We shouldn’t abandon the Army series

[Harry]

I know that playing Army 3 times in what seems like a year is overkill.  That said, there is a real passion about playing this team both on and off the field.  

Heres what I know, every time we play them it is a dogfight.  They have some of the best fans I have ever seen us have in Apogee both in number and quality.  The atmosphere they brought to Apogee last night was special.

I realize that playing them is a defensive coordinators nitemare.  And I know that we have played them a lot in a short amount of time.  I just think that there is something developing between these two programs that should not be ignored.

[southsideguy]

the games are always close and competitive, who are replacing them with?

[UNTFan23]

4 minutes ago, Harry said:

I know that playing Army 3 times in what seems like a year is overkill.  That said, there is a real passion about playing this team both on and off the field.  

Heres what I know, every time we play them it is a dogfight.  They have some of the best fans I have ever seen us have in Apogee both in number and quality.  The atmosphere they brought to Apogee last night was special.

I realize that playing them is a defensive coordinators nitemare.  And I know that we have played them a lot in a short amount of time.  I just think that there is something developing between these two programs that should not be ignored.

So you were fine with the late hits and whatnot Army displayed last night? I think they showed us why they are one of the most penalized teams in America.

Edited November 19, 2017 by UNTFan23

[Ben Gooding]

The series isn't dead. We still have them on the docket for another 1 and 1 I believe. 

 

The discussion when it was reworked was just this. We are taking ticket sales away. We saw what the atmosphere is and we are deciding to give that up to play a more orthodox team. That team happened to be Liberty. 

I was initially upset that we pulled the plug halfway on this series. It's a revenue generator. It's a passion filled game for all involved. I'm not so upset about said plug being pulled half way out now. I am just still upset that we are filling that void with Liberty. Imagine last night, now cut the attendance and energy in about, say, half. Overall, very dumb move. 

[Ben Gooding]

3 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

the games are always close and competitive, who are replacing them with?

Liberty. The Fighting Falwells. 

And we're not just replacing our home game with them. We were stupid enough to schedule a 1 and 1 with them. 

Edited November 19, 2017 by Ben Gooding

[BTG_Fan1]

2 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

the games are always close and competitive, who are replacing them with?

We are at Liberty next year I believe. And the following year it has not been filled 

[southsideguy]

wow, that is a big step down in competition from Army.  At least they could have replaced them with someone with a little name power.

[BTG_Fan1]

I will say, the Army fans dropped a nice chunk of $ on tailgating, seats, and I’m sure local accommodations. 

[Ryan Munthe]

My biggest issue playing Army is how dirty they play. Always lots of injuries.

[Ben Gooding]

Just now, southsideguy said:

wow, that is a big step down in competition from Army.  At least they could have replaced them with someone with a little name power.

Yeah. Dumb. 

I don't mind hosting them here to fill that void. But a better road opponent could've been had. We (Wren Baker) got babied in negotiations. 

[UNTFan23]

Dropping part of the Army series got us a 1 and 1 with Houston, so didn't exactly rob Peter to pay Paul. Army would have been an away game next year anyway and we're playing Liberty away as well. Dropping part of the series opened up some space to play some other schools outside of the locked in series with SMU and Army.

[All About UNT]

Guess what? Nothing you can do or say is going to change the fact that it's already done. If it allowed for us to play Houston and Texas Tech over Army for the next 20 years then I am okay with that.

[Ben Gooding]

1 minute ago, All About UNT said:

Guess what? Nothing you can do or say is going to change the fact that it's already done. If it allowed for us to play Houston and Texas Tech over Army for the next 20 years then I am okay with that.

Yeah, that Texas Tech game at Apogee will be in about 20 years. 

[Salsa_Verde]

It would be great if there was a way to add Army to CUSA. 

[BillySee58]

18 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

So you were fine with the late hits and whatnot Army displayed last night? I think they showed us why they are one of the most penalized teams in America.

The next time we play them, those players will be gone. No guarantee this program just remains a cheap-shot taking team over the next four years. 

[shaft]

Abandoned?  Drama much.

We should play the contracted home and Home games.  We should not play them again this season.

