vpackrats

7 of us heading out -- most of us getting in on Wednesday Staying at the Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf hotel. Muir Woods National Monument on Friday followed by the 7 of us going to the SF Giants game that night (like a lot of others apparently!) Saturday game time all day of course. Not sure on Thursday. Sonoma wine tasting? Still planning that one ... looks like a lot of people are going on this trip. Game on!

I think Mason's grit is 5x that of Luck's. I thought it was super odd that Luck couldn't play football for months because of leg cramps and an ankle problem. I was like, really? Turns out from ESPN tonight it says "Luck said on July 30 that he wouldn't return until he was 100 percent healthy, with part of the reason being he still had "emotional scars" from the 2017 season". That says it all right there. Who is ever 100% healthy in the NFL?! Heck, you have hockey players playing with broken toes, collapsed lung, etc and this guy can't play cuz his leg doesn't feel good? Meanwhile, Mason is out playing on 1 leg against Utah State and wants to keep playing. I normally don't question athlete injuries but Luck has just seemed kind of wheels off 3 of the last 4 years.

Is UNT Playmaker still around? If so, you're in luck. Although his expertise is more in hurricane forecasting. ;)

Sounds like there will be quite a few of us going to the SF Giants game Friday night. We should all wear UNT gear ... easy for us to stand out in the crowd of black and orange!

Does this post go in the "Football" forum or the "Climate Change / the earth will be uninhabitable in 12 years!" forum?

A few minor future non-conference scheduling notes for you while we're waiting for the real football season to get here. * Noticed that we replaced Rhode Island with Northwestern State for 2021. That should make some people on the board happy as I know many were not enthused with Rhode Island. Also, getting a former Southland Conference mate to play here will definitely bring more people than Rhode Island would have. * Speaking of Southland Conference teams, SFA has been moved from 2022 to 2023 creating one more open date for us in 2022.

Again, love the graphic Ian! I mean, ipd054 -- haha. So, all those listed on the map that we've been on together (currently 10) plus I need to add the following places not on the map: Baylor TCU SMU (both Ownby Stadium & Ford Stadium) Rice UTSA Stephen F. Austin So, 16 different universities plus the Superdome, Texas Stadium and the Cotton Bowl in neutral site games. Looking forward to September for our 18th annual football road trip! 🙂

I don't think anyone's smoking funny cigarettes or drinking too much Jagermeister. It's more of a fact that the Winter Classic is going to be a sellout. At the bottom is a link to a DMN article re: same and here's a quote from NHL Commissionier Gary Bettman about the ticket sales from that article: "The presale for the Winter Classic exceeded 60,000," Bettman told me before Game 6. "It's the second best we've had in our 27 outdoor games. It tells you what an incredible hockey market this is. People are really responding to the Winter Classic." https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dallas-stars/stars/2019/04/22/thanks-incredible-hockey-market-stars-predators-becoming-one-nhls-popular-winter-classic-matchups I spend my disposable $$ on basically two things -- UNT football season tickets and Stars season tickets (with 4 others to keep the prices reasonable). As a huge Stars fan, I can tell you hockey on January 1st at the Cotton Bowl is going to be epic. Can't wait!

I'm in. Group size TBD as I haven't sent out the "recruitment" email yet ...

So, funny story on that ... I organize a road trip each year for the "biggest game of the year". Doing it now on 16 years. Anyway, one of the members of our group that usually goes to these things has a new small mountain cabin a few hours away from Laramie. And so, yes, he's already putting the pitch on to come out there to the cabin for 2026. I'm like, um, let's worry about Cal first! But, yeah, I know of at least one person tryna to get to Laramie in 2026. haha

Soooooo, is this a NT vs. NDSU thread or a referendum on Dan McCarney? Methinks the comment thread has jumped the shark. Maybe spin the topic wheel and create a separate McCarney thread? Just sayin 😉

Off topic but I have to say I wonder if more teams want to think about bringing back this allegedly "obsolete" offense? Look at what Army did to OU with it (not a fluke). It may be the perfect antidote for 90% of the defenses that know how to play against the Run n Shoot and Air Raids but little else.

Interesting Top 10 list. 0 positive comments / 10 negative ones. Maybe change the headline? "Top 10 reasons our 9-4 season sucked this year?"

