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You know we almost beat Texas in '88, right?

Tailgating should be much better and will be centered on the green space surrounding the new stadium. That's right, on the grass, not the hot concrete. Some really great new features are the Alumni Pavillion, with big screen TVs and alcohol service (gotta be a UNT Alumni Association member to get in) and the stadium bathrooms accessible from outside the stadium hours before the game. This should be a big hit with the wife/girlfriend. No more porta potties!!! BUT: You need to get season tickets and a parking pass, otherwise you may find yourself parking at Fouts and having to take a shuttle bus to the new stadium across 35. Also, you will want to get there early, as traffic this year is the big unknown. I see lots of problems the 1st couple of games until all the wrinkles get ironed out. EDIT: Just realized that you may be a student. I have no idea where the Greeks will be doing their tailgating. There are a couple on this board that I'm sure will chime in. I was told by the AD that they are considering having a system to where you can drop off your tailgating stuff at the old hotel parking lot and they will have AD personnel there to watch it while you park across at Fouts and take the shuttle back. Don't quite know how that will work out.

It IS the appropriate thing to do. His jersey number should be retired...and the sooner the better. No one has ever worn the colors of the Mean Green better on the men's basketball team then Kenny Lyons.

Watching this crap that is playing out in DC and in Austin the last few months has really disappointed me and made me even a bit more jaded toward politicians...all politicians it seems. Both sides seem to be interested in getting elected and re-elected rather than rolling up their sleeves and actually doing the "people's work". I don't care which side of the aisle you are on, it seems both sides are only interested in prolonging their political careers and bowing to the special interest groups that pay into their campaign coffers. Where are the real leaders and real representatives who don't give a darn about what some special interest group thinks of their vote one way or the other and who are willing to make the tough decisions and compromise when it is in the best interests of the nation and its citizens? This is getting to be all about posturing and the bully pulpit until the last second and then...gee...something gets done. We all know there will be an agreement on the debt ceiling issue...so, why do all the childish crap before really getting down to business and hammering out a compromise agreement that works? Seems to me that if our elected officials really had the citizens best interests in mind that this stuff would get done long before any potential crises developed. As much as I hate to say (as I am philosophically opposed to term limits for representatives and senators) it just may be time for term limits. That would, at least, limit the influence of some special interests as the folks being elected would know their time was limited...then the yahoos would have to come home and live under the laws they enacted while in office. Maybe I am just frustrated with the current state of affairs in DC and in Austin, probably so, but there is a severe lack of real leadership in both parties from the very top down these days...and it is clearly showing. Good grief, folks...get on with it and act like grownups for a change. OK, I feel better now...thanks. carry on......

All kidding aside, because Dan McCarney is much more experienced than either Darrell Dickey or Todd Dodge were, I don't think he should be given the same latitude those two were to lose. Again, if we claim coaching makes a difference, we can't also give excuses. This is a very experienced staff McCarney has put together, and they've been given the keys to a great new facilities in one of the three top football recruiting hotbed states in the country. I'm not saying the man should take us to a league title in year one (or, wait, I did predict that already :-D ), but if we have three wins or less this year, that isn't a good sign. The Sun Belt just isn't that strong. We picked up three Belt wins with an injury-depleted team in a season with its coach fired mid-season in 2010. The experience of McCarney and his coaches alone should be enough for one or two more Belt wins...and possibly the upset of Tulsa.

And I'm sure RV shut the door on that option before Mac finished the question... It aint happenin..

This. The UA uniforms finally brought us into the modern era of piping and stripes instead of our bland New Balance ringer t's. I thought with the Nike switch we'd keep it going. And going with uniforms that are just solid numbers with no outline and no sleeve stripes looks cheap as hell.

....OR Ohio U. looks like our classic look of 1965.

Jeter's still a bum.

I chose UNT because of the Mascot and the Dancers, so this is all hitting a little too close to home, right now.

