Troy Gets Some Respect

[MeanGreen61]

NewsOklahoma.com shows some Trojan respect !

Mon May 14, 2007

A victory at Troy won't be a given

When OSU travels to Troy, Ala., to take on the Trojans and quarterback Omar Haugabook, pictured above, the Cowboys have little to gain but a lot to lose.

Most of the attention surrounding Oklahoma State's non-conference football schedule has centered on a high-profile season opener at Georgia.

The Cowboys' other non-league road game is no gimme. Some are labeling a Friday night game at Troy (Ala.) a trap game.

Troy was 8-5 last year. The Trojans are the defending Sun Belt champions, have the reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year in senior quarterback Omar Haugabook and defeated Rice in the New Orleans Bowl.

Georgia is a game in which the Cowboys have much to gain and little to lose.

Troy is a game in which the Cowboys have little to gain and a lot to lose.

Just ask Missouri, which was ranked No. 19 but lost 24-14 at Troy three years ago.

While some might be concerned over two difficult road non-conference games, the Cowboys should be commended for upgrading their schedule.

Games against Montana State, Northern Iowa and other directional schools don't do much, other than pad the win-loss record.

Troy is a two-for-one deal. The Trojans visit Stillwater in 2008 and 2010. Georgia visits Stillwater in 2009, when a state-of-the-art, renovated stadium needs a marquee opponent to help fill 60,000 seats.

"That was part of it,” said OSU associate athletic director Dave Martin, in charge of football scheduling. "It's just a good game on national television. We're trying to step up our schedules.

"People need to remember these two (road) games (this year) are on national television in 110 million homes. That's great exposure.”

Coach Mike Gundy's goal is to take the program to another level. To do that, the Cowboys must play more challenging non-conference opponents.

OSU has a home-and-home series with Arizona in 2011 and 2013. In future years, it will play Clemson.

Over the next five years, it will play Tulsa, Houston, Troy and Rice a combined eight times.

Is Troy a dangerous road game? Sure.

But it's the type of game the Cowboys need to schedule, the type of game the Cowboys should win.

OSU won't get any sympathy from Troy coaches. The Trojans open the season at Arkansas and then travel to play defending national champion Florida before hosting the Cowboys. Troy also plays Nov. 13 at Georgia.

Now that's a brutal non-conference schedule.

LINK TO ARTICLE

http://newsok.com/article/3053772

[DeepGreen]

Must be nice to have an OSU as a home game. Sigh.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Must be nice to have an OSU as a home game. Sigh.

Isn't OSU one of many who said they wouldn't play any game at Fouts Field? Wonder if Baylor with their half-time locker room black out experience will be coming back any time soon, too? By the way, Fouts Field is a venue about the same size as Troy U's very nice "make-over" of a football stadium that has numerous luxury suites. I guess many of us were at the grand opening via national ESPN television of Troy U's stadium as they opened that stadium with a huge win over the #17 ranked Missouri Tigers.

For the sake of all you Young Gun NT Alums and all your investment of hope and time with all this, I really do hope 10-20 years from now that yall are still sitting around posting about all the potential we have at UNT (as we also continue to attempt to find the perfect logo and best shade of green for our alma mater).

NCAA D1-A personnel begat upper echelon (non-Bottom 25) NCAA D1-A athletic programs, folks.

During a 4 year bowl run, didn't we sorta' find out what we needed to find out about the majority of too many on the NT athletic staff, especially with home turnstile counts during that 4 year bowl run as a pretty fair barometer to that?

You know, talk eventually has to be turned into action unless talk is merely being used as a vehicle to extend one's years on the UNT payroll until another job comes up. Speaking of those, how many in NCAA D1-A (or 1-AA or any level) have been knocking themselves out coming to Denton to hire longterm UNT personnel who have been part of a team that has produced for us not much more than Bottom Barrell NCAA D1-A athletics?

