A Whole New Look

[MeanGreen61]

A whole new look

Meda Days mark start of new era in UNT football

09:22 PM CDT on Sunday, July 22, 2007

Brett Vito/Staff Writer

A year ago, North Texas was talking about returning to the form of its best seasons under former head coach Darrell Dickey when Sun Belt Conference Media Days kicked off in New Orleans.

To say a lot has changed for the Mean Green since would be an understatement.

Dickey was fired in November, opening the way for a new era at UNT under head coach Todd Dodge, who will appear at his first media day beginning this morning at the Hilton New Orleans.

The league will unveil its preseason All-Conference Team and the Preseason Coaches Poll today. The event is just one more sign that a season of change is just around the corner for the Mean Green.

UNT will be under the direction of a new head coach for the first time in nearly a decade after nine seasons under Dickey.

The Mean Green will have a new look under Dodge, and not just because of the spread offense he is installing this season. UNT is also dramatically changing the look of its uniform.

UNT is switching to a white helmet after wearing green helmets the last several seasons.

"We looked at a number of different combinations," UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said. "A kelly green helmet wasn't a good complementary piece."

The white helmet is the first part of UNT's new uniform the athletic department has unveiled.

Villarreal said UNT would continue to unveil parts of the uniform leading up to the Mean Green Kickoff Cookout at 7 p.m. on Aug. 4 at the Mean Green Athletic Center. The athletic department will have the entire home and away uniform for fans to see at the event.

UNT's new uniform appears as if it will closely resemble what Dodge's teams wore at Carroll during their run to three straight Class 5A state titles the last three seasons.

"Some people will draw parallels to the Southlake Carroll uniforms," Villarreal said. "The colors are the same with green and white, so it's a natural comparison to make."

The question heading into media days is if Dodge can have the same level of success he had at Carroll at UNT, which finished 5-18 the last two seasons combined.

UNT will use a spread offense under Dodge after depending largely on a running attack that produced a pair of national rushing champions under Dickey.

Most preseason publications have picked UNT to finish near the bottom of the Sun Belt standings while adapting to a new system.

The last of those preseason projections will be unveiled today, when the Sun Belt's coaches pick the favorite for the league title just days before the league's teams open practice.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.

[UNTFan23]

Even with all these publications "predicting" we'll finish near the bottom, it definitely gives us something to build on and to walk around with a chip on our shoulder to prove everyone wrong.

[NT80]

UNT is switching to a white helmet after wearing green helmets the last several seasons.

Green helmets for nearly 40 seasons.

As for being on the bottom of the polls, it's always more fun to win as the underdog!

Edited July 23, 2007 by NT80

[MeanGreen61]

"It ain't where ya start that counts, it's where ya finish"

[stebo]

I think that the heart of the white helmet is more of a result of the branding committee then Todge. It sounds like they painted a helmet Kelly "tootpaste" green and it was very unflattering... so they went with a white helmet. That is what I get out of this...

There are a group of us that fought that branding committee and were mocked on this board. FFRick, Myself, CMJ, and several others - went to great lengths to try and get a voice on the bran ding committee for the group of fans. No out voice, but just A voice that would represent the fans.... We were basically told to go F ourselves. Now we get the ramifications of it. Still no logo on the helmet when a perfectly good logo (the interlocked NT) was volunteered by the Exes for use, and this tootpaste green that might look great on some shirts but looks absolutely TERRIBLE on uniforms.

[UNTflyer]

There is no official interlocked "NT" on the branding site. The helmets should have our official branding, and they will:

This looks MUCH better than the old ugly script.

[GreenTiger_OriginalAcct]

Funny. I have never seen a standings chart that looked like this:

W L

Team B 8 1

Team A 7 2

Team C* 5 4

Team D 2 7

* denotes played 5 games wearing green helmets, 3 games wearing blue helmets and 1 wearing white helmets

I don't care what they wear - I care that they win.

[CorinthEagle]

Funny. I have never seen a standings chart that looked like this:

W L

Team B 8 1

Team A 7 2

Team C* 5 4

Team D 2 7

* denotes played 5 games wearing green helmets, 3 games wearing blue helmets and 1 wearing white helmets

I don't care what they wear - I care that they win.

Amen Amen Amen!!!

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

The color of the helmet has nothing to do with wins and losses. Truth be known, we probably have a better win/loss record wearing white than green but that record had nothing to do with the helmet that the players were wearing.

If I have a gripe about the helmets, it would be the North Texas on either side. To be seen from afar, it has to be rather large and makes the helmet look too cluttered. I would prefer the SOW plain or use the Exes superimposed NT.

There is one team that comes quickly to mind that does not have white as part of their school colors, yet uses a white helmet.....Miami. They use the orange and green 'U' on a white helmet and it looks sharp.

