Couple of Saturday Thoughts

[Harry]

- I watched the entire MTSU Vandy game and it was awesome. Great win for MTSU and I was really happy for Andy Mac. I think Vandy was 4-0, undefeated and playing MTSU at home in front of a capacity crowd. Great announcers who were fair and even despite probably being payrolled by Vandy. Game went to the wire, Vandy got a field goal blocked with seconds remaining. That game tells you that anything can happen and that MTSU has some talent.

- Houston beat Tulsa and the pure athleticicm of Houston was impressive. They have so much speed. As good as the Tulsa QB Johnson was against us, he is not in the class of UH's Kevin Kolb. I still think Tulsa is a decent team. One thing, Tulsa's home crowd was pretty disappointing from the TV perspective. The other thing I took from this game was that you HAVE to have a good quarterback to win (ie Kolb). We may have one on the roster now, only time will tell, but we MUST do everything we can to get more talent at this position for the future. If our running game philosophy is part of why we haven't been able to land the better QB prospects we ought to consider changing it. I personally don't buy that having a running team absolutely precludes you from landing a good QB prospect. The QB is the most important position on the field and the teams that win have good ones.

- Watched a lot of the Memphis game against UTEP. The amazing thing is Memphis has lost like their top 2 quarterbacks this year and yet they have hung tough with UTEP. The Memphis QB is a freshman and hardly knows all of the plays yet he is getting the job done and making plays. DeAngelo Williams and the Memphis running game is lighting up the UTEP defense. You also have to give Mike Price credit as he has built a very good team in a short amount of time. Talk about a good investment, Price has literally turned UTEP's entire athletic program around into a CUSA contender. Hat's off to Memphis Coach Tommy West, as he threw the playbook at Price with receivers throwing touchdown passes and lots of misdirection and reverses. Great ballgame which appears to be heading to overtime as I post this 20-20... another point, a strong passing attack will ALWAYS give you a chance to come back in games. UTEP looked dead to the wind but a couple of long balls connect and they are back in it. A passing game can also draw interference call late in the game which stops the clock and moves the chains. Another point, defensive backs fall down and miss time their jumps to the ball. Defensive back is probably the most vulnerable position for an offense to capitalize on. True outstanding defensive backs are hard to come by.

- Watched the Baylor A$M game. Just another example of how a program with far lesser talent can hang with the big boys on a given day. Baylor lost in overtime, but I would hazard a guess that there may be 1 or 2 Baylor players that could start for A&M. Hat's off to the Baylor Administration who have basically ressurected their program from the brink of death through scheduling winnable I-A and I-AA games early in the season. Reggie McNeil is a nice running QB but his passing was horrible today.

- SMU Marshall...wow, tough tough loss for the Ponies as they led for the entire game and then faltered to Marshall in overtime. Fellas that loss may be the end for Bennett. I hope it isn't because he is a class guy and the win over TCU showed that he can succeed.

- Man how things can change. Watched some of the Wyoming/UNLV game. UNLV seemed to be a program on the rise just a couple of years back. Wyoming was horrible. Now Wyoming trounced UNLV today like a stepchild today. Things can change in this game so quickly. Good recruiting helps for sure, but I am convinced that there is such a mental aspect to the turnarounds, ie getting a coach that can convince the team that they can succeed and implementing a system that works.

- Did I mention that Gameplan and CSTV are beautiful things?

[FirefightnRick]

Wow, way to go Blue Raiders. Glad to see someone takes OOC serious. And to think Vanderbilt beat Arkansas three weeks ago?

If our running game philosophy is part of why we haven't been able to land the better QB prospects we ought to consider changing it.

Yup!

a strong passing attack will ALWAYS give you a chance to come back in games.

again, yup!

SIGH!

Rick

[greenminer]

some good perspectives, Harry. thanks

UTEP lost to Memphis today due to a couple late interceptions thrown by Palmer. Didn't help that the Miners turned th ball over 4 times inside Memphis's 25.

I really don't know what to make of UTEP at this point after tonight's loss. Memphis lost to Tulsa, Tulsa lost to Houston, and Houston lost to UTEP! What a merry-go-round this game can be!

All games involving us (UNT) and the teams mentioned above have been decided by CRITICAL qb play. I hope UNT can find that "click" in Meager or Phillips. Perhaps Dickey and Co can learn something from tonight's Memphis win: they did it with their 3rd and 4th string qbs at the helm.

To Memphis' advantage: they have MUCH better play in the trenches than we can claim as of this point.

-gm