Are we truly becoming the Robson Retirement Village of NCAA D1-A where all you have to do as a UNT athletic staffer in Denton, Texas, America, is just tickle alum's ears with what one thinks they want to hear just to buy yet more time on the UNT payroll? Need more proof of our standing among all others of the 119 member NCAA D1-A? Just get those NT varsity sports media guides of the last decade out--it's all there in black & white. And we extend contracts to all this, too, is yet another amazing phenomena that (apparently) could only take place in Denton, Texas, where I suppose we just don't ask for or expect much more than what we've been getting.

Edited May 19, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[Green Means Go!]

PlummMeanGreen is away from his computer (at a seminar). He wanted me to correct something in his post:

The second paragraph should read:

"For the sake of all you Young Gun NT Alums and all your investment of hope and time with all this, I really do hope 10-20 years from now that yall are NOT still sitting around posting about all the potential we have at UNT (as we also continue to attempt to find the perfect logo and best shade of green for our alma mater)."

The word NOT was added to the paragraph.

[Green to the Bone]

You know, talk eventually has to be turned into action unless talk is merely being used as a vehicle to extend one's years on the UNT payroll until another job comes up. Speaking of those, how many in NCAA D1-A (or 1-AA or any level) have been knocking themselves out coming to Denton to hire longterm UNT personnel who have been part of a team that has produced for us not much more than Bottom Barrell NCAA D1-A athletics?

Are we truly becoming the Robson Retirement Village of NCAA D1-A where all you have to do as a UNT athletic staffer in Denton, Texas, America, is just tickle alum's ears with what one thinks they want to hear just to buy yet more time on the UNT payroll? Need more proof of our standing among all others of the 119 member NCAA D1-A? Just get those NT varsity sports media guides of the last decade out--it's all there in black & white. And we extend contracts to all this, too, is yet another amazing phenomena that (apparently) could only take place in Denton, Texas, where I suppose we just don't ask for or expect much more than what we've been getting.

I think I'm confused. Didn't I read somewhere that we fired the football coach and all the football staff except the conditioning guy and the towel guy and hired new ones?

Perhaps PMG can elucidate.

[DallasGreen]

Must be nice to have an OSU as a home game. Sigh.

You will be saying this a lot as long as we take the stupid, stubborn stance not to play in a metroplex venue when we have the opportunity to play a quality opponnet who travels well. The "Field of Dreams" would be great as a reality, but it is in a time far, far away from the present. Until then upgrade the "home" schedule where you can ( and don't tell me we stay on campus for the students who hurry home to Mom at the last class of the week or for the Dentonites that stay home in mass anyway). There's a reason that the largest home draw ever was at Texas Stadium, and you'll never see another close to it until we bend on this stupid stance.

[NT80]

NewsOklahoma.com shows some Trojan respect !

Mon May 14, 2007

A victory at Troy won't be a given

When OSU travels to Troy, Ala., to take on the Trojans and quarterback Omar Haugabook, pictured above, the Cowboys have little to gain but a lot to lose.

Georgia is a game in which the Cowboys have much to gain and little to lose.

Troy is a game in which the Cowboys have little to gain and a lot to lose.

Troy is a two-for-one deal. The Trojans visit Stillwater in 2008 and 2010.

This "little to gain" attitude is a theme for many large programs thinking of going on the road to play SunBelt-U. But they need more home game$ themselves for revenue, thus the quandry. The 2-for-1 deal seems to be the going standard for most mid-majors vs. BCS programs. NT has this deal with K-State in the future. I wonder if any provision in that contract specified stadium location in Denton; ie Fouts vs New Stadium? I would think NT would travel as well if not better to Stillwater for the payback than Troy. If Troy can get Missouri and OSU to Troy, Alabama, population 15,000, and SMUt can get A$M to play in Highland Park, population 15,000, then Big Denton should be able to attract some major opponents whenever we get that upgraded facility. The whenever part about the stadium is the *, and kink, in the negotiations. Time to fix the kinks.

