The "Sleeping Giant" stirred a little yesterday - Why this bow

[TheColonyEagle]

There have been numerous debates on here for years on what the challenge is for this program: coaching, budget, recruiting, attendance, wins, etc. etc. I think the biggest challenge this program has is perception. And even though the end result in Athens, GA yesterday wasn't what we began to hope for....the program took a big step in helping with our biggest challenge.

UNT already has the cards stacked against it given this location. What helps us (being in Texas, DFW, hot bed for recruiting) also hurts us (now 12 FBS programs in TX, 3 within 30 miles, old SWC focus, big 12 bias). Oh yeah and a loooong history of irrelevance in football. (apologies to the Hayden Fry fan club) We've heard the term "sleeping giant" thrown out. Some roll their eyes at it, others hold out hope that it will rise. What I noticed yesterday as we were tied 21-21 halfway through the 3rd quarter with the SEC East preseason favorite, is what I believe is a pent up ground swell of potential buzz around this program.

I started looking around twitter at this time to see what was out there. Now I'm not a big twitter guy...I follow mostly sports media and probably check it once a week or so. But I saw mean green buzz like I've never seen.

Corby Davidson tweeted about The Mean Green. Bill Jones. Sean Bass. Tim MacMahon. Chris Fowler. (yes ESPN Gameday Chris Fowler....and his tweet was an apology for the NTSU mess up. someone called him out) Greg Williams. Keith Whitmire. Brett McMurphy. Etc. Etc. Local media as well as national media. Harry posted several twitter snap shots as well. The Mean Green all the sudden became......"cool" with 7 minutes left in the 3rd quarter of a "body bag" game. They started trending. This morning, I searched the headlines:

"Georgia pulls away to avoid upset vs. North Texas"

"N. Texas hangs tough, but falls to No. 9 Georgia"

"Georgia defeats North Texas in a tough one"

"Georgia rallies against gritty North Texas"

"Georgia forced to pull away later than hoped"

Now they weren't all in that vain but what headlines like that do for our program is add some relevance. Regardless of the final score, those headlines shine a positive light on the program. WE NEED A LIGHT SHINED.

What this program needs is some "cool." And you become cool in college football by getting your name mentioned on twitter and on ESPN. Why is that important? That depends on your definition of "sleeping giant." Our sleeping giant is the 100K+ alumni and 36K+ students in this area. SMU doesn't have that. TCU doesn't have that. They can't. We already have that. All we need now is to improve our perception. And the sleeping giant that stirred oh so gently yesterday may just open its eyes. All around the metroplex yesterday as twitter blew up, this sleeping giant said, "man...UNT is hanging tough with GA." "Hey, what's going on with UNT?" "Hey...I went to UNT!"

At 2-2 with every game left on the schedule winnable, what a tied score in the second half at #9 GA does is puts an eye slightly up I35. If we beat Tulane, it won't be, "Tulane sucks." It will be "hey, UNT's pretty good.....they went toe to toe with GA." If we take care of business in NO and come back to what will be the largest crowd of the season and beat a good MTSU team.....it will be "UNT is 4-2....headed toward a bowl." It won't be "they don't play anyone." Every win will be followed by "They went toe to toe with Georgia." That combined with the increased ease of getting the message out is the difference between our previous bowl run and this one. And make no mistake....we are in a bowl run. Get on board. I fully expect this team to beat Tulane. With these players and this staff.....we should.

Monday at work....you will hear non-UNT grads congratulate you. You will hear "man ya'll looked good on Saturday, Ya'll gave them a game." And the grads you do work with, that have been cowering in the corner for years will start to pick their head up a little bit...might even read an article on their alma mater....the crazy ones might dust off that green pennant that's been in their closet.

What happened halfway through the 3rd quarter is our perception improved. And the message got out quickly. We have a real D1 coaching staff. A team that believes in one another and a preemptive light shined on UNT. Now if we do what this team is capable of doing, we will continue to improve our media position (social and otherwise)

People that are associated with UNT in some form or fashion heard about UNT yesterday. And they were able to be proud. What may seem like a small step was actually a big one.

Edited September 22, 2013 by TheColonyEagle

[NorthTexan95]

Good stuff.

[Christopher Walker]

Hear, hear.

What the Mean Green accomplished yesterday is something that has not been done in nearly every body bag game opportunity in the last few decades: relevance and a raised profile.

Edited September 22, 2013 by Christopher Walker

[Eastwood Eagle]

Nice read. A drive for a bowl game will get a lot of excitement for the program and for sure put more butts in the seats.

