Lamar 2017 home opener: what's the plan?

Ben Gooding · July 16, 2017

12 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

I think the thing most of us who have been around for over 20+ years can attest to is that expecting big fan support ever here isn't a good bet. We think averaging 20k for season attendance is good--and it is for us. But that's the rub--we have 200k alumni near here, plus 36k students, a town with about 100k in and around it, and a media market that has millions living within an hour of this place...and 20k is a damn good average for us. It's just a tough sell here, for all of the reasons we all know. At some point, you just have to decide to accept it and just follow the team, knowing full well that you'll be in the 2% of the UNT Family that gives a rip about our sports teams.

20k is good for 7 and 8 loss teams. That's it.

GMG24 · July 16, 2017

1 hour ago, Ben Gooding said:

20k is good for 7 and 8 loss teams. That's it.

https://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/football/odu-proposes--seat-football-stadium-to-be-built-without/article_89d107e7-0c7a-5824-9bde-c777021c94cc.html

ODU disagrees. I think they've got the right idea for smaller schools build a facility you can sell out, make it a awesome environment it'll still be loud as hell. But if we win for 3/4 seasons no reasons apogee doesn't sell out.

UNTLifer · July 16, 2017

The plan? Whip their ass!

Ben Gooding · July 16, 2017

2 hours ago, GMG24 said:

https://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/football/odu-proposes--seat-football-stadium-to-be-built-without/article_89d107e7-0c7a-5824-9bde-c777021c94cc.html

ODU disagrees. I think they've got the right idea for smaller schools build a facility you can sell out, make it a awesome environment it'll still be loud as hell. But if we win for 3/4 seasons no reasons apogee doesn't sell out.

If we were playing in ODU's stadium we'd have already had countless sellouts too. Their old stadium at 20k and their eventual new at 22k. We can't have a stadium that small because 1/3 to 2/5 of our games would be at 115% capacity, some more. 30k, at this current time, meets our needs and allows opportunity for growth. In a down year at UNT, we'd be flirting with 100% average capacity with a 20k stadium. We need to find any means necessary to hit 25k average and maintain. If UNT can create that watermark, sellouts would happen 1-2 times a year pending name draw and our in-season competitiveness.

4MYMGE · July 16, 2017

In the case of our family, it is very easy to get a lot of extra people to enjoy the opening game with us, for several reasons. The first, is that it is a holiday weekend and it is easy for them to get to town and include a game in their plans. The second reason is the fact that we always enjoy the experience at Apogee. We love tailgating in the red/blue lots. We love seeing the band march thru, the players coming in on the buses, and their walk thru the fans(I bet many people don't even know this happens). We love our great seats in the stadium. We know enough of the players(either thru a casual introduction or maybe just because we saw an article or they were featured in a social media spotlight) that we genuinely want them to succeed. Getting people to come back and getting others to come in for the first time is pretty easy. This is Texas, and we love our football. Another reason people can come to Apogee is the fact that it is big enough to be cool, but not so big that people can't afford to come out and take part. I am happy that we are kicking off the season against a team like Lamar. It seems to me that all of the big schools do this. It's just a good place to start. Everyone likes to win. So I guess I am just trying to say, it's gonna be a great day to come to Apogee and if everyone would just make a little effort to invite their friends and family to come experience a day at Apogee, I feel like they will come back. I do hope that North Texas will do the same by offering some sort of discount to fill the seats that don't normally get filled. We can do this... Let's Go Mean Green!!!

BTG_Fan1 · July 16, 2017

1 hour ago, 4MYMGE said:

In the case of our family, it is very easy to get a lot of extra people to enjoy the opening game with us, for several reasons. The first, is that it is a holiday weekend and it is easy for them to get to town and include a game in their plans. The second reason is the fact that we always enjoy the experience at Apogee. We love tailgating in the red/blue lots. We love seeing the band march thru, the players coming in on the buses, and their walk thru the fans(I bet many people don't even know this happens). We love our great seats in the stadium. We know enough of the players(either thru a casual introduction or maybe just because we saw an article or they were featured in a social media spotlight) that we genuinely want them to succeed. Getting people to come back and getting others to come in for the first time is pretty easy. This is Texas, and we love our football. Another reason people can come to Apogee is the fact that it is big enough to be cool, but not so big that people can't afford to come out and take part. I am happy that we are kicking off the season against a team like Lamar. It seems to me that all of the big schools do this. It's just a good place to start. Everyone likes to win. So I guess I am just trying to say, it's gonna be a great day to come to Apogee and if everyone would just make a little effort to invite their friends and family to come experience a day at Apogee, I feel like they will come back. I do hope that North Texas will do the same by offering some sort of discount to fill the seats that don't normally get filled. We can do this... Let's Go Mean Green!!!

It should be a good win, and allows players to shake off the rust, and get the nerves out of the sytem. It's hopefully something that we can have a solid enough of a day that you get in some guys who likely will play a critical back up role and let them have an extended look (Griffen, Nic Smith, Darden?, the CB Johnson?, Davis?, Quinn/Izzy?)

Honestly I feel that if we had had played BC then SMU we could have won both games. Against SMU we played way, way to hyped up and the guys made errors and mistakes. If they had been able to work out some of those (and maybe if Morris had gained some confidence/calmed down vs an openning game BC), errors then we don't have the turn over problem and the team can come back.

