Litrell is allowing us to be proud again

[Harry]

After last nights win, I felt pride again about this program.  I felt hope again for the first time in a long time.

Some of the Rice Coach post game comments show how shocked they were to lose to us and how low the view of our program is amongst other conference members.

I don't hate Dan McCarney as a person, but I sure hate what he did to the self esteem of our program and fan base in the last couple of years.

Littrell has come in here and in a short amount of time brought us all hope.  Our fans are starting to believe and get excited about the future.  I truly appreciate him for doing this. GMG

[GMG_Dallas]

5 minutes ago, Harry said:

After last nights win, I felt pride again about this program.  I felt hope again for the first time in a long time.

Some of the Rice Coach post game comments show how shocked they were to lose to us and how low the view of our program is amongst other conference members.

I don't hate Dan McCarney as a person, but I sure hate what he did to the self esteem of our program and fan base in the last couple of years.

Littrell has come in here and in a short amount of time brought us all hope for the future.  Our fans are starting to believe and get excited about the future.  I truly appreciate him for doing this. GMG

I'm definitely drunk on the kool-aid. Per espn, we are favored to best UTEP and 42% likely to beat UTSA. Army looked like a sure loss after they pummeled UTEP but after giving the Buffalo Bulls their first win of the season 23-20 in OT, I know we can win that game. Buffalo by the way had lost to Albany and Nevada before beating Army. Most other teams in our conference have lost games against seemingly lesser opponents as well (losses to Troy and Akron come to mind for some of our conference's elite). This gives me confidence that we can really look at this year as not just a building block but a confidence booster. I also believe with some nice additions in the trenches and more experience, we will be good next year.

Come.on, Mean Green! Don't let me down!

[UNT86]

I've been pleased at how quickly our defense has improved.  Week 1, they looked just like last year.  They still dive at the ground a little too much, but they have learned to tackle a little.

They also are not throwing the ball over our heads all the time.  Again, first game looked like the same defense in that regard.  Since, we have had a safety in the middle of the field.  I allows a lot more throws underneath, but at least with those you still have a chance to get a stop.

I still don't see 6 wins, since the conference decided to be lazy and not change the non-conference schedule, but I too have hope for our team.

[JesseMartin]

Until yesterday, I wasn't sure if we could make it past 3 or 4 wins.  Luckily, as some of you have mentioned, some opponents don't look as great as expected.  I was worried that everyone I hope to bring to Homecoming would see us embarrassed by La Tech...but they're not exactly on fire at the moment, so if the team keeps growing and progressing together, there's a good chance for a win there, or at least a tight game.  If all goes as planned, I should be at the UTEP game with a large contingent of both UNT and UTEP alumni, so that would be nice as well.  As for UTSA...they do run a bit hot and cold, but have overall looked pretty good in this early part of the season.  I know how much a lot of you can't stand them, but if they get some consistency, I think that they could take the West.  I'll be with you in San Antonio for the game, so I really hope I'm wrong, but they appear to be one of CUSA's strongest contenders thus far.  I still think that a win at Army is unlikely, but again, with growth and progress, by then our guys may be ready to knock it out of the park.  Marshall is hard to gauge, as they've played only teams that are running really hot right now.  I don't see us winning at WacKY, or against SwissMISS, unless things really come together by then.  And MUTS look pretty decent but not great, so I'm not sure how that will play out.

All of this said...if our guys can take out the teams who appear to be having a down season and win 1 or 2 more, we could be at 5 or 6 wins.  Regardless...being 2-2 right now is more than I expected, so I'll take it.

[FirefightnRick]

Im liking the new attitude of the team Coach Littrel has installed.  But for the overall upbeat look of the Mean Green future I'm thanking one Dr. Neal Smatresk.

 

 

Rick

[GMG81]

51 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

I'm definitely drunk on the kool-aid. Per espn, we are favored to best UTEP and 42% likely to beat UTSA. Army looked like a sure loss after they pummeled UTEP but after giving the Buffalo Bulls their first win of the season 23-20 in OT, I know we can win that game. Buffalo by the way had lost to Albany and Nevada before beating Army. Most other teams in our conference have lost games against seemingly lesser opponents as well (losses to Troy and Akron come to mind for some of our conference's elite). This gives me confidence that we can really look at this year as not just a building block but a confidence booster. I also believe with some nice additions in the trenches and more experience, we will be good next year.

Come.on, Mean Green! Don't let me down!