[Stan R]

You will be saying this a lot as long as we take the stupid, stubborn stance not to play in a metroplex venue when we have the opportunity to play a quality opponnet who travels well. The "Field of Dreams" would be great as a reality, but it is in a time far, far away from the present. Until then upgrade the "home" schedule where you can ( and don't tell me we stay on campus for the students who hurry home to Mom at the last class of the week or for the Dentonites that stay home in mass anyway). There's a reason that the largest home draw ever was at Texas Stadium, and you'll never see another close to it until we bend on this stupid stance.

Not so fast my friend! I was at the aTm game at texas stadium. There's a reason why that was the largest home game in our history - IT WASN'T A FREAKING HOME GAME! There were probably 95% aTm students and maybe 5% NT. How does that qualify as a home game? How do we benefit from that? Did we get the lion's share of the ticket proceeds from that game? Doubt it.

[DallasGreen]

As for students you may be in the ballpark by give or take 15-20%, but we still got the same student fee out of them that we get for a game at Fouts so they are a non factor. From the crowd we had in the Stadium Club before the game, the non-student contingent that day was as stong or stronger than anything ever at Fouts. The fact remains that we will never, ever get that caliber team at Fouts or probably even at "The Field of Dreams" so we need to play at the venue to which they agree when we get that kind of opportunity. Those who feel we can get a top 25 team and/or an OU,UT, A&M, Big 10, etc. to come to DENTON are just drinking too much of the green koolaide. Hayden Fry realized you can't survive on just the long promised and long awaited Denton support, but that you MUST cultivate the metroplex which the current regime continues to ignore.

Edited May 21, 2007 by DallasGreen

[greenminer]

Not so fast my friend! I was at the aTm game at texas stadium. There's a reason why that was the largest home game in our history - IT WASN'T A FREAKING HOME GAME! There were probably 95% aTm students and maybe 5% NT. How does that qualify as a home game? How do we benefit from that? Did we get the lion's share of the ticket proceeds from that game? Doubt it.

I thought we played Tech @ Texas Stadium? I didn't know we every played A&M there.

[Travis]

I thought we played Tech @ Texas Stadium? I didn't know we every played A&M there.

we have played both teams their. *edit* there not their

Our home stadium should be the one in denton. I pray we never use the cowboys place again.

Edited May 21, 2007 by Travis

[MeanGreen61]

I thought we played Tech @ Texas Stadium? I didn't know we every played A&M there.

A&M - 1997

Tech - 1998, 2001

[Mean Green 93-98]

Not so fast my friend! I was at the aTm game at texas stadium. There's a reason why that was the largest home game in our history - IT WASN'T A FREAKING HOME GAME! There were probably 95% aTm students and maybe 5% NT. How does that qualify as a home game? How do we benefit from that? Did we get the lion's share of the ticket proceeds from that game? Doubt it.

Ditto. That game, the Army game, the Tech game, and the KU game ALL ended up being away games. Whether or not your home field stinks, you play home games on your home field.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Not so fast my friend! I was at the aTm game at texas stadium. There's a reason why that was the largest home game in our history - IT WASN'T A FREAKING HOME GAME! There were probably 95% aTm students and maybe 5% NT. How does that qualify as a home game? How do we benefit from that? Did we get the lion's share of the ticket proceeds from that game? Doubt it.

Good gosh, Stan R, were you at the same NT/TAMU football game @ Texas Stadium that I was?

I have no idea how anyone could say what the student count could have been was since Aggie students all seemed mixed in with the rest of their, uh, "former students."

And why kick ourselves about so many Aggies showing up at Texas Stadium for that game? Hellsbells! All the former SWC schools that didn't make the Big 12 cut depended on all those travelling Aggies (and Longhorns & Red Raiders) for decades so that they could post a decent home turnstile attendance count for at least 1 or 2 times per year at each of their own gridiron outposts before the SWC implosion. Can you imagine what our home game averages in Denton could have been in past decades with all the present Texas Big 12/former SWC schools coming to Denton every other year?