[meangreenJW]

29 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

Yeah. Dumb. 

I don't mind hosting them here to fill that void. But a better road opponent could've been had. We (Wren Baker) got babied in negotiations. 

Have you read any of the articles or comments on scheduling? The coaches didn't like the game. Didn't feel it helped recruiting, felt playing the triple option in the middle of a season was detrimental to the team and felt like the style of play led to injuries (see yesterday for example). 

So the admin shopped the series around. But guess what, the years that are closest no schools had the dates open you can look at master schedules on the internet before you run your mouth. Oh but there's a new FBS team, Liberty who the dates open. Literally, the only team out there with the dates open. So Liberty took them but wanted a home and home in exchange. There were no other options to get out of the Army games. If your argument is the admin should have kept the games, fine. But acting like our admin didn't know what they are doing is dumb. They took the only option available to get out of those early Army games and moved on it before Liberty could fill the dates with others

The schedule flexibility allowed the pickup of Houston with other movement still ongoing according to Vito article this summer.  Why you continue to act like this was a trade of Army for Liberty straight up with other options on the table is ridiculous. But I guess it has to fit your MO of being negative on anything to do with UNT or the athletic program.  That's what's dumb.

 

[Ben Gooding]

7 minutes ago, meangreenJW said:

Have you read any of the articles or comments on scheduling? The coaches didn't like the game. Didn't feel it helped recruiting, felt playing the triple option in the middle of a season was detrimental to the team and felt like the style of play led to injuries (see yesterday for example). 

So the admin shopped the series around. But guess what, the years that are closest no schools had the dates open you can look at master schedules on the internet before you run your mouth. Oh but there's a new FBS team, Liberty who the dates open. Literally, the only team out there with the dates open. So Liberty took them but wanted a home and home in exchange. There were no other options to get out of the Army games. If your argument is the admin should have kept the games, fine. But acting like our admin didn't know what they are doing is dumb. They took the only option available to get out of those early Army games and moved on it before Liberty could fill the dates with others

The schedule flexibility allowed the pickup of Houston with other movement still ongoing according to Vito article this summer.  Why you continue to act like this was a trade of Army for Liberty straight up with other options on the table is ridiculous. But I guess it has to fit your MO of being negative on anything to do with UNT or the athletic program.  That's what's dumb.

 

So last night didn't help recruiting? It was THE biggest boost we needed to help recruiting. When recruits start committing. I wonder how many reference this game...For the ones that commit that were in attendance. 

Scheduling current FCS Liberty for a home and home series as a FBS conference affiliated program is about as close as one can get to not knowing what you are doing. They have done a great job here. This, this right here, not so much. 

Edited November 19, 2017 by Ben Gooding

[UNTexas]

1 hour ago, Harry said:

I know that playing Army 3 times in what seems like a year is overkill.  That said, there is a real passion about playing this team both on and off the field.  

Heres what I know, every time we play them it is a dogfight.  They have some of the best fans I have ever seen us have in Apogee both in number and quality.  The atmosphere they brought to Apogee last night was special.

I realize that playing them is a defensive coordinators nitemare.  And I know that we have played them a lot in a short amount of time.  I just think that there is something developing between these two programs that should not be ignored.

The coaching staff would completely disagree about this series. They do have good fans but this is not a good series for us. The team has to be retooled to play them. We always get more than average injuries because they block low to compensate for their size and speed. It also does nothing for recruiting.

Houston for example, is someone we should play annually. For the competition and more so recruiting. We need to be in Houston every year.

I'm not going to dime which coaches I discussed this with but I 100 percent agree with them. They were the ones who sold me on this and I couldn't agree more.

[Ben Gooding]

Just now, UNTexas said:

The coaching staff would completely disagree about this series. They do have good fans but this is not a good series for us. The team has to be retooled to play them. We always get more than average injuries because they block low to compensate for their size and speed. It also does nothing for recruiting.

Houston for example, is someone we should play annually. For the competition and more so recruiting. We need to be in Houston every year.

I'm not going to dime which coaches I discussed this with but I 100 percent agree with them. They were the ones who sold me on this and I couldn't agree more.