"I like a more classic look, but I don't like the over-simplified looks of Penn St. or Alabama. It looks like they ordered them from the 1959 fall J.C. Penney catalog." I see. So that's where Darryl Dickey purchased the all-black uniforms!

You know what kind of uniform would really get us recognized? One in which we win a bunch of football games. If we win, I don't give a crap if we wear potato sacks.

You can call it "Traditional" all you want. What it really means is we're going with the cheapest design Nike offers.

Listening to some sports talk last week. Too lazy to find the actual article but heres another one. A study was done listing the schools with the most major violations. Only schools participating in D1 football were used. No real shockers other than Wichita State. The usual suspects made appearances, Ariz St. was # 1. On the radio show they also spoke of the schools with NO violations. I believe only one powerhouse, Penn St. was on that list. There were a lot of private schools, probably b/c they don't have to adhere to the open records act. Only two Texas schools, Rice and North Texas were on the list. Kind of proud of that.

Ya...maybe if you're a Communist.

Number of years of coaching experience with BCS AQ schools: North Texas - 119 (McCarney, head coach, 34 years) Middle Tennessee State - 63 (Palermo, defensive line, 24 years) Florida Atlantic - 61 (Schnellenberger, head coach, 24 years) Louisiana - 31 (Saunders, recruiting coordinator/cornerbacks, 10 years) FIU - 25 (Orlando, defensive coordinator, 12 years) Troy - 19 (Blakeney, head coach, 14 years) Arkansas State - 15 (Wommack, defensive coordinator, 8 years) ULM - 11 (Vice, offensive line coach, 6 years) WKU - 5 (Taggert, head coach, 3)

