How bad do you want it?

Army of Dad · September 9, 2015

I 100% disagree with you. Winning bowl games and even going to bowl games will draw more interest and Mean Green Club members. People want winners and in order to go to a bowl game you have to win 6+ games. Its no 10 win season but 6 wins is a great season for UNT.
As Far as Fans go...Are you serious? Their fans are awful and could be the most clueless people on planet earth

Remind me how much of an increase in MGC membership and season tickets there was after our bad @ss HOD win.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Army of Dad

TIgreen01 · September 9, 2015

Beat dirty schmoo in their stadium and we still get to go 6-6? We haven't tried that. Only whooping schmoo and then following it up with a gawd awful season. Is one of those 6 also beating utsa?

Another question---how the heck do you actually attend the Bahamas bowl? It's my understanding that resorts are booked solid around Christmas. Would you have to fly in and out in the same day? How would you get a room with 2-3 weeks (max) notice??

Cerebus · September 9, 2015

Remind me how much of an increase in MGC membership and season tickets there was after our bad @ss HOD win.

Is that a product or a salesman problem?

I say the bowl, I can't stand SMU football but the extra month of practice you get for a bowl game is too much to turn down.

Aldo · September 9, 2015

I don't know, we went 8-4 and beat a sort of someone in the Heart of Dallas bowl. How did that do for recruiting?

Check the 2-deep.

meanrob · September 9, 2015

Check the 2-deep.

I have. Just because younger players fill the 2-deep doesn't mean they will be good/great players. I'm hoping that's the case but it is not yet.

I hate hypotheticals but since this is SMU game week.....give me a smackdown of the ponies on the Hilltop.

Edited September 9, 2015 by meanrob

greenit · September 9, 2015

1. Kill smoo

2. Whatever else.

Eagle1855 · September 9, 2015

But our problem is the fanbase, in my opinion. That's first. I don't think our recruiting or schedules will improve until the fanbase comes around. SMU is better for the fans.
I just don't think winning the Bahamas Bowl will help attendance or donations.

Our fanbase is not the problem. Losing is the problem. You want to go to bowl games every year. Even if it's not a big bowl. Playing in the post season matters for perception and it matters to the kids playing the game.

JRock · September 9, 2015

Our fanbase is not the problem. Losing is the problem. You want to go to bowl games every year. Even if it's not a big bowl. Playing in the post season matters for perception and it matters to the kids playing the game.

This.

GreenTexan13 · September 9, 2015

Another question---how the heck do you actually attend the Bahamas bowl? It's my understanding that resorts are booked solid around Christmas. Would you have to fly in and out in the same day? How would you get a room with 2-3 weeks (max) notice??

If you go to the bowl website, they talk about announcing vacation packages later in 2015. Maybe the people behind this bowl prepare and somehow reserve rooms for fans? The price for the resorts for the bowl is probably astronomical!

"Travel packages for the 2015 Popeyes Bahamas Bowl will be announced later in 2015. Stay tuned for more information on how you can see some of the best teams in Conference USA and the MAC battle it out on December 24, 2015 in Nassau’s Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium"

http://www.bahamasbowl.com/travel/

Withers940 · September 9, 2015

Remind me how much of an increase in MGC membership and season tickets there was after our bad @ss HOD win.

Well I dont have the numbers in front of me but from what i remember it didnt up tick a damn bit but if you go to a bowl game twice in three years you generate more interest. I am not saying you will get Million dollar donors but you might increase season ticket holders because people want to watch a winning program, not a program that wins 2-4 games a year

LongJim · September 9, 2015

Yeah, it's about perception. Get on TV as much as possible. Play in as many games as you can. You have a pretty captive audience during bowl season. SMU doesn't mean jack in the grand scheme of advancing the program, as far as I'm concerned. Sure, it's great to beat them, but it's much less important long-term, if you ask me.

Aldo · September 9, 2015

I have. Just because younger players fill the 2-deep doesn't mean they will be good/great players. I'm hoping that's the case but it is not yet.

I understand that, but it at least means they're better than any other option we previously had at the position.

greenminer · September 9, 2015

AN EXTRA MONTH OF PRACTICE.

