SCREAMING EAGLE-66

---O.J. ( picked #1) and Barry Sanders were both outstanding backs... but their teams could not win very much or even make the playoffs. Teams with defensive players like L Taylor who destroyed the Cowboys and Skins did, and only had a so-so offense but won a lot. Ravens is a good example also. ---I know fans love high profile RBs and QB's but they only do well if the rest of the offense is very good and they only win if the defense can actually stop someone.. I apparently are one of few in Texas that thinks this was a smart way to go but time will tell. Philly fans wanted Williams instead of McNabb and we all see how that worked out.. Bush may be a lot better than Dominck Davis but I don't think Bush would improved Houston wins that much... Watch offensive lineman be drafted with the next three Houston picks. That too is a big need. Houston was the only team to go several weeks into the season before they got a turnover. They needed someone on defense to pressure the other QB and get into the backfield.

We need about 57 Bowls .. that way everyone except Buffalo, Army, and SMU would get to go to one.

----I think Houston did the right thing. They also pick #33, #65, and #66.. and should be able to get some offensive lineman. Bush may be great but he would not turn that club around.... Buffalo had OJ and sucked during that era despite the fact he was considerd one of the best.. Later Detroit was awful as well and they had Barry Sanders and there wasn't anyone better at that time. The Giants had LT and a so-so offense and won.

I actually like the pick. Carr isn't Manning but he is good considered the time he has had to throw. A new Qb would take time to get better... No to Qb. Bush is better than Dominique Davis...probably...but Davis young and he isn't all that bad. I Doubt Bush would be a huge impact and give a lot of improvement. WRs... don't seem to need any great ones and really available. Houston drafts #1, #33, #64, and #65 ...that is 4 rather quick picks and they can't spend a fortune one just one player either.. Bush seemed to want a lot more than he was likely worth and might hold out as did Ced Benson who became near worthless (also Rivers for two years) .. Move on to option #2. Mario if he is as good as expected, he can destroy teams... L. Taylor of the Giants just destroyed the Cowboys and Redskins,and many other teams. This might be the same type person football ability..... time will tell. At least they did not just let the fans and public make their decision for them based on emotion or whatever. Fans love QB's and RB's, they are high profile, much more than lineman. the Texans got a position they needed and not one that already had a decent player for.. They were dead last in sacks last year..... They weren't in yards gained rushing or passing. Watch a couple of the other three early Houston picks go for offensive linemen. Plus the more you learned about Bush, the more personal baggage he seemed to have.....not good.

I wish the NCAA would create an 8 (or 6) team playoff which no more than one conference with two representatives. Other than that let the holiday bowl system continue for the teams that are not included in the playoff system... Those would have no bearing on the national championship but would provide a fun time for fans and players and give people somewhere to go during the holidays..... which is exactly what they were designed for in the beginning. That is pretty much what most bowls are now anyway. The New Orleans Bowl has had not any effect on the national Champion nor has the Sun Bowl or many others. This past year was rather unusual in that there wasn't much argument who the best two teams was so there wasn't the big need for a playoff sytem like there usually is.

---I hate fair weather fans... I am an alum of North Texas...forever..... win, lose or draw.... I may be disappointed or get disgusted with them at times but I am NT-alum and reserve the right to mouth off but I am still a North Texan...... My biggest gripe in past few years has been, show some self discipline and quit shooting ourselves in the foot with stupid penalities. Draft players who "want" to win and don't accept losing, who are decent students, and have good sense. ----State secret??... then don't tell VP Cheney or his staff.

Sports agents are not NFL employees and the NFL has little control over them.....Some are just lawyers so I really don't know what the NFL can do except ban players from the draft and that isn't likely to happen. Since most are senors there isn't much else you could do to them... the university gets zapped even if they nothing to do with it and was completely unaware of it. USC really did not gain any unfair advantage either... he was already enrolled and wasn't leaving. No alums or school officials were involved...... big mess.... no good answers ...returning the Heisman would possible but now he knows he really won it anyway.

