MGB breaking news -- Key UNT player arrested

[Rudy]

Wow, two pages in and not one "He's lucky the cops didn't shoot him" from the usual suspects.

 

Progress,  I guess.

[Ryan Munthe]

3 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

Ya, those police are so stupid...

Putting your life and the life others in danger because you have an expired license is hilariously irresponsible.

[UNT90]

24 minutes ago, Ryan Munthe said:

Putting your life and the life others in danger because you have an expired license is hilariously irresponsible.

#fightthepower

[TheTastyGreek]

All of you cut it the hell out right now. 

[greenminer]

Too much facepalm in this thread.

[RBP79]

I love it...always something.

[UNT Mean Green]

17 hours ago, Harry said:

This is basically Littrell's first team rules violation situation.  I have to think minimum one game suspension which stinks for us because he was our best receiver next to Tee and we could have used him against SMU.

Littrell needs to make a point to the team about DWI.  Luckily no one was hurt on this one.  

Also, if he was with teammates they should get some wind sprints or something as they should t have allowed him to be driving.

Suspend any of these guys arrested in the offseason for the season opener and set the precedent that if they do it again, they are gone. Plain and simple and move forward.

[NTAlum09]

12 hours ago, Andrew said:

God forbid he actually talks to sources and does his job of finding the truth... But keep sticking to your Twitter "news feed".

 

Get over it

[GTWT]

12 hours ago, UNT90 said:

Ya, those police are so stupid...

This one apparently was.

Edited July 28, 2016 by GTWT

[FirefightnRick]

We are hardly ever in the Star Telegram for anything, much less given a top page headline.

.....but we are today.

 

Rick

[UNTLifer]

20 hours ago, mgmom2014 said:

Running won't hurt him.  lol.

Mom?  Is that you?

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

Seth Littrell has seen up close and personal a "key" returning player leaving a new coaching staff breaking in a new, spread offense.  It happened in 1999 at OU before Stoops' first season when highly regarded recruit Ahmed Kabba left the program after being pushed down the depth chart after a so-so spring showing.

OU followers worried whether or not Leach's new spread attack would have enough receivers after Kabba left.  Prior coach John Blake used, for the most part, an option attack.  So, like UNT now, the receiver cupboard looked a bit bare in the area of experience.

When questioned about Kabba's departure, Stoops said this:  "He's a fine young man, and we wish him well.  But I think we'll be able to find someone who can catch eight balls for us next season."

Granted, Smiley had a bit more experience than Kabba did.  But, Stoops' point was, the team was not going to make or break with just one player.  In reality, it was Stoops sending a message via the media to his new team:  "I believe we are good to go with those you who are working hard and sticking to the program on and off the field."

Smiley, here or not, suspended a game or two, doesn't matter.  This is a new offense that should have at least one player having 25 catches within the first three or four games. 

What Smiley and others need to do is check themselves off the field and keep their heads right with ball. 

As for Ahmed Kabba, he ended up being a head case.  He never played another down of I-A football:  
http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/ahmed-kabba-1.html 

Went here and there ( http://newsok.com/article/2663660), but ended up at NAIA Northwestern Oklahoma State where he wasn't even the best receiver.  He was overshadowed there by future NFLer Patrick Crayton and Ole Miss flunkie Michael Salters:  http://ranger3.nwosu.edu/athletic/football/Archives/2003/Online Football Media Guide.pdf.

Backup kicker Jeremy Bullcoming had more points than Kabba in 2002, Ahmed's senior year in Alva. 

So, don't be too proud of your 25 catches, Mr. Smiley.  This is an offense that will allow many receivers to have 25 catches a year.  Straighten up and stay on board...or, end up like Ahmed Kabba, third best receiver on an NAIA squad and scoring less than a guy named Bullcoming.

 

Edited July 28, 2016 by MeanGreenMailbox

[greenminer]

One of many things Dickey said that resonated with me was, after the Scott Hall injury:

We are going to win or lose with Andrew Smith, not because of him.

...it's on the Mean Green season DVD for the NO Bowl year we had with Smith.

