Weird Ideas To Attract Future Players

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North Texas has never done well in recruiting. I thought we'd get a boost from four straight Sun Belt titles and a bowl victory, but what we're seeing today suggests that it hasn't been the case. Kids don't grow up with North Texas in their heads as a place they'd like to play ball.

This got me wondering about what you could do to change that. What could you do to turn a kid's head about the Mean Green when he's 8-12?

One thing is to make sure that every youth league team in the Metroplex that calls itself the Mean Green gets Mean Green gear for themselves and athletic supplies for the league. Word will get around.

Another is more unorthodox. Take UNT's game video and chop it up into small 1-3 minute videos that show individual players doing something great. Publish them on YouTube, and give them to players with their own MySpace or Facebook pages. I've seen the pages of several UNT players, and they put some of their own highlights up. The Mighty Quinn has some nice shots of his UNT days, running for a touchdown with defenders getting left in the dust. Encourage players to use this stuff. Give it to RATV students and music students to remix and put on their own sites.

Anyone else have any ideas? By the time a player is old enough and good enough to get Coach Dodge's call, he's already got an impression of North Texas in his head. One of the reasons Southlake Carroll became a high school powerhouse is that they made youngsters want to grow up to be Dragons. I think UNT has to get creative for that to happen with the Mean Green.