Jamario 2006 has not appeared yet..it will be released in September.....LOL..... but I agree ... I hope the 2004 version shows up and that we have a line that punches some holes that he can run through. Let up hope "zips" is a rather close approximation of their score.

---Even worse are these coaches that do everything wrong, get a university put on probation, then resign and start over with no penalities. Meanwhile the school the left is forfeiting games, has their scholarships reduced and banned from bowls. Penalities should be assssed against coaches and somehow and these overaggressive agents as well. There are no real penality against senors eithers other than hatred from other alumni because their college career is over and the pro sports just don't care.

I didn't think the Bush family had to move out until 2008!!! Opps, wrong Bush.

Ricky Williams went to Patrick Henry HS in San Diego and Marcus Allen went to Lincoln HS in San Diego. I think you are right that there is a school in California with two Heisman winners but neither of those two are it. Terrell Davis went to Lincoln but did not win a Heisman. _________________________________- Found it in in Wikipedia: --- Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California produced John Huarte (Notre Dame-64) and Matt Leinart (USC-04), but Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas produced the first combo with Davey O'Brien (TCU-38) and Tim Brown (Notre Dame-87)

Funny!! ---Abilene has three religion supported colleges with ACU being the most fanatic. I lived in Abilene one year (during the period that Abilene High went 45? games straight without losing). It is crazy that the super religious fanactics can come up with things that no normal person would ever think of.... like the shoe thing. It has always been my observation that kids the kids that go crazy after leaving home either come from: 1. families that give no supervision, or 2. families that try control everything a kid does.... I am in education. Those who have never lived in West-Texas don't understand how competitive football is out here. I suspect partly because there are fewer "entertainment" opportunities out here. NT...recruit more West-Texans!!!! I grew up in Brownwood but have spent the last 35 years in Midland/Odessa. Both places love to compete and win. When I was at NT, (mid 60's), girls could not wear pants on campus until after 4:00 PM. (the end of the work-day). Times have changed. The difference in 1965 and 1970 on college campuses was huge.---[civil rights, Viet Nam, womens rights, drugs, music, clothing, attitudes, etc] There were two 1960's... the early "Beachboy, bubblegum" 60's and the late "Steppenwolf, protest" 60's.

The state of Florida is not the goldmine it once was... Not long ago there were only three instate division I schools to divide up the talent locally with a few out of state schools having some luck also... now there are many more-- Florida Florida State Miami ----------------- Central Florida South Florida Florida Atlantic. Florida International plus Spurrier is now at South Carolina and taking lots of talent as well. Texas recruits very few players from out of state... why need to?.... there is a lot of talent here. If you look close at their out of state ones... there is often a Texas connnection.....grandparents, alumni parents, etc.

---I graduated from NT in 1966, Brownwood in 1962. Yep, yawl Red-River Lions messed things up in the fall of 1966... Bwd won state in 65, 67, 69, and 70....also in 60 when I was still in HS. Yawl were good but we got a bit unlucky in that one. We were rated in top 5 at the time. One excellent BWD starter broke his leg on opening kick off and on the first play another good starter broke his also. I think one was RB and the other a WR but I am not sure about that one.. Two plays-- two broken legs ---and they were they only ones I remember during the entire 1960's. I think the rest of the game, Bwd played shell-shocked. McKinney won state in 1966 but we defeated them in 1967. In 1970 we defeated Plano but they defeated us in 1971 with a field-goal with a couple of seconds left. In the 1970's we had a lot of close unlucky losses. The worst ever was a Vernon/Brownwood playoff game in the late 70's when Brownwood scored on the final play and won.... so everyone thought. The ref declared the TD void and claimed the clock ran out. The film did not show that later. Vernon fans thought they had lost and Brownwood was celebrating but things changed after a minute or two. If it was a bad play--- the refs should have blown the whistle before we "scored" on a 20 yd play if we hadn't beaten the clock...they didn't. We lost another when the ref blew a call that gave WF Hirshe the win... the ref admitted publicly in a written statement later that he blew it when he misunderstood the safety rule and gave them them two undeserved points near the end... When the Bwd RB objected to the call, he was ejected making the situation worse. We lost by 1. We were rated #1 in the state, they were #2. Oh well, thing happen. Gainesville beat on a final game play also the semis one year when a Bwd kid lost the receiver that he was to cover.. We beat them in the state finals 1978 so we got a little revenge.....Brownwood wins a lot more than their share. These were won which each division only had one district representative and ONE state champion ....unlike today.. The starting QB of Miami Fla this year will be a Bwd grad. The current QB of TxTech is the son of a state-champion Bwd QB. As stated earlier ..we really do not like to lose....which is true of most West-Texas schools. Hello TI-Green-01... I did not know Carrolton had football teams... LOL...see you.