College Football News showing us some love ... Pete Fiutak has the Orange Bowl #1 (of course ... it's Oklahoma vs. Alabama) but look who he has #2! (Yes, over the Cotton Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl, etc). Can't read his mind but from his blurb it sounds like our early kickoff actually HELPS us in the rankings, not penalizes us like some of us were thinking. This is awesome! 2. Gildan New Mexico Bowl Saturday, December 15 2:00, ESPN, Branch Field at Dreamstyle Stadium, Albuquerque, NM North Texas vs. Utah State Even with Utah State head coach Matt Wells off to Texas Tech, this should be a wild and crazy shootout. This is how you want to kickoff a bowl season with lots of points and plenty of big plays. https://collegefootballnews.com/2018/12/how-good-is-your-bowl-ranking-the-bowls-from-worst-matchup-to-best/4

Wonder if the reporter will put this "gem" of an article on his resume when he applies for a job at the Washington Post or New York Times? Prolly.

Dangit man! Quit using stats and verifiable facts to prove KSU has had sustained football success over recent history. I want speculation, innuendo and random hot sports opinions that say KSU isn't that good!

I'm starting to think their "inside source guy" is living in his parents' basement and taking a break from playing Call of Duty and/or Rocket League to troll people and get people to freak out. If so, it's working...

Man, I don't know what to think about this anymore. I do know I've spent a good chunk of time over the past few days reading 25+ pages of comments. If this doesn't happen, I think there are a lot of people who should be tagged with "fake news" labels. Sorry. "Seth is gone -- I have it from a good source". "He's gone in the next 24 hours... I know people who know people". "The word I have on the street is he's gone ... book it". Heck, we even decided Jimmy Sexton was making posts under an assumed fake profile. And so it goes... But it does prompt me to ask what I'm doing wrong? I've been a season ticket holder since 2003 and all I know is the esteemed Brett Vito when I had my one interview with him when winning a Regal Eagle bus trip raffle years ago. So, other than that, nothing. I need to start knowing people so I can start cryptic mysterious posts for people to take to the bank. "The rooster crows at midnight...."

One more comment on the "it's too far" theme. There are 14 CUSA schools. We are the 2nd closest out of the 14! UTSA is actually 116 miles further away (and 2 hours 10 minutes longer) than from Denton. Other than UTEP, we ARE the closest. Yes, Frisco, Indy, FR, etc would be nice but guess what ... not a single CUSA team is playing there so it should be time to move on. Of the CUSA teams I actually think we have the best matchup. Heck, poor champion UAB is playing 8-5 MAC champ Northern Illinois who lucked into their win over Buffalo. There should be IMO one CUSA team with a legitimate right to bitch -- Southern Miss.

Well, if we're all hot and bothered about not being able to send fans to NM because it is "so far away", how do you think Marshall fans would have felt being sent to Albuquerque a 2nd year in a row? At that distance from WV nobody is thinking about setting up charter bus rides, etc. What happened made sense. You may not like it, but it makes sense.

Thank you for this. Spot on. I woulda given you a like but maxed out my emojis for today. And I would add Utah State has a much better record than Colorado State did last year.

I think the bowl date has a huge factor in our HOD excursions. While UNLV was a "meh" draw who didn't bring many fans, the January 1st bowl date was tailor made for anyone coming to Big D to have blow-out NYE events & then head to the bowl game the next day (I.E., make a vacation out of it). Army was a much better opponent who brought way more fans but the December 26th bowl date is just a damper on attendance as a general rule. Exhibit A is last year's match up of West Virginia vs. Utah. It's really hard to convince friends & family to travel to Dallas for Christmas and a bowl game the next day if you're out-of-state. Again, a January 1st date is waaay better for that. That's why I think the First Responder Bowl tries to keep it local or with an out-of-state team that would still have a large local presence (BYU).

Guys -- I think I really need a break from this bowl talk. I've been following it so much I just had a dream about it last night. We were all set to play Nevada in the New Mexico Bowl when we pulled a last minute switch and accepted a bid for the Lewisville Bowl. Lemme tell you, we were not happy playing in a 10,000 seat high school stadium. Everyone was complaining that "Al Goldfarb Stadium" was just too small. So, hopefully that doesn't happen. And hopefully no more weird dreams tonight. haha

Ummm, no. Here are two links from Pete Fiutak with College Football News showing him as the #4 rated candidate for the North Carolina job and #2 for the Texas Tech job. https://collegefootballnews.com/2018/11/kliff-kingsbury-fired-5-top-candidates-for-texas-tech-job https://collegefootballnews.com/2018/11/larry-fedora-fired-5-top-candidates-for-north-carolina-job .. and the only reason he is rated #4 for UNC is because "Littrell is probably more likely to take the Texas Tech job". So, it's not just Vito. Unbiased national writers know what's up too ...

I wouldn't put much stock in Jerry Palm's predictions at this point. In the same article he has Top 25 Army and BYU staying home since they are Independents and there are no bowl slots left to take them. Yeah right.