A Crazy Idea

[AJR2010OX]

Alright, so almost every single day when I walked to my classes and other things last semester, I ran into a lot of former high school athletes, namely football players. (Also ran into lots of ex runners, (including myself) but thats irrelevant) Anyway, I was thinking, with 34,000 students, we've got to have some decent athletes among us. So, what if Coach Dodge had a campus wide football tryout, kind of like the Dallas Desperados do. They could just be signed as walk-ons or something. Make for some great storylines, possibly hollywood movie material if we got to a BCS bowl

I think itd be cool, get some kids out of their dorm rooms and the music practice building and on to the gridiron

[NT03]

Alright, so almost every single day when I walked to my classes and other things last semester, I ran into a lot of former high school athletes, namely football players. (Also ran into lots of ex runners, (including myself) but thats irrelevant) Anyway, I was thinking, with 34,000 students, we've got to have some decent athletes among us. So, what if Coach Dodge had a campus wide football tryout, kind of like the Dallas Desperados do. They could just be signed as walk-ons or something. Make for some great storylines, possibly hollywood movie material if we got to a BCS bowl

I think itd be cool, get some kids out of their dorm rooms and the music practice building and on to the gridiron

Not Crazy , Its a good Idea. Hell Tech Basketball made it a reality show for ESPN.

[UNTBill]

Not Crazy , Its a good Idea. Hell Tech Basketball made it a reality show for ESPN.

I agree. At the very least a campus wide try out would generate interest in the upcoming season.

Just might put some extra butts in the seats next year.

[Legal Eagle]

Alright, so almost every single day when I walked to my classes and other things last semester, I ran into a lot of former high school athletes, namely football players. (Also ran into lots of ex runners, (including myself) but thats irrelevant) Anyway, I was thinking, with 34,000 students, we've got to have some decent athletes among us. So, what if Coach Dodge had a campus wide football tryout, kind of like the Dallas Desperados do. They could just be signed as walk-ons or something. Make for some great storylines, possibly hollywood movie material if we got to a BCS bowl

I think itd be cool, get some kids out of their dorm rooms and the music practice building and on to the gridiron

It has been the basis for some good sports movies. Most recently "Invincible". I don't think its a bad idea. And go Theta Chi. Send me an email. I'm an alum.

[MeanGreenBuzz]

Its a great idea! While I was still in school I knew a guy that dropped his scholarship to SMU football and came here. He could have easily played for our bowl teams. He was just disgruntled with football in general after being in SMUs system. I would be willing to bet we could find at least 5 players on this campus that could make our team and maybe a starter or 2 in time.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

I hate to rain on anyone's parade that means well but you've got to remember this is football at the Division 1-A level. It would be much too competitive for the player walking around campus. Most of those that can make it to the 1-A level either have a scholarship or have already been invited to camp as a walkon.

Perhaps if you issured the call to anyone who had been all-district or all-state you might get a handful. But, which of those can actually compete with a preferred walkon? Very few of the walkons ever get a scholarship.

And, while, that might have worked for Dickey, I think that you're going to see the talent level jump, maybe even dramatically.

[Peacock]

Perhaps there is also an astronomy proffessor that still has one year of college eligibility available...

[UNTLifer]

I hate to rain on anyone's parade that means well but you've got to remember this is football at the Division 1-A level. It would be much too competitive for the player walking around campus. Most of those that can make it to the 1-A level either have a scholarship or have already been invited to camp as a walkon.

Perhaps if you issured the call to anyone who had been all-district or all-state you might get a handful. But, which of those can actually compete with a preferred walkon? Very few of the walkons ever get a scholarship.

And, while, that might have worked for Dickey, I think that you're going to see the talent level jump, maybe even dramatically.

Seems to work alright for the Aggies.

[Eagle1855]

Perhaps there is also an astronomy proffessor that still has one year of college eligibility available...

[LittleMeanGreenMan]

Hopefully good athletes won't be around campus now not being a member of the football team. In the Dickey years this happened because we did not go out of our own shadows to recruit, so maybe now these "good athletes" won't go unnoticed. Did that just make sense? Oh well.