It hasn't benefited us 100% in the past because we didn't have our other crap together. How can you possibly downplay an extra month of practice? I'm of the belief that it was a huge part of our early Sun Belt successes. Maybe I'm wrong.

MeanGreenTexan · September 9, 2015

Yeah, it's about perception. Get on TV as much as possible. Play in as many games as you can. You have a pretty captive audience during bowl season. SMU doesn't mean jack in the grand scheme of advancing the program, as far as I'm concerned. Sure, it's great to beat them, but it's much less important long-term, if you ask me.

Well, no need to downplay beating SMU in the "grand scheme". Beating them means a little more than jack, especially to DFW recruits. I agree it doesn't mean as much as the TV time & extra practice time, & just overall being a winner.

DallasGreen · September 9, 2015

Make SMU implode. That was one thing that I highlighted as the bright side of last season,... Beating the SMUts. You cannot tell me that a Bahamas Bowl would put the same satisfaction in us, over seeing UNT run up the score and watch their fans leave the stadium in disappointment during the game.

I say BEAT SMU or the other scenario will not happen! I think getting routed by SMU would kill the season and devastate recruiting in DFW. They will be more than ready. It's not how bad I want to BEAT SMU ( which is THE PIVOTAL game to our season to me) but that the team, fans, coaches, and students want it as badly as I do. I do think wins and losses that happened pre WWII should not be considered in looking at the series.

Green Mean · September 9, 2015

And you can't get better players without filling the stadium.

A good program that wins with a good/decent coach can recruit players. You have to win and get/develop better players to fill the stadium...not the other way around.

UNT Five&Dime · September 9, 2015

Can we choose:

1. Lose to SMU

2. End Season 7-5

3. Beat SMU in a Bowl Game

?

Caw Caw · September 10, 2015

Two questions:

Who do we play in the bowl?

Do we win?

DeepGreen · September 10, 2015

Gentlemen, smut is our first game of the season. A little premature to be talking about bowl games.

A catchy phrase I came up with many years ago and still holds true today, "let's just take one game at a time".

Beat the crap out of SMU!

Edited September 10, 2015 by DeepGreen

MeanGreenTexan · September 10, 2015

Gentlemen, smut is our first game of the season. A little premature to be talking about bowl games.
A catchy phrase I came up with many years ago and still holds true today, "let's just take one game at a time".
Beat the crap out of SMU!

That's the beauty of Emmitt's original post. Take a gander. This is not a prediction thread. This is a hypothetical thread... "which would you rather?"

Eagle1855 · September 10, 2015

And you can't get better players without filling the stadium.

It seems to be working for UH, Rice, Texas State, and SMU -- and that's just in-state. There are a lot of programs that recruit well (well being defined as "better than us") without filling their stadiums.

DeepGreen · September 10, 2015

Thanks for pointing that out. I'd rather "crush" smut and finish up with at least a winning season. Better for recruiting, and damn, we need all the help in recruiting we can get. Plus, I could care less about the Bahamas Bowl.

97and03 · September 10, 2015

Oh that. I thought you meant "it."

Eagle1855 · September 11, 2015

UH sold out every game in the early 2010s and still averages in the 30K range. Rice and SMU are private, every private (except for a very few exceptions) have these problems. Even TCU. It's not working for Texas State, they recruit pretty similarly to us and aren't "successful".

The reason UH filled the stadium was because they were winning. Now UH has a brand new stadium they can't fill. Sound familiar?

Not sure what it matters if SMU and Rice are private schools -- they both consistently out-recruit us. Our school is three times the size of theirs. If we had a proportional increase in attendance, Apogee would be sold out every weekend -- and then some.

Better players want to win games. Better players sign up with programs that either have a winning tradition, a staff that has proven it can win, or a staff they believe has what it takes to win. To which of these categories does UNT belong (if any)?

As for Texas State not being "successful," they've consistently improved every year since moving up to the Sun Belt while out-recruiting us along the way. And it surely isn't because the fans are showing up in droves to their glorified HS football stadium.

Give me a string of bowl games. Get people around the state used to seeing us win more games than we lose, year in and year out. That's how you turn a brand into a winner.