out of fashion. Also, I'm okay with field-rushes for big wins. 5. Anyone note that Arkansas got 17 yards rushing against Alabama :: Yes. Our line was great for the run tonight. Great blocking really made a difference. 6. NT was doing a much better job of estimating the crowd at Fouts, honesty is not always the best policy 7. Lay off Thompson, he like the team has gotten better every week :: Agreed. Huge strides since FIU. Bigger ones since last season. 8. Enough complaining about the fabulous stadium; parking, walk, prices- At least act like you have been to a big time game :: Prices are reasonable, the stadium amenities and features do more than make up for it. Apogee is a better venue than the AAC in my opinion. The walk isn't bad, we all could use some exercise anyways. First world problems. 9. The Belt is wide open, FIU's loss guarantees that NT can still win the conference :: Our guys will have to beat MTSU and Troy. Both look strong this season. I have faith in our guys, though. 10. The Band was great, unless you can donate enough for summer uniforms, give it a rest :: It's 90+ degrees down there. As long as our band members are in a uniform of some sort, and as long as they perform well, I'm okay with that.

Scanning the Hoosier board, apparently Kiel was a steal of a recruit from one of the traditional BCS contenders. From what I understand, he's burning a redshirt AND he may have a sibling on their way to the Hoosiers.

Barring the cheapshot plays from IU, our D looked intense. I see huge improvement between tonight and FIU. Blocks are broken or just run over, tackles are fullbody, and our guys are swarming the ballcarrier. Tonight was impressive, despite improvements they can make.

Our passing game has to improve. The speed is there, it's just that the connection with the ball has to be made. There are peeks at what our passing game can be when it's dead-on. The talent is there, the proficiency has to improve. That said, our running game was great. I saw some fantastic blocks and pancakes, and of course, I saw incredible running from our RBs and QB.

The past interference call in the 4th was awful. The worst call of the night, really. There were a few missed chop-block calls that should've been called. Finally, there were a few ball-spots that didn't make any damn sense.

The D did a good overall job tonight. There were those plays where they were caught off guard, but without those less-than-sporting playcalls from Indiana, the game would've been 24-7. I'm glad to have seen the progress.

I like the idea of him being out this week, but I don't like the idea of his career being plain over. That's sad, man. That really is.

I would assume. Even if it's not your assignment, if you see it, call it. That's a poor excuse.

The best thing was the comment about how firing Dickey was a mistake. Anyone could've seen that Dickey wasn't able to keep the talent gap that he had in 2003 and keep it going. The rest of the SBC got better and his players didn't. That got reflected on the scoreboard, and that was reflected when Dickey was cut.

I feel better about this one than the Houston or Alabama games, having looked over the Hoosiers' record this season. I think our odds are good, especially since IU seems like it has some similar issues to our team. If we can pack the stadium and make it really hostile, and if our guys play like their first half for both halves, we can get a win here.

I want our guys to win just like the rest of us do. I'm hoping for something crazy awesome to happen, just like the rest of us do. But I'm realistic and don't expect a win. Even if we were ranked, it'd be hard to predict a win against Bama. They're that dominant. UNT - 7 Bama - 40+

I've never liked Romo. I think it's easier to call him out since I've never been a Cowboys fan, but it still stands that he is, at best, an inconsistent QB. With all of the money Jerry has, I can't see how they can't find a better QB. He's not a good fit for Dallas, and he's not really a good QB to begin with.

Missed calls include holding, late hits, unsportmanlike hits, encroachment, the list goes on. It's less on Houston and more on the refs, if you ask me.

Yeah, it was pretty harsh out there until the sun set.

He's one of our star players, no doubt about it. I think he needs to get some attention just the same as Dunbar.

Let's not forget some of the encroachment/neutral zone calls that were missed and somehow became false starts/delay of game penalties. More than a few occasions of UH on UNT player contact and UH player crossing the LOS while they were trying to show blitz. That officiating was terrible. It was some amateur hour officiating from that crew last night.

Ask FIU. They've got an ultra-competitive team in and out of conference this season, and they didn't pack nearly as many fans as we did for the UH game. It's more than just wins, it's also PR. If you ask me, the attendance was good considering the team's previous record.

I'm proud of them. They had the Houston fans worried up until the Keenum TDs. They were pushing the Cougars around and trading them shot for shot for the first part of the game. Honestly, they proved me wrong. I was worried our guys would do the same thing they did at FIU, and they didn't do that at all. They did a good job last night, and that's a huge improvement from where we saw them last season, and even at FIU. Houston isn't as good as they think they are. And our guys have a huge upside to them.

The first half had our guys look competitive with, and probably better than UH. Honestly, I think our guys outplayed them and were shafted by more than a few bad calls from the officials. That first half is a pretty good indicator of where our program is headed - and that's where it's competitive with the big boys. I'm anxious to see where Coach Mac can take the team after this, more than ever. Coach Mac made Houston think twice about their gameplan in just his first handful of months here. If he can keep the trend going with recruits and practices, we'll have a monster of a program. The second half showed the weak point of our team right now, which is depth and conditioning. UH's fast paced gameplan was a bit too much for our D, and our guys got worn out. Again, our D was up to speed with them for the first half, so the potential is there, but football is won in all 4 quarters. Same thing for the offense - they looked great in the first half, but they weren't as sharp in the second. They've gotta be conditioned better than this, and both sides of the ball need depth. As for the stadium - I'm more impressed every time I set foot in there. I love the way the field gives you a great view of the action, even at the concession stands. I love how the noise is really magnified in there - to the point it drowns out the PA. It's a top-notch stadium, and I love that we can get really close to packing it full. I'm being an optimist, but if Mac can make great improvements to the team in the next year or two, we can expect Apogee to be at or near capacity every game. More positives than negatives after last night.

That's a good point - he's their best threat and it really does remind me of the game against Army where their NBA-tall TE was doing serious damage to our D. This T.Y. kid is definitely phenomenal. He's their Lance Dunbar, and they've got a good line and QB.

I like knowing that FIU isn't a horrible team, but this is also a reminder of how far our team may have to progress. One of our best conference rivals is going OOC against a team that at point, should've been Top25 and they're beating them up. Thankfully, I believe that we have a coaching staff that can (and already has) recruited players of more than enough caliber to do the same.

If UNT wins: UNT+3 to 7. If UH stumbles but wins: UH+14 If our players don't show up and the coaches mail it in: UH+30 or more. I desperately want our guys to win.

I get the idea, but they should've found a better way to do it. The uniform execution was horrible.

I don't blame UH for feeling good about their odds. But that also means I fully expect our guys to go out and attack UH on all fronts and basically shock them into submission.

Everyone else knows that this is the gameplan for the Mean Green, that's the problem. Maybe letting Chico opening up the passing game early on would've pulled pressure off the running game, but I don't know for sure. I don't think I could have a game plan to win the FIU game. I honestly can't wait to see what the transfers can do for us next season.