I hope the team takes the same mentality whenever something happens like Smiley's fallout.  It seemed to work back then.

Edited July 28, 2016 by greenminer

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

44 minutes ago, greenminer said:

One of many things Dickey said that resonated with me was, after the Scott Hall injury:

We are going to win or lose with Andrew Smith, not because of him.

...it's on the Mean Green season DVD for the NO Bowl year we had with Smith.

I hope the team takes the same mentality whenever something happens like Smiley's fallout.  It seemed to work back then.

Exactly.  And, like the receiver left overs from OU's 1999 team after Kabba left, you want the players to say to themselves, "Good, I'm the next man up, and I'm ready."

OU's top 5 receivers in 1999 had 25 or more catches, their first year in a spread offense:
Brandon Daniels:  50 catches, 572 yards, 3 TDs - 1996-8, Daniels had been tried at QB, RB, and briefly in the secondary. 1999, his senior year, was his only year as a WR.

Jarrail Jackson:  44 catches, 583 yards, 6 TDs - 1996-98, Jackson was just another backup receiver, piling up 23 catches in three seasons.  1999, his senior year was his only as a starting WR.

Antwone Savage:  31 catches, 426 yards, 1 TD - Savage was a true freshman in 1999.

Curtis Fagan: 30 catches, 382 yards, 2 TDs - In 1998, Fagan had redshirted as a cornerback; he was a redshirt freshman in 1999.

Damian Mackey: 28 catches, 319 yards, 4 TDs - In 1998, Mackey had redshirted.  He was offered a scholarship when John Blake's staff was recruiting Mackey's high school teammate, Roy Williams, and he kept showing up in the films as well.  Mackey was a redshirt freshman in 1999.

On that 1999 Sooner team, which had a roster full of players recruited for an option offense, the top five receivers had never started before.  Three were freshmen: one a true freshman, one whose redshirt year was spent as a DB.  The top two were a QB switched to WR and a career long backup WR.

So...Smiley or not, Littrell was part of a program that basically had nothing coming back at WR in 1999...and, they strung together a bowl season in what was then a pretty tough Big 12 with then-perennial powerhouse Nebraska leading the way, very salty Kansas State and Colorado programs, and a Texas program on the rise in its second year with Mack Brown. 

Very few 1999 pre-season prognosticators gave Stoops' initial OU squad much of a chance of breaking even, much less qualify for a bowl.  But five guys who had never started at WR before - three of whom had never played in a college football game before the season began - led them there with a combined 183 catches for 2,282 yards and 16 TD receptions.  

As for Littrell in 1999?  Even though OU was running a spread, Littrell led the team in TDs with 8: 7 rushing, 1 receiving.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/oklahoma/1999.html

 

The fact of the matter is, Kidsy and Smiley would be nice to have.  But, anyone on the roster - long forgotten backup or freshman just stepping onto campus for the first time - can step up and be leaders in this type of offense.

The choice is the players' own.  They either will do it or not.  Kidsy and Smiley, though, should take heed.  This type of offense doesn't need one star receiver.  It simply needs a few who will be consistent...

...and they don't need years of experience.  They just need the will to win.  The will to succeed.  The piss and vinegar from deep within that the rag-tag, put-together-at-the-last-minute 1999 Oklahoma receiving corp had.

Word to ya mutha!

 

Edited July 28, 2016 by MeanGreenMailbox

[MeanGreenTexan]

14 minutes ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

Exactly.  And, like the receiver left overs from OU's 1999 team after Kabba left, you want the players to say to themselves, "Good, I'm the next man up, and I'm ready."

OU's top 5 receivers in 1999 had 25 or more catches, their first year in a spread offense:

...

 

I think you meant to navigate here:

http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/forum.php?s=583412cb3746c9f44d26c337d8c14750

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

No, I'm at the right place.  I'm just pointing out that Littrell has been on a team that supposedly had no star receiver returning in a spread offense that was being run for the first time by a new coaching staff.

With Kidsy's and Smiley's legal problems, this team now has that feel of, "Wow, our best two returning guys at WR might be gone."