I'm thinking along these same lines. Buffalo beat Army. Army put it to UTEP. Troy beat Southern Miss and not in Fluke fashion as in Southern Miss struggled to keep up. Akron manhandled Marshall. To me, the Southern Miss and Marshall games don't seem as daunting as they did 2 or 3 weeks ago. We also get both of those games at our place. Having to travel to WKU will be a tremendous task for this team right now. Middle looks to be very competitive this year as well. Again, there are wins to be had. The team will have to take what they think is rightfully theirs, whatever that ends up being. 

*Rice thought they were going to be able to roll their helmets out and win. Their coaches comments in his post game interview kind of stated that. If 0-3 Rice thought that then you better believe the other better teams will be thinking the same. This team will have to earn it and I'm ok with that. 

[outoftown]

C-USA east is in complete tatters right now. La tech gave up a big lead to MTSU yesterday. The USM team that lost to Troy still managed to soundly destroy UTEP in El paso. UTSA lost at Old Dominion. The west is doing only marginally better. This is the second season in a row where one could arguee that the overall product of C-USA might be worse than the belt. But for our team, it might be just what the doctor ordered. That said I feel like it is dangerous and maybe not fair to overly increase expectations now. This team still has to learn how to win, how to be consistent enough and there are some things we still don't know (MTSU and army for example are two very different offenses from those we have faced so far not sure whether or not our defense is well suited for their style). 

But yes, this win and SLs attitude makes it feel like things are going in the right direction, and like the build may not require as much frustration resistance or patience as most of us feared. But please don't go completely opposite direction if we were to lose by 20 to MTSU. Go nuts if we beat them, but at this point the loss is stil kind of what we should expect.

Edited September 26, 2016 by outoftown

[greenminer]

1 hour ago, GMG_Dallas said:

Per espn, we are favored to best UTEP and 42% likely to beat UTSA. Army looked like a sure loss after they pummeled UTEP but after giving the Buffalo Bulls their first win of the season 23-20 in OT,....

Come.on, Mean Green! Don't let me down!

that's wild.  2 weeks ago I thought UTEP and Army were almost locks for losses.  What is happening?

[BillySee58]

1 hour ago, Harry said:

I don't hate Dan McCarney as a person, but I sure hate what he did to the self esteem of our program and fan base in the last couple of years.

Littrell has come in here and in a short amount of time brought us all hope.  Our fans are starting to believe and get excited about the future.  I truly appreciate him for doing this. GMG

You could easily replace Mccarney with RV in that statement. I think post-mortem criticism of RV has become somewhat taboo at this point since we got our wish and apparently shouldn't complain anymore but be grateful for what he did do.

That being said, he was the ring leader when it came to complacency with results. How often did he pin attendance issues on fans and make it seem as if it were our obligation to attend games, or say nationwide attendance was down (Men's basketball) when it factually was not, and never admit that results should be better here? Or admit he had fielded an alarmingly low percentage of our graduates during his tenure as MGC members?

He also said during the recent football coaching search that a coach said something along the lines of "Coach, you guys have been getting your teeth kicked in for decades, why are they just now getting upset about it?"

Translation of RV telling that story: "You guys are wrong. I'm not doing a bad job. North Texas is traditionally bad, so why are you getting upset that we're still bad? North Texas being bad is the expectation."

We should win at North Texas. The excuse makers are (mostly) gone. This isn't a hard place to recruit to (Mac), especially not by CUSA standards. We haven't always been bad and we should expect to be good (RV), and if we aren't we should recognize that as a problem instead of being complacent.

[All About UNT]

1 hour ago, JesseMartin said:

  As for UTSA...they do run a bit hot and cold, but have overall looked pretty good in this early part of the season.  I know how much a lot of you can't stand them, but if they get some consistency, I think that they could take the West.  I'll be with you in San Antonio for the game, so I really hope I'm wrong, but they appear to be one of CUSA's strongest contenders thus far.  

 

 

[KingDL1]

12 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

You could easily replace Mccarney with RV in that statement. I think post-mortem criticism of RV has become somewhat taboo at this point since we got our wish and apparently shouldn't complain anymore but be grateful for what he did do.

That being said, he was the ring leader when it came to complacency with results. How often did he pin attendance issues on fans and make it seem as if it were our obligation to attend games, or say nationwide attendance was down (Men's basketball) when it factually was not, and never admit that results should be better here? Or admit he had fielded an alarmingly low percentage of our graduates during his tenure as MGC members?