At worst, it was 55% Aggies and 45% Mean Green fans at this game; yet from my vantage point, it actually seemed more like 50/50 among the approx. 50,000 at this game. It was one of my favorite Mean Green football experiences since I graduated and the game was a darn good one (tied 10/10 after the 1'st half?) until about the 3'rd quarter when the Aggies started to dominate, but the Game Day atmosphere was maybe the best and most Big Time "home game" Game Day many of us had experienced and more of the kind of thing we should have been experiencing more of the last 25 or so years truth be told; but at UNT we still tend to take a giant step forward and once we hit a certain plateau, we start taking those gol' darned giant steps backwards.

To put another wrinkle of that NT/TAMU game at Texas Stadium in 1996: This game outdrew any Southwest Conference TCU/TAMU game played in Fort Worth even after Amon Carter Stadium was expanded to 47,000 back in the day.

I agree with what Dallas Green is saying when he says we should entertain the idea of playing from time to time (maybe not even every year) a very, very high profile opponent at a venue that can hold the kind crowd you'd get for playing such a game (of which Fouts Field or any stadium its size would never be such a venue) BUT............

..............this present athletic staff we have in Denton seems dedicated to the old "Do It In Denton" spirit albeit we still only averaged 15K per home game averages even during a 4 year bowl run and because of that, have we really seen the true payoff with a hardy handful from Denton? With Denton now being a city that should not have to be coaxed or begged to support its city's largest industry with 15,000 Denton citizens who should be at Fouts Field not even counting NT students or NT alums. Perhaps in another era, hanging in there with "Doing It In Denton" might be the best modus operendi, but as we have continued to fiddle fart around with mostly lackadaisicle non-conference foes at Fouts Field, other Sun Belt schools have started passing us by and scheduling some very impressive opponents at their own on-campus venues.

We have no idea how long we are going to have to wait on a new stadium in Denton and who knows, maybe a Big Donor (which its still going to take) will be announced sooner than later, but knowing our history of athletic fundraising at UNT many of us guess we will wait till the 12'th hour when TxDOT finally comes a-callin' and says: "OK, UNT, we told you many years ago what our plans were and now we're ready to expand the interstate near Fouts Field, so are yall ready to move into a new football stadium?"

Personally (and in the opinion of many I've spoken to) UNT officials should be stumbling all over themselves to try to schedule the first official college game in the Dallas Cowboys new stadium in 2009; probably in August in the DC's air-conditioned stadium against a true Top 10 school who would (like the Aggies) bring many of their fans, but once again, that type of thing might merely be the thing that pipe dreams or made or would only happen in a perfect world and for those of us who have followed all this for 3, 4 and 5 plus decades, we for darn sure know that our Mean Green World is not always one that you could exactly call perfect.

Edited May 22, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[NT80]

Ditto. That game, the Army game, the Tech game, and the KU game ALL ended up being away games. Whether or not your home field stinks, you play home games on your home field.

We would have never hosted those games at Fouts; the opponent would not agree to it, and I can't blame them. When we get a nice facility, I agree no Dallas games, but until then sure I'd host the Aggies again at Tx Stad.

[Mean Green 93-98]

At worst, it was 55% Aggies and 45% Mean Green fans at this game; yet from my vantage point, it actually seemed more like 50/50 among the approx. 50,000 at this game.

Not remotely close.

[TIgreen01]

You will be saying this a lot as long as we take the stupid, stubborn stance not to play in a metroplex venue when we have the opportunity to play a quality opponnet who travels well. The "Field of Dreams" would be great as a reality, but it is in a time far, far away from the present. Until then upgrade the "home" schedule where you can ( and don't tell me we stay on campus for the students who hurry home to Mom at the last class of the week or for the Dentonites that stay home in mass anyway). There's a reason that the largest home draw ever was at Texas Stadium, and you'll never see another close to it until we bend on this stupid stance.