Brownwood-1962..... one losing season since 1957..... We do not like to lose. Seven Football State Championship teams in that period. Most of the above schools have lost to Brownwood...they rest haven't played them. Notable grads: Robert Howard: author of "Conan the Barbarian" [buried in Brownwood] Lawrence Elkins: #1 draft pick of AFL in 1965, first Rd pick (GreenBay), NFL. Jim Morris: "The Rookie" -actual pitcher.. he coached in Big Lake but was a Brownwood grad. Bob Denver: Gilligan of Gilligan's Island. Paula (Jill Jackson) of "Paul and Paula", recorded "Hey, Hey Paula!" and more.

SMU will never learn... the rules just don't apply to them. ________ From Yahoo: Doherty, coming off a 15-13 season at Florida Atlantic, would replace Jimmy Tubbs, who was fired April 6 after two losing seasons and an internal investigation that uncovered NCAA violations. Doherty's current athletic director at Florida Atlantic told The Palm Beach Post that a deal with SMU was close. __________ ---You can bet there is more to the firings than such minor things as soap and a few meals. There were serious matters or they were just using that as an excuse to fire him. I am guessing that with SMU's "dark" past that the NCAA keeps both eyes on them. Their football program got the death penalty in the 80's but I will bet the basketball problem there under Coach BLISS (same time) was just as rotten or worse. Bliss hasn't learned anything either.... he was the bad boy at Baylor a couple of years ago when all of that mess hit the fan. ----People may forgive but they don't forget..... SMU has been and is a rotten place and probably always will be. SMU motto: What rules??? You mean the rules apply to us???.

---Arkansas once recruited Texas especially East Texas very well for a large percent of their players... including Jinmmy Johnson. After leaving the SWC they were no longer a regular opponent of Texas colleges therefore East Texas was not been as easy to recruit from. That may not be the main reason they have declined but it is a big one. They just haven't been able to get top level coaches either... possibably for somewhat the same reason again.... it is difficult to recruit our of state players there and a new coach would realize that... no beaches, no winter sports, no big city nearby.....ie. no excitment except outside of school. ---In the short run it may mave been a smart move to leave... since the SWC has so much corruption in their programs and Arkansas and Texas (especially under Royal and Broyle ) seemed to stay with the rules. The conference also was not viewed that good anymore with several very weak teams...Rice, SMU, TCU....but long term it may have hurt them.... They would likely be a Big-XII team now instead of Baylor and that would have helped their recruiting area. --Baylor obviously benefited from their departure.

I don't think the Texas QB will have ANY experience. The Tech QB has quite of bit and played in many games last year. Okie State defeated Tech last year by making sure the Tech RB had no success catching or running....and won. The RB will be new and is the key, not the QB. I don't expect the Texas offensive backfield to be near as good as last year at least at first. I really don't know how much offensive line is left... it may be good enough for almost anyone to do well. That is a problem. Their defensive line just ran through ours offensive line last time like it did not exist. I have no idea how to "read" this game other than I am not expecting a win and am hoping we can keep it reasonable. After all, they were the National Champion..... I just know strange things happen (fumbles, goofy interceptions, runbacks, blocked kicks etc.) I am hoping for a near miracle. Remember TCU lost only one game... to lowly SMU.... No one expected it.