Sorry, no link to this article. Moderators can delete if necessary. The Land of Fruits & Nuts just gets nuttier. They just can't figure out that high taxes & over-regulation kills business, jobs, & investment. California Disinvestment Accelerates By Kevin Brekke Poor California. The land of dreamin' in the '60s has awakened from a long slumber to find itself at the bottom of a dog pile of bummed-out karma. That the state is once again being steered by Gov. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown is an irony not lost on the hopeful denizens of a once-great state looking for redemption. Yet, deliverance from the economic and regulatory sins of several past decades will not be easy. The recent passage of a budget in California at the eleventh hour includes the usual mix of budget cuts, tax increases, and questionable accounting. It also places a heavy reliance on accurate tax revenue estimations that carry penalties should the state fail to meet them. The budget will ultimately stand or fall on the expectation by legislators that the state will capture $4 billion in tax collections beyond the previous estimate. If this wish upon a star does not come true, the budget will get whacked by another $2.6 billion. A Bad Assumption Missing from the entire budget process and estimation game is an examination of a crucial assumption: that the tax base will remain stable. That is, will the number of overburdened taxpayers and businesses that foot the bill for all the spending remain fairly constant? Evidence is mounting that the answer is "no." I covered this question in previous articles that take a look at how a state should not be run. A synopsis of the theme would read: Today, there are multiple combat lines being incised between a number of fiscal, economic, as well as ideological forces. Of all the various combatants, the U.S. states are emerging on the frontlines of the fight. And some of their tactics are encouragingly following free-market principles. Recent events suggest that a battle for tax revenue has commenced, pitting high-tax states against low-tax states. Those "recent events" refer to falling - or a stunted rise in - state corporate-tax revenue and back-of-the-pack growth performance in gross state product, population, employment, and overall tax receipts in high-tax states such as California. Another dog just landed on this pile of bad news courtesy of Joseph Vranich, publisher of The Business Relocation Coach blog out of Irvine, California and a consultant who tracks the movement of businesses. His latest research on California concludes: Today, California is experiencing the fastest rate of disinvestment events based on public domain information, closure notices to the state, and information from affected employees in the three years since a specialized tracking system was put into place. • From Jan. 1 of this year through this morning, June 16, [California] had 129 disinvestment events occur, an average of 5.4 per week. • For all of last year, we saw an average of 3.9 events per week. • Comparing this year thus far with 2009, when the total was 51 events, essentially averaging 1 per week, our rate today is more than 5 times what it was then. Our losses are occurring at an accelerated rate. Also, no one knows the real level of activity because smaller companies are not required to file layoff notices with the state. A conservative estimate is that only 1 out of 5 company departures becomes public knowledge, which means California may suffer more than 1,000 disinvestment events this year. The capital directed to out-of-state or out-of-country, while difficult to calculate, is nonetheless in the billions of dollars. The full list of companies that have announced plans to disinvest in California is available via the above link, as well as other dismal data about the current condition of business regulation in the state. It is worth noting that a disinvestment event entails more than simply a business packing up and heading elsewhere. There are several actions that a company can pursue that are detrimental to the state, and Vranich breaks them down into the following six categories: • Construction of a facility is cancelled due to California's costs, taxes, or environmental regulations. • Full or partial closure. Work shifted to competitors who will perform the work out of state. • Capital directed to out-of-state growth that in the past would have occurred in California. • Company considered moving into California but went elsewhere, a decision termed a "U-turn." • California lost a new facility to another state or country. • Out-of-state relocation. Where Is Everybody Going? And Why? The top destinations for company relocation or diverted investment include: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. Mexico, Canada, and India also made the list. It is no coincidence that some of the states listed here are also routinely ranked as low-tax states by third-party research organizations. The decision-makers at the companies were interviewed and asked what factors led to a determination to leave the state or redirect investment. Not surprising that, again, taxes and regulatory burdens rank as a significant deterrent. Other incentives to look outside the state include: expensive location; dreadful legal fairness to business; and an excessively adversarial business climate. Chief Executive magazine calls California the "Venezuela of North America." And as if it was needed, a new incentive for businesses to leave the state was enacted on April 12, 2011, in the form of a new law requiring utilities to acquire one-third of their power from renewable sources within nine years. California is already home to electricity rates twice the national average. Rates are estimated to increase from 19% to 74% when the new regulation is fully implemented. Further, the upcoming "California Global Warming Solutions Act" has the potential to place overwhelming hurdles that do not exist in other states and countries in front of local companies. The good news is that California continues to set the standard on how not to run a state. It's an example that other states are paying attention to and plying the dunderheaded decisions of California legislators to their advantage. Free-market competition between states for business investment, and hence jobs, is under way, and will absolutely intensify as budget deficits squeeze a growing number of U.S. states. A similar scenario is likely in play for individual California taxpayers as well, although statistics on this are hard to come by. As employers flee the state, it seems logical that job seekers will follow. And as the tax burden for funding government grows faster than the tax-paying population, look for a greater number of taxpayers to become former California taxpayers. The time for dreamin' is long past. It is the dawning of a new tax age for state governments.

I agree, GrandGreen. Look, we have a BCS AQ quality coaching staff in the Sun Belt now. Who else in the Belt has this kind of coaching staff? McCarney 12 years HC Iowa State (Big 8/Big 12) 13 years assistant under Hayden Fry at Iowa (Big Ten) 5 as an assistant at Wisconsin (Big Ten) 3 at Florida (SEC) 1 at South Florida (Big East) That's coaching in every BCS AQ conference except the ACC and Pac-10 Bowen 12 years at Kansas (Big 12) 1 at Minnesota (Big Ten) Riddle 6 years at Colorado (Big 12) 4 at Oregon State (Pac-10) (5 at Boise State, who are bucking to get into a BCS AQ league) Canales 3 years at Arizona (Pac-10) 3 at South Florida (Big East) 2 at North Carolina State (ACC) Grant 9 years at Iowa State (Big 12) 4 at Nebraska (Big 12) Nelson 10 years at Iowa State (Big 12) 5 at Wisconsin (Big Ten) 3 at Stanford (Pac-10) 3 at Missouri (Big 8) 2 at Virginia (ACC) 2 at Rutgers (Big East) 1 at Kansas State (Big 8) 1 at Oregon State (Pac-10) Quartaro 5 years at Kansas (Big 12) 5 at Kansas State (Big 8) 4 at Iowa State (Big 12) 5 at Northwestern (Big Ten) Simmonds 4 seasons at South Florida (Big East) 4 seasons with Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a player (1987-1990) Weaver 1 season at Florida (SEC) 7 seasons with Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans as a player (2002-2008) Justin Gaines is the odd man out with all of his coaching experience coming at the FCS level or lower. But, he was getting kids from Texas to go to Montana State! Look, we have an unreal amount of experience. When you look at where we've been since we emerged from I-AA, you can't help but be excited. Player and their experience, yes it means something. But, having the right guys in place who have been to dozens on bowl games and played the best of the best for decades...we just haven't had that here since Hayden Fry. We haven't. I don't think many of us understand what a value it will be for our coaches to not be confused by the opposing coaching staff. These guys have learned from and coached against the best in the business. And, they are going to be on our sideline! Fellas, it's going to be good. With this much experience - the very things for which we've clamored for the better part of a decade - there can be no good excuses. Not in the Belt. Our coaching staff has 119 years total experience at schools now in BCS AQ conferences. That's freaking unreal.