Got to be beat Tulane first!

[UNT90]

There have been numerous debates on here for years on what the challenge is for this program: coaching, budget, recruiting, attendance, wins, etc. etc. I think the biggest challenge this program has is perception. And even though the end result in Athens, GA yesterday wasn't what we began to hope for....the program took a big step in helping with our biggest challenge.

UNT already has the cards stacked against it given this location. What helps us (being in Texas, DFW, hot bed for recruiting) also hurts us (now 12 FBS programs in TX, 3 within 30 miles, old SWC focus, big 12 bias). Oh yeah and a loooong history of irrelevance in football. (apologies to the Hayden Fry fan club) We've heard the term "sleeping giant" thrown out. Some roll their eyes at it, others hold out hope that it will rise. What I noticed yesterday as we were tied 21-21 halfway through the 3rd quarter with the SEC East preseason favorite, is what I believe is a pent up ground swell of potential buzz around this program.

I started looking around twitter at this time to see what was out there. Now I'm not a big twitter guy...I follow mostly sports media and probably check it once a week or so. But I saw mean green buzz like I've never seen.

Corby Davidson tweeted about The Mean Green. Bill Jones. Sean Bass. Tim MacMahon. Chris Fowler. (yes ESPN Gameday Chris Fowler....and his tweet was an apology for the NTSU mess up. someone called him out) Greg Williams. Keith Whitmire. Brett McMurphy. Etc. Etc. Local media as well as national media. Harry posted several twitter snap shots as well. The Mean Green all the sudden became......"cool" with 7 minutes left in the 3rd quarter of a "body bag" game. They started trending. This morning, I searched the headlines:

"Georgia pulls away to avoid upset vs. North Texas"

"N. Texas hangs tough, but falls to No. 9 Georgia"

"Georgia defeats North Texas in a tough one"

"Georgia rallies against gritty North Texas"

"Georgia forced to pull away later than hoped"

Now they weren't all in that vain but what headlines like that do for our program is add some relevance. Regardless of the final score, those headlines shine a positive light on the program. WE NEED A LIGHT SHINED.

What this program needs is some "cool." And you become cool in college football by getting your name mentioned on twitter and on ESPN. Why is that important? That depends on your definition of "sleeping giant." Our sleeping giant is the 100K+ alumni and 36K+ students in this area. SMU doesn't have that. TCU doesn't have that. They can't. We already have that. All we need now is to improve our perception. And the sleeping giant that stirred oh so gently yesterday may just open its eyes. All around the metroplex yesterday as twitter blew up, this sleeping giant said, "man...UNT is hanging tough with GA." "Hey, what's going on with UNT?" "Hey...I went to UNT!"

At 2-2 with every game left on the schedule winnable, what a tied score in the second half at #9 GA does is puts an eye slightly up I35. If we beat Tulane, it won't be, "Tulane sucks." It will be "hey, UNT's pretty good.....they went toe to toe with GA." If we take care of business in NO and come back to what will be the largest crowd of the season and beat a good MTSU team.....it will be "UNT is 4-2....headed toward a bowl." It won't be "they don't play anyone." Every win will be followed by "They went toe to toe with Georgia." That combined with the increased ease of getting the message out is the difference between our previous bowl run and this one. And make no mistake....we are in a bowl run. Get on board. I fully expect this team to beat Tulane. With these players and this staff.....we should.

Monday at work....you will hear non-UNT grads congratulate you. You will hear "man ya'll looked good on Saturday, Ya'll gave them a game." And the grads you do work with, that have been cowering in the corner for years will start to pick their head up a little bit...might even read an article on their alma mater....the crazy ones might dust off that green pennant that's been in their closet.

What happened halfway through the 3rd quarter is our perception improved. And the message got out quickly. We have a real D1 coaching staff. A team that believes in one another and a preemptive light shined on UNT. Now if we do what this team is capable of doing, we will continue to improve our media position (social and otherwise)

People that are associated with UNT in some form or fashion heard about UNT yesterday. And they were able to be proud. What may seem like a small step was actually a big one.

I get some of what you are saying, but the problem was what happened from mid-third quarter on.

I, too, received text messages from disaffected alumni I know who noticed the tie score. But I also received follow up text of "same Ole UNT" when Georgia pulled away. Are these people the most knowledgable college football fans? No, but if they were, they would be at Apogee already. They had a brief period to actually care followed by what they have come to expect from UNT football.

