The Glory Years revisited

[TIgreen01]

Okay, those were nice "building years" . . . but they would never be where they are today if they had never taken down the big boys. You make it sound as if their rise to prominence was all about beating the weaker teams in the WAC.

You're darn right it was. That 6-7 year rise got them to the point that they could recruit enough legit FBS level talent/depth to finally take down an OU on the big stage. We were playing OU and getting beaten when we clearly weren't ready. Boise didn't play a team with as much talent as an OU or UT until 2005, when they traveled to Athens, Georgia and got their brains beat in. That was 6 or 7 full seasons into their rise. A year later, they got OU on a neutral field and caught lightning in a bottle, made a name for themselves and kept building until now---6 years later just had the second most players drafted to the NFL in all of college football.

I'm not trying to take anything away from Boise. They did what we couldn't do, sustain the success....but as monkeypox said above, they scheduled brilliantly during their rise. Before that Fiesta bowl against OU, Boise had been a regular "BCS Buster" candidate for 3 out of 4 seasons due in large part to them beating the teams on their schedule with equal or lessor talent. They scheduled in 10-11 games of that nature every year. Every year, we had to listen to all the talking heads in the media debate their SOS. One side would yell, "they don't play anybody!"...the other side would answer, "They can't help who they schedule and the big boys are scared of them!" It used to make me sick. We scheduled in 3-4 games against teams with more talented rosters every year. Boise absolutely could have played more games against BCS conference teams, but they chose (smartly) not to. For goodness sakes, the OUs of the world are absolutely not scared of playing a Boise St on their home field with their own conference refs calling the game. Maybe they are now, but they sure weren't back in 2004/05.

[Harry]

Sorry I just need to do this.

[Stix]

Sorry I just need to do this.

That song has been going through my brain every time I saw this thread. Yes, it needed to be done.

Edited August 13, 2012 by Stix

[untjim1995]

To most fans, outside of the few thousand hard-core fans we had back then, the reality of that time was that North Texas only won because they played in the Sun Belt, which has always been looked at as being FCS-like. During that timeframe, our teams for 2002-2003, though, were very good--and I think they should be the ones that we hold up in high regard. That 2001 team, pulled off a miracle, but it wasn't a legitimate bowl team. The other three were legit, though, for sure. The 2002-2003 teams didn't look out of place against anyone, including Texas, TCU, Baylor, Cincy, etc...We really killed ourselves in that bowl game against Memphis or we would have been two-time champs.

The real issue for UNT is that you couldn't sustain anything from those two years with the funding and support that the school gave to the program. Literally, if the students hadn't passed the stadium fee for Apogee, I truly believe that we would have been back at the FCS level in due time. We had the worst stadium in all of college football, among the very lowest in salaries for coaching staffs in college football, and played in the worst conference (perception-wise). Imagine if we played in Fouts still today? We would be in an SBC without FIU and probably MTSU, while we would be watching UTSA go to CUSA. We would hear people "celebrating" the fact that Texas State would be in our conference now, so we would be getting our oldest "rival" back. We would probably have Chico as head coach, which is no knock on him, but it would be because he wouldn't cost much.

Thankfully, today, we have seen progress that has given us a huge bump in realistic hope for our future. We are funding a program that is at least in the neighborhood of where we should be today as a big university in Texas, while moving up to a conference that people have heard of and has teams that actually have been ranked before...how amazing that will be the first time an SBC team pulls that off!! Coach Mac is doing it right, building for the long-term. I actually expect that we could see a step back this year, just because the schedule is much tougher this year than last year in OOC. But we have to give him time to build this up to a place where our lines are deeper and bigger, so as to compete against CUSA teams. I think that Years 3 and 4 of Coach Mac's tenure are going to be great years for our program, even as we move to CUSA's tougher competition. That's why I agree that Coach Mac is right to shoot much higher than anything that has been "glorified" in Denton in the last 35 years.

[MeanGreenHoops]

The real issue for UNT is that you couldn't sustain anything from those two years with the funding and support that the school gave to the program. Literally, if the students hadn't passed the stadium fee for Apogee, I truly believe that we would have been back at the FCS level in due time. We had the worst stadium in all of college football, among the very lowest in salaries for coaching staffs in college football, and played in the worst conference (perception-wise). Imagine if we played in Fouts still today? We would be in an SBC without FIU and probably MTSU, while we would be watching UTSA go to CUSA. We would hear people "celebrating" the fact that Texas State would be in our conference now, so we would be getting our oldest "rival" back. We would probably have Chico as head coach, which is no knock on him, but it would be because he wouldn't cost much.

This reminds me. Thank you UNTFlyer

[SilverEagle]

This reminds me. Thank you UNTFlyer

I second that!

[rws69]

This is my first post after visiting for a few weeks. I feel the need to take you youngsters back to the last three seasons of my time at what was then NTSU:

1966 - last year for Odus Mitchell, the Eagles went 8-2 with wins over New Mexico State and Texas Western (now UTEP), but losing to nemesis Tulsa and Wichita.

1967 - first year under Rod Rust, they went 7-1-1, falling to Memphis the last game of the season, with a tie with NM State, and wins over Colorado State and Tulsa.

1968 - they went 8-2 with upset loss to Memphis and losing to Arkansas 15-17, and wins over NM State, Colorado State, Tulsa, and UTEP

That is a three-year record of 23-5-1, with Joe Greene named All-American, two MVC championships, the birth of the Mean Green, and capacity crowds at (pre-expansion) Fouts Field.

[Harry]

Damn good run! Thanks for sharing that and welcome to GMG.

[rws69]

From the 1968 squad:

Cedric Hardman, DL, to 49ers

Joe Green, DL, to Steelers

Charles Beatty, DB, to Steelers

Glen Halloway, OL, to Bears

Steve Ramsey, QB, to Broncos

Ron Shanklin, WR, to Steelers

Also, the Mean Green tag was for the defense.