Priest Holmes wasn't drafted..............but Brian Leaf was early in the first round....... meanwhile Tom Brady was taken as the 33 rd pick in Round six. They don't always get things right.

SouthernStang still exists!! I had not seen a post from him in forever. He is absolutely ruining my terrible image of SMU folks. If the weather cooperates, the game will be a sell out. Hello TI-green-01!! Long-time no see. I hope to "appear" more often in the "plex" when fall gets here.

Agree----- Things are now in place better than ever before......no SWC anymore and some time has passed.... we have had some success lately (ignoring last year) ....we have a more recognizable schedule than many years...... We are a large diverse university now with more name recognition (helps recruiting)....... We really need to continue to improve and succeed in the next few years and hopefully this next one will be much better than the past one. The opportunity to succeed is now there... we need to take it.

Tough question... but I will say yes.... Now the reasons. ---In the Fry era and the Joe Green era and decades before then we had a severe problem that no longer exists........ the SWC. People in Texas and area only paid attention to teams in the SWC and the rest of the colleges were considered "minor League". SMU hated (feared?) us in that they did not want us competing with them for metroplex attention and did everything possible to "kick sand into our faces". We have become the 1000-lb gorrila of the area that can no longer be ignored and they have really shunk in stature. Even when Texas Western (UTEP) won the national championship in basketball and many NCAA national track championships, they were not accepted by Texas that well...... after all they did not play other Texas teams and were outsiders. ---Now there are many different conferences represented inside the state although the Big-XII gets a lot of the attention. It is now easier to get attention to get media attention without being in "THE" conference because they are so many of use not in the THE conference. ---We are now a very large university with only A&M and Texas being larger. Even the rest of the Big-XII teams are smaller. We have a lot more alums (and family of alums) and lot more people know about us than ever before. This is very noticable if you live outside of the metroplex area. We were often then viewed as a "teacher school" and not a diverse university.... we are now. Don't under-estimate having very successful people in DIVERSE fields (such as Dr. Phil, Norah Jones, Larry McMurtry, etc.) help the image and repetation of North Texas. Increased attention in any field helps the other areas including athletics as well. ---We have played in a few bowl games... we didn't for 40 years. It may not be a BIG bowl game but it is a bowl game and people notice them. ---When I was at NT we played in the toughest basketball conference in America and few Texans knew it. UCLA was the best team but the MVC was the toughest conference.. The ACC, SWC, and SEC was still segregated and was not even close to MVC with Cinn, Louisville, Tulsa, Memphis, Bradley,Drake, etc. We got litttle attention in Texas ..again because we were not SWC. ---At one time it was tough to even get a game scheduled against what was then SWC teams, now it is easier. Then there was about zero chance of playing a top rated team and appearing on TV. lately we have played OU and UT, both defending national champions on opening weeks of the season. We may may get "killed" but they are scheduling us unlike before. ---Our biggest need now is to win some big high profile games.... and it would help if some other SunBelt teams could also.... ---We should be able to recruit better than the past because the SWC is dead but a couple of oddities occur there. We got a lot good athletes in the 50's and 60's. because blacks had fewer other options (SWC was all white). Later Fry was rather unique in that he seemed to find good athletes that had been unnoticed and he was able to run an unusually diverse offense (for the time) that really exploited the talent that he had. He was a great motivator as well and got the most out of what he had even if he had less natural talent than his opponents. He also had a very likable personally and was able to recruit rather well as well as coach.

My thoughts..... with your definition of close, I don't want to play you in horseshoes.

---Some good basketball teams and NCAA success also would help promote the league also. You are absolutely right.... the Belt will gain credibility if several teams can step up and win some good non-conference games and be competive against name teams. We can not just do it alone. We need to support each other.

---Might help if he were "Hobnobbing" with 50-300 fans at some country clubs with multi-million dollar members. Especially some at the 19th hole who want an ego trip and a stadium named for them. Perhaps buying coaches memberships at these places would help some. The increased "revenue" might dwarf the cost. ---Do you think Mack Brown and UT does this???