I agree with this...but with a small addendum--we should only use TX Stadium after the month of September. It makes no sense to me that we are playing the likes of Western Kentucky (I realize they will be a conference opponent in a few years) on Thanksgiving weekend....at Fouts. If we could find a big name opponent who would come to DFW to play us in the month of November, I'd jump all over it. We're usually only drawing 10k by that time of the year and it would GREATLY help our attendance averages....

On an aside, this is two straight years we'll be playing a home game on Thanksgiving weekend. What gives with this scheduling?! We will have less than 1000 students in attendance for this game and it just KILLS the atmosphere....stop scheduling Thanksgiving weekend for the love of all things holy, RV!!

Edited May 22, 2007 by TIgreen01

[Censored by Laurie]

Now that Laura Miller allowed the Cowboys to head to Arlington and Jerry has lured the OU/UT game to his new funland...Miller is scrambling to try and fill games at the Cotton Bowl during the fair. Now is the Cotton Bowl perhaps the only stadium that would be considered a downgrade from Fouts, yes...however if Miller can get a football game there every weekend of the fair there is no reason we shouldn't be a part of it. Right now shes after Tech and OSU every third year, SMU and TCU probably don't want to play their game at a neutral site...so it would be a HUGE coop for us to land one of those opponents every other or every third year in Dallas.

[LongJim]

I think building a 45-48K stadium will accomplish a lot of things.

First, it essentially eliminates the issue of having to use Texas Stadium/JerryBowl for UNT 'home' games--shutting up any excuses an opposing team has as far as Fouts capacity/crappiness, for not coming to Denton, which is paramount in raising Denton/student/alumni's (literal) buy-in to the program.

I hate to say this, but the games at Texas Stadium always screamed to me: "Yeah, we're a D1 program, but we're kinda not serious about it." It was frustrating. I would like nothing better than to see the BYU's, Rice's, and bigger schools PLAY IN DENTON. If UNT is going to play the UT's and OU's, make it a home and home. Unfortunately, the bigger schools have leverage due to Fouts, and all that implies. Looks like UNT's on the right track, hopefully.

When the new facility is built I definitely think you'll also see the Denton community take interest, as the bigger schools and their fans will spend money locally. It would be a great building block to win new fans when the community sees a big name opponent in a new stadium.

45K is plenty big enough to draw the Tech's, and even the UT's of the world. UCF is doing it this year, as previously pointed out. I'm personally not blown away by this stadium--I think UNT's proposed stadium will make this one look like Minnie Pearl's thrift-store hat--but UCF is moving forward, and it will definitely be LOUD:

[FirefightnRick]

I too was very frustrated at the games at Texas Stadium but it was mostly with the horrible parking problem there and the lack of tailgating amenities that outright took the college atmosphere away. DallasGreen is correct though that it would help us sell the university by playing there when we can. If the new Texas Stadium has better access and their parking nazi's were to be kept a lower profile then I'd be all for it.

For those that were not at that 1997 A&M game Plumm mentioned, I have to say that little ol' NT had the Aggies very concerned there for a bit. The crowd was 3/4ths A&M fans, if not more by the way. A&M jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first half but NT's defense started to get a handle on them and our offense started to put together some drives. At the very end of the 2nd qaurter the Mean Green defense sacked the aggie QB again, catching him blindsided and recovered a fumble. This led to another NT score that tied the game for the half 10-10. It was great to hear the "HUSH" of the aggie faithful sitting all around us. They were in trouble because even though our offense was struggling, our defense was letting them know they were not going anywhere. Then the very start of the second half it just got even better for NT. A&M got the ball to start the second half and again NT outright shut them down and forced a punt. This is where it went south of for us. The Aggie punter got off a good kick allowing coverage to get to the punt returner. I can't remember his name but our returner was standing at about our own 20 and the absolute second the ball touched his hands an A&M coverage guy launched like a missile from about 4 yards out and hit him so hard I doubt he still to this day remembers what happened. What happened though was an A&M recovery on the NT goal line. The bigger O line for A&M pushed NT into the endzone the very next play and that was it. We couldn't recover after that. A&M scored 4 more times to finish the win at 36-10.