[FireFightnJoey]

Helmet with Script == longest conference winning streak, 4 conference championships, 4 bowl games, 1 bowl win, 2 national rushing titles

Helmet X == 5 wins in two seasons. Tied for last in the conference. 110+ ranked everthing*

* estimated ranking

So, either bring back the script or lets try SoW. Just not the same block letters that all I can do is associate failure!

BTW FFR, if you paint your helmet white, do we have to call you Chief FFR???

Edited July 23, 2007 by FireFightnJoey

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Helmet with Script == longest conference winning streak, 4 conference championships, 4 bowl games, 1 bowl win, 2 national rushing titles

Helmet X == 5 wins in two seasons. Tied for last in the conference. 110+ ranked everthing*

* estimated ranking

So, either bring back the script or lets try SoW. Just not the same block letters that all I can do is associate failure!

BTW FFR, if you paint your helmet white, do we have to call you Chief FFR???

That would work for me. After all, he's our chief fan.

[PerryG2480]

The reveal they are doing on the athletics site shows a player standing there with the new helmet on but everything else blacked out. If they chose to reveal the helmet, couldn't they have at least given us a good clean side view of it? I know what it will look like, I just want to see an actual helmet.

[UNTLifer]

Helmet with Script == longest conference winning streak, 4 conference championships, 4 bowl games, 1 bowl win, 2 national rushing titles

Helmet X == 5 wins in two seasons. Tied for last in the conference. 110+ ranked everthing*

* estimated ranking

So, either bring back the script or lets try SoW. Just not the same block letters that all I can do is associate failure!

BTW FFR, if you paint your helmet white, do we have to call you Chief FFR???

If you want to base helmet choice on the success realized while wearing it, you would have to consider the following:

The white helmet of the late 60's, Greene, Ramsey, Shanklin era

The Apple Green "Flying Worm." Only helmet to garner a Top 20 ranking.

The hunter/emeral green script.

The new helmets will look great, but will take a little getting used to for me.

[Ibleedgreen]

Stebo...I've not seen a shirt, yet, that it looks good on.

[UNTLifer]

and this tootpaste green that might look great on some shirts but looks absolutely TERRIBLE on uniforms.

I may be wrong, but isn't there a difference between the "toothpaste" green that showed up on some shirts last year and our true, new kelly green?

[NT80]

I may be wrong, but isn't there a difference between the "toothpaste" green that showed up on some shirts last year and our true, new kelly green?

Yes, big difference. The new men's basketball uniforms have the correct kelly green.

Toothpast Green (swim coach's shirt):

http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle...;ATCLID=1064715

Kelly Green:

http://www.dentonrc.com/s/dws/img/drc/03-0...6untmemphis.jpg

Edited July 23, 2007 by NT80

[meangreenfreak]

Yes, big difference. The new men's basketball uniforms have the correct kelly green.

Toothpast Green (swim coach's shirt):

http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle...;ATCLID=1064715

Kelly Green:

http://www.dentonrc.com/s/dws/img/drc/03-0...6untmemphis.jpg

The pitcure of the Basketball Uni's isn't Kelly Green at all. Kelly Green is the color most commonly associated with the Irish, 4 leaf clovers and Bennagins.

[centex eagle]

There is almost no version of Kelly green that looks sharp, no matter the fabric or material it is on. It just looks worse on some fabrics and materials than others. Thank goodness for the white helmet. Hopefully they will set it off with a classy design.

[adman]

There is almost no version of Kelly green that looks sharp, no matter the fabric or material it is on. It just looks worse on some fabrics and materials than others. Thank goodness for the white helmet. Hopefully they will set it off with a classy design.

"Kelly Green" "Hunter Green" & "Forest Green" are arbitrary terms. According to the NT style guide our green is PMS 356c. For those that aren't familiar with this term it stands for Pantone Matching System. (Pantone is a printing ink.)

The Pantone formula guide provides an accurate method for the selection, specification, communication, reproduction, matching and control of solid PMS Colors. This is an international standard in color language.*

Now if you google "Kelly Green PMS color" or "Forest Green PMS color" etc you'll get a varied list of PMS numbers. Some printers consider Kelly to be PMS 348 others PMS 354. Some consider Forrest to be PMS 341 and still others PMS 343. What does this mean? It means there is no standard for "Kelly Green" or "Forrest Green" these terms are arbitrary. One man's kelly can be another mans plain old green. But since these are arbitrary terms we might as well call PMS 356c "Mean Green Green" And to see a chip of PMS 356c Green aka Mean Green Green is to see a beautiful shade of green.

*Taken from the Third Edition 2005 Pantone color chip book.

[FirefightnRick]

The late 1980's uniform(helmet & Jersey) above is the correct "Kelly". It looks very sharp when contrasted with White and Black.

Rick

Edited July 23, 2007 by FirefightnRick