It doesn't matter.  OU made it work with inexperienced guys in a much tougher conference in 1999.  Our guys can do it now...if they choose to do so.

It's just coincidence that Littrell, whose has lived through these type of circumstances as a player, is now leading a team with them. 

Again, as I've said before, I think this squad can win six games this year, even without Kidsy or Smiley.  Hope they can come along for the ride.  But, if not...this offense allows others with the will to do so to step up and pitch in for the wins.

Edited July 28, 2016 by MeanGreenMailbox

[Censored by Laurie]

4 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

We are hardly ever in the Star Telegram for anything, much less given a top page headline.

.....but we are today.

 

Rick

top...of page 10B. 

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

Oh...and, here's another similarity the 2016 North Texas squad has with the 1999 squad:  a QB who has transferred in that has never started at a I-A/FBS school. 

In 1999, OU signed Josh Heupel, who spent a year at I-AA Weber State, then a JUCO.  He had only one other I-A offer coming out of his JUCO season beside OU:  Utah State.

On Heupel and the returning QBs in 1999, Mike Leach wrote in his book, Swing Your Sword:

“...we didn’t have a QB in the program who could run our offense. None. Emphasis on the word none.” Sounds a bit like our situation that Harrell walked into, right?

So, he recruited unheralded JUCO QB Heupel in spite of other coaches' objections:

“A few of the OU assistants didn’t like Heupel, but I really did. They didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t run well. He also had a weak arm, but he could throw it 45 yards without the ball fluttering.” Sounds a bit like some of the complaints against Morris from some of you after spring ball, eh?

Guys, buckle up...we will win more than you think.  Littrell had been there before, has seen these situations; and, both he and Harrell learned from Leach.  If they are as comfortable with Morris' pre-season shortcomings as Leach was with Heupel's, I'm good with them.

And, again, anyone can step up at WR in this offense. So...

...word to ya mutha!

[UNT90]

Comparing a 1-11 UNT squad that participated in CUSA to 5-7 Oklahoma who played in a full Big 12?

lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol. 

[HoustonEagle]

Mid day internet ramblings. 

Being a child in the 70's and 80's I can remember seeing folks driving with one arm on the wheel and the other holding their beer.  It was illegal then too but not stringently enforced.  The national crack down on drunk driving in the mid 80's necessarily changed this and was overdue.  Do others here have memories of the same? It just gives me pause sometimes when I think how much things have changed.

[MEANGREENCOACH2]

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

57 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

Comparing a 1-11 UNT squad that participated in CUSA to 5-7 Oklahoma who played in a full Big 12?

lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol. 

Laugh, if you like.  But the 1999 Big 12 had three teams in the Top 10 in November of that year.  C-USA likely won't have a team in the Top 25. 

We're not in a difficult conference.

[Army of Dad]

55 minutes ago, HoustonEagle said:

Mid day internet ramblings. 

Being a child in the 70's and 80's I can remember seeing folks driving with one arm on the wheel and the other holding their beer.  It was illegal then too but not stringently enforced.  The national crack down on drunk driving in the mid 80's necessarily changed this and was overdue.  Do others here have memories of the same? It just gives me pause sometimes when I think how much things have changed.

Actually, it used to be legal to drink and drive in Texas in that there was no open container law and the officer had to observe you actually drinking the beverage.

[UNT90]

15 minutes ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

Laugh, if you like.  But the 1999 Big 12 had three teams in the Top 10 in November of that year.  C-USA likely won't have a team in the Top 25. 

We're not in a difficult conference.

And we aren't Oklahoma.

Did they only have 67 scholarship players? No

Did they have nothing but question marks at QB? No 

They were still Oklahoma. 

I just hope you aren't too let down when this fantasy comes crashing down. This is gonna take some time. 

[EagleMBA]

4 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

Actually, it used to be legal to drink and drive in Texas in that there was no open container law and the officer had to observe you actually drinking the beverage.

Those were the days! Of course, I could only afford "Estrella" back then (sigh).