[Green to the Bone]

You can always find ten million zillion reasons why something won't work if that's what turns you on, as so many posts here prove.

Maybe the outcome of an open-invitation day wouldn't be to find a potential starter who's playing video games in his dorm room instead of bringing glory to the Green. And maybe TD will elevate the recruiting class to the point where you'd need a gun and a crowbar to win even a job swapping game balls for the refs.

But maybe instead the outcome would be to get some more talk going, get a story in the paper, get some posters up around campus, and remind students during the spring that we'll have exciting football in the fall. Maybe we'll encourage a group of intramural guys to take a chance and earn a little campus cred. The game here isn't filling roster spots as much as it is promotion, salesmanship, and fan recruiting.

And along the way, maybe we'd find an unknown exchange student from Lord knows what unpronounceable place who never thought before about switching from soccer to football placekicker. It's happened before.

At any rate, don't go out of your way to stomp the life out of every idea from every interested student. Jeez, people, think before you type.

[UNTBill]

You can always find ten million zillion reasons why something won't work if that's what turns you on, as so many posts here prove.

Maybe the outcome of an open-invitation day wouldn't be to find a potential starter who's playing video games in his dorm room instead of bringing glory to the Green. And maybe TD will elevate the recruiting class to the point where you'd need a gun and a crowbar to win even a job swapping game balls for the refs.

But maybe instead the outcome would be to get some more talk going, get a story in the paper, get some posters up around campus, and remind students during the spring that we'll have exciting football in the fall. Maybe we'll encourage a group of intramural guys to take a chance and earn a little campus cred. The game here isn't filling roster spots as much as it is promotion, salesmanship, and fan recruiting.

And along the way, maybe we'd find an unknown exchange student from Lord knows what unpronounceable place who never thought before about switching from soccer to football placekicker. It's happened before.

At any rate, don't go out of your way to stomp the life out of every idea from every interested student. Jeez, people, think before you type.

I was just thinking about posting something similar to this. Now, that is not necessary. Very well written, and I completely agree.

[NT03]

With an estimated ( my estimate) say 15,000 males currently enrolled at UNT , it would be crazy not to think that at least 1 kid out of those 15,000 is capable of playing at the D I level. Anyone ever seen American Idol ? Just because someone is not a current top selling recording artist , doesn't mean that there are none outside that music chart.

This thread make me think back to when I first arrived on campus in 99. I was walking to class one day when I noticed someone I hadn't seen since High School. His name was Toby Dollar. I'm sure none on this board has ever heard of him ( played HS with former NT KR Tubby Coleman ) , but let me inform ya. Toby played his HS ball at Graham HS , just southwest of Ft. Worth. He was by far the best athlete Ive ever seen play HS sports. District MVP in Baseball , Football & Basketball. Out of HS he was recruited by ND,TX,FL just to name a few. He was the best football player on our campus at the time , end of story. Problem is he only wanted to play baseball and not football.He wound up signing with Miami in 93 and soon found his way as their closer. He got homesick and later transfered to TCU and left after a year to sign with the Dodgers. After a few years with their AA team he blew out his shoulder and never returned. He returned to NT to finish his education and never again had that fire to continue to compete.

Long story short , I'm sure there is some kid with a similar story out there currently enrolled at NT. Maybe something like this could rekindle someone's interest and perhaps make someone like this want to give the ol' pigskin another try.

Would be fun to see , give the fans an underdog to root for in the stands and create even more buzz than there already is.

Edited December 22, 2006 by NT03

[FirefightnRick]

I was just thinking about posting something similar to this. Now, that is not necessary. Very well written, and I completely agree.

I second that. Also, good story '03. As you mentioned, you just never know who's out there?

Good ideas y'all.

Rick

[Texas Stranger]

It's not like we're asking them to give up the Ponderosa

[GreenBat]

NTTV could do a series on it similar to "KNIGHT SCHOOL" on ESPN. It might be cool to watch ordinary students go through drills and practice.