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UNTLifer
I had the opportunity to meet Hank Dickenson this Saturday and he stated that he and George Dunham were in the pressbox Friday night talking about the UH game. The question came up, has a better, more herald quaterback played in Denton than Case Keenum, a true Heisman candidate. We through around Steve Ramsey's name, but he was never mentioned as a candidate for the Heisman trophy. I've been following North Texas since the 60's and must say that Keenum is probably the best QB to play in Denton. Anyone have any other thoughts?

Harry
The first game at Apogee Stadium caused some parking and traffic problems for the Denia neighborhood Saturday, but many residents say things went better than they expected.

“So far the response from residents is that they have nothing but praise for the job police did in the neighborhood,” said Gerry Veeder, secretary of the Denia Area Community Group.

The game was the first test of the city’s new parking and traffic plans for the Denia neighborhood, which borders the new University of North Texas stadium at Interstate 35E and South Bonnie Brae Street. The city closed neighborhood streets to stadium-related parking and limited vehicle traffic after residents said they didn’t want the hassles and potential hazards that the influx of vehicles would bring.

Denton police ordered some vehicles towed for blocking residential streets or fire hydrants, police spokesman Ryan Grelle said. But Grelle said no vehicles were towed under a new city ordinance that requires a city-issued permit to park on residential streets near the stadium during games or special events.

Click Here for the Rest of the Story

The Fake Lonnie Finch
I think most of us are happy to have seen some improvement between the FIU game and Houston game. So, where do we set the bar for improvement versus Alabama?

We already know Saban won't run up the score because he began to play second teamers in the second quarter a couple of years ago.

Personally, I'll look for this:
-Taking care of the ball by the offense/not giving Bama freebies in the way of defensive touchdowns/short fields
-Good special teams play; no more blocked FGs or PATs; continuing good KO returns.
-Getting three and outs from time to time against their first team.

Of course...I'd love a miracle and upset. But, having to be realistic, if I see those things above, I think it bodes well for the remaining OOC tilts versus Indiana and Tulsa.

Oh...and if we play like we did in the first half of the Houston game - cleaning up the turnovers, to be sure - I do believe that even this squad can go 4-4 or 5-3 in the Belt.

Harry

UNT Opens New Stadium

By Harry, in GoMeanGreen.com,

DENTON, Texas -- Hours before the inaugural game at Apogee Stadium on Saturday, North Texas fans lined up at the locked front gate and waited.

"Let us in!" Let us in!" they chanted.

Mean Green fans had waited long enough, and they didn't want to wait anymore.

Since 1952, they've cheered for North Texas in a stadium that was deficient in just about every way -- Fouts Field. For years the athletics department lobbied for a new home.

Saturday was the culmination of all that time and effort. The school finally played its first game in Apogee Stadium -- a 48-23 loss to Houston in front of 28,075 fans, just shy of capacity.

"This is terrific," said Scott Flynn, a Southlake resident and 1980 alumnus of North Texas. "We've always had a track around our field but now we're right on top of the action. I hope we can perform up to our facilities."

When the gates opened, fans walked in and marveled at the size, beauty, and cleanliness of the stadium.

They perused the numerous concession stand options in the corridor that weren't available at Fouts, including ice cream vender Beth Marie's, a local staple from the square in downtown Denton.

"It's unbelievable," said Tom Klammer, a retired North Texas accounting professor. "Fouts was a dump in the 1970s. It's [Apogee] just going to do wonders for the program."

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/colleges/post/_/id/4673633/north-texas-opens-new-stadium-with-loss-to-houston

CaribbeanGreen
Great time tonight. Apogee is awesome, and any expected opening night kinks were limited at best. I can't wait for Indiana.

The first half was fantastic in a lot of ways, but I can't stop wondering what would have happened if we hadn't turned the thing over horribly THREE times in the first quarter.

- Thompson throws a bad interception as we're moving into the UH red zone. Houston blitzed, and he was clearly rattled and made a bad, rushed decision, hitting a Cougar DB in the numbers.

- Chancellor muffs a UH punt (fair catch, no less) after the D had stopped the Cougar offense yet again. We had all the momentum and a 7-0 lead, and suddenly we've given Houston the ball inside our 20. Amazingly, the D guys up again and holds them to 3.

- Dunbar just flat drops an option pitch as we're driving near midfield with no defenders close and daylight ahead. It's odd, he didn't even slow down as it clanged to the ground and UH had an easy recovery.

3 turnovers in 1 quarter, and we're still 17-20 at half. If things go the other way, and we get scores/don't give up field position, I wonder what might have happened. Not saying we win, but I'd like to have seen it.

Speaking of the 1st quarter, anyone have a clue on why we took a time out before running our first play?? Awful flashbacks, that one.

NorthTexan95
Below are is the attendance for every home game for the past four years including yearly averages. Tonight's 28,075 is about 2,500 below capacity. It is, however, the largest crowd of the past four year. If you want to remove 4K Houston fans then we would be at 24,075 which would only trail the Navy game by a couple thousand. However, if you want to play that game you should subtract more than 4k Navy fans from that game.

It's a little disappointing to not sell out but we came close and considering our recent history that says something. Also, I had a lot of friend attend the game who had not been in a while. All of them are raving on Facebook about how great the stadium is and what a great time they had. I think this word of mouth will help our attendance to grow over time.

At the end of the year it'll be interesting to compare our worst home attendance games with the worst games from the past few years.

EDIT: In 2007 we came close to averaging 20k for the year. A horrible bad weather game (and bad season) against Western Kentucky kept us from it. I'm really wondering if we can average 20K this year. I think it will take getting on roll and good weather but it's possible.

2010
1 Rice 23,473
2 Louisiana-Lafayette 17,015
3 Arkansas St 14,589
4 Florida International 14,718
5 Troy 14,289
6 Kansas St 21,952
Average 17,673

2009
1 Ohio 16,674
2 Middle Tennessee St 22,364
3 Florida Atlantic 23,319
4 Western Kentucky 11,214
5 Louisiana-Monroe 12,167
6 Army 23,647
Average 18,231

2008
1 Tulsa 22,785
2 Florida International 16,781
3 Louisiana-Lafayette 17,106
4 Troy 18,345
5 Arkansas State 9,761
Average 16,956

2007
1 Florida Atlantic 20,479
2 Louisiana-Monroe 18,973
3 Middle Tenessee St 18,181
4 Navy 26,012
5 Western Kentucky 5,027
Average 17,734



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