Confidence and gaining momentum is huge. If we have a solid showing vs Lamar, it should help these guys vs SMU. If UNT can beat Lamar handly, and pull out a W vs SMU, that will be one heck of a start, and will be huge rolling into Iowa then back into town vs UAB.

DeepGreen · July 17, 2017

I read all the hype, but even though a different coach lead the Mean Green, I have nightmares thinking about Portland State. Am I too paranoid?

GMG24 · July 17, 2017

2 hours ago, DeepGreen said:

I read all the hype, but even though a different coach lead the Mean Green, I have nightmares thinking about Portland State. Am I too paranoid?

Yes, this coach and team won't let that garbage happen again.

GMG24 · July 17, 2017

9 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

If we were playing in ODU's stadium we'd have already had countless sellouts too. Their old stadium at 20k and their eventual new at 22k. We can't have a stadium that small because 1/3 to 2/5 of our games would be at 115% capacity, some more. 30k, at this current time, meets our needs and allows opportunity for growth. In a down year at UNT, we'd be flirting with 100% average capacity with a 20k stadium. We need to find any means necessary to hit 25k average and maintain. If UNT can create that watermark, sellouts would happen 1-2 times a year pending name draw and our in-season competitiveness.

Would you rather sell out with ease, or come up with plans to give away tickets? Me I'll take the sell outs and extra recruiting boost. In 5 years if it's sold out every game bump it to 30 K then see.

VideoEagle · July 17, 2017

16 hours ago, DeepGreen said:

I read all the hype, but even though a different coach lead the Mean Green, I have nightmares thinking about Portland State. Am I too paranoid?

Yes, but after that game it's easy to understand why you are.

1AA now called FCS was created in 1978. Other than when we were 1AA, we have lost twice to 1AA teams. Portland State last year and UAB in 95. In 95 we were in transition, but officially were 1A. We have lost to several teams in transition, but they were officially 1A or FBS at the time.

By the way, Louisville has lost to 1AA or FCS teams seven times. Here's a handy chart from 2013.

DeepGreen · July 17, 2017

6 minutes ago, VideoEagle said:

Yes, but after that game it's easy to understand why you are.

1AA now called FCS was created in 1978. Other than when we were 1AA, we have lost twice to 1AA teams. Portland State last year and UAB in 95. In 95 we were in transition, but officially were 1A. We have lost to several teams in transition, but they were officially 1A or FBS at the time.

By the way, Louisville has lost to 1AA or FCS teams seven times. Here's a handy chart from 2013.

Thank you. I feel so much better.

TreeFiddy · July 17, 2017

Just sayin, but Portlandia State beat Washington State in the same season. It didn't seem to get Leach fired or prevent them from going to a bowl. Of course, Leach had the good sense to not allow it to happen on homecoming.

untjim1995 · July 17, 2017

1 hour ago, TreeFiddy said:

Just sayin, but Portlandia State beat Washington State in the same season. It didn't seem to get Leach fired or prevent them from going to a bowl. Of course, Leach had the good sense to not allow it to happen on homecoming.

If Wazzou had lost to Portland State by half of what we lost to them, he would have gotten the McCarney treatment, for sure. But Wazzou didn't lose by 59 points at home and they went to a bowl that year, while we were suffering thru the worst game a FBS program has ever had, making it the worst loss of all-time between a FCS squad beating a FBS program. And we were able to win a miraculous game by a TD over UTSA because their 5th string QB had to play the entire 2nd half against us here or else I'd proclaim that the 2015 team was the worst team of the last 50+ years in FBS football.

I figured last year that we would be doing amazing things to win more than 3 games and we won 5--with a roster full of guys who didn't fit at all with Littrell's offensive mindset and had been amongst the slowest and smallest teams many had ever witnessed under DMac and Chico. Even though recruiting wasn't very good at all, I still believe SL showed me enough to believe he is the guy to lead us out of this colossal well of manure we have had to endure. I actually feel the same way about Graham Harrell and Mason Fine, too. That we won 5 games last year, when we were ranked anywhere from worst to second-worst FBS team in the country to start the year (deservedly so) showed me A LOT. I think we will see continues improvement from last season, especially with the quitters he had inherited now being pretty well gone, as well as the fact that they know his schemes and his expectations more now than we he got here. And SL, himself, learned a lot from last season, as a first-time head coach. If we don't have a huge injury bug or suspensions occur, I suspect we are at worst a 5-win team again. I see 6-6 and a bowl slot again, beating Lamar, UAB, UTEP, and 3 more out of UTSA, ODU, Army, @FAU, and @ Rice.

untjim1995 · July 18, 2017

I woke up this morning thinking about this thread from yesterday and specifically the Portland State massacre. I don't remember if anyone from the team, the actual players themselves, ever really had to explain what happened and why they quit. Not off the record rumors, but actual on-the-record opinions as to what was going on before that game and then during the game. I do remember fans saying that guys on the sideline looked like they didn't give a rip that we were getting gutted by a FCS team on Homecoming, as if it wasn't really affecting their life. But I would really like to know what those guys that are still here from that season think about that game and the reasons it occurred. Its not as if it was because Portland State had more talent across the board than we did. DMac was fired on the spot after the game, deservedly, but I just can't believe we were gonna fire him before this game, even if there were rumors to attest otherwise...but I'd love to know if the players thought of DMac and their team at that point. I know that the QB situation really divided the fans and some of the players on offense because of McNulty getting starter time over Damarcus Smith, but was there more? Maybe one day we will find put exactly what was going on in that locker room and why an entire team literally quit on the entire university that day.