I say we start thinking of ways to trick them now. We give them a special map that claims that tailgating is only allowed in "LOT B". Lot B will be located inside the student section of a certain new "stadium". GOOD NEWS, however, tailgating in this location is free.

I want to ask this after just about each post you make, but why do you follow North Texas when it would seem that the university ALWAYS falls beneath your expectations and NEVER comes close to making you anything but jaded and disappointed? Serious question.

Did your mascot go to Texas Tech before transferring?

He is going to get a lot of latitude although I don't think he will need it. NT is not about to buy out his contract anytime soon. NT would not have hired McCarney if they didn't expect a lot more of him than the previous three coaches. I agree that anything less than 5 wins would be a big disappointment and frankly I expect more. It is true you cannot quickly upgrade the overall talent level, but this team plays in the Belt and NT was not that far off last year. Those bemoaning lost players from last year and thinking that NT will be doing good just to match last year are overly pessimistic. Yes, there are holes in the lineup but if you really look at the roster; this is a team that is build for success this year. There are a relatively large number of seniors particularly at rb, wr and db. QB is a question, but based on very limited play; Thompson maybe as good a QB has NT has had since Hall. There are questions about the offensive line, but again this is not a depleted position. Freeley, Fortenberry, Leppo, Johnson, Tomlinson, and Adedipe have all started at one time or another. Add in a couple of good looking redshirts: Johnson and Y'barbo and I think the OL will be fine. The lost of Carey at wr was a blow but again former starters Outlaw, Stradford, and Bynes return. Olawale, Johnson and Taylor add depth and I am predicting that Chancellor will emerge as a big threat. On the defensive side, the dbs should be the best at least since the championship years. LB, I think will have more depth and I look for big things out of Orr, Phillips and Wright. None will be as good as Robertson, but overall I think the linebacker corp will be better. All the defensive ends return so there is little doubt, there will be significant improvement. The big issue with most is defensive tackle, but I don't think that will be as dire as many think. First, Atkinson and Jackson were good solid tackles but neither were really stars. They did a good job of clogging up the middle and certainly were an improvement over the past few years; but they are not irreplaceable. Cantly to this point has been a lot more promise than progress. However, he has the tools and could be very good. McCoy although smaller is also quicker than last year's dts. No doubt, defensive tackle is a question and is going to take someone improving a lot to be even adequate. I do believe until proven wrong; that this coaching staff is such an upgrade that they will be quickly successful in the Belt. NT's defensive staff was not awful last year but I believe that this year's group including the HC is going to rapidly and substantially improve the defense even before big talent infusions. This year's team reminds a lot of the team Dodge inherited. An experienced veteran team that despite little success was primed for significant improvement but with questions at QB. Dodge failed and squandered a potentially good especially defensive team and plunged the program in a downward spiral. My bet is that McCarney is going to do just the opposite.

yes to this.