The buzz was for 5 minutes instead of a full season, which would have happened if we had actually won that ball game. The buzz will be gone and forgotten by next Saturday and the outcome of the game forever forgotten by everyone except some of our posters who will forever immortalized the time we were tied with Georgia in the 3rd qtr.

You gotta at least keep a game like this within 7 points for it to have an affect on your program. 24 point losses just don't.

[UNT90]

Got to be beat Tulane first!

This. This. This. This. This.

Go out and prove you can beat a bad team badly on the road.

Beat Tulane, beat MTSU and beat La. Tech. 3 winnable games with 2 on the road (and the other team's homecoming). Win these games, and the Rice game suddenly has meaning.

Huge 3 game stretch.

[TheColonyEagle]

Say what you want....but that looks pretty good. Not bad after a 24 point loss.

Perception.

We took a step yesterday.

Edited September 22, 2013 by TheColonyEagle

[TheColonyEagle]

This. This. This. This. This.

Go out and prove you can beat a bad team badly on the road.

Beat Tulane, beat MTSU and beat La. Tech. 3 winnable games with 2 on the road (and the other team's homecoming). Win these games, and the Rice game suddenly has meaning.

Huge 3 game stretch.

Totally agree with you.

[drex]

This team is also entertaining to watch, which makes for lots of potential at the turnstiles. Chancellor was electric yesterday.

[TheColonyEagle]

I get some of what you are saying, but the problem was what happened from mid-third quarter on.

I, too, received text messages from disaffected alumni I know who noticed the tie score. But I also received follow up text of "same Ole UNT" when Georgia pulled away. Are these people the most knowledgable college football fans? No, but if they were, they would be at Apogee already. They had a brief period to actually care followed by what they have come to expect from UNT football.

The buzz was for 5 minutes instead of a full season, which would have happened if we had actually won that ball game. The buzz will be gone and forgotten by next Saturday and the outcome of the game forever forgotten by everyone except some of our posters who will forever immortalized the time we were tied with Georgia in the 3rd qtr.

You gotta at least keep a game like this within 7 points for it to have an affect on your program. 24 point losses just don't.

Don't totally disagree with you here. Which is why I just about threw my phone across the living room when they scored that last meaningless TD.

BUT

When we were tied with Georgia halfway through the 3rd quarter, and twitter blew up.....at that moment we already won the perception battle.

Need to build on it.

[houstonmeangreen]

I get some of what you are saying, but the problem was what happened from mid-third quarter on.

I, too, received text messages from disaffected alumni I know who noticed the tie score. But I also received follow up text of "same Ole UNT" when Georgia pulled away. Are these people the most knowledgable college football fans? No, but if they were, they would be at Apogee already. They had a brief period to actually care followed by what they have come to expect from UNT football.

The buzz was for 5 minutes instead of a full season, which would have happened if we had actually won that ball game. The buzz will be gone and forgotten by next Saturday and the outcome of the game forever forgotten by everyone except some of our posters who will forever immortalized the time we were tied with Georgia in the 3rd qtr.

You gotta at least keep a game like this within 7 points for it to have an affect on your program. 24 point losses just don't.

I'm afraid you are right..the faithful will always hang on to this, but winning is required, especially considering our history/record. I thought for awhile we were going to have a respectful score. The faithful knows we recently played LSU and KSU well, especially KSU, but no win...we have to win a few of these...like North Dakota State University...yes,we know that name, don't we. What this game did tell us is this team has character and can be a winner...at least in CUSA, maybe get in and win a bowl...it's a start. I like many others are at least excited about some of the things we are seeing.

[UNT90]

I'm afraid you are right..the faithful will always hang on to this, but winning is required, especially considering our history/record. I thought for awhile we were going to have a respectful score. The faithful knows we recently played LSU and KSU well, especially KSU, but no win...we have to win a few of these...like North Dakota State University...yes,we know that name, don't we. What this game did tell us is this team has character and can be a winner...at least in CUSA, maybe get in and win a bowl...it's a start. I like many others are at least excited about some of the things we are seeing.

I'm excited by the Ball St. Game, not the Georgia game.

[untjim1995]

I think the good from this game gets carried forward if we win this next game. Much like last year, after the KSU game, we lost all momentum by losing. Tulane is bad, they are a team we should beat anywhere. If we lose to them, the DFW media will just laugh us off again. This will remind the long timers here of the time we hung tough with a top ten Aggie team at Texas Stadium in 1997 and eventually lost, but lots of buzz was created by UNT being ready to make its mark as a I-A program. And we followed that up with a disastrous Big West season that cost Matt Simon his job. We cannot let that happen again if we want to gain a foothold in the DFW media.