But this wasn't the worse part of the game, to me. The score or the fact that the game turned around on us so quickly. No, the sickest part was towards the end of the 4th quarter when the P.A. announcer gives the attendance. He couldn't just say, "Today's attendance......45,923. On behalf of Texas A&M University and the University of North Texas we thank you for your participation". No, he had to embarrass the shit out of everyone in green by saying something to the jist of: "Today's attendance....45,923, WHICH IS AN ALL TIME RECORD CROWD FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS...CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING A PART OF THIS RECORD SETTING DAY".

I could have strangled whoever came up with that idea. EVERY ONE in marroon sitting all around you, I mean everywhere aggie fans were laughing their asses off at this. Some were simply laughing, others you could hear yelling in laughter saying stuff like "ALL HOW @#$@# SAD IS THAT????". Because like I said, there were about 10 to 12,000 NT fans, not bad for a road game basically. The rest of the 45K crowd was a sea of Marroon and White. That little announcement still pisses me off to this day and I'll never understand why we promote the negatives so much. It's like our promotion releases that we still do even today. Such as the front page of MeanGreenSports.com promoting the LSU game in '05 which read like: HEY MEAN GREEN FANS, THE LAST TIME NORTH TEXAS PLAYED LSU WE LOST 875 to 3. SO DON'T MISS OUT ON A CHANCE TO COME SEE NORTH TEXAS PLAY THEM AGAIN!!!!!!

I mean, how off do you have to be to think this excites people about the program?

If you can't promote the possitives then don't at all.

Rick

Edited May 22, 2007 by FirefightnRick

[MeanGreen61]

Just some food for thought. UNT has played only ONE game in Texas Stadium that had a HIGHER attendance than our two Baylor games at Fouts. Baylor games attendance (2003) 29,437 (2000) 28,325. A&M drew 45,923 at Texas Stadium. The next highest draw was SMU 27,183. The highest Texas Stadium attendance for a Tech game was 21,496.

Fouts could have handled all but one of our Texas Stadium games.

Edited May 22, 2007 by MeanGreen61

[Stan R]

Not remotely close.

I wish we had a picture of the crowd, then we could prove that Plum needs to set down the crack pipe.

[DallasGreen]

Just some food for thought. UNT has played only ONE game in Texas Stadium that had a HIGHER attendance than our two Baylor games at Fouts. Baylor games attendance (2003) 29,437 (2000) 28,325. A&M drew 45,923 at Texas Stadium. The next highest draw was SMU 27,183. The highest Texas Stadium attendance for a Tech game was 21,496.

Just another thought on Baylor. The same year as BU came and fans flocked to Fouts, we also had a home game with USF. A USF program so good that BU would later buy out the contract to keep from playing them. USF drew about half as big a crowd as Baylor-- What does that tell you about THE ABSOLUTE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL THAT RESIDES IN DENTON, TEXAS?

[Mean Green 93-98]

Just another thought on Baylor. The same year as BU came and fans flocked to Fouts, we also had a home game with USF. A USF program so good that BU would later buy out the contract to keep from playing them. USF drew about half as big a crowd as Baylor-- What does that tell you about THE ABSOLUTE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL THAT RESIDES IN DENTON, TEXAS?

People don't want to come see a no-name team that has a good chance of whupping their team--they want to come see a big name team that their team has a good chance of whupping up on.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Double post

Edited May 22, 2007 by Mean Green 93-98