He also said during the recent football coaching search that a coach said something along the lines of "Coach, you guys have been getting your teeth kicked in for decades, why are they just now getting upset about it?"

Translation of RV telling that story: "You guys are wrong. I'm not doing a bad job. North Texas is traditionally bad, so why are you getting upset that we're still bad? North Texas being bad is the expectation."

We should win at North Texas. The excuse makers are (mostly) gone. This isn't a hard place to recruit to (Mac), especially not by CUSA standards. We haven't always been bad and we should expect to be good (RV), and if we aren't we should recognize that as a problem instead of being complacent.

Thank God RV is gone. I think he is prime example of what was bad on the list. We are already at a higher level with a new AD being here  what 6 weeks. 

 

Screw it I love where we seem to be headed on many levels. 

 

1 hour ago, UNT86 said:

I've been pleased at how quickly our defense has improved.  Week 1, they looked just like last year.  They still dive at the ground a little too much, but they have learned to tackle a little.

They also are not throwing the ball over our heads all the time.  Again, first game looked like the same defense in that regard.  Since, we have had a safety in the middle of the field.  I allows a lot more throws underneath, but at least with those you still have a chance to get a stop.

I still don't see 6 wins, since the conference decided to be lazy and not change the non-conference schedule, but I too have hope for our team.

Amazing what real Division 1A  coaches with talent can do.  I am so so so glad Canales is gone, he was a complete fraud in my opinion. 

[JesseMartin]

8 minutes ago, All About UNT said:

 

 

Like I said, I figured a lot of you would...they almost took down ASU but didn't look so great other times, even in their win against Alcorn State.  But tell me who looks so great in the West at this point?  Almost everyone is awful.  If UTSA gets that same fire that they had against ASU...damn.  But they may also be in one of those seasons where they play well against good teams and poorly against bad teams.  We'll see.  I'm hopeful.  I'm driving from Phoenix to Santa Fe and then to San Antonio for it...so I would really like a win.

[All About UNT]

9 minutes ago, JesseMartin said:

Like I said, I figured a lot of you would...they almost took down ASU but didn't look so great other times, even in their win against Alcorn State.  But tell me who looks so great in the West at this point?  Almost everyone is awful.  If UTSA gets that same fire that they had against ASU...damn.  But they may also be in one of those seasons where they play well against good teams and poorly against bad teams.  We'll see.  I'm hopeful.  I'm driving from Phoenix to Santa Fe and then to San Antonio for it...so I would really like a win.

Sorry buddy but La Tech would beat UTSA by 20+ points if they played 2 hrs from now.  They barely lost by 1 point to an SEC team that is ranked #20 AFTER losing to the Aggies.  They also hung 45 points up on Texas Tech of the Big 12.  

Southern Miss beat an SEC team (UK) in their house and blanked their FCS opponent.  Then demolished the shit out of a conference mate (UTEP).

ODU just beat UTSA and they got smashed by App St. 31-7 (who we should have invited to the CUSA over Charlotte).

UTSA also got beat by a Colorado St. team that lost to Colorado 44-7 by a score of 23-14. 

I don't disregard UTSA and they very well might beat us but I know they have serious QB issues (read their board) and I know damn well that they play hard-nose football against teams that they have no business playing in the Alamodome but somehow did.  Against anyone else they show far less effort and results

 

[JesseMartin]

Crap...you're right on LT, I was bouncing around looking at stats so much that I think I was looking at another team,

As for SM, Kentucky isn't looking very pretty right now, with their only "decent" game being against South Carolina, who doesn't look so hot either, and that was, in my opinion, their most telling game.  It's kind of a round robin of who plays crappy any given day.

Same thing with UTSA, which is why I said they run hot and cold.  Do we get the UTSA that almost took out ASU, or the one who can't hang with the others?  We'll get a better feel for it as the season progresses.  I should be at 3 games this season...I hope we take at least 2 of them.

[GMG_Dallas]

4 hours ago, All About UNT said:

Sorry buddy but La Tech would beat UTSA by 20+ points if they played 2 hrs from now.  They barely lost by 1 point to an SEC team that is ranked #20 AFTER losing to the Aggies. 

 

Don't forget la tech was playing with their backup QB against Arkansas too who's a freshman (red shirt I believe).Ryan Higgins, who was serving a 1 game suspension for a dwi, has thrown for over 1200 yards in the last 3 games.