[KRAM1]

I think the good from this game gets carried forward if we win this next game. Much like last year, after the KSU game, we lost all momentum by losing. Tulane is bad, they are a team we should beat anywhere. If we lose to them, the DFW media will just laugh us off again. This will remind the long timers here of the time we hung tough with a top ten Aggie team at Texas Stadium in 1997 and eventually lost, but lots of buzz was created by UNT being ready to make its mark as a I-A program. And we followed that up with a disastrous Big West season that cost Matt Simon his job. We cannot let that happen again if we want to gain a foothold in the DFW media.

Very good perspective here....and done without bashing anything or anyone for a change. I agree with your message here and, yes, I very much recall that game at Texas Stadium. Man, I hated playing at Texas Stadium...but I digress.

Tulane may be the key to the season. Get a rare road win and, as untjim1995, said folks will continue to notice the Mean Green. This game is really one that can set up the team for the rest of the season. The Mean Green "should" beat Tulane, but the road record of recent years says UNT may be in for a fight to get that elusive and rare road win. I think UNT wins this one, but doubt that it will be easy, and think the final might be close...like 27-20 for the good guys!

[UNTFan23]

Say what you want....but that looks pretty good. Not bad after a 24 point loss.

Perception.

We took a step yesterday.

Having our helmet be between Michigan and Syracuse on ESPN College Gameday Final was pretty sweet. No missing our helmet.

[Green Dozer]

Say what you want....but that looks pretty good. Not bad after a 24 point loss.

Perception.

We took a step yesterday.

Yes we did. Our SID got our latest helmet to ESPN. : )

[GMoney]

Michigan should have their helmet removed as bad as they played yesterday! Give UNT a little more space to be spotlighted!

[Green P1]

Anyone else surprised we haven't heard news of a contract extension for Mac after almost keeping it within 20 of Georgia yesterday???

#allgreenallgoodallthetime

[Chief Rising Eagle]

"Perception is reality." - Axioms of Truth.

CBS Channel 11 News, ABC Channel 8 News, and NBC Channel 5 News all gave huge props to "The Mean Green of North Texas" last night. Every sports anchor made a big deal about our performance in the game against Georgia. And every one of them showed the highlights of us scoring all three touchdowns against UGA. NBC gave us the lions share of the sports coverage. CBS and ABC gave us equal coverage time in relation to UT-Austin, TTU, and TAMU. Each anchor said phrases like, "What's happening up in Denton" and "Go Mean Green". It was the most coverage I have ever seen UNT receive from all the local newscasts on a College Football Saturday night.

On ESPN, after the UT-Austin and KSU game, the ESPN anchor said, "Georgia survives North Texas" as he began the recap of the game. It was great to see all the positve and respectfull coverage. It was obvious that the local sports anchors were genuinely excited about reporting on how well our team did.

Because of our huge and respected RTVF program, we have alot of alumni that work in all areas of the media. And they are part of "The Sleeping Giant." And they are hungry to report on a winning Mean Green Football program.

In order for one to move forward, one has to buy into the future. He who lives on the past, dies looking backwards.

The paradigm shift in perception for our university to grow now and in the future is: We are THE University of North Texas.

As the people believe, the giant awakes.

[casual fan]

I'm really pulling for the other teams we have played. Ohio, Ball State, & Georgia are all 3-1 and should all end up in bowl games.

I would love to see Ball State win the rest of their games since we would be the only team that beat them. (easy schedule except for Virginia)

Ohio has a very easy schedule and will not play Ball State unless they both make it to the MAC championship game.

If we can build a good record, those 3 teams could help us get a vote or two in the polls at some point. Think strength of schedule.

[JesseMartin]

If we can build a good record, those 3 teams could help us get a vote or two in the polls at some point. Think strength of schedule.

Before anybody blasts this like they did mine in Week 1, remember that there are some weird votes that come in, so you never know when one will come your way. Broken record: Utah State at 0-1 got a vote by staying close with 1-0 Utah who got nothing. If your record is decent and one voter is impressed with your effort, you show up somewhere in the "other votes received" list. I know it doesn't matter in the overall "every FBS school" rankings, but when it comes down to the wire for a bowl game (or a better bowl game), the 1 or 2 votes you get as an "also-ran" for impressive outings (even in losses) might give just enough of an edge to hit that sweet spot. You know the one...no, not there, over a little bit...yeah, right there, you know it.

