Welcome to 2006

[Cr1028]

I can't help but feel like I'm re-living 2006. We start off getting beat bad by Texas. Come home and beat SMU pretty good. Then lose the third game in embarrassing fashion. Additionally, the coach brings in the 3rd team ("green team") after the game has gotten way out of hand and they actually start playing pretty well.

I remember '06 LaTech when Matt Phillips/Casey Fitzgerald and the Green Team came back and almost beat the dawgs only to have Dickey put the starters back in and we lost.

Welcome home 3-9 season. The Buick is back and as predictable as ever.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Cr1028

[golfingomez]

Jesus Christ... calm down...

this team is not as good as it looked against SMU and not as bad as it looked last night...

this is a young team that is going to grow throughout the season

[Travis]

ha. the similarities are uncanny.

[DeepGreen]

I guess SMU will be the high point of the season?

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Jesus Christ... calm down...

this team is not as good as it looked against SMU and not as bad as it looked last night...

this is a young team that is going to grow throughout the season

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Dear golfinggomez:

You don't understand yet:

(1) After we win a game, we are supposed to be unbeatable from now until enternity.

(2) After we lose a game, we are supposed to lose all hope of ever winning again from now until eternity.

You're not discounting experience enough yet. Experience means nothing because we beat SMU.

Get it? Because we beat SMU, the new front seven and the new quarterbacks and the new running backs and the new receivers are automatically as good and experienced as the guys who graduated the year before. Everybody knows that.

(And, if the run game isn't working, that's not the OLs fault because it's the most experienced group...regardless of the number of penalties they pile up as well.)

How can you have not figured this out by now? I don't know why Rick doesn't just have a suicide hotline number printed on the back of season ticket holders tickets. If any fan base needs it, it is surely ours.

[MeanGreenTexan]

Dear golfinggomez:

You don't understand yet:

(1) After we win a game, we are supposed to be unbeatable from now until enternity.

(2) After we lose a game, we are supposed to lose all hope of ever winning again from now until eternity.

You're not discounting experience enough yet. Experience means nothing because we beat SMU.

Get it? Because we beat SMU, the new front seven and the new quarterbacks and the new running backs and the new receivers are automatically as good and experienced as the guys who graduated the year before. Everybody knows that.

(And, if the run game isn't working, that's not the OLs fault because it's the most experienced group...regardless of the number of penalties they pile up as well.)

How can you have not figured this out by now? I don't know why Rick doesn't just have a suicide hotline number printed on the back of season ticket holders tickets. If any fan base needs it, it is surely ours.

Experience...? OL fault...?

We don't have DT playing QB anymore... love him or hate him, so let's put that behind us... now, do you like what you see out of the QB position this year after 3 games?

[TheTastyGreek]

2006? 2006????

I need to buy some Apple stock! I have a good feeling about this phone gadget they're putting together...

[oldguystudent]

2006? Dude. I'm sooo filling up my gas tank!

[aztecskin]

IT IS 2006 ALL OVER. DAMNED APPLE WATCH IS GOING TO SELL LIKE GANGBUSTERS!

Also it sure does seem like 2006 in film was damn near the same as 2014 in film. Transformers, Disney dreck, a couple of super-hero movies.

Guh.

2006? 2006????

I need to buy some Apple stock! I have a good feeling about this phone gadget they're putting together...

[MeanGreenTexan]

2006? I'm PM'ing vindictive Quoner Ron Mendoza's address.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Experience...? OL fault...?

We don't have DT playing QB anymore... love him or hate him, so let's put that behind us... now, do you like what you see out of the QB position this year after 3 games?

No. But, I'm also not the type of fan who believes football is a one man game. The quarterback can't also play guard, cornerback, defensive end, and wide receiver, etc., etc., etc.

Everyone is responsible, not just the QB.

You folks who ride the QB train to0 often and too hard are on a dizzying merry-go-round.

Edited September 12, 2014 by The Fake Lonnie Finch

[TheTastyGreek]

If this were really 2006, I'd take the time to appreciate the brilliant artists we were on the verge of losing. Ingmar Bergman, Kurt Vonnegut, Marcel Marceau, Bam Bam Bigelow... The world of culture and arts was a much richer and more vibrant place 8 years ago.

[oldguystudent]

After filling my gas tank, I'm driving down to Grapevine, turning into Highway 26, and heading for Dragon Stadium. I don't know what happens from there, but it does not involved ordering sushi at concessions.

[BillySee58]

If this were really 2006, I'd take the time to appreciate the brilliant artists we were on the verge of losing. Ingmar Bergman, Kurt Vonnegut, Marcel Marceau, Bam Bam Bigelow... The world of culture and arts was a much richer and more vibrant place 8 years ago.

Since we're talking about the 06 season I figured digging this post up would be fitting, and provide good comic relief after last night. But at the same time remind us that there is no NCAA 15 to pop in and play this game over again.

Link to the thread:

My open letter to the guy who wrote that blog post, emailed to him about 5 minutes ago. Relive our recent shame, in comedy form!

------------------------------

Hey there, I found your sports blog and your post about North Texas in NCAA Football for PS2 through a link on the North Texas football message board. I'm emailing you to politely request that you not hate our beloved team, even in the imaginary world of video game sports.

For the past two years, NCAA 06 and 07 have been the only realms of success for the once mighty Mean Green. After four straight conference titles, a 26 game conference win streak, back-to-back national rushing champions (Patrick Cobbs of the Miami Dolphins and Jamario Thomas of the, hopefully, 2007 Doak Walker award), things in Denton, Texas came crashing down, fast and hard.