I completely disagree. To the people that pay attention to this, it was one of the most if not the most attended games by recruits at Apogee Stadium. Sometimes the atmosphere is more important than the opponent. But the atmosphere will not be there unless there is a worthy opponent. This series/kind of game physically hurts the team, but it bodes well for recruiting. We were getting ESPN pre-game discussions on College GameDay, ESPN post-game tip of the hat on College Football Live Recap show, and local media talking about this win on their TV and radio shows. 

[aztecskin]

1 hour ago, UNTFan23 said:

Dropping part of the Army series got us a 1 and 1 with Houston, so didn't exactly rob Peter to pay Paul. Army would have been an away game next year anyway and we're playing Liberty away as well. Dropping part of the series opened up some space to play some other schools outside of the locked in series with SMU and Army.

Yeah Houston will bring a ton of obnoxious fans like they did last time. 

[meangreenJW]

7 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

I completely disagree. To the people that pay attention to this, it was one of the most if not the most attended games by recruits at Apogee Stadium. Sometimes the atmosphere is more important than the opponent. But the atmosphere will not be there unless there is a worthy opponent. This series/kind of game physically hurts the team, but it bodes well for recruiting. We were getting ESPN pre-game discussions on College GameDay, ESPN post-game tip of the hat on College Football Live Recap show, and local media talking about this win on their TV and radio shows. 

Agreed last night was good for recruiting. AND so was last week vs a winless UTEP team and virtually the same size crowd. What is good for recruiting is winning. The culmination of the season is why last night was special. Not saying Army isn't somewhat compelling for fans, but surely you don't think we had a great crowd because of Army. If we'd had FAU in town last night, Apogee might have been sold out. Success + Facilities drives recruiting. Winning a conference championship will drive recruiting. Keeping coaches here will drive recruiting. (That became much harder to do with last night's injuries.) That's what the coaches say. Gonna trust them over a fan who's never recruited on this one. I might buy fans enjoy watching Army, I won't buy it helps recruiting unless you're talking Army recruiting. Definitely helps them to get in Texas

Edited November 19, 2017 by meangreenJW

[TheColonyEagle]

This is a tricky one. The Army series is great for the casual fan. It was a very entertaining game. We saw 2 offenses that are so much better at what they do than they were just a year ago. When it's clicking you can't stop that offense and they had no one that could matchup with our athletes when we had the ball. I took my Dad. He said that's one of the best football games he's ever seen. He had a blast. (He can't stop talking about Mason Fine)

But for me personally.....I'm NOT a casual fan. I don't like it. I hate playing against that triple option. I don't like any team that takes our team out of its flow. I agree with the coaches on this one. 

 

Edited November 19, 2017 by TheColonyEagle

[GreenN'walinsVet]

1 minute ago, meangreenJW said:

Agreed last night was good for recruiting. AND so was last week vs a winless UTEP team and virtually the same size crowd. What is good for recruiting is winning. The culmination of the season is why last night was special. Not saying Army isn't somewhat compelling for fans, but surely you don't think we had a great crowd because of Army. If we'd had FAU in town last night, Apogee might have been sold out. Success + Facilities drives recruiting. Winning a conference championship will drive recruiting. Keeping coaches here will drive recruiting. (That became much harder to do with last night's injuries.) That's what the coaches say. Gonna trust them over a fan who's never recruited on this one. I might buy fans enjoy watching Army, I won't buy it helps recruiting unless you're talking Army recruiting. Definitely helps them to get in Texas

Not sure if you noticed, but Army had every bit of 4-6 thousand fans there last night. FAU would have had 200. So attendance might have been 20-22k instead of 26k. 

[meangreenJW]

37 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

So last night didn't help recruiting? It was THE biggest boost we needed to help recruiting. When recruits start committing. I wonder how many reference this game...For the ones that commit that were in attendance. 

Scheduling current FCS Liberty for a home and home series as a FBS conference affiliated program is about as close as one can get to not knowing what you are doing. They have done a great job here. This, this right here, not so much. 

You do realize Liberty is currently FBS. Not sure why you say they are FCS. They have officially made the jump. They are FBS independent.