[GabeGMG]

I figured this would be the right thread to post this is, the UNT game had one of the most active conversations of the day on Reddit /r/cfb

http://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/1muaoy/game_thread_north_texas_georgia_1220pm_edt/

[FirefightnRick]

I'm excited by the Ball St. Game, not the Georgia game.

Your entitled to your opinion but I don't understand why you feel this way and can't separate the difference between a win of a winnable game (Ohio) and a close loss of a game no one had given us a whisper of a chance to even survive the first quarter in (Georgia). What about the future? Doesn't it make you excited for the future and what these coaches might be able to build here? It does me.

If nothing else here is something I took away from this game.

03:45....UGA...-Marshall Morgan 27 yd field goal,

With 3:45 to go in a game which we were expected to lose by 36 1/2 points we had played the 9th ranked team to a 14 point game till this field goal.

I have been to many if not most of the body bag games over the course of the past 29 years. I can attest that with the game under 4 minutes to go have I rarely ever witnessed our defense STOP all the starters of a top 10 team's offense on our own 27 yard line and force a field goal. Usually by that time in these games our defense has been completely worn down and had given up. Not this time. Afterwards, they didn't come off the field relieved or happy that it was finally about to be over. They came off the field screaming and pissed off at each other because they had just given up 3 points with 3:45 to go...basically sealing our fate.

For me, that defensive stand was a point of importance in behavior and attitude change displayed by this team that I would hope most noticed and realized that things are looking up. No one is happy about a loss, but considering how poor we have been recently, it's a great sign of things to come.....SOMETHING TO BE EXCITED ABOUT.

Regardless of the score it shows that even coach Dodge's players were in fact capable of being very good once placed in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing.

By the way, yes, this was a close loss..(should have been 17 instead of 24)... because I dismiss the last garbage TD due to the fact that our size and depth at that point had finally caught up to us and the fact we didn't even have all of our starters in the game there. I'm guessing here, but I think our coaches must have thought that Richt would sit on the ball with 2 minutes to go and he didn't. Sarge was on the bench. He was spent...done. Fought his ass off the whole game, and Georgia slipped around his side and ran it down to the 1 on a single busted play. That's what we get for hesitating I guess, but I just don't think we expected it. Lesson learned.

Rick

Edited September 23, 2013 by FirefightnRick

[Christopher Walker]

I figured this would be the right thread to post this is, the UNT game had one of the most active conversations of the day on Reddit /r/cfb

http://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/1muaoy/game_thread_north_texas_georgia_1220pm_edt/

Always, always good to post /r/CFB here.

[FirefightnRick]

"Perception is reality." - Axioms of Truth.

CBS Channel 11 News, ABC Channel 8 News, and NBC Channel 5 News all gave huge props to "The Mean Green of North Texas" last night. Every sports anchor made a big deal about our performance in the game against Georgia. And every one of them showed the highlights of us scoring all three touchdowns against UGA. NBC gave us the lions share of the sports coverage. CBS and ABC gave us equal coverage time in relation to UT-Austin, TTU, and TAMU. Each anchor said phrases like, "What's happening up in Denton" and "Go Mean Green". It was the most coverage I have ever seen UNT receive from all the local newscasts on a College Football Saturday night.

On ESPN, after the UT-Austin and KSU game, the ESPN anchor said, "Georgia survives North Texas" as he began the recap of the game. It was great to see all the positve and respectfull coverage. It was obvious that the local sports anchors were genuinely excited about reporting on how well our team did.

Because of our huge and respected RTVF program, we have alot of alumni that work in all areas of the media. And they are part of "The Sleeping Giant." And they are hungry to report on a winning Mean Green Football program.

In order for one to move forward, one has to buy into the future. He who lives on the past, dies looking backwards.

The paradigm shift in perception for our university to grow now and in the future is: We are THE University of North Texas.

As the people believe, the giant awakes.

Good post sir.

And I hate to bring it up...but what you described above is EXACTLY what it was like during several weekends in 1988. We had beaten Texas Tech in Lubbutocks and took Texas to the wire in Austin and were ranked #1 in the National 1-AA polls for like 6 or 7 weeks. Later on we wiped the floor up with Rice in the final game of the year. George Riba of Channel 8 was in Denton several times doing stories on Scott Davis and Sidney "Mad Dog" Bradford..our anchor on the Mean Green defense at that time.

Good memories.

Rick