In Reality 06 and 07, we finished the year 2-9 and 3-9. Darrell Dickey, our head coach and the last great apostle of the "draw play on 3rd and 26" faith, came down with diabetes, had his gallbladder removed, had a heart attack, and ultimately got fired. Then, while being allowed to coach out the year as a lame duck, he bought the team a box of all-black practice jerseys and everyone came out of the tunnel for the final home game of 2007 dressed like mourners at a funeral/high school football scrimmage. Which was ironically appropriate.

Our second biggest highlight of Earth 07? We were the last team in D-1 football to play an overtime game, and we won! It lasted a record 7 overtimes. No touchdowns were scored by either team in any of the OTs. The teams went a combined 5 of 13 on overtime field goals attempt. Final score: 25-22 (in SEVEN OVERTIMES!!!) and we managed to knock off the mighty Florida International University Airport, which went on to finish the season winless. If you didn't get to listen to the radio broadcast of the OT game (no television!), you may remember FIU from the fight they got into with Miami that featured an injured guy trying to beat people with one of his crutches.

But wait! I'm not done! Reality 06 also featured the total psychological meltdown of our offensive (in EVERY sense of the word) coordinator, Ramon Flanagan. At halftime of one home game, Flanagan walked past a fan who shouted (accurately) that we were "being outcoached". So Flanagan, of course, came into the stands screaming and had to be physically restrained from assaulting the fan. Who is 58 years old and who didn't use any profanity or even specifically mention Flanagan. You might guess that Flanagan was jailed, fired, or at least fined and severely reprimanded for disgracing our team and our school. But you would be wrong. Despite being responsible for one of the worst offenses in D-1 football and trying to beat up a 58 year old fan, he was brought back as OC for Reality 07. Not only was our offense statistically even WORSE than 06, but Flanagan also started a fight during halftime of a game (sensing a trend here?) with one of the other coaches. Once Dickey was fired, Flanagan (according to anonymous team members and their families) spent practices pacing the sidelines and text messaging, telling those present at practice that he wasn't going to waste his time working with people who "got (his) ass fired".

Amazingly, to the best of my knowledge, Mr. Flanagan has not yet been hired in a coaching capacity anywhere else. Mr. Dickey packed up his four conference coach of the year trophies and now resides in Logan, Utah, where he is the OC for Utah State. I could go on, On and on about how miserable the past two years have been. Reality 06 and 07 have been terrible, and the only real outlet for the NT faithful has been NCAA 06 and 07. The magical fantasyland where our offensive strategy (run first, run last, run every time in between, run until the other team is bored to sleep) still worked, where our coaches weren't dying or punching people, where a team in the Sun Belt could actually get some recognition in the Top 25 polls.

For some reason, the NCAA gods smiled on our school, and we seem to be the one that grows into a powerhouse in NCAA dynasties. Not Rice, FAU, UCF, UTEP, or any of the other Florida/California/Texas schools that share our NCAA 06-07 advantages. Maybe it's to save our fanbase from mass suicide. I don't know why it happens for us... but the point is, it's ALL that's happened for us in the past two years.

Things are looking up now with our new coaching staff. Which is fortunate, because I have a feeling that the past two years are going to kill our performance in the NCAA world. I look forward to seeing success on the field for North Texas, and not just on my Playstation. So please, don't hate North Texas. I understand how frustrated you might feel about NCAA football, but North Texas deserves your love and support, not your anger and hatred.

If you absolutely have to hate a team, make it SMU. That's what we do, because they deserve it.

-John Hansen

Proud graduate of the University of North Texas Class of 2002

Oh, and if you'd like to stop by and visit us at GoMeanGreen.com, here's the link to the thread about your post.

http://www.gomeangreen.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=34911

[TheTastyGreek]

Since we're talking about the 06 season I figured digging this post up would be fitting, and provide good comic relief after last night. But at the same time remind us that there is no NCAA 15 to pop in and play this game over again.

Link to the thread:

Wow. So much fun times came from that post... Ninjaface stuff with the athletics department. And I actually kept in touch with the guy that ran the Troy Nunes Magician site for a few years, through the TY Sports and TakeAKnee.net eras. I think we had a last-longer bet in the 2010 NCAA tournament. (Spoiler: he won.)

Really funny to remember how much I loved NCAA football... It was a few years later when I realized that game, at least the way I played it 90%+ of the time, really wasn't a football simulator. At best, it was a telemarketer RPG. At worst, it was basically a tutorial for pedophiles on how to groom and lure in victims. Wish I could find the TakeAKnee post we did about it, but the site appears to be broken at the moment.

[Cr1028]

Tasty, you get a plus 1 from me for the SMU ending. Also, were the NCAA years, the actual year +1 because I remember 07 being Dodge's first year and '06 being practice-jersey-gate.

[BillySee58]

Tasty, you get a plus 1 from me for the SMU ending. Also, were the NCAA years, the actual year +1 because I remember 07 being Dodge's first year and '06 being practice-jersey-gate.

QUOTE(Censored by Laurie @ Jul 17 2007, 01:50 PM) ←

Are we running on the EA sport premise that the 2007 college football season is represented by NCAA 08? Just curious as you parallel Reality 06 and 07 representing the 2005, 2006 seasons. Just feel it may get a little confussing to this guy...although so might actual human interaction so your direct email may be entirely over his head. Aside from that minor concern...I love it.

Yeah, that's what I was going for. Reality 06 = NCAA Football 06, which came out in and featured the 2005 season. For anyone unfamiliar with how EA Sports sells the game, I can see where that would be confusing.

Glad everyone seems to have gotten a kick out of it. I'll let you all know if I get any sort of reply.

[TheTastyGreek]

This BillySee guy... Keep an eye on him. I'm obviously a big fan of the search function, and I haven't seen potential like his in a long, long time.