You guys are missing the most important issue. Where will the students who sit in the parking lot drinking all game long be set up?

Actually they would have been better looking if he had ordered them from J.C. Penney. How about this style? I'm very fond of the look. http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth61035/m1/299/?q=football

Miracle in the Desert, right?

This team will win more games this year than they have won in the past. The coaching they are receiving is going to win at least 3 games

Not a typical first post, but welcome to the board.

I've been hearing this for awhile. Liked what I heard, except for the eagle-less helmets

Okay. We can all wear matching shirts to the golf tournaments as well. ;-)

Perhaps the photos you posted don't do the girls justice, and I really don't mean to be combative, but I've seen better "trim" walking through campus at around noon.

I heard from a player that the unis were going to be very simple. So the Alabama comparison would make sense.

Don't forget our golf teams!

All of us going need to get some welcome Coach Mac shirts made to wear so we can all look alike for his first game.

I now have a fellow MGC member going with me.

You kids stop throwing food and get to English class or I'll call the principal.

And I'd point the cynics to my lower nether regions and ask them to suck it. Integrity above all else.

Funny. Funnier if it was unintended. And the cynics would point to UNT and Rice's all time record in football. Just sayin...

Well done! Excellent interview and video clips. Congrats again to Kenneth Lyons (our first row pal/coach at the Pit)! Let's really make a statement. It's time this fall to retire the first men's jersey #. How about at the LSU home game??

I'm pretty sure he said, "...that aids you." Anyways, great piece, great pub, and Kenneth Lyons seems like a great man. Congratulations on your accomplishment!

I can't keep track of all the feuds... In this thread.

The current proposal puts the new stadium basically in the same location as the current stadium. So we do have demolition costs, but we do not have land acquisition costs.

Definitely no bad intent and I think UNT is definitely getting a quality stadium. I was talking solely the $78mm price tag. UH could build a cheaper 40K seat stadium. Look at UCF's Bright House Networks Stadium. Built in 2006, it cost $55mm and holds 45k. $78mm would be a 42% increase in just 5 years over that cost. So I think a 40k seat stadium could be built for much less than $120mm if going the cheap route. UNT definitely went for quality over quantity. UCF went for quantity. Hell, when their stadium was opened, it didn't even have water fountains and the entire stadium bounces if the fans jump up and down. UH is trying to do a little of both, a little of the quality of UNT with a little of the quantity of UCF.

May God bless this great nation of ours and bless all the men and women who stand guard day and night to keep us safe and free. While we enjoy celebrating the 4th, please take a few minutes to think of and say a prayer for all those in the service of this nation. There are no holidays for men and women on the front lines. Let us NEVER forget!

Wait... so everyone who watches FOX News chooses it because they're educated and put everything they say under a critical eye? Why hasn't the lamestream media been reporting this!? If that's true, I officially have no problems with FOX News.

Any hot bitches?

--- Good grief.... parking tickets is worst criminal act people can come up with... When I was at UNT during the 1970's, a lady in front of me was unable to obtain her transcript... She owed the library about 80 cents from 1948. I think some of you would wanted her thrown in jail and then the key thrown away.. --- She left to pay the fine and I suppose she did.... and not in handcuffs. I am so glad Republicans are so moral, religious, and law-bidding they even pay their library fees and parking fines (even those they may not even know they owe) and have no DWU's.. (wait I remember one by someone prior to be elected Prez). I wonder if the Gov. of South Carolina owes parking fees??? --- Got an email today comparing Obama first pitch to Bush's ... it was ridiculous.... Some of the Bush ones did not even reach the plate... (they failed to mention that). Anyway who cares.... neither was hired to pitch anyway. ---At least Obama hasn't invaded some country or dropped the DOW 5000 points by deregulation (less gov interference ) on the financial community. Nothing like keeping the eye on the real issues in this country and the problems we now face.

--Better take them all our before he bans all guns.... (sarcasm)

Will look like Alabama's. Not the color of course. Click here to view the article

Uh, based on...?